Research Methods for Business Psychology 2020/21.

Department of Organizational Psychology.

Quantitative research based on the connection of employee engagement rates
with job satisfaction
 
Shannon Doherty
Research Student
Student ID : 13134031

Aly Kelleher
Module Conveyor,
Department of Organizational Psychology,
Birkbeck, University of London,
Clore Management Building,
Malet Street, Bloomsbury,
London.
WC1E 7HX

Date : 11/07/2021
Abstract
This report will showcase the connection between job satisfaction and employee engagement. The survey was
conducted using Qualtrics and was sent to full time workers, over the age of 18 based in the UK. They were
asked questions about their job satisfaction, salary, age, gender and general engagement with the organisation
they work for. Note that all participants are cisgender.

The first hypothesis will be whether employees aged 25 and under would recommend their employer to others
compared than those aged 25+ . This hypothesis will explore the connection and relationship people different
ages have with their employers and how they compare to a different demographic. This will show how those
with more work experience have different answers and perceptions of their employers than those who have less
work experience. Also, it will outline if the younger generation settles for less in terms of employer satisfaction
compared to a more aged one.

The second hypothesis will explore which gender (men or women) feels they have more opportunities to
progress within an organisation. This will explore the if there is a difference between the demands and
expectations of each gender when it comes to career progression. This hypnotises will outline if career
progression desire is connected to gender and how much it affects it gender separately. Note, all participants are
cisgender individuals.

The analysis conducted found that there are great differences between the engagement in different age groups
independent of the gender.

Introduction
Job satisfaction—“a pleasurable or emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's job or job experiences”
(Locke 1976, p. 1304) In todays’ world, it is very important for employers and organisations to retain their
workforce and avoid turnover of employees as much as possible. The concept of work engagement –a positive,
fulfilling, work related state of mind characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption (Schaufeli et al., 2013) It
has been shown that the most effective way to retain employees is by ensuring they are engaged and happy with
the organisation they work for. “Having a high retention rate means keeping staff members long-term, resulting
in less time and resources required for training new staff and having the loyalty needed to run a business” (HR
Technologist, 2018). Before the Covid 19 pandemic, the unemployment rate in the UK as lower than 4%. This
meant that employers have to do their outmost to retain employees. The cost of an employee leaving for another
job is immense to a company as there need to be lots of resources and time invested into finding the right
replacement. This report will analyse two hypothesis surrounding employee engagement connected to the
demographic used for the survey that was conducted.

Engagement is an on going issue for organisations as they are in the constant search for improving employee
engagement and satisfaction. When organisations carry out employee engagement surveys it is done with the
aim of obtaining answers from their workforce in order to improve the rates of engagement. Having an engaged
workforce independently of their age group is a challenge for all organisations as it is connected to a myriad of
important quantifiable outcomes like performance, turnover and employee health (Harter et al., 2002; Judge,
Thoresen, Bono, & Patton, 2001; Thielgen et al., 2015)

The research style chosen for this report is positivism. Positivism is a style of research that utilises quantitative
methods like social surveys and questionnaires with defined and clear structures. These are reliable and show
fair representation of the population sample chosen. The correlation between two or more variables is analysed.
Positivism also believes that acts such as social actions shape the overall individual action having an effect n the
actions and believes of individuals. Positivism sees surveys as a very important tool, which allows to get an
overview of society as a whole, and therefore see social trends and their connection with different
demographics. It also allows to see the trends and patterns of society at different points in history. Positivist
research looks at the relationship of connection between at least two variables applying a comparative method
(Revise Sociology).

Positivism believes that knowledge obtained from facts that include measurements and observation is
trustworthy and reliable. The research and work behind the research is obtained only from data collection and
personal interpretation in an objective manner. As a consequence, the different types of findings are observable
and quantifiable (Business Research Methodology, 2021

The research was designed based on the positivism philosophy to ensure that the measurements were
trustworthy and that they represent a fair outcome of the population chosen. The population chosen was people
over 18 years of age, in full time employment based in the UK, of different nationalities, backgrounds and
sexual orientations. This was to obtain a diverse and varied population sample. Also, all the individuals are
employed in different industries. This will allow to conduct a profund analysis surrounding the engagement of
different people in different industries, as it tends to differ from industry to industry.

The survey was designed using questions that would answer all the questions and allow for a good and fair
analysis, including questions around demographic

Method
The method of recruitment of people to participate on the survey was via LinkedIn, utilising the range of
professionals that utilise the platform as a networking tool. The link to the survey was published clarifying that
only those over the age of 18 and in full time employment in the UK should take part.

The survey was formed by 10 questions that obtained information from the people taking part regarding their
age, gender, annual salary and questions surrounding their engagement at work and how they feel about the
organisations they work for. All individuals are full time workers, there were no self employed or volunteers
involved.

All participants received information about the ethics and data management around the survey before they had
access to the questions. All participants had access, and had participation rights meaning they could withdraw
their data at any point, and ask questions around how they data was going to be utilised, and if their data was
going to be shared with any other entities or organisations. All questions were answered anonymously meaning
there were no risks from a GDPR perspective. Participants were informed of the aim of the study and their data,
and how it was part of a study conducted for the University of London, and that it was not going to be published
or released. All information has been treated confidentially and no data that could lead to identifying a candidate
was requested, such as their name. All information is kept in a password protected computer under a password
protected site. There have been no risks identified in taking part in this research. All the above complies with the
8 rules of GDPR : the right to be informed, the right of access, the right of rectification, the right to erasure, the
right to restricting process, the right to data portability, the right to object and also the right on decision making
and profiling (Burgess, 2016).

Results
The results of the data have allowed to analyse the two hypothesis presented earlier. First, the hypnosis around
whether employees aged 25 and under would recommend their employer to others compared than those aged
25+. The results of the study have shown that those aged 25 and under have a higher employee engagement that
those in age groups above. The study segmented responders into 3 different groups : 18-25, 26-35, 36 and over.
The table below shows the answers compared to the satisfaction rate

Would you recommend your company to your friends and family?

6

0
Yes Maybe No

18-25 26-35 36+

Figure 1 . Doherty, 2021

Figure 1

Which gender feels they have more opportunities to progress within an

organisation
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Yes No

Men Women

Figure 3. Doherty, 2021

Figure 2

In average, 77.77% of men responded yes when asked if they feel they have more opportunities to
progress within an organisation, while only 18.18% of women responded yes. On the other hand,
81.81% of women responded no to the question, while only 22.22% of men responded no.
As seen in Figure 1, most 18-25 year olds would recommend the companies or organisations they
work for to their family and friends, and the numbers decreases as people continue to age. Analysing
the figures above it can be concluded that 83.33% of 18-25 year old participants would recommend
their employer to their friends and family, compared to just one respondent making it 14% for the 26-
35 category, and none for the 36+ category. Under the ‘maybe’ response, 18-25 only had a 16.6% of
respondents compared to a 42.86% in the 26-35 category and a 71.43% in the 36+ category. For the
last response, there was 0 for the 18-25 category, a 42.86% for the 26-35 category and a 28.58% for
the 36+ category.

Studies have shown that motivation and job satisfaction shifts depending on the age and experience
of the workforce. As people get older, they experience significant changes in a wide variety of
domains that also affect their work outcomes (s Kanfer & Ackerman, 2004). Among others, with
increasing age, individuals lose fluid intellectual abilities (Wechsler, 1944), but have gained a lot more
knowledge and experience that contributes to their participation in an organisation. (Ackerman, 1996).
In order to understand and comprehend the answers behind job satisfaction for younger and more
aged employees, it is necessary to broaden the equity theory by broadening the perspective.
Focusing on socioemotional selectivity theory it us suggested that motivation and objectives shift
along the course of the career of individuals, so the motivations are different, (cf., Kooij et al., 2011).

The satisfaction for younger employees will depend on these factors: rewards and benefits, their
inputs and contribution to the overall development of the organisation and their impact. Figure 2
shows the research model conducted (Tobias Kollmann, Christoph Stöckmann, Julia M. Kensbock,
Anika Peschl, 2019)

Figure 2, Tobias Kollmann, Christoph Stöckmann, Julia M. Kensbock, Anika Peschl, 2019)
Figure 3

The second hypothesis, around which gender (men or women) feels they have more opportunities to
progress within an organisation. The study shows that men independently of the age group they are
in, tend to identify more development opportunities within their organisation, as shown in the table
below. Note, there were only cisgender participants in this study.
Utilising a socioemotional selectivity theory (Carstensen, 1991, 1992), we can agree that as the
workforce ages the impact of monetary rewards change and shift as the contributions and experience
to the organisation also evolve,

The results of the Which gender feels they have more opportunities to progress within an organisation
show that women are still not confident that they will receive promotions at the same rate as men
receive them are shown on Figure 3. These could be for a number of reasons but mainly because of
the sexism still present in today’s society that contributes to employees thinking that women are
weaker and less reliable workforce. In 2020, the mean gender pay gap was 6.5% and median gender
pay gap was 15.8%. (Gov UK, 2020).
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