To What Extent is Employee Job Satisfaction at DHL?

DHL is an international logistics company that provides delivery services worldwide with over 4700 offices, a fleet of approximately 72000 vehicles and the number of aircraft is approximately 350 and operates in over 200 countries worldwide. With the number of destinations ranging above 120000 the number of employees is immense and therefore employee satisfaction is significant.

The logistics and delivery services industry worldwide is a very competitive business and therefore Statement of the Problem Employee job satisfaction still remains a very important topic in the facet of organizational behavior. Realization that a satisfied employee is highly likely to perform better than unsatisfied counterparts has made social scientists to attempt establishing the factors that lead to higher employee job satisfaction.

In addition, it is important to establish the relationship that subsists between a particular variable and overall job satisfaction. The problem is to evaluate if there is any relationship between gender and overall job satisfaction, age and overall job satisfaction, tenure and the overall satisfaction of the employee, position and overall satisfaction, and lastly, the relationship between the extrinsic /intrinsic variables and the employee satisfaction..

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Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this phenomenological descriptive mixed method study is to discover using face -to- face interviews the perception and level of Job Satisfaction of employees of DHL and to explain using a “Pearson Correlation” the influence of demographic factors (age, gender, educational qualification) as well as factors identified by Kacel, Miller, and Norris (2005) as intrinsic (achievement, recognition, advancement, responsibility, and patient mix) and extrinsic (salary, supervision, organization policy and administration, working conditions, and involvement in research) on the degree of job satisfaction among the employees working with the DHL service delivery firm.

Research Questions

Given that the study will endeavor to assess the problem through both qualitative and quantitative approaches, a number of research questions are designed in consideration of both the perspectives which the study shall seek to answer.

Qualitative

1. What is the current level of job satisfaction among DHL employees working within the UK’S DHL offices and service delivery points or facilities?
2. What is the perceived value of job satisfaction among the employees of DHL working in the firm’s UK service points?

Quantitative

1. Do demographic factors (age, gender, and educational preparation) (IV) influence the degree of Job Satisfaction (DV) among the DHL employees?
2. Do intrinsic factors (achievement, recognition, advancement, responsibility, and patient mix) (IV) influence the degree of job satisfaction (DV) among the DHL employees?
3. Do extrinsic factors (salary, supervision, organization policy and administration, working conditions, and involvement in research)

(IV) influence the degree of job satisfaction (DV) among the employees of DHL working in the UK and specifically London?

Importance of the Study

The study intends to conduct a mix of qualitative and quantitative descriptive research on employees working in the DHL. It is hoped that the data collected from this research adds to the existing body of literature relating to employee job satisfaction. In addition, the data collected from the study can aid to put in measures that aim at enhancing job satisfaction of employees especially those who are exposed to the same conditions of work. Developing health care systems may also find the data of benefit.

The role that both the system and the individual should play is expected to be explored so that the responsibility of each party is clearly brought out. The study hopes also to contribute to augmenting the findings of job satisfaction in the service delivery industry and assess the employees’ perception of job satisfaction, experiences and attitudes about various significant factors that have been identified to affect job satisfaction. In addition to this, the research intends to explore factors influencing DHL employees’ job satisfaction as well as compare the findings of developed health care systems to those of a developing healthcare system. Goals of the study This study aims to assess the DHL’s employee job satisfaction and the study focuses on DHL in UK.

Though the study hopes to focus on the job satisfaction of employees working in the DHL UK chapter, it is hoped that the study is found to be useful for other employees who work under similar settings and companies of similar nature especially in the logistics and delivery service industry. The study will:

• Enhance knowledge and understanding about job satisfaction of employees working in the logistics and delivery service sector
• Identify and discuss factors that lead to higher job satisfaction among employees in the service delivery and logistics industry doctors and nurses
• Identify barriers to the achievement of higher job satisfaction
• Increase an understanding of the influences that various factors can have in the logistics and service delivery systems
• Gain an understanding of the perceptions employees in the logistics industry have about the logistics firms in terms of their job satisfaction • Define and describe current job satisfaction drivers among employees in the logistics industry
• Improve employee awareness about job satisfaction in the logistics and service delivery handling firms
• Recommend interventions designed to decrease the occurrence of job dissatisfaction among employees in the logistics and delivery handling firms
• Complement existing bodies of research on employee job satisfaction in service-based systems

Significance of the Study

The study aims to provide a need assessment of the employees working with the UK’s DHL outlets. This is as far as job satisfaction is concerned.

The study will take a descriptive approach because job satisfaction of DHL employees has not yet been explored from a research standpoint. Employee job satisfaction still remains a very important topic in the facet of organizational behavior. The satisfaction of employees is the way they expresses orientation towards their jobs. It is as well the extent of connection that the employees have with their jobs. Other scholars regard it as the pleasurable emotions state that comes from one’s job appraisal, effectual reaction to one’s job and their attitude towards and the perception they have regarding their jobs. The other factors that job satisfaction is based on are; workload, attitude, physical condition, and even the career aspirations of employees.

Well satisfied employees have positive attitudes towards their jobs and makes psychologically healthy community. Realization that a satisfied employee is highly likely to perform better than unsatisfied counterparts has made social scientists to attempt establishing the factors that lead to higher employee job satisfaction. The past consultations from the DHL staff at every managerial level identified problems with consistency and literacy. The innovative skills that were introduced led to the analysis of the employees’ job roles and satisfaction. However, it is also important to establish the relationship that subsists between a particular variable and overall employee job satisfaction.

The problem is to evaluate if there is any relationship between gender and overall job satisfaction, age and overall job satisfaction, tenure and the overall satisfaction of the employee, position and overall satisfaction, and lastly, the relationship between the extrinsic /intrinsic variables and the employee satisfaction. The study conducted by Delaney has shown that there is connection between demographic variables like gender, age, race, and education and job satisfaction. The more educated employees or older are being satisfied more than the younger and or with less education. However, this seems to have less or no impact on the DHL’s employees’ job satisfaction.

Primarily, the function of DHL is to export and import shipment on clients’ behalf in London and so has relation with employee satisfaction. In organizations where job satisfaction evaluation has taken place, results have been analyzed and mapped and this provided exact precise skills picture. Regarding the attraction ability, train and retain clients has promoted DHL to explore ways of performance improvements. Workers’ turnover has decreased terribly since its launch. This has in turn produced important savings in training cost and recruitments. Job satisfaction affects the life of individuals. Suppose the workers are satisfied with the jobs that they do, this covers all their lives.

Workers who have high job satisfaction do have more positive behaviors and better psychological health in the organization than those who don’t. The study of DHL (in the past) has explored the effect of gender on the employees’ perception of job satisfaction. The result indicates that there are many person variables that influence job satisfaction in various and complex ways. Trust is one of the factors that influence job satisfaction in DHL. Without the trust of the lack of trust among the members of organization, and between the managers and the employees, there may be a close down of the organizations operations. It is a crucial ingredient for the effectiveness of an organization. Mistrust can result suppose there is a disconnection between the managers and the workers.

This disconnection may lead to mistrust and job dissatisfaction and hence the difficulty in the attraction and the retention of the talents that the workers have. The important difference exists between the managers/supervisors and the non-supervisors on how they give an interpretation on the term “leadership” whether they actually give attention to the concern of the employees or not. How the organization handles gender and equality also contributes to employee satisfaction. There should be no significant difference that exists between the female and male employees. All the employees are to considered and rated equal unless they differ in experience ort education.

The significance is only in the attitude that the workers have towards the employers/supervisors. It has also shown that there is significant association between the genders, age group, and location of job, worker position, occupation and agency. The gender roles have been highlighted through these analyses. There are many factors that determine the job satisfaction of an individual in an organization (factors like salary, gender, administration and guiding among others). It has been noted that the family ties also affects the job satisfaction on an individual in an organization. Individual determinants of job satisfaction are factors that are either biosocial or relate to the individual’s personality.

These factors provide an opportunity for the organization to satisfy the individual employee by satisfying the employee’s individual motivational needs. The position of the individual employee in the organization has been generally associated with the level of satisfaction of the individual (Green & Heywood 2008). In addition, literature indicates that on general perspective, the higher the position, the higher the level of satisfaction. One explanation that has been attributed to this relationship is that when an individual holds a higher status in the organization it implies that the individual has better working conditions as compared to others.

The rewards the individual gets while holding a higher status are better than those received by the lower level individuals are. The concept of working condition is broad-based and it holds a defining position in the organization’s existence since it helps in managing diversity at work. Employee job satisfaction has also been found to correlate to their satisfaction with co-workers and the supervisory style. All these are factors that relate to working condition, which have been found to relate to employee job satisfaction. It can be noted by many researchers that age and overall job satisfaction are positively related. This indicates that the upper levels of management are not always open to the young people.

The clear implication being that the positions that are upper level are not always for the employees that are young. One’s status and confidence can also be increased by the advance in age. This contributes to a greater level of job satisfaction as the age’s advances (Scott 2005). Among the numerous researches that have been carried out on the relationship between the age and job satisfaction has shown that, there exists a weak –positive linear relationship between the two. Age has not explained the significant proportion of linear inconsistency in our job satisfaction quantify. This can prove that age is not a variable predictor of job satisfaction.

Organizational policies and the work environment have been changing to align with the organizational dynamics and the rapid changes that the organization has seen over the past years. Change in the organization is one of the areas that the organization design experts have been keen of given that the change in the way of doing things dictates the working conditions as well (Green and Heywood 2008). Literature provides evidence that age and employee job satisfaction exhibit direct linear relationship. Organizational change has made the long-term workers to develop feelings of being not being needed in the organization. This especially goes with the advent of increased mergers and downsizing.

Thus with introduction of such changes in the organizations, the long-term feel less satisfied with their jobs while the younger employees feel satisfied with their work. Job satisfaction among doctors and nurses has been studied in the recent past in relation to gender. Quinlan et al (2009) while carrying out an investigation into the employee job satisfaction in DHL to establish the relationship between work attributes and job satisfaction sought to determine if gender has any relationship with the job satisfaction. The findings of the study revealed that on overall scale, male DHL workers/employees exhibited higher job satisfaction than their female counterparts.

The study also established that the job satisfaction of the DHL employees who work in lower levels showed lower job satisfaction as compared to their counterparts working in higher managerial level. In relation to other facets that relate to job environment, male employees have demonstrated more satisfaction in their relations with clients and coworkers than their female counterparts did. The study also found that a majority of employees are dissatisfied with management and time constraints. Fray ton has grouped factors that have influence on the employee satisfaction. These could be broadly divided into two: organizational determinants and individual determinants.

Organizational determinants of job satisfaction include leadership factor, working conditions, the reward system, and the work itself. On the other hand, individual determinants include age of the employee, gender, status and seniority, marital status and years of experience in the field or in the work under consideration. It has been found that employee job satisfaction increases when they are given flexible fringe benefits where they select their own benefits. This implies that the overall employee job satisfaction increases while at the same time boosting their satisfaction with the reward system. Saiyadain (2003) adds that the top management in the organization is more responsive to the relationship between their satisfaction and the pay they receive.

However, as indicated earlier from the findings of the Hawthorne studies, not all research studies have come up with evidence to support a strong positive correlation between job satisfaction and the pay or salary. Even the Hawthorne researchers concluded after conducting their studies that the employee salary or monetary benefits are not necessary for the employee job satisfaction. Some other studies have also indicated that the two variables (salary and employee job satisfaction) do not have any relationship. Therefore, more research needs to be carried out in this area as the already available literature does not offer sufficient evidence for drawing up a conclusion.

Leadership factor includes supervisory behavior and style. Research has shown that employee job satisfaction is bolstered when they perceive their supervisor to be competent, reliable and considerate. The supervisors and persons in the higher ranks should consider the interests of their lower counterparts. Such a supervisor is therefore perceived by the employees as taking keen interest into their best interest and accords them respect and dignity. The supervisor that takes keen interest into the welfare of the employees and provides them with appropriate advice is one that employees would wish to identify with. This kind of a supervisor makes the employees feel more satisfied with their job.

This is according to the findings of a research study conducted recently by O'Leary and associates (2009) attempting to assess job satisfaction of employees in DHL. The employers in DHL are friendly and approachable in a way that the employees can easily connect and relate with them. This has provided easy time for the administration as well as the employees in identification, evaluation and solving employees as well as employers problems. The feedback gotten from the employees’ reaction can support this fact. Job satisfaction is as well connected with factors related to working condition. The factors include; employees’ job nature, work achievement recognition, chances for individual growth, and recognition.

DHL has shown positive result regarding such cases. It handles its employees in a good manner and management-employee relation is encouraging. It has been found that employee job satisfaction increases when they are given flexible fringe benefits where they select their own benefits. This implies that the overall employee job satisfaction increases while at the same time boosting their satisfaction with the reward system. Work standards are very important in defining the level of job satisfaction of employees. Scholarly research into employee job satisfaction has shown that job satisfaction is greater where the whole workgroup is proud of its work.

Consequently, employee—customer communication should be encouraged to expose the employees to the impact caused by their own quality work. This would act as a further motivation (Brennan et al, 1991). Developing evocative measures of quality is also important so that achievements in quality are celebrated Theoretical Framework Moulds et al. (2009) while investigating the effect of migration observed that job dissatisfaction is one of the major causes or employees’ migrations in DHL. This observation is made in their study which they carried out recently exploring the aspect of professional satisfaction in DHL. The migration DHL employees are identified as a serious threat. Moulds et al.

(2009) further point out in their investigation that professional satisfaction is anchored on three main factors: professional growth service, and recognition, with considerable overlap between categories. An investigation into job satisfaction of employees was carried out by the National Business Research Institute which revealed six statistically significant employees that have an effect on employee job satisfaction. Opportunity is one major driver for employee satisfaction. In relation to opportunity, employees would wish to be given or presented with chances that allow them to participate in motivating projects, to be assigned satisfactorily challenging tasks which exhibit more responsibilities on their part.

Though DHL organizational dynamics have made promotional opportunities to be rare, promotional opportunity is also an important factor that counts towards the employee satisfaction especially where such opportunities imply an increased level of responsibility and appreciation for their input at workplace. Thus, through special assignments to the employees, giving them team leadership positions and projects, employees are able to get the challenge that gives them a contribution to their job satisfaction. For this reason, though chances may arise within an organization, the management may find it a better option to promote from within the organization.

Promising employees may also be rewarded by assigning them interesting projects while on the organizational level a division of job is done in levels that signify increase in leadership and responsibility. One way of achieving this is through creation of job titles that exhibit rising rank in expertise and which indicate achievement. Stress is another factor that affects employee job satisfaction. Job satisfaction diminishes when negative stress is incessantly high and jobs that meddle into employees’ private or personal lives contribute to high level of negative stress since they are stressful and great source of worry to them. To alleviate such stress that lead to low job satisfaction, appropriate actions need to be undertaken which include:

1. Encouraging a balance of work and employees’ private lives
2. Even and fair distribution of work within the work teams
3. Constant review of procedures followed at work so that any unnecessary bureaucracy is done away with
4. Managing and limiting the number of disruptions at the workplace
5. Proper utilization of exercise breaks at work so that employees use them to release stress Leadership at the workplace impacts significantly on employee job satisfaction.

Previous inquiries into employee job satisfaction indicate that when managers of an organization are good leaders the employees of that organization are more satisfied. Managers that encourage the employees and motivate them to do better are desirable.

In addition, they should strive for excellence on their own side too. These features therefore require that the managers be well trained since leadership is an intermarriage of behavior and attitudes and therefore it can be learned through training. The managers should trust-worthy people and inspiring. . Fair rewards for the work done by employees are just as important in achieving job satisfaction. This means that when rewards or reward systems are being formulated consideration must be made as to the amount of effort employees put forth to accomplish a given assignment, the demands of a particular task and responsibilities of the employees.

In order to ensure that fair rewards are used as a way to reach employee job satisfaction, it should be ascertained that the rewards are designed for genuine input to the organization. Consistency must also be maintained in the reward policies to avoid any double standards. Employees must be made aware of all the features of the wages for instance if the wages bear a competitive feature. Rewards should be diverse to incorporate other forms of benefits other than money. Adequate authority for the employees has been identified as a good driver to job satisfaction. Therefore, the employees should have the authority and freedom to accomplish their tasks. Appropriate actions that have been cited as able to help an organization achieve this are:

• Allowing employees to make decisions
• Allowing employees to contribute in decision making especially those decisions which will affect them
• Establishing work goals though allowing employees to determine the way they will attain them
• Identification of decisions that make the best options in terms of value addition to the organization

Dedication that has been made in terms of working to establish the patterns in job satisfaction has led to revelation of clear patterns that are common to employees that are highly satisfied with their jobs. A workforce that is characterized by high job satisfaction has features that are common among the employees of the workforce.

They believe that the institution they are working for will be satisfying in the long run. Employees that have higher job satisfaction are also concerned about the quality of the work and are more productive than those who have lower job satisfaction. They have high commitment to the organization and their retention rates are also higher.

Evidence, Analysis and Evaluation

The study used qualitative and quantitative approaches as it gained a deeper understanding of the research objectives. The qualitative approach will help in the examination of the current job satisfaction status of the DHL employees and employers while exploring the various factors that act as employees to the satisfaction.

This method was appropriate because initially the researcher wanted to examine the current state of Job Satisfaction among employees using a qualitative approach exploring the perceptions of the participants in regards to how satisfied they are and what they perceive as the importance of Job Satisfaction. This was followed by a quantitative inquiry whereby the researcher aims at investigating the relationship of influence between various factors such as demographic, intrinsic, and extrinsic on the degree of job satisfaction among Omani doctors and nurses. In the study, (data collection) for the first part (Qualitative) the idea is to randomly sample a group of ten employees and ten employers from various departments in DHL.

Focus group did not work because this topic could be sensitive from a cultural point of view and requires more privacy for sharing of perceptions about job satisfaction. Other than demographic information, the employees’ and employers’ Job Satisfaction Questionnaire focused on respondents’ level of organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and apparent organizational support. All elements of organizational commitment and perceived organizational support were responded to on a 7-point Likert scale. The response to the job satisfaction will be based on a 5-point Likert scale. Total scores on each measure were to be obtained by averaging across items.

The dependent variable, (that is, job Satisfaction) was measured by the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire formulated by Weiss et al (1967) with an approximate Cronbach’s alpha of 0. 91. The predictor variables were measured using the various elements designed in the questionnaires for collecting data on the various elements. Reliability was set to be measured with reference to a prior Cronbach’s alpha of 0. 70 (Moulds et al 2009). To assess the medical service providers’ perceptions of their administrators’ leadership behavior, study participants were asked to respond to 18 descriptive rudiments of leadership behavior build up by Bass and Avolio (1992).

The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) which was formulated by Bass and Avolio, (1992) provided a good basis and guidance for measuring and assessing the respondents’ perception of various items that related to leadership behavior.

Data Analysis

Statistical data analysis All categorical items with reference to job satisfaction will be transformed to an ordinal scale that ranges from the minimum value (for instance “do not agree at all”) to the maximum value (for instance “fully agree”). Items or questionnaires that do not receive response will be coded as missing values. Scale values will therefore be calculated as the average or mean of the single items.

All items are assumed to be consistent with characteristics of a normal distribution. The qualitative data will be coded appropriately to allow for possibility of handling it using quantitative techniques. For this reason, appropriate segments will be demarcated within the qualitative data and then coded. Highly structured data (for example open-responses from respondents) will be coded without subjecting it to any further segmentation. This makes such data analyzable using both qualitative and quantitative techniques (Denzin and Lincoln, 2000). The zero order, the multiple, partial and the interaction association coefficients will be calculated for the qualitative data.

This will be achieved by using cross-classification technique proposed by Denzin and Lincoln (2000), in which the dependent variable (and in this case it is job satisfaction) is cross-classified with the independent variables so that the ultimate partitioning of the variation in the dependent variable is achieved just as it would be for a regression analysis in a quantitative data. This method is appropriate since the data to be collected is multivariate and hence can be cross-classified. Descriptive statistics and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was performed to evaluate whether there was significant relationship between job satisfaction of employers and employees working in DHL and the various quantitative variables like the demographic factors.

The relationship between the various variables was measured through the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients. Hierarchical regression analysis was applied to investigate the degree, to which job satisfaction is contingent on employees' needs and resources. The variables were arranged in different hierarchical steps. The first step entailed assessment of the background variables such as years of experience of the respondents, their age and gender. In the second step, personal resources were evaluated to establish their relationship with job satisfaction of the respondents. In this step personal resources like optimism were assessed to establish how they related to job satisfaction of the DHL employees.

Job demands like the quantitative demands and emotional demands were also assessed while another step will entail an evaluation of the job resources for instance social support at workplace and leadership. All the p-values were two-tailed. P-values of less than 0. 05 were considered significant given that the significance level will be 0. 05 or 5%. The values were given as mean and standard deviation and the data will be calculated using SPSS Version 16.

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