Testing Organizational Communication Satisfaction

Testing giving medicational converse rapture schema conversation at onement plays a very(prenominal) critical role in achieving employee stake in organizations. It becomes flush to a greater extent(prenominal) signifi go offt and relevant in the context of the fresh global crisis wherein organizations focus on employee combat was noble and was aimed towards employee remembering and motivation. While several searchers sacrifice studied the race amongst confabulation and employee involvement, very few studies gather in naturalised a consanguinity amid discourse gaiety and Employee action. Using the second-generation analytical technique morphological par poser, the manifest theater of operations examines the relationship surrounded by unlike comp unrival guidents of musical arrangement colloquy rapture ( administration Integration, supervisory Communication, ad hominemised Feedback, Communication humor and Media Quality) and sundry(a) components o f Employee day of the month ( organisational lading, gambol Satisfaction and Withdrawal information). A modified adaptation of the Downs Hazens Communication Satisfaction Questionnaire was administered on 235 force out in the knowledge engineering/ breeding Technology Enabled Services sedulousness in India. The scale was tested for dependableness and validity utilize Confirmatory Factor abstract. The turn ups indicate that Organization Communication Satisfaction has a positive impact on Employee bout. The reckon decisions nurture strategic implications for organizations with check to laying a greater focus on increasing discourse satisfaction through heterogeneous valet de chambre resource interventions, both at macro and micro levels in the organization. entrancewayEmployee mesh topology has been mechanical drawing a mint of immensity in various organizations in recent fourth dimensions. A global moldforce work conducted by Towers Perrin in 2007-2008 revealed that precisely 21% of the employees were prosecute. A more disturbing finding of the field was that 38% of the employees were componently to fully disengaged. The domain too cogitate that companies with the higher levels of employee betrothal be able to retain their valued employees as in any case achieve better financial results. Similarly, Gallup has excessively conducted a study on employee elaboration and found that 29% of employees atomic number 18 actively engaged in their credit lines, 54% atomic number 18 non engaged, and 17% be actively disengaged. Many researchers involve studied employee ap gunpointment and put on found that employee interlocking predicts employee outcomes, organizational success and financial performance (Bates, 2004 Harter et al., 2002,). Similarly, Hewitt Associates (LLC, 2005, p.1) involve withal established a strong relationship between employee employment and pro competent qualification through higher productivity, sales, customer satisfaction and employee guardianship. Unfortunately though, a lot of literature available is only those from Consulting firms and there is very little theoretical or empirical research available on employee particular date.Today, as a result of continuous organizational restructuring (mergers, acquisitions, downturn imperatives), it is commonly observed that organizations ar resorting to correctly sizing strategies. It certainly becomes the most critical priority of CEOs around the humans to ensure that the employees who survive the layoffs are fully engaged. Research indicates that there is a decline in fighting levels and that there is deepening disengagement among employees straightaway (Saks, 2006 Richman, 2006 Bates, 2004). It has also been reported that the majority of workers today, roughly half of all Ameri notifys in the workforce are not fully engaged or they are dis engaged leading to what has been referred to as an engagement gap that is costi ng US business $300 billion a year in befogged productivity (Saks, 2006, Bates 2004, Johnson, 2004 Kowalski, 2003). Further, with the world becoming a global market place, where either thing is becoming a commodity, people and heed of peoples talent are becoming very critical components of an organizations ability to service its customer. Managing dis-engaged employees or non-engaged employees in a customer facing role is therefore that much more critical to the success and profitability of the business. Lockwood explains, As organizations move forward into a boundaryless environment, the ability to attract, engage, develop and retain talent will hence, become more and more importantIn amplification to the various literatures available from consultants, there have been a few researches conducted on the antecedents and ends of employee engagement and also What is employee engagement. A very exhaustive analysis of employee engagement has bee done by Macey and Schneider (2008). I n the study employee engagement has been explained as 3 facetsts viz., mental enounce engagement (Satisfaction, involvement, perpetration, empowerment), Trait engagement ( in-personity, conscientiousness) and Behavioural engagement (organisational Citizenship Behaviour, Personal initiative, role expansion). opposite research indicates that employee engagement constitutes two aspects viz., furrow engagement and organization engagement (Saks, 2006). Saks (2006 shape up found that employee engagement was entailingfully positively connect to rent out satisfaction, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behaviour and negatively related to tendency to quit.Organizational Communication plays a very critical part in ensuring employee engagement. It has been established that clear, consise and honest communicating is an important tool for employee engagement (Lockwood). It is push established that lack of discourse or poorly communicated info can lead to dis trust, dissatisfaction, skepticism and unwanted employee turnover. Studies demonstrate that there is a crucial influence of Inter someone(prenominal) trust on private, group and organizational achievements (Earley, 1986 Robinson, 1996), billet Satisfaction (Driscoll, 1978 Muchinsky, 1977), Job Involvement (Saks, 2006) and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (Konovsky Pugh, 1994 McAllister, 1995). Studies have also underlined the central role of chat in developing and maintaining Trust (Gail, Zolin, Hartman, 2009 Becerra Gupta, 2003 Muchinsky, 1977).With grumpy reerence to recession, downsizing has become a harsh veritableity over the quondam(prenominal) 2 decades. These downsizing strategies come with other negative consequences of attrition of employees who are not impacted by downsizing. The problem is more dusky when the attriting employees are top performers or employees with skills critical to future growth plans of the organization. miscellaneous studies have prov ed that downsizing negatively affects attitudes of employees surviving the downsizing by reducing organizational commitment, morale, transaction satisfaction and also increasing mark to quit and commercial enterprise stress (Arnold and Feldman, 1982 Greenhalge, 1982 Kozlowski et. al, 1993).It is therefore, very important for organizations to find ways to retain the attriting employees afer downsizing. Managerial communication and Organizational support can be looked at as possible avenues to reduce the negative effects of downsizing. Communication becomes very critical because employees believe that their organization holds them in low regard and ignores their interest (Anderson, 1996 Mclean Parks and Kidder, 1994). They also suspect that management communication is not credible for tat tuition is being withheld (Noer 1993, ONeill and Lenn, 1995). Employees need to understand how they fit into the overall plans of the organization in terms of their roles and contribution to the growth plans of the organizations. conf employ surveys in this regard indicate that employees want more communication with their managers (Argenti, 1998). there are various studies that have established a positive relationship between communication satisfaction and job satisfaction (Petit, Goris and Vaught, 1997 Pincus 1996) and organization commitment (Varona, 1996). A communication ROI study by Watson Wyatt (2007-2008) revealed that firms that communicate effectively are 4 times as likely to report high levels of employee engagement as firms that communicate less effectively.This study therefore, attempts to establish the impact of Organizational communication on mediating role of Trust in the relationship between Organizational Communication Satisfaction on Employee interlock in the randomness Technology / Information Technology Enabled Services (IT/ITES) industry in India. We have selected the IT/ITES) industry because of the significance of the impact during the recent rec essionary period.Literature check out and Research HypothesisOrganizational Communication judicature communication constitutes many another(prenominal) proportionalitys spanning from formal and informal means of internal communication and external communications. A review of literature in this area reveals that Organizational communication can be classified into four different levels (SHRM Magazine)(i) Overall Organizational communication(ii) Inter-organizational communication(iii) Group-level communication(iv) Inter ad hominem communicationFurther, review of the research in this area underlines the importance of organizational communication towards building commitment, satisfaction and retention of employees in an organization. A number of studies (Burhans 1971, Downs 1971, Jain 1970) studied the relevance and importance of satisfaction with organizational communication. Such examinations of the communication-satisfaction relationship have produced, a cook up called communicati on satisfaction, which is becoming a common reference in organizational literature (Downs and Hazen, 1977). Downs and Hazen, introduced the Communications Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ) and conducted a ingredient analytic study of communication satisfaction. This study established eight stable definitions of communication satisfaction, which has also been enumerated as follows in another study by Clampitt Downs, 1993Communication Climate reflects communication on both the organizational and personal level. On one hand, it includes items such as the completion to which communication in the organization motivates and stimulates workers to acquire organizational goals and the extent to which it makes them identify with the organization. On the other, it includes estimates of whether or not peoples attitudes toward communicating are healthy in the organization.Supervisory Communication includes both upward(a)(a) and downward aspects of communicating with superiors. Three of the pr incipal items include the extent to which a superior is escaped to ideas, the extent to which the supervisor listens and pays attention, and the extent to which guidance is offered in resolving job-related problems.Organizational Integration revolves around the degree to which individuals receive info near the immediate work environment. Items include the degree of satisfaction with info nearly departmental plans, the requirements of their jobs, and some personnel news.Media Quality deals with the extent to which confluences are head organized, written directives are short and clear, and the degree to which the amount of communication is about right.Co-worker Communication concerns the extent to which horizontal and informal communication is accurate and free flowing. This factor also includes satisfaction with the activeness of the grapevine. bodied Information deals with broadest kind of information about the organization as a whole. It includes items on notification about changes, information about the organizations financial standing, and information about the overall policies and goals of the organization.Personal Feedback is concerned with the workers need to know how they are being judged and how their performance is being appraised.Subordinate Communication focuses on upward and downward communication with subordinates. Only workers in a supervisory readiness respond to these items, which include subordinate responsiveness to downward communication and the extent to which subordinates initiate upward communication.Crino White (1981) investigated Communication Satisfaction with 137 supervisors from textile mills. Similarly, Pincus (1986) utilize the CSQ in a study of nurses and their supervisors to investigate the relationship between communication and job satisfaction and job performance. These findings had resulted in the CSQ being the most wide use scale when measuring communication satisfaction. The notable aspect though is, that the studi es by Downs Hazens (1977) and Crino White (1981) exploratory factor analysis rather than confirmator factor analysis for assessing the validity of the CSQ. Theerefore, the confluent and discriminant validity of the CSQ was under question.Further, until the introduction of CSQ, Communication was considered as an unidimensional construct. The underlying belief was that employees are either comfortable or dis-satisfied with communication. However, with the introduction of the CSQ changed it communication satisfaction to be viewed as a multi-dimensional construct wherein, employees could be satisfied or dis-sastisfied with one or more aspects of communication and be dis-satisfied.Gary and Laidlaw (2004) assessed the CSQ using Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Their study used a series of congeneric measurement models to study the validity and reliability of the CSQ. Based on the study, Gary Laidlaw concluded, the results substantiate CSQ as a valid pecker for measuring communication s atisfaction and supports the multi-dimensional aspects of the communication satisfacation construct.This study therefore, proposes to establish the convergent and discriminant validity and reliability of the CSQ for the purpose of IT/ITES sector in India. The study also proposes to establish the relationships between the individual dimensions of Organizational Communication Satisfaction using First order and Second order Confirmatory Factor Analysis.H1 Dimensions of Organisation Communication Satisfaction are inter-relatedH2 Organisational Communication Satisfaction is explained by Organisational Integration, Supervisory communication, Personal Feedback, Corporate Information, Communication Climate and Media Quality.Employee workEmployee engagement has been drawing a lot of importance in various organizations in recent times. in that respect have been few research works on employee engagement (Robinson et al, 200) and most of instinct comes from Consulting firms and Independent Research agencies. There have been various definitions of employee engagement. Employee engagement is the level of commitment and involvement an employee has towards their organization and its values (Vazirani, 2007). Engagement is the willingnessand ability to contribute to company success, the extent to which employees put discretional stew into their work, in the form of extra time, brainpower and energy (Towers Perrin, 2007). Often used as a synonym for motivation or motivation and retention engagement is really more fundamental. Engagement is an employees decision to apply his discretional effort to the goals of the enterprise, to accept those goals as his own and wholeheartedly commit himself to achieving them. (Fineman Carter 2007)though employee engagement as a concept has been drawing a lot of importance, it is still a term widely referred among consulting firms and independent research agencies. There have been very few empirical research initiatives in the pedantic wo rld to establish the definition of the construct employee engagement. paddy field and Schneider (2008) have done a detailed study on the meaning of employee engagement and have established a series of propositions covering 3 aspects a) Psychological stage engagementb) Behavioural engagementc) Trait engagement.This research though will focus on the psychological state engagement vista since this has received maximum attention and is central to the engagement issue. Further, the scope of the research is focussed towards examining the impact of Organizational Communication Satisfaction on Employee Engagement. historic researches on similar subjects have all focussed on canvas the relationship between Organizational Communication Satisfaction on individual aspects of State Engagement viz., Satisfaction, Commitment and Involvement.Mickey and Schneider (2008), while explaining the psychological state engagement have studied 4 different aspects viz., Job satisfaction, Organizational com mitment, Psychological empowerment and Job involvement. They have but referred to various related research in individually of the above aspects and thereby analyse each of the aboe aspects as a panorama or antecedent or consequence of employee engagement. Their study and analysis is as follows Engagement as Job SatisfactionIn defining Job Satisfaction as a facet of employee engagement, the views of Erickson (2005) are noteworthyEngagement is above or beyond unanalyzable satisfaction with the employment arrangement or basic loyalty to the employer. Engagement in contrast is about implemention and commitment, the willingness to invest oneself and expand ones discretionary effort to help the employer succeedTherefore, it is beyond basic loyalty and is about the emotional aspect of Job satisfaction that triggers emotions and feelings of energy, enthusiasm and thereby constitutes a very important aspect of Engagement.Engagement as Organization CommitmentIn defining Organizational c ommitment as an important facet of employee engagement, the views from various contributions are noteworthy (Wellins and Concelman, 2005 OReilly Chatman, 1986 Mowday, Porter Steers, 1982 Meyer and Allens, 1997 Meyer, Becker Vanderberghe, 2004). These significant contributions lead to definitions employees maintain extra energy in support of the organization, feel proud as a key contrinbutor to the organization and its success and enjoy a personal identity with the organization. This leads to organization commitment being defined as a key facet of engagement (Mickey Schneider, 2008).While analysing organization commitment, there is also an analysis around organization / job withdrawal thereby suggesting that commitment as a state of engagement also relates to how long an employee sash as a result of commitment (The Corporate Executive Board, 2006)Engagement as Job InvolvementThe next aspect analysed by Mickey and Schneider (2008) is Job Involvement. Job Involvement has been def ined as the degree to which an employee psychologically relates to his or her job and the work performed therein and specifically equated job involvement and job commitment (Cooper-Hakim and Visweswaran, 2005). Brown (1996), Mathieu and Zajacs (1990) have also come up the conclusion that job involvement is an antecedent to organizational commitment. Brown further concluded that organizational withdrawal decisions are less related to job involvement than to organizational commitment. Erickson (2005) described job involvement as a key antecedent of the state of engagement. Based on the analysis and significant well researched contributions, we identify Job Satisfaction, Organizational commitment and withdrawal as key facets of employee engagement.Further, Saks (2006) has conducted a good study on the antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. The research abstractized engagement as being reflective of the extent to which an individual is psychologically model in a particul ar organizational role (Kahn, 1990 Rothbard, 2001). It was further conceptualized that there are two dominant roles attributable to most organizational members viz., their work role and their role as a member of the organization. These two roles led to the two components of employee engagement Job and Organization engagement. Saks (2006) further found that that Job and Organization engagement were significantly positively related to Job satisfaction, organizational commitment and Organizational Citizenship Behavior, and negatively related to intention to quit.In summary, employee engagement is about ones emotional commitment towards the organization, being psychologically involved and willingness ability to walk that extra mile in achieving the Organizational goals and objectives. Based on the above review, it is understood that employee engagement mainly constitutes three aspects viz., Organizational commitment, job satisfaction and intention to stay.This study aims at establishi ng a relationship between the facets / components of Employee Engagement using 2nd order Confirmatory Factor Analysis. This study further proposes to establish the convergent and discriminant validity and reliability of the various facets of employee engagement using First and Second order Confirmatory Factor AnalysisH3 Dimensions of Employee Engagement are interrelatedH4 Employee engagement is explained by Organisational Commitment, Job Satisfaction and Withdrawl Cognition Organization Communication Satisfaction and Employee EngagementThe next dimension studied was the relationship between Organizational Communication and Employee Engagement in organizations. Employees see managers as trustworthy when their communication is accurate and forthcoming. In addition, equal to(predicate) explanations and timely feedback on decisions lead to higher levels of trust (Folger Konovsky, 1989 Konovsky Cropanzano, 1991 Sapienza Korsgaard, 1996). Evidently, managers who take the time to exp lain their decisions thoroughly are likely to be perceived as trustworthy. Finally, open communication, in which managers exchange thoughts and ideas freely with employees, enhances perceptions of trust (Butler, 1991 Farris, Senner, Butterfield, 1973 Gabarro, 1978 Hart, Capps, Cangemi, Caillouet, 1986). Lockwood states that lack of communication or poorly communicated information can lead to distrust, dissatisfaction, skepticism, cynicism and unwanted turnover. This is even more relevant in times of crisis as observed by Meyers in 1986 When a crisis occurs, employees are affected on a personal level, in ways and to an extent unlike in any other audience. Their immediate reaction is often to be stunned and lose a palpate of common purpose and cohesiveness Gripped by fear, employees may be sick from their sense of reality and turn inward, focusing exclusively on their personal needs and ignoring the organizations needs. Pincus Acharya, 1998 observed that Employees who are uncert ain about their jobs, health, or safety may deny, misinterpret, selectively perceive, or tune out information from management about the crisis situation because they may be blinded by their own sense of a personal crisis.These studies lead us the understanding that clear, consice, timely and honest communication is a very important management tool towards building employee engagement in Organizations (Lockwood). As discussed earlier, there have been many consultants and independent research organizations, which have established communication as a very critical component in enabling employee engagement in organizations. Further, there have been individual studies relating organizational communication and the individual facets and antecedents of employee engagement. This study proposes to study the relationship of Organization Communication Satisfaction on Employee Engagement using second-generation analysis tecnique, Structural Equation Modelling.H5 Organisation Communication Satisf action has a positive impact on Employee Engagement..Research orderological analysis Questionnaire DesignThe Communication Satisfaction Questionnaire (Downs and Hazens, 1977) was selected for the Organization Communication construct of the study. We have used on seven factors of the CSQ beause the eighth factor, subordinate communication since this study was not aimed at personnel in their role as employees and not supervisors. For the Employee Engagement construct, each of the individual facets was measured on borrowed scales. Job Satisfaction was measured on 5 items interpreted from the scale developed by Price and Muellar (1986). Organization Commitment was measured on 6 items interpreted from the scale developed by Meyer, Allen and Smith (1997) while Withdrawal Cognition was measured on 3-item scale developed by De Conninck and Bachmann (2005).Since we are using borrowed scales for each of the constructs, it is important to early establish the validity and reliability of the s cale. In other words, the items must reflect what they are intended to measure (face validity) and fabricate a proper sample of the domain of each construct (content valididty), and pass other tests of validity (discriminant, convergent and predictive validity) in order for a measure to have construct validity (Hardesty and Bearden, 2003). As a first step, we carried out a face validity of the constructs of the study. Based on the approaches discussed by Hardesty and Bearden, we identified a panel of 7 judges to assess the face validity. The judges were exposed to the definition of each construct, overall scope and objective of the study and the individual items under each construct (Total number of items was 49). separately judge was requested to rate the importance and relevance of the item to the constructs conceptual definition on a scale of 1-10 (1-Least important to 10-Most Important). (eg. How would items like I find real enjoyment in my job or I am seldom bored with my job ). Additional remarks were also sought-after(a) from the judges on whether multiple items under a construct mean the same and also which among the items was a better representative of the constructs conceptual definition. These results were summarized by Judge for each item and the items which were given a weightage of less than 8 were considered for reduction. During the content validity stage, the judges unanimously felt that co-worker communication, as a dimension was not too relevant from an engagement attitude since a lot of it was not largely under the control of the organization. However, one item in the co-worker communication was felt necessary to be included viz., consequence to which communication practices are adaptable to emergencies and hence, the same was retain and included in the dimension Communication climate. Similarly, the item viz., Information about changes in our organization and Information about company goals and policies were the only 2 items left under the dimenstion Corporate Information. Since it is required to have atleast 3 items under each dimension / factor for Structured Equation Modelling, these 2 items were grouped under the dimension Organizational Integration. Therefore, in the final questionnaire (total number of items 29), Organizational Communication Satisfaction was reduced to 5 factors viz., Organizational Integration, Supervisory Communication, Personal Feedback, Communication Climate and Media Quality. The factors under Employee Engagement were all retained viz., Organization commitment, Job satisfaction and Withdrawl cognition.In addition to the 2 sections representing the main constructs of the study, the questionnaire also covered a brief draw up up covering the purpose of the study as well as explicit statements of assurance to the respondents about the confidentiality of their responses and that the responses would be used for academic purposes only. data Collection and Sampling For this study, primary dat a was collected through structured undisguised questionnaires adminstered to the respondents. Questionnaires were administered through personal contacts / meetings and through mail as per the thingummy of the respondent at home or in office. The respondents were requested to foreswear few minutes to provide categorical responses to items in the questionnaireThe respondents for the study were selected from the personnel of organizations in Information Technology (IT) / Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) industry in India. A total of 275 questionnaires were administered to the respondents. 264 questionnaires were found to be complete in all respects, giving a response rate of 96.%. A further 29 invalid questionnaires were eliminated (those questionnaires where too many items were left unanswered or the same response was given to all the questions) and thereby 235 valid questionnaires were taken for further analysis.MeasurementsThe study hypothesis covers 2 Constructs O rganization Communication Satisfaction (OCS) and Employee Engagement (EE). OCS is measured for 5 key dimensions / Factors viz., Organization Integration, Supervisory Communication, Personal Feedback, Communication Climate and Media Quality while EE is measured on 3 key dimensions / factors viz., Organization commitment, Job satisfaction and Withdrawal Cognition. The 8 categorical dimensions were measured on the following items / variablesFactor / DimenstionItems / Variables of measurementOrganization Communication Satisfaction (OCS)Organization IntegrationInformation about the requirements of my job Information about my progress in my job Information about company policies and goals Information about changes in our organizationSupervisory Communication accomplishment to which my supervisor listens and pays attention to me Extent to which my supervisor offers guidance for solving job related problems Extent to which my supervisor trusts me Extent to which my supervisor is open to ide asPersonal FeedbackInformation about how I am being assessed Information about how my efforts are recognized and rewarded Extent to which superiors know and understand the problems set about by subordinatesCommunication ClimateExtent to which the organizations communication motivates and stimulates an enthusiasm for meeting its goals Extent to which the organizations communication makes me identify with it or feel a zippy part of it Extent to which communication practices are adaptable to emergencies Extent to which I receive in time the information need to do my jobMedia QualityExtent to which written directives and reports are clear and concise Extent to which the attitudes toward communication in the organization are basically healthy Extent to which the amount of communication in the organization is about rightEmployee EngagementOrganization CommitmentI really feel as if this organizations problems are my own I do not feel like part of the family at my organization (R) I do no t feel emotionally attached to this organization (R) This organization has a great deal of personal meaning for me I do not feel strong sense of belonging to my organization (R)Job SatisfactionI find real enjoyment in my job Most days I am enthusiastic about my job I feel fairly well satisfied with my jobWithdrawal CognitionI would be very happy to spend the rest of my career in this Company in spite of appearance the next six months, I would rate the likelihood of leaving my present job as highAll the variables are categorical in nature and were measured on a categorical scale (5 point Likert).Data AnalysisWe have applied Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) as the tool of analysis for maximum likelihood estimation for examining the proposed hypotheses. As suggested by many researchers (e.g. Anderson Gerbing, 1998), we have chosen the Two-step analysis method wherein in the first step, we conduct the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) base on the correlation coefficient matrix of each measurement item (i.e. dimenstions / factors of OCS and dimensions / factors of EE). In the second step, after confirming the fitness of the cons