Job Satisfaction, Dissertation – Methodology Example

Research methodologies can be classified broadly into three: quantitative, qualitative, and mixed research methods that combine the first two. This discussion explores qualitative research as it forms the basis of the current research. In qualitative design, researchers aim to capture the experience of individuals in their own terms. It involves the theoretical organization of data to reveal themes, patterns, and attributes captured in interviews, cases, field data, and transcripts. According to Hanson, J.W. Creswell, Clark, Petska, and J.D. Creswell (2002), it comprises various features that distinguish it from the other research designs. First, it is carried out in natural settings where the researcher goes to the site of the research subjects to collect data. Secondly, it relies on various interactive and humanistic to gather non-numerical data, including interviews, open-ended observations, cases, electronic mails, and many other related methods. Moreover, qualitative researchers are basically interpretive as they develop study objects, evaluate the developed data for themes, and draw conclusions about the analysis. It is thus, said to be subjective, a characteristic responsible for biases in qualitative studies. It can be further categorized into various research methodologies. One of these designs includes case studies, which refer to holistic and extensive exploration (with use of various sources of qualitative and/or quantitative data), used best to study a specific occurrence (for example, an issue, an event, or a process) within its social environment restricted by activity and time (Creswell, 2003, p.15). Case study was picked for the study because researcher wishes to use interviews to capture the issue under examination in a very comprehensive and exact manner.

Muhammad I. Malik, Muhammad Safwan, and Amir G. Sindhu did a case study in 2011 to explore the connection among job satisfaction, stress, and customer satisfaction in a Pakistan company. The study population involved hostesses in a transportation firm in Pakistan from which the researchers pooled a sample of 100 of them. Their findings revealed various relationships, including a considerable negative correlation between stress and job satisfaction or satisfaction of consumers as well as a significant positive relationship between satisfaction of the hostesses in their work and customer satisfaction.

In another case study using quantitative design, Malvern W. Chiboiwa, Crispen Chipunza, and Michael O. Samuel explored relationship between satisfaction (with work) of employees from five companies in Zimbabwe and organizational citizenship behavior (OCD). The study pooled 1,202 participants from employee population in the five firms. The findings demonstrated positive relationships between work satisfaction and overall OCD as well as OCD’s dimensions of sportsmanship and civic virtue. However, extrinsic employee contentment correlated positively with only OCD’s aspect of sportsmanship, while intrinsic job contentment related positively and significantly with most of the OCD’s dimensions.

In 2004, Timothy A. Judge and Remus Ilies examined the correlation between job contentment and affect among employees in a southeastern state university both at work and at home. The study involved 74 employees, drawn from the population of the university working as office managers or secretaries. One of the findings from the study was that mood mediated the effects of positive affect and negative affect on job satisfaction of employees at work. The other major finding included mutual effects of job contentment and mood on each other. The results of the study also indicated that the effect of mood on satisfaction of the employees at work spilled over or extended to manifest in the employees while at home.

References

Chiboiwa, M.W., Chipunza, C., & Samuel, M.O. (2011). Evaluation of job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior: Case study of selected organizations in Zimbabwe. African Journal of Business Management, 5 (7), 2910-2918.

Creswell, J.W. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches. (2^nd ed.). London: SAGE.

Hanson, W.E., Creswell, J.W., Clark, V.L., & Creswell, J.D. (2005). Mixed methods of research designs in counseling psychology. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 52 (2), 224-235.

Judge, T.A., & Ilies, R. (2004). Affect and job satisfaction: A study of their relationship at work and at home. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89 (4), 661-673.

Malik, M.I., Safwan, M.N., & Sindhu, A.G. (2011). Examining stress, job satisfaction, and customer satisfaction in a transport company (a case from Pakistan). International Journal of Business and Social Science 2 (18), 81-85.