Chapter 2: What are the Major Types of Social Research? Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Use and Audience of Research Basic vs Applied Research: Basic research - type of research that may have limited direct application but in which the researcher has careful control of the conditions. Applied research - type of research that has direct value to practitioners but in which the researcher has limited control over the research setting. Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Use and Audience of Research Basic Applied Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Use and Audience of Research Continuum of Basic vs Applied Research: Basic research - Goal: Theory-driven - Approach: Laboratory Applied research - Goal: Immediate solutions - Approach: Real-world settings Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Use and Audience of Research Applied research - Three types of applied research Evaluation research Action research - Participatory action research Social impact assessment - Tools in applied research Needs assessment Cost-benefit analysis Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Use and Audience of Research Experimental vs Non-Experiemental Research: Experimental research - Treatments are given to subjects - Cause-and-effect questions Non-experimental research - Treatments are not given to subjects - Participants are observed as they naturally exist Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Use and Audience of Research Experimental vs Non-Experiemental Research: Types of Non-experimental research - Causal-comparative - Survey (poll) Sample vs. census - Case study - Longitudinal - Historical Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Beyond Basic-Applied Dichotomy Audience of research - Public - Activists - General practitioner Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Purpose of Research Exploratory research Descriptive research Explanatory research Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Purpose of Research Exploratory research - Its focus is on the discovery of ideas and insights as opposed to collecting statistically accurate data. - It is most commonly used for further defining company issues, areas for potential growth, alternative courses of action, and prioritizing areas that require statistical research. - When it comes to online surveys, the most common example of this research takes place in the form of open-ended questions. Here, text responses may not be statistically measureable, but they will give you richer quality information that can lead to the discovery of new initiatives or problems that should be addressed. Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Purpose of Research Exploratory research - Familiar with basic facts - Create a general picture - Formulate question for future research - Generate new ideas for research - Feasibility of future research - Measurement development Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Purpose of Research Descriptive research The main idea behind using this type of research is to better define an opinion, attitude, or behavior held by a group of people on a given subject. Unlike exploratory research, descriptive research is preplanned and structured in design so the information collected can be statistically inferred on a population. There are predefined categories (eg, multiple choice ques.) a respondent must choose from where the questions will not give the unique insights on the issues like exploratory research would but will provide statistically inferable data. Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Purpose of Research Descriptive research - - - - - - Detailed, highly accurate picture Locate new data Create typology Clarify stages or process Document a causal process Report on background or context Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Purpose of Research Explanatory / causal research Like descriptive research, causal research is quantitative in nature as well as preplanned and structured in design. - For this reason, it is also considered conclusive research. Causal research is opposed to the observational style of descriptive research, because it attempts to decipher whether a relationship is causal through experimentation. Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Purpose of Research Explanatory / causal research Example: a cereal brand owner wants to learn if they will receive more sales with their new cereal box design. Instead of conducting descriptive research by asking people whether they would be more likely to buy their cereal in its new box, they would set up an experiment in two separate stores. One will sell the cereal in only its original box and the other with the new box. Taking care to avoid any outside sources of bias, they would then measure the difference between sales based on the cereal packaging. Did the new packaging have any effect on the cereal sales? What was that effect? Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Purpose of Research Explanatory research - - - - Test hypothesis Elaborate/enrich theory Support/refute theory Link specific situation to theory Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Within or Across Cases Case-Study Research - Conceptual validity - Heuristic impact - further learning, discovery or problem solving - Causal mechanisms identification - Ability to capture complexity and trace processes - Calibration - adjust measures of abstract concepts to lived experiences - Holistic elaboration - incorporations of multiple perspectives Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Within or Across Cases Across-Case Research Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Single or Multiple Points in Time Cross-sectional research If you wanted to know if the %-age of people diagnosed with lung cancer varies with occupation, how would you go about answering this question? One way you could find the answer is to look at some groups of people who are similar in age but different in occupations [see above]. You can now calculate the percentage of people in each group that have been diagnosed with lung cancer. This information can then be used to answer your question. Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Single or Multiple Points in Time Longitudinal Time series research Insert NEW 2.3 Table section (here) Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Single or Multiple Points in Time Panel research Longitudinal Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Single or Multiple Points in Time Cohort study Longitudinal Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Data Collection Techniques Quantitative research - data are gathered such that they can be quantified and subjected to statistical analyses Quantitative data - Experiments - Surveys - Nonreactive Research Content analysis Existing statistics Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Data Collection Techniques Qualitative research - data are gathered such that they can be analyzed through informed judgment Qualitative data - Field research - Historical-comparative research Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Description of Thesis / Project Basic format of your project 1. Introduction 2. Review of Literature 3. Methods 4. Results 5. Discussion 1. References 2. Tables and figures Copyright 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Job Satisfaction of Employees and Consultants in Healthcare Information Technology David W. Hays, Nova Southeastern University Jennie Q. Lou, Nova Southeastern University To survive in the highly competitive and quickly changing healthcare market of the 21st century, healthcare organizations must ramp up their understanding of how technology contributes to the profitability of business operations. As primary drivers of the implementation of elec tronic health records, healthcare information technology (IT) employees and consultants are on the front fines, responsible for challenging (Lewin, 1951) beliefs that the status quo is ac ceptable and motivating healthcare providers to successful adaptation. As a result, healthcare IT employee hiring is increasing. A 2013 Health care Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) workforce survey found more than 80% of healthcare organizations hired at least one full-time IT professional in 2013 and planned to hire at least one in 2014 (HIMSS, 2013). The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports the projected percent change in employ ment of computer systems analysts from 2012 to 2022 will increase 25% (127,700 jobs), more than double the 11 % average growth rate for all occupations (BLS, 2014). In the \"war for talent,\" retaining qualified healthcare IT employees and consultants by achieving high levels of job satis faction will be a major contributor to the success of healthcare organizations. This article focuses on healthcare information technology employees to determine if they have higher or lower job satisfaction than their con sultant counterparts and the overall workforce. While sources of job satisfaction and dissatisfac tion vary among employees, knowing the degree of job satisfaction of healthcare IT employees is the first step for leaders trying to correctly as Employee or Consultant Employers use consultants in healthcare for a variety of reasons, including the costs associated with salaries, benefits, compliance with laws such as Family Medical Leave Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, employ ment taxes, and the increasing flexibility of the workforce. U.S. law imposes many obligations on employers with respect to employees that are not imposed on consultants, creating incen tives for employers to classify their workers as consultants rather than employees. Employers who fail to make the proper distinction between workers as employees or contractors can run afoul of the Internal Revenue Service, which may seek to recover back taxes and other con tributions that an organization should have paid on the employee's behalf (Muhl, 2002). The IRS web site provides guidance to determine whether individuals providing services are employees or consultants. An organization must weigh the de gree of control in three areas, behavioral, finan- 12 SAM Advanced Management Journal Autumn 2015 sess the current situation and, if needed, devise strategies so each employee can maximize his or her potential and productivity. Numerous studies have found a direct relationship between job sat isfaction and productivity. Thus, improving low satisfaction has a positive impact on an organi zation's bottom-line. The more productive the organization, the better its competitive position because its costs are lower. With reimbursement rates declining, this facet must not be over looked. Finally, healthcare organizations with improved productivity may offer higher wages without increasing inflation (Cascio, 2010). cial, and type of relationship, when determining whether a worker is an employee or independent contractor or consultant (http://www.irs.gov/ Businesses/SmallBusinesses&SelfEmployed/IndependentContractorSelfEmployedorEmployee). An example of failing to properly classify work ers can be found in Vizcaino v. Microsoft, when, in 1996, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that workers originally hired as independent contractors were entitled to benefits under Microsoft's 401 (k) and employee stock purchase plan. Job Satisfaction The concept of \"satisfaction\" originated from the humanistic school of thought, a branch of psychology (Sypniewska, 2014). Abraham Maslow, a supporter of the school, believed that people satisfy their needs in a hierarchical order. He said that needs emerge in a predictable stair step fashion. Satisfying one need activates the next need in the hierarchy until the highest-level need, self-actualization, is activated. Job satisfaction is an emotional response or general feeling toward various aspects of the job (Kincki and Kreitner, 2009). A person may be satisfied with one aspect of the job but not with others. Job satisfaction is closely related to the performance and quality of work performed by an employee and translates into success for an organization. Only a satisfied employee partici pates in and builds success. Numerous studies have analyzed the characteristics of job satisfac tion-one of the most frequently investigated variables in organizational culture (Belias and Koustelios, 2014). Job satisfaction is a complex phenomenon and does not happen in isolation. According to experts, job satisfaction is per tinent to many categories, among them inter personal relationships. The goal of this paper is to determine if significant differences exist between the percentages of healthcare IT em ployees, healthcare IT consultants, and all other employees who report satisfaction with their current jobs. Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory The motivational-hygiene theory of Herzberg, Maunser, and Synderman (1959) formed one of the first investigations and assessments of job satisfaction. In a landmark study of 203 accountants and engineers, Herzberg initially sought to determine factors responsible for job satisfaction and dissatisfaction. In interviews, he found that separate and distinct factors were SAM Advanced Management Journal Autumn 2015 associated with job satisfaction and \"no job sat isfaction.\" Job satisfaction was more frequently associated with intrinsic factors such as achieve ment, recognition, responsibility, and sense of advancement. Herzberg labeled these factors \"motivators\" because each was associated with increased effort and good performance. He hypothesized that these motivators could move an employee from no job satisfaction to satis faction. Herzberg found that a lack of satisfac tion was associated with extrinsic factors in the work environment, such as salary, supervision, working conditions. He labeled these \"hygiene\" factors and hypothesized their presence did not contribute to job satisfaction, but their absence of hygiene factors would lead to no job satisfac tion. In essence, Herzberg believed that opposite of job satisfaction was no satisfaction, versus dissatisfaction. Even though the study was limited to accountants and engineers, Herzberg's research revealed the \"global character of job satisfaction\" (Belias and Koustelios, 2014). Subsequent studies have verified Herzberg's theory. However, the importance of motivators and hygiene factors depends on the job or posi tion held. Blue-collar employees place greater value on hygiene factors while white-collar workers value motivators (Harris and Locke, 1974). Age and Job Satisfaction Research has found that the age of workers and job satisfaction are correlated. Some studies found a linear relationship between them, while others found a nonlinear relationship. Regard less of the kind of relationship, numerous stud ies have found that age and job satisfaction are correlated (Brush, Moch, and Pooyan, 1987; Baron and Greenberg, 1997). There are several explanations for this. People generally are more satisfied as they age, and older and more tenured employees generally have better jobs and higher salaries than younger employees. Some studies suggest that older employees have reduced job expectations and have adapted to work condi tions. Finally, faced with fewer employment alternatives, their job satisfaction was higher. Halloran and Benton (1997) found that em ployees develop a cycle between age and job satisfaction, entering their first job with higher levels of job satisfaction. In their mid-twenties, job satisfaction decreased, then increased again in their thirties and continued before retirement, when it again declined. This cycle may reflect the following: at the beginning of their work 13 careers, employees are very enthusiastic, which positively influences job satisfaction. After a few years on the job, they encounter problems and face additional job responsibilities and uncertain job stability. If an employee survives job lay offs, over time the job stabilizes and they may receive a promotion, leading to increased satis faction. Facing retirement, job satisfaction then decreases. Employee-Management Relations and Job Satisfaction During the decades following Herzberg's re search, many studies were conducted to identify and describe the dimensions of job satisfaction. Kennerly (1989) found that behaviors such as mutual trust, respect, and rapport between super visors and employees can predict job satisfaction of healthcare employees. The Glassdoor top 20 best places to work in 2013 employee choice award leaders examined the practices, policies, and actions organizations have implemented to engage employees successfully. Employees commented on the importance of working with good supervisors and noted that working with \"like-minded people\" and personal growth were primary reasons employees remained with their organization (Johnson, 2014). The study also found that professional growth and advance ment was very important, especially in the early stages of a career. This was similar to Lockwood (2007), who found that access to growth oppor tunities was important to employee engagement and job satisfaction. In an overall assessment of 215 respondents, Synpniewska (2014) reported that good relations with superiors was of vital importance to job satisfaction. In summary, interpersonal relationships such as the em ployee-management relationship are extremely important to employees. According to previous research, job satisfac tion in healthcare organizations is related to work arrangements, active participation in the decision-making process, effective communica tion among staff and supervisors, and the em ployees' ability to express their opinions (Love, 1977). Healthcare managers who grasp the importance of factors that affect the well-being of employees are more likely to see improved performance from various groups of hospital staff. It is of paramount importance to seek the opinion of employees and include them in decision-making and problem-solving process es. Making employees feel they are part of the organization leads to improved job satisfaction (Bhatnagar and Srivastava, 2012). Healthcare IT Employees and Consul tants: Impact on Healthcare Electronic health records are a source of promise and frustration, with concerns about provider time involved in data entry. Physicians' rocky relationships with electronic records are a major determinate of job satisfaction, according to a 2014 survey conducted by the RAND Corpora tion and sponsored by the American Medical Association. Only 35% of physicians report that such records improve their job satisfaction, 31% are overwhelmed by the volume of electronic messages, and 43% say their electronic records system slows them down. Friedberg et al. (2014) state that such systems \"represent a unique and vexing challenge to physician professional satisfaction. Few other service industries are exposed to universal and substantial incentives to adopt such a specific, highly regulated form of technology, one that our findings suggest has not yet matured.\" These findings are a strong mes sage to healthcare leadership that healthcare IT employees and consultants have a major impact on physician job satisfaction, quality of patient care, electronic health records implementation, and meeting meaningful use criteria. Achieving and maintaining a high degree of job satisfaction of healthcare IT employees should have a posi tive impact on the entire organization. Job Satisfaction in Healthcare Offering the highest quality of services to as many patients that need them is a primary goal of healthcare systems. Achieving this goal requires a committed workforce. Moreover, research for some time has found a strong posi tive correlation between the job satisfaction of healthcare providers and patient satisfaction (Linn, Brook, Clark, Davies, Fink, and Kosecoff, 1985). Creating an environment that pro motes job satisfaction, a healthcare manager can develop productive and motivated employees, which, in turn, will contribute to higher-quality patient care and job satisfaction. Methodology Healthcare IT employee and consultant job satisfaction was taken from the HIT Workforce Engagement Trends - Assessing Job Satisfac tion and Career Motivations in Healthcare IT Professionals report. In May 2014, healthcareleaders.com asked healthcare IT professionals and consultants to complete a self-administered 14 SAM Advanced Management Journal Autumn 2015 Web-based survey of job satisfaction. Of 446 completed and usable surveys, 198 self-identi fied as IT employees with a healthcare industry employer, and 248 self-identified as IT consul tants with healthcare clients. The survey used a five-point Likert scale (1 = very dissatisfied, 2 = somewhat dissatisfied, 3 = neither, 4 = some what satisfied, and 5 = very satisfied) to measure job satisfaction. A respondent was rated as satis fied with their current job if their job satisfaction score was either \"somewhat satisfied\" or \"very satisfied.\" Job satisfaction of all employees was taken from the 2013 Society for Human Resource Management Employee Job Satisfaction and En gagement report. The annual report conducted in July and August 2013, surveyed 600 randomly selected employees, measuring 35 aspects of employee job satisfaction. The survey also used a five-point Likert scale (see above). Similar to the Workforce Engagement Trends report, a respondent was rated as satisfied with their cur rent job if their job satisfaction score was either \"somewhat satisfied\" or \"very satisfied.\" Hypotheses 1. There is no difference between the percentage of healthcare IT employees and all employees satisfied with their current job. 2. There is no difference between the percentage of healthcare IT consultants and all employees satisfied with their current job. 3. There is no difference between the percentage of healthcare IT employees and healthcare IT consultants satisfied with their current job. 4. There is no difference between the percentage of healthcare IT employees and healthcare IT consultants very satisfied with their current job. Findings For the first hypothesis, 64% of healthcare IT employee respondents (n=198) were satisfied with their current job while 81% of all employ ees (n=600) were satisfied. A two sample t-test between percents was calculated revealing a t-statistic of 4.913 and p = .0000. There is a difference between the percentage of healthcare IT employees and all employees responding as satisfied with their current job. Healthcare IT employees are less satisfied with their current job than all employees. For the second hypothesis, 77% of healthcare IT consultant respondents (n=248) reported be ing satisfied with their current job, while 81% SAM Advanced Management Journal Autumn 2015 of all employees (n=600) were satisfied with their current job. A two sample t-test between percents was calculated, revealing a t-statistic of 1.320 and p = .1870. There is no difference between the percentage of healthcare IT consul tants and all employees responding as satisfied with their present job. For the third hypothesis, 64% of healthcare IT employee respondents (n=198) and 77% of healthcare IT consultants (n=248) reported being satisfied with their current job. A two sample t-test between percents found t-statistic = 3.013 and p=.0027. There is a different between the percentages of healthcare IT employees and healthcare IT consultants satisfied with their current job. More healthcare IT consultants are satisfied with their current job than healthcare IT employees. For the fourth hypothesis, 19% of heathcare IT employee respondents (n=198) and 43% of healthcare IT consultants (n=248) reported be ing very satisfied with their current job. A two sample t-test between percents found t-statistic = 5.383 and p=.0000. There is a difference between the percentages of healthcare IT per manent employees and healthcare IT consultants very satisfied with their current job. Healthcare IT consultants are more likely to be very satis fied with their current job than IT employees. The Impact of Baby Boomer Supervisors on Healthcare IT Employees While baby boomers have begun to enter the age 65-and-older group, they do not want to retire at Social Security full retirement age. Some boomers want to stay in their current jobs while others begin second careers; they are projected to live longer and be healthier than previous generations (Smith and Clurman, 2007). Fully 72% of people aged 50 and over who have not yet retired say they want to work in retirement, and almost half of current retirees said they have worked or will work, according to a March 2014 study by Merrill Lynch - Bank of America and Age Wave, a consulting and research firm. A Pew Research Center study released on July 17, 2014, found that a record 57 million Americans (18% of the population) live in multigenerational households (Fry and Passed, 2014). Baby boomers find themselves taking care of their parents while still taking care of their children. It is important for healthcare IT employees to be prepared to work with and for older adults. Previous attempts to change negative age-related attitudes of other generational cohorts have been mixed. Some research suggests that positive change can be obtained through instruction and factual knowledge (Allan and Johnson, 2009). Other research found no significant change in attitudes of students when they were provided instruction only (Cottle and Glover, 2007). To further complicate matters, millennials have greater expectations than past generations about reaching positions of management, working with increasingly challenging tasks, and contributing to society (Ismail and Lou, 2014). Millennial healthcare IT workers will see their baby boom er supervisors as an obstacle to career progres sion, creating frustration, resentment, and lower organizational commitment and job satisfaction. This may partially explain the low job satisfac tion of healthcare IT employees. Improving Job Satisfaction of Health IT Professionals Of particular concern is the finding of the first hypothesis: that is a lower percentage of health care IT employees are satisfied with their current job compared with all employees. Because job satisfaction and productivity are related, the low percentage of healthcare IT employees satisfied with their current job suggests that improving job satisfaction could be a major contributor to improving productivity and lowering costs in information technology. The findings of the third and fourth hypothesis support previous research that the opportunity for innovation, flexibility, and individualism that consultancy provides is a determinant of high job satisfaction. Similar to Lockwood 2007, research from the Management Consul tancies Association also found high levels of job satisfaction, reporting participants satisfied with job challenge and career progression (Stidder, 2011). The low degree of healthcare IT employees very satisfied with their current job suggest leadership should consider creating a consultant-like workplace environment through a willingness to share power and continuous ex perimentation with new ideas that are hallmarks of successful consultants (Cascio, 2010). Healthcare IT employees need to feel con nected to leadership. Existing technology can help through electronic meetings as well as faceto-face. Meetings should be straight-forward and open. Supervisors should provide immediate and specific feedback, resources via electronic means, and a way for healthcare IT profession als to \"check-in.\" Electronic communication can help healthcare IT employees feel they are part 16 of a network (Fry, 2014). Most healthcare IT employees never seem very far away from social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. For both employees and consultants, supervisors may use social networks to focus on specific interests, tasks, or as general portals for interpersonal exchanges. Technical-friendly organizations need to provide healthcare IT employees with top-quality notebook comput ers, tablets, and smartphones (Ferri-Reed, 2014). With the cost of technology dropping quickly, there is no reason for healthcare employees to use inferior technology on the job, compared with that of healthcare IT consultants. Eliminat ing status distinctions that separate healthcare IT employees and other groups such as healthcare providers help to make everyone feel important and committed (Cascio, 2010). Healthcare employers looking to improve employee-supervisor relations should encour age employees and supervisors to both engage in volunteer activities during the workday with paid time off to participate. Individual work space cubicles of the baby boomer generation should be replaced with open \"common space\" for employees to collaborate. Similar to con sultants, some suggest a \"coffee shop\" strategy where employees carry their offices in the form of notebooks, personal computers, and smart phones with them where they wish to work (Ferri-Reed, 2014). Finally, supervisors must keep in mind that all employees want to be recognized for the right behaviors in a timely and appropriate manner. The healthcare IT employee wants to know how to be successful faster (Branscum and Sciaraffa, 2013). The best managers adopt a well-run feedback program to provide a rational basis for employee improvement. Fred Smith, founder of Federal Express, outlined his phi losophy on the importance of feedback \"When people walk in the door, they want to know: What do you expect of me? What's in this deal for me? What do I have to do to get ahead?\" (Fishman, 2001). This will pose a considerable challenge to the current legalistic work environ ment where the strategy is to give what Jack Welch, former GE chairman, refers to as \"false kindness\" to appease employees and move on to the next \"fire.\" During a 2002 Information Week conference. He said \"I think it counts so much to let people know where they stand. You have no right to BS people. You have no right\" (Russell, 2002). SAM Advanced Management Journal Autumn 2015 Conclusion Employees are the most important resource of healthcare organizations, whose sustained ex istence depends on workforce job satisfaction. In the competition for talent retaining qualified healthcare IT employees through high levels of job satisfaction will be a major contributor to the success of healthcare organizations. This study found a lower percentage of healthcare IT employees satisfied with their cur rent job compared with all employees. This is particularly troubling since healthcare IT em ployees are responsible for implementing elec tronic health records, which serve as a primary source for patient information and insurance reimbursement. Improving job satisfaction of healthcare IT employees should be on the fore front healthcare leadership agenda. The study also found that healthcare IT em ployees are less satisfied with their job than healthcare IT consultants. Borrowing from the concepts of innovation, job flexibility, and individualism associated with the high levels of healthcare IT consultant job satisfaction, exist ing best practices of improving job satisfaction outlined in this paper should be implemented and new ideas developed to increase job satis faction for healthcare IT employees. This, in turn, will boost productivity and patient satisfac tion and lower the cost of care. library.nova.edu/docview/151268333 l?accountid=6579 Bhatnagar, K., and Srivastabe, K. (2012). Job satisfaction in healthcare organizations. Industrial Psychiatry Jour nal, 21(1), 75-78. Branscum, A. Y., and Sciaraffa, M. A. (2013). Changing millennial' attitude toward older adults. Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences, 105(1), 18-22. Re trieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxylocal. library.nova.edu/docview/1418409879?accountid=6579 Brush, D. H, Moch, M. K., and Pooyan, A. (1987). Indi vidual demographic differences and job satisfaction. Journal of Occupational Behavior, 8, 139-155. Cascio, W.F. (2010). Managing human resources: Produc tivity, quality o f work life, profits, 8th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Cottle, N. R., and Glover, R. J. (2007). Combating ageism: Change in student knowledge and attitudes regarding aging. Educational Gerontology, 33(6), 501-512. doi: 10.1080/03601270701328318. Ferri-Reed, J. (2014). \"Millennializing\" your work culture. The Journal for Quality and Participation, 37(1), 21-24. 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The motivation to work. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (2013). HIT hiring growth continues, http://www.himsswire.com/article/workforce_development/himss_survey_hit_hiring_growth_continues Ismail, M., and Lu, H. S. (2014). Cultural values and career goals of the millennial generation: An integrated con ceptual framework. Journal of International Manage ment Studies, 9(1), 38-49. Retrieved from http://search. proquest.com.ezproxylocal.library.nova.edu/docview/15 17530135?accountid=6579 SAM Advanced Management Journal Autumn 2015 17 Dr. Hays has over 20 years 'experience teach ing graduate courses in a wide range o f subjects, including organizational behavior, leadership, and health information technology assessment. He also has 10 years'experience in public-sector human resource management and nine in senior positions in healthcare administration. 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Correlates of adjustment: A study of expatriate managers in an emerging country. Management Decision, 37(3), 267-278. "Like Us on Faceb oo k" https://www.facebook.com/SAMnational "Keep informed on Sam updates or post any news you would like to share on your campus chapter or university!" 18 SAM Advanced Management Journal Autumn 2015 Copyright of SAM Advanced Management Journal (07497075) is the property of Society for Advancement of Management and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. 586264 research-article2015 PPMXXX10.1177/0091026015586264Public Personnel ManagementWang and Yang Article Does Informal Participation Increase Job Satisfaction in Public Organizations? A Study on Civil Servants in Beijing, China Public Personnel Management 2015, Vol. 44(3) 356 374 - The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0091026015586264 ppm.sagepub.com Weijie Wang1 and Xingkun Yang2 Abstract The current literature has deepened our understanding of the participation-job satisfaction relationship in public organizations. However, employee participation has various forms and each form may produce different effects on job satisfaction. The literature often fails to account for the effects of different forms of participation. This article fills this gap by specifically examining the effects of informal participation and the possible moderating effects of interpersonal relationships and career development support. Based on a survey of civil servants in Beijing, the article finds that informal participation has positive and statistically significant influence over job satisfaction. The effects are positively moderated by interpersonal relationships and negatively moderated by career development support. The results help us to gain a fine-grained understanding of the effects of informal participation and may serve as a starting point for more research on different forms of employee participation. Keywords job satisfaction, employee participation, informal participation, participative management, China Introduction Employee participation, which is defined as the involvement of employees in information processing, decision making, and problem solving (Wagner, 1994), has been an 1University 2Beijing of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing, China Corresponding Author: Weijie Wang, Price School of Public Policy, University of Southern California, 645 W. 23rd Street, Apt. 2, Los Angeles, CA, 90007, USA. Email: weijiewa@usc.edu Wang and Yang 357 important topic in management research. Though it has been studied under different labels such as employee empowerment, industrial democracy, and participative decision making, it generally describes joint decision making or influence/power sharing in organizations. Employee participation faces some unique institutional and cultural challenges in public organizations. Bureaucracy has been the dominant form of government organizations for thousands of years in some countries such as China and is still the dominant form in almost all countries. The strict hierarchical control is the key mechanism to achieve efficiency. Employee participation may disrupt the hierarchical chain of command and thus may increase the likelihood of conflicts between employees and supervisors, causing the loss of efficiency (Harrison & Freeman, 2004). In addition, the rigid hierarchical structure fosters a bureaucratic culture of overconformity (Claver, Llopis, Gasc, Molina, & Conca, 1999; Merton, 1940). The emphasis of conforming to rules and regulations and the corresponding strict control have always been salient features of the civil service system (Benveniste, 1987; Bozeman & Straussman, 1990). Therefore, the bureaucratic culture encourages adherence to orders and rules rather than participation in decision making. Despite the above barriers in implementation, scholars have been arguing for employee participation in government agencies (Waldo, 1977). A growing literature shows that employee participation in public organizations contributes to job satisfaction (Benoliel & Somech, 2010; Fernandez & Moldogaziev, 2013a; Kim, 2002; Lee, Cayer, & Lan, 2006; Wright & Kim, 2004), high performance (Benoliel & Somech, 2010; Fernandez & Moldogaziev, 2011, 2013a), employee retention (Grissom, 2012), innovation (Fernandez & Moldogaziev, 2013b; Fernandez & Pitts, 2011; Somech, 2006), and employee commitment (Cheung & Wu, 2011; Nyhan, 2000). However, the findings of participation's effects are not conclusive. Wagner (1994) found through a meta-analysis of literature that the effects of participation on performance and satisfaction are so small that they hardly have any practical significance. Somech (2006) found that participation contributes to innovation but not to performance. One possible explanation to the inconclusive or even conflicting findings is that employee participation has various forms and each form may produce different effects (Cotton, Vollrath, Froggatt, & Lengnick-Hall, 1988; Koopman & Wierdsma, 1998). Cotton et al. (1988) summarized six forms of participation: participation in work decisions, consultative participation, short-term participation, informal participation, employee ownership, and representative participation. The current literature often fails to account for the effects of different forms of participation. For example, scholars often ignore the fact that the base of legitimization of employee participation may vary from formal, explicitly recorded rules to informal, nonstatutory behaviors (Koopman & Wierdsma, 1998). The failure to make clear distinctions between different forms of participation may obscure their effects and lead to conflicting findings (Smylie, Lazarus, & Brownlee-Conyers, 1996). In addition, due to the limited research, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of variables that may moderate the effects of participation. This article attempts to fill in the above gap by studying one type of employee participationinformal participationand its impacts on civil servants' job satisfaction. 358 Public Personnel Management 44(3) Informal participation can be defined as the involvement of employees in information processing, decision making, and problem solving when these practices are not required by laws, contracts, or management policies (Koopman & Wierdsma, 1998; Wagner, 1994). It can be understood as allowing employees to exert more controls over their work and organizational management in an informal manner. The biggest distinction between informal participative mechanisms and other forms of participation is that they are not mandatory or statutory; informal participation usually occurs in the casual interactions between supervisors and subordinates and it is highly contingent on the awareness and initiative of supervisors (Cotton et al., 1988). Informal participative mechanisms may be particularly worthy of studying because of their unique strengths compared with other forms of participative mechanisms. First, they are flexible and can be employed in the daily leader-member exchanges (LMXs). In addition, they are relatively inexpensive and can be implemented relatively easily without wholesale institutional changes. If informal participation can improve civil servants' job satisfaction, leaders in public organizations may have some handy techniques to motivate their subordinates. Based on a survey of civil servants in Beijing, China, we found that civil servants are more satisfied with their jobs if they have opportunities to participate in the management of their organizations, even if the participation is informal. We also extended our finding by showing that the effects are moderated by interpersonal relationships and career development support. This article makes several contributions to the current literature. First, it is one of the first attempts to specifically examine the effects of informal participation on job satisfaction. The current literature focuses mainly on formal mechanisms of participation or does not make distinctions between different forms of participation. Though it is tempting to conclude that the effects of informal participation would not be different from other forms, robust empirical research is needed to provide conclusive answers. This article answers the call to conduct more research on the effects of diverse forms of participation and fills a critical gap in the literature. Second, we extend the findings by testing the moderating effects of interpersonal relationship and career development support. We found a positive synergistic effect between civil servants' interpersonal relationships and informal participation. Another interesting finding is the crowing out effect of career development support on informal participation. The results may help us gain a fine-grained understanding of the effects of informal participation and may serve as a starting point for more research on other forms of participation. Third, we link the findings to leadership development in public organizations. Sharing information, influence, and power informally can also be useful leadership techniques to improve the LMX. Public managers may well employ these techniques to motivate their subordinates. Fourth, the article is also one of the first attempts to study civil servants' participation in the Chinese context. Civil servants in China face not only a typical bureaucratic system that values conformity but also a collectivist culture that fosters a paternalistic and centralized leadership style. It is thus interesting to examine how civil servants' participation affects their job satisfaction and to study the implications for the management of public organizations in China. Wang and Yang 359 Literature Review and Hypotheses Theoretically, participation contributes to job satisfaction through several mechanisms: First, employees can have more control of their work by participating in decision makingsthey can get access to information and make their ideas and suggestions heard; second, participation leads to stronger sense of ownership, self-actualization, and belonging because employees can improve their problem-solving skills and fulfill their growth needs; third, employees may establish closer working relationships with their colleagues through participation (Nyhan, 2000; Sashkin, 1984). A number of empirical studies supported the positive relationship between participation and job satisfaction in public organizations. Finlay, Martin, Roman, and Blum (1995) found that employees in less bureaucratically structured organizations have higher level of job satisfaction. Kim (2002) found that three forms of participative management, including managers' use of participative management style, participative strategic planning, and effective supervisory communication, all exert statistically significant influence over job satisfaction. Fernandez and Moldogaziev (2013a) found that empowerment positively affects job satisfaction based on data from the Federal Human Capital Survey. In their study, empowerment was measured by four practices: providing information about goals and performance, offering rewards based on performance, providing access to job-related knowledge and skills, and granting discretion to change work processes. The current literature has made significant progress in deepening our understanding of the participation-job satisfaction relationship in public organizations. However, participation has diverse forms and their effects on job satisfaction may be quite different (Cotton et al., 1988). The literature often focuses on some particular forms of participation, such as participative decision making, while neglecting others. In many cases, scholars subconsciously assume that various forms of participation have the same effects and thus do not make proper distinctions between these forms. The failure to make distinctions may obscure the effects of diverse forms of participation, leading to conflicting findings (Smylie et al., 1996). This article specifically studies the effects of informal employee participation on job satisfaction. Informal participation is measured by three items in this article: information sharing, informal involvement in decision making, and informal suggestion programs. Information sharing with fellow colleagues or supervisors is the starting point for employee participation, and it is often done in the daily interactions with colleagues and supervisors. Work-related information helps employees to make better sense of their work environment, clarify roles, and reduce ambiguity about their responsibilities (Pitts, 2005; Weick, 1979). Employees' perceived control over their work and selfefficacy may thus be enhanced (Gist & Mitchell, 1992). Information is also a precondition for employees to participate in problem solving and decision making (Wright & Kim, 2004). Bowen and Lawler (1992) argued that information is one of four ingredients of empowerment, and according to them, an empowerment program may fail if information is not redistributed along with rewards and knowledge. Several studies have found that information is an important condition to help employees to be involved 360 Public Personnel Management 44(3) or feel involved in decision making (Fernandez & Moldogaziev, 2013a; Lawler, 1986; Petter, Byrnes, Choi, Fegan, & Miller, 2002; Pitts, 2005; Spreitzer, 1996). Based on the existing literature, employees with more information about what is going on in their organizations may have higher level of job satisfaction. Involvement in decision making is a direct form for employees to exert influence. Involvement in decision making can be formal; for example, employee participation can be a procedural requirement for making certain decisions. Studies have suggested that formal mechanisms of participative decision making positively affect job satisfaction (Benoliel & Somech, 2010). Nevertheless, employee involvement is often achieved through informal means, such as informal consultation or nonstatutory, irregular participation in decision making. Employees' input in decision making, though not mandatory, gives them the influences in work-related issues. They are not just passively taking orders from their supervisors but actively changing their work environment. Informal involvement in decision making can also give employees the perceived control over their jobs and stronger sense of ownership (Chen & Tjosvold, 2006). As a result, employees may be more satisfied with their jobs (Kim, 2002; Miller & Monge, 1986). We would generally expect that more involvement in decision making leads to higher job satisfaction even if the involvement is informal. The LMX research has suggested that high-quality relationships between supervisors and subordinates contribute to subordinates' job satisfaction (Chen & Tjosvold, 2006; Cheung & Wu, 2011; Gerstner & Day, 1997; Wayne, Shore, & Liden, 1997). To maintain a high-quality relationship, supervisors and subordinates engage in constant exchanges. Suggestions are an important currency that is exchanged. As front-line workers, subordinates often have information and suggestions that are valuable for making correct decisions. Supervisors consulting with subordinates and accepting their suggestions can boost subordinates' self-confidence and the feeling of self-actualization, resulting in higher job satisfaction (Marcus & House, 1973). Accepting subordinates' suggestions also shows that supervisors are attentive, friendly, and supportive, which contributes to effective supervisor-subordinates communication and job satisfaction (Johlke & Duhan, 2000; Kim, 2002). To summarize, the current literature suggests that the three forms of informal participation are all positively related to job satisfaction. We thus propose the following hypothesis: Hypothesis 1: Employees' informal participation is positively related to job satisfaction. The relationship between participation and job satisfaction may not be linear. A number of variables may moderate the relationship. For example, Benoliel and Somech (2010) identified personality factors such as extroversion and agreeableness as moderating variables. Highly agreeable employees tend to be more cooperative with colleagues and thus they may be more suitable for participative management environments. Somech (2010) suggested that LMX and organizational design (bureaucratic or organic) may also moderate the relationship between participation and job satisfaction. Wang and Yang 361 In this research, we collected data on two potential moderating variables: interpersonal relationships and career development support. Interpersonal relationships are an important part of the organizational environment (James & James, 1989). Employee participation creates a fairly high level of interpersonal interactions, which becomes the key environmental force that may work together with informal participation to affect job satisfaction (Lawler, 1992). First, interpersonal relationships can serve as the access to information related to their organizations, which may give civil servants more perceived control of their environment. Second, interpersonal relationships affect how people deal with stress and conflicts in participative environments (Benoliel & Somech, 2010). For example, some underlying differences between employees may be publicized in participation, leading to conflicts and tension. In a supportive environment where interpersonal relations are good, employees are more understanding of each other, and they may eliminate conflicts through effective communication or negotiation. In contrast, if employees do not relate to each other well and doubt each other's intentions, conflicts may escalate and the positive effects of participation may be reduced. Therefore, informal participation may have stronger positive effects on job satisfaction when civil servants have good relationships with their colleagues. The moderating effect of interpersonal relationships may be particularly relevant in China because the so-called guanxi (personal connections) is ubiquitous and very important in management (Cheung & Wu, 2011). Guanxi significantly affects how people deal with conflicts and tensions: Chinese employees tend to avoid conflicts with colleagues with whom they have good guanxi (Chen & Tjosvold, 2006); the closer the guanxi is, the more likely that a misdeed can be forgiven and dismissed as a mistake (Kiong & Kee, 1998). Good guanxi may effectively reduce tension or conflicts in participative environments. Therefore, we would expect that the effects of participation may vary at different levels of interpersonal relationships. Hypothesis 2: The relationship between informal participation and job satisfaction is positively moderated by interpersonal relationships. Another particularly interesting moderating variable is career development support. Human growth and development theories assume a hierarchy of needs and argue that people are motivated by self-actualization and growth (Dachler & Wilpert, 1978; Maslow, 1954). Empirical research provides compelling evidence that career development support, such as training, may satisfy employees' growth needs (Kraimer, Seibert, Wayne, Liden, & Bravo, 2011; Sell & Cleal, 2011). Informal participation is another way to satisfy civil servants' growth needs by helping them to understand organizational processes, to employ their skills in problem solving, and to exert influence in decision making (Wright & Kim, 2004). Civil servants may become more confident, skilled, and competent in the process of participation. When two mechanisms that can satisfy civil servants growth needs work together, do they reinforce each other or crowd out each other's effects? A careful examination is thus needed. If career development support positively moderates the relationship, then more training may better prepare civil servants to engage in informal participation. However, career development support and 362 Public Personnel Management 44(3) informal participation may have negative synergistic effects because civil servants who gained confidence and skills through participating in decision making may find existing career development support redundant. Informal participation may crowd out the benefits of existing career development support. Wright and Kim (2004) found through structural equation modeling that career development support positively mediates the relationship between participation and job satisfaction. However, as far as we know, the moderating role of career development has not been examined. Based on Wright and Kim's analysis, we propose a positive synergistic effect between informal participation and career development support: Hypothesis 3: The relationship between informal participation and job satisfaction is positively moderated by career development. Data, Measures, and Method Sampling Procedure This article is based on a survey of civil servants in Beijing, China. A multi-stage stratified sampling was used to get a representative sample of all civil servants in Beijing. Two strata, civil servants of agencies of the Municipal Government and of lower levels of governments (district-level governments and below), were identified. Then 10 of the 44 agencies of the Municipal Government and 2 of the 18 district-level governments were randomly selected. Simple random sampling was used to select respondents based on rosters of civil servants in each agency. Survey The questionnaire was constructed on the basis of literature review and survey instruments such as the Job Diagnostic Survey (Hackman & Oldham, 1976) and the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (Weiss, Dawis, England, & Lofquist, 1967). To test the survey instrument, a pilot survey was conducted at a university in Beijing with part-time Master of Public Administration (MPA) students who were civil servants from various government agencies. The complete survey was conducted in October 2009. Questionnaires were sent to all 800 selected respondents via the channel of the Organizational Department of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party. The Department is an important agency for human resource management in the government, and they have the access to all government agencies. Seven hundred fifty-five completed questionnaires were sent back, and the response rate was 94.4%. Questionnaires that had missing values were excluded, resulting in a final data set with 536 observations. Distributing questionnaires via the channel of the Organizational Department helped us to get the high response rate, but it may create social desirability bias. Respondents may be likely to answer questions in a socially desirable manner. This is one limitation of the research. However, we were fully aware of the possible bias and took measures to mitigate the problem. All questionnaires were anonymous Wang and Yang 363 to protect respondents' privacy. It is almost impossible to link the completed questionnaire to a certain respondent. We also made clear on each questionnaire that the survey was for the sole purpose of academic research and it had nothing to do with job evaluation. Dependent Variable The dependent variable in this research is \"job satisfaction.\" Job satisfaction is a multifaceted concept, and thus a scale can better measure the concept (Wanous, Reichers, & Hudy, 1997). A composite scale with nine items was used to measure job satisfaction in the questionnaire. Respondents were asked to rate their degrees of satisfaction with the following facets on a 0 to 10 scale with 0 representing extremely dissatisfied and 10 representing extremely satisfied. The nine items were income, social status, power, job stability, promotion opportunity, leisure, the expansion of social network, the realization of goals, and capability improvement. The Cronbach's alpha was .925, indicating that the scale has a strong reliability. The nine items were factor analyzed using principal components analysis with varimax rotation, and they loaded onto one factor with an eigenvalue of 5.35. This factor was used as the dependent variable in the further analysis. Independent Variables The three aspects of informal participation, including information sharing, informal involvement in decision making, and informal suggestion programs, were measured by three items in this research. Respondents were asked to rate the following statements on the same 11-point scale: In your interactions with your supervisors, (a) \"I get full information of what is going on in my agency,\" (b) \"I can participate in the decision-making of issues related to my job,\" (c) \"My supervisors pay attention to my suggestions.\" These items measure the informal participation that happens in their interactions with supervisors, and they are not required or mandatory. The three items were factor analyzed and they loaded onto one factor with an eigenvalue of 1.93. The factor was used for further analysis. The Cronbach's alpha was .825, suggesting a good reliability of the measurement. Career development support was measured by two items: (a) \"My agency provides us with ample opportunities for training and further education\" and (b) \"I have full confidence in my future career development.\" The two items were factor analyzed with principal components analysis, and they loaded onto one factor (Cronbach's = .722, eigenvalue = 1.68) The last independent variable, interpersonal relationships, was measured by three items: (a) \"I often hang out with my colleague