1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1

Research Background

Job satisfaction is a general attitude of an employee which describes how

content of him or her towards the current job. Since employee is essential to an
organization where no work can be done without them, therefore employees job
satisfaction is an important attribute frequently measured by an organization.
The measurement is normally done through the rating scales of reaction and
happiness of an employee towards their jobs. To understand employees job
satisfaction is the way for the organization to retain its employees to work for a
longer period. An employee may become more loyal towards the organization if they
feel satisfy the job and get what they expected, in term of qualitative goods
(immaterial) and quantitative goods (fiscal). In general, higher job satisfaction will
increase productivity, effectiveness and efficiency of employee performance as well
as making them to work innovatively (Hamdia and Phadett, 2011).
It is believed that job satisfaction is the important factor to reduce
absenteeism, labour turnover and accidents in the work place (Mosammod, 2011).
Labour turnover is a global human resource phenomenon, either in a large or small

corporation. Although it is seems like unavoidable, but the level of this problem can
be eased by generating higher job satisfaction among employees.
The combination of young and experienced employees is highly
recommended in any kind of organization, no matter in manufacturing or service
sector. However, the trend of high turnover rate nowadays has caused most of the
organizations facing the problem of work force majority form by inexperience or
incompetent employees. It is reported that Malaysia facing high average turnover
rate for executive in various industries, for example 23.1% in electrical and
electronics sector and 15.6% in construction sector (Geeta and Pandey,
2012). This problem will hence threaten the development of the organization due to
the inefficiency and lower productivity.
Most people believe that what concerned the employees most is the salary
they paid and it will direct affects the satisfaction level towards the job. However,
there are other factors which also contributing, such as employee benefits (eg.
Insurance or medical and dental service), bonus, working conditions, culture of
company and so on. In this generation, employees will tend to seek for comfort in
work while alleviating the work pressure and personal tension. More and more work
forces had started to agree the good working culture in which aspect to treat them
more than a machine is equally important as others benefits (Antoniou et al., 2003).

1.2

Engineering Sector as the Research Context

Engineering sector had been chosen as the research population as it plays an

important role in contributing to the economic development of Malaysia.
Engineering sector is targeted for the research because this business involve huge
investment and undergoing a continuous expansion. Man power retention is
especially important in engineering sector as this sector required a relatively higher

technical knowledge while dealing with hazardous and high risk of working
environment.
Hence, engineering companies need to focus on employee satisfaction issue
in the organization in order for them to gain competitive advantage through the
contribution of competent and experienced work forces. This will not only help to
achieve management efficiency of an organization, it also help to increase the
productivity in overall at the same time.
This study attempts to evaluate job satisfaction of employees in private
corporates, including various streams of engineering disciplines (Mechanical,
Electrical, Civil and Chemical) and different seniority (position) in engineering
sector. It focuses on the relative importance of job satisfaction factors and their
impacts on the overall job satisfaction of employees.
It also investigates the significance of key factors such as relevant of curriculum
study to the job scope, work experience and job position, job stress, pay and
promotion, as well as the company culture and working environment in affecting the
job satisfaction.

1.3

Problem Statement

Employees play important role in an organization, hence it is essential of

arises to study the employee job satisfaction for talent retention in the organization.
Workplace is the place where employees spend most of the time. Hence, a happy
workplace with employees with high job satisfaction will make employees to have
positive attitude towards their job, at the same time, working concentration,
efficiency and productivity can be improved.
The combination of young and experienced employees is highly
recommended in an organization. However, there are many manufacturing and

construction based companies had faced the problem that lack of experience
engineers due to the high turnover rate in Malaysias private engineering sector.
Therefore, to understand employees job satisfaction is the way to retain employees
for longer period and hence solve the high turnover rate problem. In employer point
of view, by having higher employee job satisfaction, good productivity, full
commitment from employees, trustworthy team players and able to achieve
companys objectives and vision. Therefore, job satisfaction should be major
determinant of an organizational behaviour and decide how successful the
organization can be.
In previous studies, a very little or limited researches had been done to find
out the factors which will affect job satisfaction among engineer. Therefore, this
research proposes to examine the impact of salary and benefits, job stress, training
and promotion opportunity, education-job mismatch and working environment
towards the employee job satisfaction in the engineering sector. Furthermore, in prior
studies working experience and gender had never been tested as moderator between
salary and benefits, job stress, training and promotion opportunity, education-job
mismatch and working environment and employee job satisfaction.

1.4

Research Question

This research is aim to have a comprehensive diagnosis of the factors which

will affect job satisfaction in engineering sector, while targeting and providing
suggestions to improve them. For this purpose, the study attempts to find the answer
for the research questions as below:
RQ1: Does salary and benefits affect employee job satisfaction?
RQ2: Does job stress affect employee job satisfaction?

RQ3: Does training and promotion opportunity affect employee job

satisfaction?
RQ4: Does educational-job mismatch affect employee job satisfaction?
RQ5: Does working environment affect employee job satisfaction?
RQ6: Does position & experiences and gender moderating the affect of the
factors above towards employee job satisfaction?
RQ7: What is the rank of the above factors according to the importance
towards the job satisfaction among engineers?

1.5

Research Objective

The research questions above stated co-currently with the following research
objectives:
RO1: To examine the significant relationship between salary & benefits and
employee job satisfaction.
RO2: To examine the significant relationship between job stress and
employee job satisfaction.
RO3: To examine the significant relationship between training & promotion
opportunity and employee job satisfaction.
RO4: To examine the significant relationship between educational-job
mismatch and employee job satisfaction.
RO5: To examine the significant relationship between working environment
and employee job satisfaction.

RO6: To examine the moderating affect of position & experience on salary &
benefits and employee job satisfaction.
RO7: To examine the moderating affect of position & experience on training
& promotion opportunity and employee job satisfaction.
RO8: To examine the moderating affect of position & experience on
educational-job mismatch and employee job satisfaction.
RO9: To examine the moderating affect of gender on salary & benefits and
employee job satisfaction.
RO10: To examine the moderating affect of gender on job stress and
employee job satisfaction.

The summary of research gap, research questions, research objectives and the
corresponding hypotheses number are shown in table below:
Table 1.1: Research summary
Research Gap

Research Question

Research Objective

Hypothesis

There are past

studies on affect of
salary and benefits to
job satisfaction, but
seldom in
engineering sector.

RQ1: Does salary

and benefits affect
employee job
satisfaction?

RO1: To examine the

significant
relationship between
salary & benefits and
employee job
satisfaction.

Hypothesis 1

There are past

studies on affect of
job stress to job
satisfaction, but none
in Malaysia private
engineering sector.

RQ2: Does job stress

affect employee job
satisfaction?

RO2: To examine the

significant
relationship between
job stress and
employee job
satisfaction.

Hypothesis 2

Little attention has

been paid on affect
of training and
promotion
opportunity to

RQ3: Does training

and promotion
opportunity affect
employee job
satisfaction?

RO3: To examine the

significant
relationship between
training & promotion
opportunity and

Hypothesis 3

7
employee job
satisfaction.

employee job
satisfaction.

There are past

studies on affect of
education-job
mismatch to job
satisfaction in
Europe region, but
none in Asia private
engineering sector.

RQ4: Does
education-job
mismatch affect
employee job
satisfaction?

RO4: To examine the

significant
relationship between
educational-job
mismatch and
employee job
satisfaction.

Hypothesis 4

There are past

studies on affect of
working environment
to job satisfaction,
but none in
engineering sector.

RQ5: Does working

environment affect
employee job
satisfaction?

RO5: To examine the

significant
relationship between
working environment
and employee job
satisfaction.

Hypothesis 5

RO6: To examine the

moderating affect of
position &
experience on salary
& benefits and
employee job
satisfaction.

Hypothesis 6

No prior study
examine the
moderating affect of
working experiences
between training &
promotion
opportunity and job
satisfaction.

RO7: To examine the

moderating affect of
position &
experience on
training & promotion
opportunity and
employee job
satisfaction.

Hypothesis 7

No prior study
examine the
moderating affect of
working experiences
between educationjob mismatch and job
satisfaction.

RO8: To examine the

moderating affect of
position &
experience on
education-job
mismatch and
employee job
satisfaction.

Hypothesis 8

No prior study
examine the

RO9: To examine the

moderating affect of

Hypothesis 9

No prior study
examine the
moderating affect of
working experiences
between salary and
job satisfaction.

RQ6: Does position

& experiences and
gender moderating
the affect of the
factors above
towards employee
job satisfaction?

8
moderating affect of
gender between
salary and job
satisfaction.

gender on salary &

benefits and
employee job
satisfaction.

No prior study
examine the
moderating affect of
gender between job
stress and job
satisfaction.

RO10: To examine
the moderating affect
of gender on job
stress and employee
job satisfaction.

No prior study
examine the ranking
of importance factors
towards the job
satisfaction in
engineering sector.

1.6

RQ7: What is the

rank of the above
factors according to
the importance
towards the job
satisfaction among
engineers?

Hypothesis 10

To identify the
ranking of factors
which affect job
satisfaction among
engineers.

Significance of the Study

Refer to the research gap stated above, previous studies did not examine
salary and benefits, job stress, training and promotion opportunity, education-job
mismatch and working environment as combination factors that affect employee job
satisfaction. In addition, this study will investigate the relationships between these
parameters with the job satisfaction in engineering sector which is different than
others earlier researches. Furthermore, in prior studies working experience and
gender had never been tested as moderator between salary and benefits, job stress,
training and promotion opportunity, education-job mismatch and working
environment and employee job satisfaction. Therefore, it can be said that this study
provides new insights to the job satisfaction study while contributing significantly to
the human resources study in engineering sector. As a result, this will help in solving
the problem of high turnover rate in Malaysias private engineering sector nowadays.

In practical, this research provides some meaningful insights to the employer

of the Malaysia private engineering sector regarding the factors and their importance
to the job satisfaction among engineers point of view. Understanding employees job
satisfaction is the way to retain employees longer period and hence help to resolve
the high turnover rate issue in Malaysia private engineering sector. This study also
serves as employees reference in creating the expectation in criteria for a satisfaction
working environment and career path.

10

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1

Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is the feeling of self achievement aroused due to sense of

comparison. Sense of achievement generally comes when individual compare themselves
with their counterpart such as comparing with the employees of other organization. Keith

Davis defined job satisfaction as favourableness or unfavourableness with which the

employees view their work and results when there is a fit between job characteristic
and wants of the employees.
Job satisfaction also describes how content an individual is with his or her
job. It is a relatively recent term since in previous centuries the jobs available to a
particular person were often predetermined by the occupation of that persons parent
(Mosammod, 2011). There are a variety of factors that can influence a persons level
of job satisfaction.
Some of these factors include the level of pay and benefits, the perceived
fairness of the promotion system within a company, the quality of the working
conditions, leadership and social relationships. Hence, job satisfaction can be decided
by difference between the amount of rewards the workers receive and the amount
they believe they should receive (Stephen, 2003). The job itself such as the tasks
involved, the interest, the clarity of the job description and challenge the job
generates will also affect ones job satisfaction. The happier people are within their
job, the more satisfied they are said to be.

11

Job satisfaction is the positive or negative attitude held by employees toward

their job. Robert L. Kahn reveals job satisfaction does seem to reduce absence,
turnover and perhaps accident rates. Therefore, managements have to update
themselves with the information of other organizations working culture if they want
the employees to be more satisfied with their work. Human resources management
practices such as pay practices, job training and supervision enhances job satisfaction
of employees and reduce the turnover rate of company (Geeta and Pandey, 2012).

2.2

The Impact of Salary and Benefits to Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is a phenomenon which affects by several factors such as

salary, working environment, organizational culture and communication amongs coworkers. (Lane, Esser, Holte and Anne, 2010; Vidal, Valle and Aragn, 2007).
Among the research conducted in several profession or field of work, found that
salary, interest in work and relationship between co-workers will bring greatest
influence to job satisfaction (Mosammod, 2011). Another research had analysed the
variables that will contribute to the job satisfaction and turnover rate in an
organization and concluded with a correlation which includes human resources
management practices such as salary, supervision of superior and job training
(Hamdia and Phadett, 2011).
Reitz (2004) had concluded the following top 5 factors contribute to the
satisfaction and dissatisfaction among engineers.

Table 2.1: Factors contribute to satisfaction and dissatisfaction of the engineer

The most factors that give job
satisfaction as an engineer

The most factors that give job

dissatisfaction as an engineer

12

1. Challenging work assignments

2. Work environment and colleagues
3. Constantly changing technology
4. Good compensation
5. Good job security

1. Too much non engineering work

2. Lack of support for management
3. Uncertainty in job market
4. Poor compensation
5. No potential for advancement

Study of Kathawala, Moore and Elmuti showed that salary is the prime factor
that will affect job satisfaction in the automobile industry as the result of survey.
Through the survey, compensation had been ranked as top element among the
various job characteristics that relate to job satisfaction while increase of salary
based on working performance voted as rank one for job motivation.
Employees consider salary as one of the measurement that how valuable are
them to the employer or organization they service (Zobal, 1998). Some studies
reported that salary is a motivator for workers to enhance commitment to the
organization and this is an effective element for talent retention and prevent turnover
of human resources (Chiu et al., 2002; Zobal, 1998).
Working as an engineer is said to be a well-paid and challenging job.
Respondents from a survey pointed that engineering sector is interesting job which
need a lot of motivation but will not get too high salary as others sectors, especially
for the entry pay. Hence, it can be interpreted that engineering graduates may
consider interest and learning opportunity more important than the entry salary pay
(Geeta and Pandey, 2012).
Through the research outcomes done by the previous researchers mentioned
above, some research gaps were noticed such as there are past studies on affect of
salary and benefits to job satisfaction, but seldom in engineering sector. In addition,
no prior study examine the moderating affect of working experiences & gender
between salary and job satisfaction.

2.3

The Impact of Working Environment, Training and Promotion

Opportunity to Job Satisfaction

13

Work environment can be defined as the work place of an employee, which

includes the factors of organization culture and policy, relationship of superior and
colleagues as well as instruments and facilities in the work place (Frame, 2004).
In an organization, the support from immediate superior is important and has
positive influence on employee job satisfaction (Griffin, Patterson and West, 2001).
A possible explanation of statement above is subordinate will feel their work being
appreciated by their superiors when they receive the support of direct supervisor. In
this positive situation, employee will become more confident and secure as well as
decrease the stress level in the job while increasing job satisfaction at the same time.
However, this result contradicts with view of Herzberg in the report who had the
opposite opinion that supervision of direct superior is irrelevant to the job
satisfaction among employees.
In addition, some studies also support that the role of management and
relationship between co-worker will contribute to the level of job satisfaction
(Friedlander and Margulies, 1969). Besides the friendly staff in the same
organization, some respondents take autonomy of decision making during
performance tasks as one of the important parameter which will affect job
satisfaction (Thomas K. Bauer, 2004).
Mentoring or training is the human resource practices which focus on
employee development-orientation. Skill development of employees will occur when
the superior provide them training opportunity and this also help to increase job
satisfaction among employees (Scandura and Williams, 2004).
Mosammod had conducted a study targeting on job satisfaction among
employee from pharmaceutical sector towards the pay and promotion parameters
2011. From the mean score of the result is 3.02 which in somewhat happy level,
the researcher had concluded that pay and promotion factors will affect job
satisfaction in pharmaceuticals sector.
As shown at above, research gaps will be there were past studies focus on the
affect of working environment to job satisfaction in various sector, but none in

14

engineering sector. In addition, only little attention of the previous researches had
been paid on affect of training and promotion opportunity to employee job
satisfaction.

2.4

The Impact of Job Stress to Job Satisfaction

Over the years, several studies had been done to investigate the influences of
job stress towards the job satisfaction and job performance of engineers. It is
common that most of the organizations demand their engineers to produce higher
productivity (Kaufman, 1974). This is because the working nature of engineer
involves high demand of technical knowledge such as design and process
troubleshooting. Mistakes made by engineer have the possibility lead to the
circumstances of equipment damage, losses to company or even cause lifes
(Andrews and Farris, 1972). Hence, the effect of job stress need to be considered as
an important factor in engineering sector.
Superior and management in organization had played a significant role
undoubtedly in the discussion of job stress among engineers. For instance, the
sources of stress can come from office politics or conflict, role ambiguity with
current work specification and the feeling of meaningless towards the work
responsibility and work scope. Previous research had reported that high job stress
among employees can be related to the worried of unknown superiors evaluation on
their workplace performance (Muhammad and Nasir, 2011). Employee will have the
feel of role ambiguity and resulting job stress consequently normally is due to the
limitation or inadequate of information regarding to their work role.
In addition, the arousal of performance will also cause pressures to
employees. There will be a negative effect on employee performance as well as job
satisfaction whenever the arousal is too high or too low. Through the research on the
factors with respect to the impact towards the job satisfaction among employees, it

15

was found that job stress has brought significant negative impact with job
satisfaction (Jahanzeb, 2010).
Due to the unmanageable workloads and the nature of the engineering job
scope, engineers usually do not able to finish all the work well because of the time
constraint. From the work-life balance point of view, engineers are requested to work
overtime frequently inclusive weekends where this situation will interfere the
personal life of him/her. As a result, role conflict will happen if ones commitment
towards work and family obligation appears to be imbalance. This may become the
highest contribution of stress factor and hence affecting the job satisfaction. Research
proved that employees who had high level of job stress would yield a low job
satisfaction (Muhammad and Muhammad, 2012; Zuraidah, 2014).
Furthermore, the long hours a person works under stress can cause strain
which originated from high job demands and work overloaded. The extent of this
problem will result exhausted of mental and physical resources and finally lead to
health problems for the employee. This circumstance is also a reason for withdrawal
from work and reduced motivation or commitment (Rothmann and Malan, 2006).
As reported by Leather, Beale and Sullivan, stress can bring negative impacts
and hence resulting job dissatisfaction to employees. Others research showed that
stress can come from huge work volume as well as the demand of profession. Low
job satisfaction of employee will be resulted as stress level increasing in the job
environment. Thus, job satisfaction has an important role in improving the
performance of engineers (Antoniou, Davidson and Cooper, 2003). This statement
also supported by others research which proved that occupational stress has
significant and negative affect to the job satisfaction. (Lambert, Hogan, Elechi, Jiang,
Laux, Dupuy, & Morris, 2009).
The above literature review shown the research gaps as there were past
studies on affect of job stress to job satisfaction, but none in Malaysia private
engineering sector. Furthermore, no prior study had examined the moderating affect
of gender between job stress and job satisfaction.

16

2.5

The Impact of Education-Job Mismatch to Job Satisfaction

In the professional environment, employee need to obtain adequate

knowledge through the higher education before they are competences enough to be
employed. Several research had proved the existence of existence of relationship
between education-job mismatches and the dissatisfaction on job. In this case,
education-job mismatch is referring to overeducation or undereducation of employee
corresponding to the job title they hold (Verhaest and Omey, 2006).
Scurry and

Blenkinsopp

had

defined

the

term

overeducation

as

overqualification relative to the job scope while undereducation refers to

underutilisation or underemployment in the labour market. Others researchers
describe overeducation as employees possess higher qualification or skills exceed the
requirement to carry out a job and vice versa (Groot and van den Brink, 2000; Peir
et al., 2010).
A study carried out at Europe region revealed that graduates from
Engineering programmes will tend to have higher job satisfaction than those who
study Humanities, Social Sciences, and Law (Mora et al., 2007). However, a
literature review published studies in Spain had summarized some of the research
related to construction industry and found out that job dissatisfaction occurred in this
field due to graduates who undereducated and lack of competency but appointed as
site managers (BadilloAmador et al., 2012).
One third of the respondents felt that there was no effect of education-job
mismatch on their job satisfaction since university supposed to provide them general
engineering knowledge but not specific on what professional position like site
manager job requirement only. Therefore, the problem of educational gaps will be
insignificant if graduates not expect the curriculum study in university will teach all
the things in real working world but one should learn most of these through on the
job training.

17

But there were still more than half of the respondents consider the educationjob mismatch is negatively affect the job satisfaction while this result is supported by
the previous research (Kucel and Vilalta-Buf 2012). Some of the respondents think
that undereducation will cause negative effects such as the of feeling useless,
uncertainty, being lost, embarrassment, frustration, work overload and waste of time
(Fuentes and Burgo, 2013).
On the other hand, employees think that both personal and job satisfaction
can be achieved when they have the adequate education to fulfil the job requirement.
Hence, they are able to complete their job confidently and correctly, while
transmitting this positive thought to their co-worker and subordinates (Badillo et al.
2008). However, research result of Allen and van der Velden

showed some

disagreement with others that education-job mismatch with overeducation will not
affect employee job satisfaction.
We can conclude that the research gaps from the previous research outcome
as there were past studies on affect of education-job mismatch to job satisfaction in
Europe region, but none in Asia private engineering sector. In addition, no prior
study had examined the moderating affect of working experiences between
education-job mismatch and job satisfaction.
After summarizing the research outcomes of previous studies, several
hypotheses had been made to be tested in this research. The following table shows all
the hypotheses in this research.

Table 2.2: Summary of Research Hypotheses

Number of
Hypotheses
Hypothesis 1
Hypothesis 2
Hypothesis 3

Hypotheses Description
Salary and benefits significantly and positively affects employee
job satisfaction
Job stress significantly and negatively affects employee job
satisfaction
Training and promotion opportunity significantly and positively
affects employee job satisfaction

18

Hypothesis 4
Hypothesis 5
Hypothesis 6
Hypothesis 7
Hypothesis 8
Hypothesis 9
Hypothesis 10

Educational-job mismatch significantly and negatively affects

employee job satisfaction
Working environment significantly and positively affects
employee job satisfaction
Position & experiences moderate the relationship between salary
& benefits and employee job satisfaction
Position & experiences moderate the relationship between
training & promotion opportunity and employee job satisfaction
Position & experiences moderate the relationship between
educational-job mismatch and employee job satisfaction
Gender moderate the relationship between salary & benefits and
employee job satisfaction
Gender moderate the relationship between job stress and
employee job satisfaction

Ten hypotheses are posited to study the relationship between independent

variables (Salary and benefits, Job stress, Training and promotion opportunity,
Education-job mismatch and Working environment) and dependent variable
(Employee job satisfaction). At the same time, position and working experiences as
well as gender are suggested as the moderator between independent and dependent
variables.

2.6

Research Framework
Using the above literature review as a guide, the relationship between salary

and benefits, job stress, training and promotion opportunity, education-job mismatch
and working environment on employee job satisfaction is proposed. The research
framework is constructed in the following figure.

Salary and Benefits

Job stress
Training and promotion
opportunity

H
1
H
2
H
3

19

Job satisfaction
Educational-job
mismatch
Working environment

H
4
H
5

Salary and Benefits

Job satisfaction
H
6
Position and
experiences

H
9
Gender

Training and promotion

opportunity

Job satisfaction
H
7
Position and
experiences

Educational-job
mismatch

Job satisfaction
H
8
Position and
experiences

Job satisfaction

Job stress
H10
Gender

20

Figure 2.1: Research Framework

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

21

3.1

Research Design

The objective of this research is to examine the effect of salary and benefits,
job stress, training and promotion opportunity, educational mismatch as well as
working environment on employee job satisfaction in engineering sector. The
research design is based on the theoretical framework

with proposing the key

variables, formulating the hypotheses and testing the relationships between

independent, moderating and dependent variables. In this research, quantitative
method is used to test accuracy of the theories and hypotheses stated previously. The
research method used is a survey questionnaire where it is a bridge between
empirical observation and the quantitative statistical relationship.

3.2

Questionnaire Design
A causal research design with quantitative survey method is used in this

research paper. The research is designed to measure the relationship between 5

independent variables, 2 moderating variables and 1 dependent variable throughout
the study.
The survey questionnaire consists of 34 questions which divided into Section
A to G. In Section A, there are 8 questions used to gather the profile of respondents
including gender, age, education background, working experience

and current

designation.
Section B has 8 questions mainly to survey the current salary and benefits
status of respondents as well as the relationship of this factor to the job satisfaction.
There are 5 questions in Section C measuring the effect of job stress factor while 3

22

questions in Section D that gathered information relate to education mismatch issue

among engineers.
Section E asking for 4 questions in order to measure the importance of
training and promotion opportunity to the job satisfaction in engineering sector.
Questions relate to working environment of respondents are asked in Section F to
identify the relationship of company culture, role of superior and colleagues as well
as facilities in the company to the job satisfaction of employees.
In the last section, respondents are requested to rank the factors stated above
from 1 to 7 according the importance which affect their job satisfaction in own
opinion. A full set of questionnaires is attached in the Appendix. Most of the answers
in type of scale as 5 point Likert scale, for example ranging from 1 for Strongly
Disagree to 5 for Strongly Agree or rating from 1 for Lowest to 5 for Highest.

3.3

Sampling Design

Sampling is a process of selecting a sufficient number of elements from the

population, typically by probability sampling or non-probability sampling methods.
Probability sampling includes simple random, systematic, stratified random and
cluster sampling techniques while Non-probability sampling consists of convenience,
judgement and quota sampling methods. In probability sampling, every elements in
the population has a known and equal probability of being chosen but the probability
of the population being chosen in non-probability sampling is unknown.
In this research, stratified sampling of probability sampling technique was
used to obtain samples with proportional to the number of elements in each stratum
according to position and seniority. This method is selected due to the high efficiency
of sampling all group adequately while enable the comparisons among the groups.

23

The population of study was individual employee who worked in engineering

sector. They were selected through stratified sampling method. The ratio of
respondents are showed in the following table. Among the respondents, 70% is male
engineers while others 30% is female engineers as per current engineers gender ratio
in Malaysia market.

Table 3.1: Stratified Random Sampling

Job level
Managerial/Lead engineer
Senior engineer
Engineer

# of elements
15
35
50

# of respondance
30
70
100

For the study of regional/special institution with few subgroup, a large

sample size is preferred for more reliable and valid results. The sample size is based
on the typical sample size for studies of human and institutional population that
suggested range from 50-200 for regional sample as listed in the following table.

Table 3.2: Typical sample size for studies of human and institutional population
Number of
sub-group
analysis
None or few
sub-groups
Average
Many

People of Households
National
Regional/Special

Institution
National
Regional/Special

1000 1500

200 500

200 500

50 200

1500 2500
2500+

500 1000
1000+

500 1000
1000+

200 500
500+

24

3.4

Reliability and Validity

There are several measures to test the goodness of data collected from
quantitative survey such as reliability, validity and sensitivity. Reliability test is a
measure which indicates the extend of data without bias and ensure the consistency
of the results. In this study, internal consistency reliability is tested by Cronbachs
Coefficient Alpha. This is the most popular test of interism consistency reliability
which test for the consistency of respondents answers to all the items in a measure.
Cronbachs Coefficient Alpha is widely used in research and sometimes as the sole
scale of reliability and validity indicator.
Cronbachs Coefficient Alpha test was conducted by using SPSS Version 16
software after the data of pre-test on 20 respondents being collected. In general, the
result of this coefficient at 0.7 and above is acceptable as good data. Cronbachs
Coefficient Alpha will help to identify the reliability of the multi-items as well as to
establish the validity of the questionnaires. After the pre-test checking, the
questionnaire was review and improved again before it distributed to the engineering
sector employees to get the real survey of the research.

3.5

Data Collection Procedure

Data for this research were gathered from 1 30 November 2014. Primary
data was collected though survey questionnaires to obtain first-hand information on
the variables of interest for the study of job satisfaction in engineering sector. 100
Engineers with 15 of them in Managerial level had been surveyed on their opinion
regarding different aspects which can lead to job satisfaction.

25

The survey forms were distributed through online and manually. For the
online survey method, a link with Google survey form had been send to respondance
through email and others social network such as Linkin and Facebook messenger. On
the other hand, survey form in paper copy had been distributed through Institution of
Engineers Malaysia (IEM) Johor Bahru branch for manually survey method. The
example of survey questionnaires used in this research as per attached in Appendix.
Both online and manually survey methods allows researcher for reaching out
to the respondents in easy while not too costly way. As this is a voluntary survey,
complete privacy was assured where details of each respondents were disclosed to
others parties.

3.6

Data Analysis Procedure

SPSS Version 16.0 software was used to analyse the data in this research.
Descriptive analysis had been used to transform the raw data in a way to describes
the basic characteristics such as finding the mode, mean, median and plot into
frequency table as well as means standard deviations curves.
In addition, the correlation test had been done to measure how strong the
relationship between variables and the direction of the linear relationship. For this
purpose, Pearson Correlation Coefficient was used to measure the correlation
between two variables while controlling another variables that may affect the
relationships. By using this Pearson Correlation analysis, the strength of the
correlation between the dependent and independent variables can be justified.
Then, some inferential statistic methods was conducted such as multiple
regression, t-test and ANOVA test to analyse the relationships between independent,
dependent and moderating variables. Multiple regression technique was used to
measures relationship between one dependent variable and a number of continuous
independent variables. ANOVA test will help to confirm whether the model used is
correct, robust of model fit and whether the dependent and independent variable

26

chosen are in order. and Finally, rank order of the independent variables had been
calculated by multiplying the frequency by the rank score for each choice resulting a
new scale. These approaches were consistent with the previous study done by
previous studies.

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APPENDIX

SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE

31

Section A: Individual particular

1. Gender
o Male
o Female
2. Age
o
o
o
o
o
o
o

Below 25
26-30
31-35
36-40
41-45
46-50
Above 50

3. Marital status
o Single
o Married
4. Education background
o Diploma
o Degree
o Master or above
5. Engineering Discipline
o Civil
o Mechanical
o Electrical
o Chemical
o Others, please state ____________
6. Number of companies served since graduation:
______

7. Year of experience
o Below 3 years
o 4-6 years
o 7-10 years
o 11-15 years
o 16-20 year
o Above 21 years
8. Designation (current position)

32

o Managerial level or Lead Engineer

o Senior Engineer
o Engineer or Associate Engineer

Section B: The justification of salary and benefits are the factor that will
influence job satisfaction level
1. Income level per month
o Below rm2000
o Rm2001-4000
o Rm4001-6000
o Rm6001-8000
o Rm8001-10000
o Above rm10000
2. Are you satisfied with you current salary? (From 1 Lowest to 5 Highest)
o 1
o 2
o 3
o 4
o 5
3. Do you agree that salary has relationship with the job satisfaction?
(From 1 Strongly Disagree to 5 Strongly Agree)
o 1
o 2
o 3
o 4

o 5

4. Do you mind that salary at entry level is low but higher increment rate in future
service years? (From 1 Lowest to 5 Highest)
o 1
o 2
o 3
o 4
o 5
5. Is your company giving bonus?
o yes
o no

6. Please tick on which of the following benefits are given by your company. (May
tick more than one)
o EPF and SOCSO
o Insurance coverage
o Medical and dental service
o Housing or car allowance
o Technical allowance
o Meal allowance
o Sports and recreation facilities

33

o Special leaves such as: Maternity, graduation, funeral, training/exam

7. How you rate your companys current employee benefits?
(From 1 Lowest to 5 Highest)
o 1
o 2
o 3
o 4

o 5

8. Do you agree that employee benefit is the factor which affect job satisfaction?
(From 1 Strongly Disagree to 5 Strongly Agree)
o 1
o 2
o 3
o 4
o 5

Section C: The justification of Job Stress is the factor that will influence job
satisfaction level
1. How do you agree with your current job specification?
(From 1 Strongly Disagree to 5 Strongly Agree)
o 1
o 2
o 3

o 4

o 5

2. What is your agreeable rate on some circumstances your superior put more job on
you that cause job overload?
(From 1 Strongly Disagree to 5 Strongly Agree)
o 1
o 2
o 3

o 4

o 5

3. How do you agree if your superior force to do overtime job?

(From 1 Strongly Disagree to 5 Strongly Agree)
o 1
o 2
o 3

o 4

o 5

o 4

o 5

o 4

o 5

4. How often your superior phrase your job?

(From 1 Lowest to 5 Highest)
o 1
o 2

o 3

5. What is your depress level rate if feel stress?

(From 1 Lowest to 5 Highest)
o 1
o 2

o 3

34

Section D: The justification of Education-Job Mismatch is the factor that will

influence job satisfaction level
1) How relevant that your current job scope to what you have learn in university?
(From 1 Lowest to 5 Highest)
o 1
o 2
o 3
o 4
o 5
2) How is your acceptance if your superior assign you the job scope that no related to
university study?
(From 1 Lowest to 5 Highest)
o 1
o 2
o 3
o 4
o 5
3) Do you agree that educational mismatch will influent your job satisfaction?
(From 1 Strongly Disagree to 5 Strongly Agree)
o 1
o 2
o 3
o 4
o 5

Section E: The justification of training and promotion opportunity are the

factor that will influence job satisfaction level
1) Training frequency, how many times per year?
o 0
o 1-3
o 4-6
o 7-10
o Above 10
2) Do you agree that the training opportunity in your company is good?
(From 1 Strongly Disagree to 5 Strongly Agree)
o 1
o 2
o 3
o 4

o 5

3) Do you agree that the promotion opportunity in your company is good?

(From 1 Strongly Disagree to 5 Strongly Agree)
o 1
o 2
o 3
o 4
o 5
4) Do you agree that the training and promotion opportunity is important to the job
satisfaction?
(From 1 Strongly Disagree to 5 Strongly Agree)
o 1
o 2
o 3
o 4
o 5

Section F: The justification of Working environment is the factor that will

influence job satisfaction level
1) What is your rate to your company culture behaviour?

35

(From 1 Lowest to 5 Highest)

o 1
o 2

o 3

o 4

o 5

2) How frequent your superior give compliment or encouragement to your works?

(From 1 Lowest to 5 Highest)
o 1
o 2
o 3
o 4
o 5
3) How do you rate the relationship among your colleagues?
(From 1 Lowest to 5 Highest)
o 1
o 2
o 3
o 4

o 5

4) Do you satisfied with your companys equipments and facilities?

(From 1 Very Unsatisfied to 5 Very Satisfied)
o 1
o 2
o 3
o 4

o 5

5) Do you agree that an organization with good working environment and culture is
important to the employee job satisfaction?
(From 1 Strongly Disagree to 5 Strongly Agree)
o 1
o 2
o 3
o 4
o 5

Section G: Ranking of the factors

(rank 1-7, where 1 is highest to 7 is lowest rank)
(
(
(
(
(
(
(

) Salary
) Benefits
) Job stress
) Training opportunity
) Promotion opportunity
) Relevant of job to university study
) Working environment