Employee Motivation, Job Satisfaction and Leadership: A Case Study of Hong Kong Airlines

This dissertation proposal aims to study the impact of employee motivation, job satisfaction and leadership on staff turnover at Hong Kong Airlines. The research methodology includes a survey of 100 employees and data analysis through statistical methods.

DISSERTATION PROPOSAL
A study to show that employee motivation, job satisfaction and
leadership will help to reduce the rate of staff turnover. A case study
of Hong Kong Airlines

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Research problems.......................................................................................................................2
Research aims..............................................................................................................................2
Research questions.......................................................................................................................3
Literature review..............................................................................................................................3
Research methodology and data analysis........................................................................................5
Research philosophy....................................................................................................................5
Research approach and design.....................................................................................................5
Data collection procedure............................................................................................................6
Sampling Method.........................................................................................................................6
Data Analysis Method.................................................................................................................6
Foreseen limitations.....................................................................................................................7
Usefulness of the findings of the applied research......................................................................7
Research timeline.........................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Employee motivation refers to the degree of commitment and dedication that an
employee demonstrates towards his job or organization (Alnasrallah 2016). The levels of job
satisfaction and employee motivation depend on a number of factors, which include monetary
privileges, working hours and arrangements, working environment, leadership, workplace
policies and so on (Shahzadi et al. 2014). The research will focus on the levels of employee
motivation and its impact on job performance at Hong Kong Airlines. The Hong Kong Airlines
is one of the largest airline companies in Hong Kong and its official flag bearer. At such
organizations, it is important to study the importance of motivational factors and strong
leadership so as to ensure maximum employee commitment and dedication which in turn would
increase overall performance.
Research problems
Hong Kong Airlines is one of the most popular airlines in Hong Kong, with its
headquarters in Tung Chung. However, the company has flights and operates globally around the
world. As the business began to expand, it became increasingly difficult to retain human
resources, which led to an increase in the employee turnover rate. It can thus be hypothesized
that poor levels of employee commitment and motivation were responsible for high employee
attrition rates. Overall, in the past few years, the airline industry has witnessed high rates of
employee turnover which is due to the extreme work pressure, professional burnouts, inflexible
working arrangements and lack of incentives and compensation for the employees (Karatepe and
Vatankhah 2014).

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Research aims
The main aim of this research is to understand the role that leadership plays in an
organization with respect to job satisfaction and employee motivation. The research recognizes
that the style of leadership demonstrated by management within an organization would have a
significant role to play in ensuring employee motivation and job satisfaction, which in turn helps
in reducing the rate of staff turnover within the organizational context. Hence, the aim of the
research is to examine the different leadership roles of the management in reducing staff turnover
rates resulting to the smooth functioning of the processes. The research also attempts to study the
various factors which contribute to employee motivation and job satisfaction, and how the
leaders in an organization can work towards improvement of the same.
Research questions
How can employee motivation, employee satisfaction and organizational leadership reduce the
rate of staff turnover at an organization?
Literature review
According to Lazaroiu (2015), employee motivation is one of the most important factors
which determine the performance of the organization as a whole. The author claims that it is the
responsibility of every organization to ensure that every employee at the firm is motivated and
dedicated to his job. This can be done through a few measures. For instance, some organizations
incorporate bonuses, incentives and other compensation packages as part of their employee
welfare schemes. Similarly, other organizations ensure that a healthy work-life balance is
maintained between the personal and the professional lives of the employees. This ensures that

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the employees are able to put in their best when it comes to their tasks. This also automatically
improves the quality of performance of the employees. Dobre (2013) adopts a different
perspective of employee motivation and performance. According to this author, most
organizations are striving to compete in a highly volatile, competitive and fierce working
environment. In that case, the companies are expected to look after their human assets and ensure
that their wellbeing is taken into account. This would strengthen the workforce of the company,
providing it with a competitive edge in the market. To make all these changes to the existing
organisational practice, a leadership approach in managers will be highly required.
Graves, Sarkis and Zhu (2013) argue that it is the leadership style and approach of
management within an organization which determines the level of employee motivation and
consequent employee performance. One of the most important functions of a manager, along
with his other responsibilities and duties, is keeping his subordinates motivated. It is important
for the leadership of an organization to boost the morale of the employees, so as to reduce staff
turnover rates. It is expected that with strong leaders using appropriate leadership styles while
dealing with employees would create better and more productive working environments for the
employees. This in turn is bound to increase the level of commitment and dedication that an
employee feels for his company. As Mugobo (2013) claims, the level of employee motivation or
job satisfaction would depend on how an employee feels about his organization or the people he
is working for. If an employee feels that his job fulfills his personal and professional needs and
demands, he is more likely to exhibit greater levels of employee motivation. Similarly, if an
employee feels that the work he is doing is not meaningful enough or it fails to add value to both
his life and career, it could lead to demotivated employees with poor morale. Such an employee
would not hesitate to switch companies, and experiences no degree of loyalty for his

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organization. This increases the level of employee attrition, thus adversely affecting the level of
staff turnover within an organization. Thus, suffice to say, it can be said that the rate of staff
turnover is directly proportional to the level of employee motivation and job satisfaction.
Research methodology and data analysis
Research philosophy
This research will use the positivist research philosophy with regards to research
methodology and will use a survey. As per the requirements of the study, the current research
will be making use of the positivism philosophy. This technique is more suited to derive a piece
of evidence concerning the area of research. Positivism or positivist approach to research is one
of the ways to collect factual data. This is because a positivist research is entirely based on
scientific data (Hasan 2016). It is based on observation and scientific analysis, and is thus more
likely to be accurate. Since the research will undertake a positivist approach, the role of
researcher will be limited to only collection and interpretation of data.
Research approach and design
A deductive approach will be undertaken in the research. The researcher will be entrusted
with the role of actualizing and interpreting the data collected in order to affirm the hypothesis of
the research. A variety of models and frameworks will be studied and analyzed. Indeed, a
deductive approach encourages to test a range of relevant theories. This would begin with
theories and observations and their results will be discussed and studied at the end. Patterns and
regularities will be identified to understand how leadership and management affect staff turnover
rates at Hong Kong Airlines.

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The research design in this case will be explanatory in nature. This is because the
researcher will delve deep into the cause and effect relationship that exists between job
satisfaction and motivation and the leadership within an organization. The explanatory research
design will also be able to explain the effect of employee motivation on the rate of staff turnover
at the concerned organization.
Data collection procedure
In this study, data will be obtained through primary data collection method. The primary
data will be obtained through an online survey of the employees working at Hong Kong Airlines.
This would provide an insight into the driving forces behind employee motivation at Hong Kong
Airlines, and what can be done to improve them. The employees will be provided with an online
survey through Google forms and the results from the survey will then be analyzed
quantitatively.
Sampling Method
100 respondents will be selected randomly for data collection. The method that will be
used is random sampling method. As this will help in collecting unbiased data. These
respondents will be from various departments from Hong Kong Airlines. Google form will be
used as the online method of survey where there will be twenty questions following Likert Scale
Method. Based on the responses, further analysis will be done statistically. All the questions will
be related to employee satisfaction, employee motivation and leadership style.
Data Analysis Method
Data analysis will be carried out through statistical method. Mean, medium, mode as
standard deviation against each of the question will be analyzed and based on that further

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recommendation will be provided. Excel data will be gathered from online survey that will be
carried out and graphically the responses will be shown in order to understand the present
employee satisfaction level in the organization.
Foreseen limitations
The major limitations will be related to availability of time, cost, and experience. Also,
since only 100 respondents will be used; hence, the amount of data that will be gathered will be
comparatively very less against the entire human resource base of the organization. Also, in
order to reduce the cost, only mean, median, mode as standard deviation calculation will be
done, which might result in not delivering the most accurate output.
Usefulness of the findings of the applied research
Based on the findings of the literature review section, this can be said that Employee
motivation, job satisfaction, and effective leadership can help to reduce employee turnover.
However, articles those that being covered in the literature review section indicate that there is a
list of motivating factors, which vary from employee to employee. The literature review section
also identifies that learning opportunity is a motivating factor to a few employees. Such
employees continue switching over to different companies until they find their choice of the
firms. In addition, the study also highlights that promotion and bonus excite many others. Based
on the understanding of the literature review section, Hong Kong Airlines can be advised to work
on managing different things like workplace learning, rewards & recognition, pay & promotion
etc. The study has found so far a few evidence in favor of facts stated in this section of the

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proposal, which have been covered in the literature review section. These facts will be discussed
elaborately in the research work of this dissertation proposal.
The application of the findings can help to reduce the employee turnover rate. The study
affirms that employee motivation does have an impact on job satisfaction. Leadership as
according to the findings affect the managerial approach towards employee motivation and job
satisfaction.
Research timeline
Activities 1st to 3rd
Week
4th to 10th week 11th to 12th Week
Selection of the topic 
Data collection from
secondary sources
 
Creating layout 
Literature review  
Analysis and
interpretation of
collected data

Findings of the data  
Conclusion of the
study

Formation of draft 
Submission of final 

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work

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References
Alnasrallah, Y., 2016. Employee Motivation and Performance. International Journal of
Scientific & Engineering Research, 7(1).
Dobre, O.I., 2013. Employee motivation and organizational performance. Review of Applied
Socio-Economic Research, 5(1).
Graves, L.M., Sarkis, J. and Zhu, Q., 2013. How transformational leadership and employee
motivation combine to predict employee proenvironmental behaviors in China. Journal of
Environmental Psychology, 35, pp.81-91.
Hasan, M.N., 2016. Positivism: to what extent does it aid our understanding of the contemporary
social world?. Quality & Quantity, 50(1), pp.317-325.
Karatepe, O.M. and Vatankhah, S., 2014. The effects of high-performance work practices on
perceived organizational support and turnover intentions: Evidence from the airline
industry. Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism, 13(2), pp.103-119.
Lazaroiu, G., 2015. Employee motivation and job performance. Linguistic and Philosophical
Investigations, 14, p.97.
Muogbo, U.S., 2013. The impact of employee motivation on organisational performance (a study
of some selected firms in anambra state nigeria). The international journal of engineering and
science, 2(7), pp.70-80.

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Shahzadi, I., Javed, A., Pirzada, S.S., Nasreen, S. and Khanam, F., 2014. Impact of employee
motivation on employee performance. European Journal of Business and Management, 6(23),
pp.159-166.