Employee Satisfaction Research Proposal for Leslie Corporation Study

This research proposal investigates the factors influencing employee satisfaction among hourly workers at Leslie Corporation. The study includes a comprehensive literature review examining existing research on job satisfaction, its impact on employee performance, and the relationship between organizational performance and employee satisfaction. The methodology section outlines the research paradigm, sampling techniques, data collection methods (questionnaires), and ethical considerations. The proposal aims to identify factors affecting employee satisfaction, evaluate the issues faced by hourly workers, assess the relationship between employees and employers, and recommend solutions to enhance employee satisfaction. The proposal includes a cover letter explaining the research, a sample questionnaire, and sharing plans including report sharing and budget allocation.

Running Head: Employee Satisfaction
EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION

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Employee Satisfaction
Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................3
1.0 Introduction......................................................................................................................3
1.1 Background of the research..............................................................................................3
1.2 Rationale...........................................................................................................................4
1.3 Aim and objectives...........................................................................................................4
1.4 Research questions...........................................................................................................5
1.5 Statement of purpose........................................................................................................5
1.6 Significance of the Paper..................................................................................................5
1.7 Summary...........................................................................................................................6
2. Literature review....................................................................................................................7
2.0 Introduction......................................................................................................................7
2.1 Evaluation of satisfaction level regarding job in federal employees (Wang & Brower,
2019).......................................................................................................................................7
2.2 Impact of job satisfaction on performance of employees (Oravee, 2019)........................9
2.3 Assessment of relationship between economic performance of organization and
satisfaction level of employees (Melián-González, Bulchand-Gidumal & González López-
Valcárcel, 2015)....................................................................................................................11
2.4 Summary.........................................................................................................................13
3. Methodology........................................................................................................................14
3.0 Introduction....................................................................................................................14

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3.1 Research paradigm.........................................................................................................14
3.2 Sampling.........................................................................................................................15
3.3 Data collection................................................................................................................15
3.4 Ethical consideration......................................................................................................16
3.5 Summary.........................................................................................................................16
4. Cover letter...........................................................................................................................17
5. Questionnaire.......................................................................................................................18
6. Sharing plans........................................................................................................................21
6.1 Report sharing................................................................................................................21
6.2 Budget.............................................................................................................................21
Reference list............................................................................................................................22

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1. Introduction
1.0 Introduction
Employee satisfaction is an important part of business as it determines fate of business
performance. Level of employee satisfaction is directly proportional to business performance
as organization depends on employees to achieve business goals. This research proposal is
focusing on evaluation of factors that affect satisfaction level of hourly working employees in
Leslie Corporation, a snack food manufacturing company. Hourly working employees face
many issues related to their job and often fail to serve the best perforation. Research on issues
will help to figure out potential solutions to identified problems that affect employee
satisfaction. This part of proposal is including background information, rationale, aim,
objectives, research question and significance of this paper.
1.1 Background of the research
Employee satisfaction is an essential factor that helps an organization to retain employees.
Leslie Corporation is a snack manufacturing firm that needs to face tough competition in
market. This creates intense pressure on hourly working employees that deteriorates their
satisfaction level. As opined by Jacobs, Yu & Chavez (2016), employee satisfaction increases
when different facilities and on time payment is provided. Employees have complained
regarding huge amount of challenge during performance of every task and huge pressure.
This has decreased satisfaction rate of employees. Moreover, Huang et al. (2015)
contradicted that rewards, benefits and good working environment helps to increase
satisfaction rate of employees. Employees those who are paid hourly in this firm consists of
representatives, customer service. They interact with customers and helps to gain revenue and

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Employee Satisfaction
consumer loyalty. Hence, satisfaction rate of this group of employees needs to increase. This
can be done by reviewing their salary rate and providing other benefits like leave policy and
rewards on performance.
1.2 Rationale
Numerous factors are there that affect employee satisfaction level in hourly working
employees. Firms such as Leslie Corporation provide schedule to employees less than a week
in advance and hourly workers fail to maintain balance between professional and personal
life. As stated by Amin et al. (2017), usually hourly employees work on minimum wage for a
long time and do not get increment. It is important to research on this topic to understand all
aspects related to employees satisfaction. Employers do not trust hourly employees and one-
way communication takes place. According to Bin (2015), due to lack of communication,
relationship between employers and hourly workers do not form. This research may identify
potential solutions to mitigate issues faced by hourly employees and this approach may help
in increasing employee satisfaction level.
1.3 Aim and objectives
Aim of this research is to identify and management of factors that affect employee
satisfaction level of hourly working employees in Leslie Corporation.
Objectives of this research are mentioned below,
● To identify factors that affect employee satisfaction level of hourly workers.
● To critically evaluate issues faced by hourly employees regarding employment
● To evaluate relationship between hourly employees and employers within workplace.
● To recommend possible solutions that can help to enhance employee satisfaction level
in hourly workers.

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Employee Satisfaction
1.4 Research questions
Research questions are as follows,
1. What are the factors that affect satisfaction level of hourly employees?
2. What are the potential issues that are being faced by employees, who work on hourly
basis?
3. What is the nature of relationship between employers and hourly workers?
4. What are the potential solutions that can help to mitigate issues faced by hourly workers
for increasing employee satisfaction level?
1.5 Statement of purpose
The main purpose of this research is to gain significant knowledge about different drivers of
employee satisfaction. This particular research on employee satisfaction can help to gain
significant knowledge on different factors that contributes to increasing employee
satisfaction. On another hand, knowledge about different theories and models that can be
applied to gain employee satisfaction can be obtained from this study.
1.6 Significance of the Paper
This particular paper on employee satisfaction can help researchers to achieve a clear
understanding of different drivers of achieving high satisfaction rate. Different factors that
deteriorate satisfaction rate of hourly employees in Leslie corporation will be analyzed in
detail. Findings of this paper can help to increase knowledge regarding different factors that
help to increase job satisfaction. Knowledge about different factors like rewards, work
environment, and remuneration can be enhanced by accomplishment of this research study.
Moreover, for completing these paper different activities like collection of data and analysis
needs to be done. Hence, significant knowledge regarding management of different activities

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Employee Satisfaction
can be obtained. Managing different resources and application of different techniques and
framework can help to increase skills of researcher. Different essential skills like
communication, problem-solving and critical evaluation can be increased by completing this
research. Hence, in future success in managing activities and techniques of managing
employees can be applied properly.
1.7 Summary
In this chapter, background of the study is evaluated in a proper way. In addition, rationale of
this study is discussed in relation to the given firm. This has helped to frame research aims
and objectives. Different research questions are also asked in this part of study. Significance
of the study is analyzed that has helped to discuss different benefits that researchers can
achieve by completing this research.

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2. Literature review
2.0 Introduction
Literature review part of this proposal is including review of three scholarly articles based on
the research topic in order to provide clear evidence of all issues related to employee
satisfaction.
2.1 Evaluation of satisfaction level regarding job in federal employees (Wang & Brower,
2019)
The chosen article is about evaluation of job satisfaction in federal employees and authors of
this paper have investigated the interaction of employees with their working environment.
Federal agencies of US are focused to retain current employees and satisfy their needs for this
purpose. Wang & Brower (2019) have mentioned in their paper that organizations prefer to
retain existing employees and they recruit new employees as well. This article has been
focused on evaluating impact of three capabilities on employee satisfaction level. Federal
government takes initiative to improve human resource management system. It has been
found that most of the firms are seeking for good-quality skilled workers. However, due to
the increased level of job dissatisfaction, rate of employee turnover is increasing day by day.
Job satisfaction depends on employment relationship and both employers as well as
employees need to take initiative to build business relationship through effective
communication. As per the author of this article, job satisfaction is directly associated with
experience of employees within workplace. According to the findings of this research paper,
working environment has great impact on decision making of human beings. In other words,
it can be stated that these employees prefer to work in such an environment where they can

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explore their talent. Many of the federal employees complain that they do not get friendly
workplace and they think that their employers only care about the work in spite of the
workers. Lack of communication between employers and employees creates
misunderstandings and result in high rate of employee turnover. In the chosen paper, the
authors have mentioned that values of employees and employers must match with each other
and this aspect is very crucial for developing employment relation. Good business
relationship between employees is another factor that positively influences level of employee
satisfaction in federal workers.
Chosen research paper has mentioned that federal employees face many issues that lead to
enhancement of job dissatisfaction in them. They use to blame employers for their issues as
they fail to get proper solution. This study has considered data of the Federal Employee
Viewpoint Survey (FEVS). Aim of this paper was to evaluate effectiveness of approaches of
federal government towards management of human resource. Full-time employees of large as
well as small agencies have been considered as target sample for this research and this data
has helped to identify job satisfaction level in employees of Federal government.
Compatibility of civil servants under Federal government with supervisors, coworkers, and
the jobs has been measured. Employees prefer to work in cooperative working environment
and expect respect from their coworkers and hierarchy. However, in most of the cases,
employees fail to have all of these three compatibilities equally and this aspect impacts on the
decision making of employees regarding their employment. Many of the federal workers do
not get satisfaction from their job and wage. On another hand, most of them face non-
cooperation from management and hierarchy. These kinds of facts affect their mind and they
fail to provide their best effort. This paper has mentioned that organizations are bound to
ensure the compatibility of their employees with these three factors such as coworkers, job
and supervisor. Supervisors must behave politely with federal employees in order to show

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value their point of views. Moderate workload, safe and healthy working environment and
sufficient wage can help employees to become compatible with their jobs. At the end of this
research paper, authors have developed some questions. According to the authors, employers
need to be able to answer these questions in order to retain existing workforce.

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2.2 Impact of job satisfaction on performance of employees (Oravee, 2019)
Performance given by employee in an organization helps in gaining overall productivity. As
opined by Oravee (2019), management in an organization needs to provide rewards and
benefits for enhancing performance of employees. Different extrinsic and intrinsic rewards
impact on satisfaction rate of employees. Job satisfaction of employees is an essential factor
upon which overall performance of an organization totally depends. For achieving desired
satisfaction rate from employees it is essential to provide proper rewards and attractive job
roles. This article states about different rewards that help to increase satisfaction rate and
performance of employees, which in turn impact on productivity of a firm. In this article
different intrinsic determinants are discussed in detail. This includes increased responsibility,
innovation and creating attraction towards job role. Effective designing of job role and
creating proper chance to increase career prospects can help to increase job satisfaction.
Attraction towards a job role can be created through decreasing complexity in a job and
adding innovation. Presence of intrinsic motivational factors can increase satisfaction of
employees in workplace but absence of these factors cannot decrease motivation level of
employees.
According to this article, most essential factor that impacts on employees is extrinsic factors.
Different drivers of motivations like remuneration, promotion, good relationship and other
benefits like leave and insurance policy are essential extrinsic factors. According to Maslow's
need of hierarchy theory food, safety and security are some basic needs of an employee.
Different basic needs like job security, sufficient remuneration and benefits can help to
increase satisfaction rate and this, in turn, can impact on their performance. Hence, a firm can
achieve competitive advantage by applying proper strategy of employee satisfaction, which
can help to increase productivity of the organization.

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Field survey has been done in this research article that has helped to obtain fresh data from
employees regarding the topic of interest. It was found from the survey process that majority
of employees stated that different intrinsic reward helps in achieving better employee
performance. Intrinsic reward is directly attached to performance of a job. Successful
completion of a job produces high rate of intrinsic reward. If rate of success of an employee
is high then rate of intrinsic reward will also be high. In this survey, 45.76% of employee
have agreed or strongly agreed that opportunity of advancement and achievement of success
helps them to increase satisfaction rate (Oravee, 2019).
Moreover, in the survey of this article employees are also asked regarding impact of extrinsic
rewards in increase of performance. Majority of employees have agreed that different
extrinsic rewards like pay; promotion impacts on their performance and motivates them
constantly. Near about 64.39% of total respondents have either agreed or strongly agreed that
different extrinsic rewards motivate them to work better. This, in turn, impacts on
productivity of an organization and helps to gain competitive advantage. Moreover, in
hypothesis testing, it was found that intrinsic reward is influencing on performance of
employees. Hence, it can be concluded that for decreasing employee turnover and retaining
talents it is essential for an organization to provide different rewards to employees. Different
opportunities like career development programs and offering different and attractive job role
can influence performance of staff. In this article, it was found that different factors like
promotion, good work environment, benefits like bonus directly impact on job performance
of staff. This can impact on overall productivity of a company. However, according to
Herzberg's theory, money and other fringe benefits can be identified as negative motivators.
This is because these facilities cannot make a person more productive.