Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

Rationale

Academic institution is an educational institution dedicated to education

and research, which grants academic degrees (Seonghee & Boryung, 2008).

Amongst the workers of this type of institution, there exist two types of employees –

faculty members (teaching employees) and the administrative support members

(staff). Most administrative assistant duties revolve around managing and distributing

information within an office. This generally includes answering phones, taking memos

and maintaining files. Administrative assistants may also be in charge of sending and

receiving correspondence, as well as greeting clients and customers (Seonghee &

Boryung, 2008). With the institution getting bigger, more responsibilities and more

pressure are adding up to employees. Job satisfaction is one of the parameters that

managers are looking into to recognize the health of the organization in terms of the

man power. This study aims to look into the Job satisfaction of the administrative

support members in terms of indicators including opportunities and rewards,

supervision, fringe benefits, operating rules and procedures, co-workers and the

nature of work performed can affect job satisfaction of millennial employees which

will help in the maximization of human resource potential. The motivation to

investigate the degree of job satisfaction arises from the fact that a better

understanding of employee satisfaction is desirable to achieve a higher level of

motivation that is directly associated with client satisfaction (Bhatnagar & Srivastava,
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2012). Hence, the problem on how many employees are satisfied in their jobs in

academic institutions must be addressed.

In the Philippines, only few studies emphasized the importance of job

satisfaction as part of any management process (Isip, 2013; Angeles et al, 2015).

According to Usop et al (2013), there were three reasons on the importance of job

satisfaction. First, organizations can be directed by humanitarian values. Based on

these values they will attempt to treat their employees honourably and with respect.

High level of job satisfaction could also be a sign of emotional wellness or mental

fitness. Second, organizations can take on a utilitarian position in which employees’

behaviour would be expected to influence organizational operations according to the

employees’ degree of job satisfaction/dissatisfaction. Third, job satisfaction can be an

indicator of organizational operations. Indeed, job satisfaction is considered as an

important determinant of human resource management practices (Koc, 2014).

Human Resource (HR) and administration play major roles in the job satisfaction of

employees in health care facilities (Ohja and Sinha, 2016). HR policy is important for

all health care facilities as it is the guiding document for Human Resource

Management.

Pew Research Center declared that millennials are people born between 1981

and 1996 (Dimock, 2018). According to Putre (2013), millennials will make up the

majority of the workforce by 2025. Hospitals need to ramp up discussions about how

to attract and retain these employees. Increased scheduling flexibility, sabbaticals

and phased retirements will be more and more appealing to both hospitals and

millennial employees. Millennials like more choices, flexibility and convenience

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(Sweeney, 2006; Kotz, 2016; International Education Advisory Board, 2008). There

are many proliferations for the names of this generation but most of them arise from

the reaction of the individuals who describe and tries to understand them (Bickham et

al., 2008). Millennials are considered to be impatient, multi-taskers and experiential

learners (Sweeney, 2012). They also have a tendency to be technologically savvy

and dependent on being connected online (Gladfelter & Friedman, 2014). Other traits

of the millennials include feeling special or the need to be appreciated or given

awards, being sheltered, team oriented, confident, pressured, strong desire to

achieve and conventional (Monaco & Martin, 2007). Millennials have the ability to

create functional work relationships with older employees and to enhance

organizational performance (McGuire et al., 2007). However, recent economic

conditions may cause millennials to be more compliant than people had speculated

they would be (Koch, 2009; George, 2008). According to the 2018 Deloitte Millennial

Survey which included participants from the Philippines, millennials don’t mind job-

hopping. The average is that 6 out of 10 will leave their current job in the next four

years. A recent global survey by the World Economic Forum found that

most millennials see the world as full of opportunities, and they trust themselves most

to solve local challenges (Deloitte Global, 2018). It is therefore a challenge to medical

institutions on how to enhance their policies in order to attract and retain Millennials.

Assessment of job satisfaction might identify various levels of satisfaction

among organizational departments and, therefore, be helpful in pinning down areas

in need of improvement (Usop et al., 2013). There is an urgent need to conduct this

study in order for medical institutions to improve their HR policy. Literature on job
 4

satisfaction of Filipino employees are scarce, thus, this study is important to uncover

the different factors that affect job satisfaction in millennial employees in the

Philippines. This study will provide new knowledge in the aspect of job satisfaction of

millennials. In this study, the job satisfaction of millennial employees with

administrative positions in the Medical Institution will be gauged through a

questionnaire, and from their responses, recommendations for amending HR policies

will be crafted.

Research Objective

The main purpose of this study was to propose a policy to enhance the job

satisfaction of millennial employees on the basis of the result. It also aimed to attain

the following:

1. To assess the level of job satisfaction of millennial employees in terms

of:
1.1. opportunities and rewards;
1.2. Supervision;
1.3. fringe benefits;
1.4. operating rules and procedures;
1.5. co-workers; and
1.6. nature of work performed.
2. To determine the significant differences of job satisfaction of millennial

employees are in group in terms of sex and age.

3. To propose a policy that would enhance the job satisfaction of the

millennial employees on the basis of the results.

Hypothesis

The null hypotheses was tested at the significant level of 0.05.

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1. There is no significant difference between job satisfactions of the millennial

employees grouped by sex and age.

Review of Related Literature

(Presented in this section is the related literature review and related studies on

the basic psychological needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness, and

employee engagement in terms of their job, team, supervisor, and organization.)

Job Satisfaction

Bhatnagar and Srivastava (2012) defined job satisfaction as the degree to

which individuals feel positive or negative about their jobs. It is an emotional

response to an individual’s task and to the physical and social conditions of the

workplace. It is motivational and will lead to upbeat employment relationships and

high levels of individual job performance. Among health care professionals, job

satisfaction is considerable for the purpose of maximization of human resource

potential.

Since 1995, job satisfaction rate of employees has been falling. Most people

believe that dissatisfaction is caused by compensation. Furthermore, based on the

Gallup survey consisting more than 1 million participants, the turnover rate and job

dissatisfaction are often related to issues with immediate supervisors (Armour, 2014).

In the USA, one of the factors that will affect the retention of these employees is job

satisfaction. Job satisfaction is a measure of workers' contentedness with their job,

whether or not they like the job or individual aspects or facets of jobs, such as nature

of work or supervision (Spector, 1997). Whether an employee is satisfied at work

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depends on a number of factors, including the opportunity to use his skills and

talents, recognition for good work, development opportunities and the work

environment (Sageer et al, 2012). An employee’s level of satisfaction also depends

on personal characteristics, such as his disposition and cultural influences. Job

satisfaction can be measured in cognitive (evaluative), affective (or emotional), and

behavioral components (Hulin and Judge, 2003).

According to the Society for Human Resource Management (2016), 37% of

US employees reported that they are very satisfied while 51% reported that they

were somewhat satisfied in 2015. This is so far the highest level of satisfaction over

the last 10 years. In 2013, the trends of the increasing percentage of satisfied

employees have began. Forty-five percent (45%) of the employees indicated that

they somewhat satisfied while 40% indicated felt very satisfied with their

organization. Nonetheless, there are still more percentage of being somewhat

satisfied which signals need for improvement (SHRM, 2016).

Withers (2002) stated that job satisfactions are consistent with prior job

satisfaction studies. In health sector particularly, the quality of patient care services

are directly related to employee’s satisfaction with their job. In cases of doctors, job

satisfaction is one of the most important factor because it can affect patient

relationships. A doctor’s dissatisfaction can cause less patients’ satisfaction, may

suffer from physical and mental illness, and may discourage future medical students

from entering the field of medicine (Bhattacherjee et al, 2016). On the other hand, in

the preparation of the projected nursing shortage, job satisfaction and retention rates

have become an increasing concern to hospital administrators. In medical

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institutions, different generations rated the job satisfaction concepts in the following

order from the most important to the least important: professional status, autonomy,

nurse-to-nurse interaction, nurse-to-physician interaction, organizational policies,

task requirements, and pay. Knowledge of this information will help health care

agencies and nurse administrators guide staff recruitment and retention efforts and

increase job satisfaction of nurses and can be applied to other medical staff also. The

lack of job satisfaction can affect not only the quality of patient care, but the staffs’

emotional, physical, and spiritual health. Furthermore, the lack of job satisfaction can

increase turnover rates which can escalate health care expenditures (Withers, 2002).

A study conducted by Bhattacherjee et al (2016) showed that there is a

difference between the job satisfaction of employees from the developed and

developing countries. Only a quarter of doctors were dissatisfied doctors from ten

nations of the European Union while in Karachi and Sri Lanka, 32% and 43.6% of

doctors were dissatisfied respectively. This can be attributed with the difference

between perks and privileges in the developed and developing countries. Also,

several predictors like age, gender, length of service, specialties, and post graduate

qualification may also affect job satisfaction.

According to Linden (2015), there is a need to understand the values and

relationship to job expectations and satisfaction, now that there is a large number of

Millennials entering the workplace since it is critical for employee retention. It is

therefore necessary to know the factors that affect job satisfaction of millennials.

Opportunities and rewards. Millennials expressed interest in an environment

that fosters professional skills growth (Linden, 2015). Eighty-eight percent (88%) of
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millennials placed greater importance on career development opportunities than

Baby Boomers did (SHRM, 2016). Millennials want to be provided opportunities for

achieving promotions (Linden, 2015). While the health care workforce is increasingly

filled with millennials, it is really rare to see millennials in executive leadership

positions. Deising (2016) stated that though millennials increasingly fill the workforce,

they are not coping up with the health care leadership ranks pave of the previous

generations. Roles in health care are so specialized that moving upward can be hard.

Nonetheless, large health care organizations, offer nonclinical roles that have more

room for advancement than clinical ones. This is why millennials with clinical

backgrounds often are taking non-traditional career paths (Mayo Clinic, 2017).

Armour (2014) stated that this could be the cause why millennials to hop on different

jobs. They might feel that they are not moving up quickly as it should be.

According to a study conducted by Linden (2015), employees also look for

employers who readily recognized accomplishments. Since many millennials got

used to constant praise and positive reinforcement, they expect it to continue in the

workplace whether or not it’s deserved (Medical Economics, 2015).

Supervision. A survey conducted by Deloitte about millennial leadership in

2013 showed that half of the respondents have leadership positions. Another Deloitte

Millennial survey (2016) found that two out of three respondents said they would

leave their jobs by 2020 and this may be attributed by companies not exerting effort

in developing the younger generation’s leadership skills (AMN Healthcare, 2018).

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Fringe benefits. Results from a survey projected that the job satisfaction of

Millennials, members of Generation X and Baby Boomers is dependent on overall

benefits when determining job satisfaction (SHRM, 2016).

Operating rules and procedures. Millennials grew up in the age of the internet

and other gadgets. Because of this, they expect to have integrated, interconnected

technology, including medicine and well-being supported by mobile health, or

mHealth (AMN Healthcare, 2018).

Co-workers. Millennials expressed interest in an engaging work environment

(Linden 2015). Health systems that form strong bonds with their millennial employees

stand a better chance of keeping them. According to Deising (2016), embracing the

values of the millennials can help. A study conducted by Krischke (2018) showed that

millennials will enthusiastically work 60-80 hours a week if they feel they are part of a

team and that they matter. Even when the pay and working hours is terrible,

millennial employees tend to stay because of the environment. Studies conducted by

Armour (2014), Cerf (2017) and Jakucs (2018) concluded that coworkers’

relationships are an important aspect of job satisfaction. Part of an employee’s job

satisfaction depends on the confidence his or her coworkers have on the employees’

qualities, abilities, decisions, behaviors, actions, and decisions of their coworkers. It

is therefore important for employees in the workplace to have positive relationships

with coworkers.

The nature of work performed. According to Kinzl et al (2005), the scope of

work of medical employees in hospital practice has expanded in the past decade.

They worked as specialists either in emergency care, in intensive care medicine or in

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the management of patients. Additionally, some employees have research, teaching

or administrative obligations. Conflicting demand is regarded as a risk factor for

overwork. These cause them to exhibit symptoms of chronic stress. Task-related

stressors at work are considered important predictors of work strain. Wide-ranging

resource cutbacks and personnel shortages also affect working conditions. Job

demands and job control have been reported to have several interactive effects on

employee wellbeing and health in specific occupational groups. A level of high control

over work is accompanied by positive health characteristics, whereas heavy burdens

at work lead to increased disturbances in health. Hence, the nature of work

performed can affect job satisfaction.

Millennials

Millennials, also known as Generation Y, are the biggest living generation,

surpassing the baby boomers by approximately 5 million individuals (Medical

Economics, 2015). According to Myers and Sadaghiani (2010), millennials are those

individuals born between 1979 and 1994, while according to Deising (2016),

millennials are individuals born between 1982 and 2000. The latest from Pew

Research Center (2018) officially declared that anyone born between 1981 and 1996

(ages 22 to 37 in 2018) will be considered a Millennial, and anyone born from 1997

onward will be part of a new generation (Dimock, 2018). They are characterized by

their social, cultural and environmental consciousness. A study conducted by

Deising (2016) showed that millennials eye for perfectionism, transparency, rules and

emotional stability, and less self-reliance, while setting high expectations. Although

majority of the traits of the millennials are believed to be favorable, a lot of

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researchers have found several positive traits as well (Hanus, 2016) – loyalty to

themselves, family, friends and communities, believe in the power of their voice to

make a difference, unique and, shows integrity to their decision-making process.

Also, this generation is all out especially when there’s a need to put forth extra effort

in providing support for a particular cause. This is due to the assumption that they

have a wide understanding on the huge impact that can occur from supporting that

cause (Lowes, 2015). As compared to the past generations, millennials are seen to

accept diversity more and look at problems and opportunities from a fresh

perspective (Hannus, 2016).

Millennials will account for half of the workforce by 2020 and 75% by 2030. It

is certain that the diversity among millennials, their expectation, beliefs and culture

will have an impact on the workplace including the healthcare industry (AMN

Healthcare, 2018; Jakucs, 2018).

A study conducted by Myers and Sadaghiani (2010) showed that they have an

advantage when working in teams. They are seen to work well in teams, motivated to

contribute to the success of the organization, desires open and regular

communication with supervisors and are at ease with the communication

technologies. Similary, some stereotyped millennials as self-centered, unmotivated,

disrespectful, and disloyal self-centered, unmotivated, disrespectful, and disloyal to

an institution (Lowes, 2015). Lowes (2015) included that millennials are typically

stressed over tight schedules and needs constant motivation.

Myers and Sadaghiani (2010) stated that due to the negative stereotype

attributes of the millennials, a concern about communication, effect to the

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organization, and how they will develop relationships with other members is not

impossible.

According to a survey conducted by the National Society of High School

Scholars in 2015 participated by more than 18,000 students ages 15-29, 40% of the

respondents said they wanted to work in healthcare. Clearly, millennials are

engrossed in healthcare as a career choice (AMN Healthcare, 2018).

In the United States, one third of the workforce is constituted by millennials.

According to American Medical Association data, looking particularly at medicine,

about 155,000 physicians, or 15% of the total, are under age 35, while about 25% of

the American Academy of Family Physician’s active membership is age 39 or

younger. One-fourth of the American Osteopathic Association’s membership is 35 or

younger (Medical Economics, 2015)

The healthcare industry is undergoing an immense change at the moment.

According to Doherty (2016), hiring millennials into the healthcare workplace and the

willingness of healthcare organizations to integrate millennial values and effectively

managing the millennial mindset will be beneficial in building a patient-centered

workforce required in the quality-centric state of modern healthcare.

Correlations between Measures

The test of relationship between variables reveals that there is significant

relationship between job satisfaction and age and gender of the respondents. To

synthesize the literatures related to job satisfaction, it is established that the

indicators including opportunities and rewards, supervision, fringe benefits, operating

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rules and procedures, co-workers and the nature of work performed can affect job

satisfaction of millennial employees. If employees are given the opportunities to

improve themselves or be promoted and receive recognition and rewards for their

good performance, their job satisfaction levels are high (Linden, 2015; SHRM, 2016;

Deising, 2016; Mayo Clinic, 2017; Armour, 2014; Medical Economics, 2015).

Meanwhile, if millennial employees are given the chance to become supervisors or

leaders, their job satisfaction is relatively higher than those who remain in lower

positions (Deloitte Millennial survey, 2016; AMN Healthcare, 2018).

Job satisfaction of Millennials is also dependent on overall benefits when

determining job satisfaction (SHRM, 2016). According to Hopkins (2018), these fringe

benefits include Medical insurance, Disability insurance, Health Savings Accounts

(HSA), Dependent care assistance (DCAP- usually offered as an FSA), Education

tuition assistance, Qualified employee benefits plans, like profit-sharing or stock

options, Commuter benefits, Employee discounts on your own products, De

minimis fringe benefits such as birthday or holiday gifts, event tickets, traditional

awards (such as a retirement gift), and coffee and soft drinks (both on-site and off-

site, including business trips and company functions). The operating rules and

procedures can affect job satisfaction such as the more convenient the rules and

procedures in the medical institution, the higher the level of their job satisfaction

(AMN Healthcare, 2018). Coworkers play a major role in job satisfaction. Coworkers’

relationships are an important aspect of job satisfaction. Part of an employee’s job

satisfaction depends on the confidence his or her coworkers have on the employees’

qualities, abilities, decisions, behaviors, actions, and decisions of their coworkers. It

 14

is therefore important for employees in the workplace to have positive relationships

with co-workers (Linden 2015; Deising, 2016; Krischke 2018; Armour, 2014; Cerf,

2017 and Jakucs 2018; Kinzl et al., 2005). Lastly, the nature of work performed can

affect job satisfaction. The easier the nature of work performed, the higher the job

satisfaction levels (Kinzl, 2005).

Sex and age of employees have influenced each of the indicators mentioned

above which implies their level of job satisfaction. As people aged, their job

satisfaction increased (Dobrow Riza et al., 2015; Davies et al., 2017) while females

have higher job satisfaction than their male colleagues (Huang & Gamble, 2015;

Cottingham et al., 2015).

Theoretical Framework

Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory will be used as the theoretical framework for

this study. This theory is anchored to Abraham Maslow's theory of motivation.

Abraham Maslow introduced the Maslow's hierarchy of needs as a theory

in psychology his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation” in Psychological

Review (Maslow, 1954). Maslow subsequently extended the idea to include his

observations of humans' innate curiosity. His theories parallel many other theories of

human developmental psychology, some of which focus on describing the stages of

growth in humans. Maslow used the terms "physiological," "safety,"

"belonging and love," "esteem," and "self-actualization" to describe the pattern

through which human motivations generally move. The goal of Maslow's Theory is to

attain the fifth level or stage: self-actualization needs. The hierarchy remains a very
 15

popular framework in sociology research, management training in

sociology and secondary and higher psychology instruction. Meanwhile, Clayton

Alderfer further developed Maslow's hierarchy of needs by categorizing the hierarchy

into his ERG theory (Existence, Relatedness and Growth) Alderfer (1969). The

existence group is concerned with providing the basic material existence

requirements of humans. They include the items that Maslow considered to be

physiological and safety needs. The second group of needs is those of relatedness –

the desire people have for maintaining important interpersonal relationships. These

social and status desires require interaction with others if they are to be satisfied, and

they align with Maslow's social need and the external component of Maslow's esteem

classification. Finally, Alderfer isolates growth needs: an intrinsic desire for personal

development. These include the intrinsic component from Maslow's esteem category

and the characteristics included under self-actualization. Alderfer categorized the

lower order needs (Physiological and Safety) into the Existence category. He fit

Maslow's interpersonal love and esteem needs into the Relatedness category. The

Growth category contained the self-actualization and self-esteem needs. Alderfer

also proposed a regression theory to go along with the ERG theory. He said that

when needs in a higher category are not met then individuals redouble the efforts

invested in a lower category need. For example if self-actualization or self-esteem is

not met then individuals will invest more effort in the relatedness category in the

hopes of achieving the higher need.

According to Herzberg, individuals are not content with the satisfaction of

lower-order needs at work; for example, those needs associated with minimum salary
 16

levels or safe and pleasant working conditions. Rather, individuals look for the

gratification of higher-level psychological needs having to do with achievement,

recognition, responsibility, advancement, and the nature of the work itself. This

appears to parallel Maslow's theory of a need hierarchy. However, Herzberg added a

new dimension to this theory by proposing a two-factor model of motivation, based

on the notion that the presence of one set of job characteristics or incentives leads to

worker satisfaction at work, while another and separate set of job characteristics

leads to dissatisfaction at work. Thus, satisfaction and dissatisfaction are not on a

continuum with one increasing as the other diminishes, but are independent

phenomena. This theory suggests that to improve job attitudes and productivity,

administrators must recognize and attend to both sets of characteristics and not

assume that an increase in satisfaction leads to decrease in dissatisfaction (Delung,

2015).

Conceptual Framework

Figure 1 shows the conceptual framework of the study. The dependent

variable for the study is the job satisfaction of the millennial employees. Job

satisfaction has indicators including opportunities and rewards (Linden, 2015; SHRM,

2016; Deising, 2016; Mayo Clinic, 2017; Armour, 2014; Medical Economics, 2015),

supervision (Deloitte Millennial survey, 2016; AMN Healthcare, 2018), fringe benefits

(SHRM, 2016; Hopkins 2018), operating rules and procedures (AMN Healthcare,

2018), coworkers (Linden 2015; Deising, 2016; Krischke 2018; Armour, 2014; Cerf,

2017 and Jakucs 2018; Kinzl et al., 2005) and the nature of work performed (Kinzl,
 17

2005). Moderating variables include sex and age of employees (Dobrow Riza et al.,

2015; Davies et al., 2017; Huang & Gamble, 2015; Cottingham et al., 2015).

Opportunities are chances for employment or promotion while rewards are

cash or tokens given to employees in recognition of their services, efforts, or

achievements (Linden, 2015; SHRM, 2016; Deising, 2016; Mayo Clinic, 2017;

Armour, 2014; Medical Economics, 2015). Supervision is the chance to become

leader or administrators (Deloitte Millennial survey, 2016; AMN Healthcare, 2018).

Fringe benefits are extra benefits supplementing an employee's salary, for example,

a company car, subsidized meals, health insurance, etc. (SHRM, 2016; Hopkins

2018). Operating rules and procedures defined as a rule that defines or constrains

some aspect of medical institution and always resolves to either true or false. These

rules are intended to assert the structure or to control or influence the behavior of the

company. They describe the operations, definitions and constraints that apply to an

organization. They can apply to people, processes, corporate behavior and

computing systems in an organization, and are put in place to help the organization

achieve its goals (AMN Healthcare, 2018). Coworkers refer to the interrelationship of

employees among themselves in the medical institution where they belong (Linden

2015; Deising, 2016; Krischke 2018; Armour, 2014; Cerf, 2017 and Jakucs 2018;

Kinzl et al., 2005) while the nature of work performed means their duties and

responsibilities including other tasks assigned to them while they are working in

medical institutions (Kinzl, 2005).

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INPUT OUTPUT

Job Satisfaction of
Millennial Employees
Policy Enhancement

MODERATOR VARIABLE

Sex

Age

Figure 1. Conceptual Framework of the Study

Significance of the Study

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For the first time in several years, the number of employees who say they are

satisfied with their current job took a big jump, rising from 81% in 2013 to 88% in

2016, according to the Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement Report by the

Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM, 2016). Most organizations strive

for employee satisfaction, but not all attain this goal. That’s why it’s important for

human resources professionals to know more about the factors that can increase

employee satisfaction, and how it fits into a company’s overall success. There is little

doubt that great employees are an organization’s number one resource. Keeping

workers happy helps strengthen a company in many ways, including: (1) Lower

Turnover – Turnover can be one of the highest costs attributed to the HR

department. Retaining workers helps create a better environment, and makes it

easier to recruit quality talent and save money. The bottom line: satisfied employees

are typically much less likely to leave. (2) Higher Productivity – Irrespective of job title

and pay grade, employees who report high job satisfaction tend to achieve higher

productivity. (3) Increased Profits – Keeping employees safe and satisfied can lead to

higher sales, lower costs and a stronger bottom line. (4) Loyalty – When employees

feel the company has their best interests at heart, they often support its mission and

work hard to help achieve its objectives. And, they may be more likely to tell their

friends, which helps spread goodwill.

The beneficiaries of this study are the employers of medical institutions. This

study will help them understand where millennial employees are coming from by

looking at their context: what kind of world they grew in, what values they prioritize

and what levels of job satisfaction in their affiliated medical institutions. Hence, this
 20

study is significant because this will serve as the basis for policy enhancement in

medical institutions by improving the human resources which are composed mainly

by Millennials.

Definition of Terms

The following terms are defined operationally:

Millennials. In this study refers to an individual born between 1981 and 1996

(Dimock, 2018). The millennial generation is also referred to as Generation Y. The

respondents’ age range included in this study is 22 to 35 years old.

Job satisfaction. In this study denotes as a measure of workers' contentedness with

their job, whether or not they like the job or individual aspects or facets of jobs, such

as nature of work or supervision.

Policy enhancement. In this study defined as the improvement of the

organizational system to enhance their employee’s satisfaction to retain employees

and increase to the attractiveness of the company for the future employees to be part

of the organization.

Medical Institution. In this study means a medical establishment run by a

group of medical specialists. A medical institution refers to institution in Davao city

that offers academic and medical services that is managed by college instructors,

medical doctors who teaches college students and as well as practicing their

profession on the same establishments.

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Chapter 2

METHOD

Presented in this section are the discussion on the study research design,

research locale, population and sample, research instrument used to measure

construct of interest, data collection, and statistical tools.

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Research Design

This study will utilize descriptive comparative research design using a

published questionnaire on job satisfaction and correlation technique. Regression

described the effect of independent variable while correlation provides a measure of

degree of association between the variables (Gomez and Gomez, 1984). Descriptive

research is a study designed to depict the participants in an accurate way. The data

will be collected using questionnaire. It is quantitative considering that the study will

use a structured and standardized research instruments in collecting its data, the

result is centered on a larger randomly selected sample, a well-defined research

question is stated to answer objectively and researcher utilize questionnaires and

computer software to gather a statistical data (Babbie, 2010).

It is a comparative study since the researcher fundamentally compares two

groups in an attempt to extract an assumption about them. The researcher will seek

to determine and evaluate between groups. Additionally, this study is said to be

comparative since it manipulate the independent variable to assess and explain its

association with the dependent variable (Richardson, 2018).

Thematic analysis will be done based on the results of the survey to make

recommendations to amend the Human Resource policies in the selected medical

institution. These methods of research are appropriate for this study because its

objective is to determine the significant relationship of the independent variable and

the dependent variable as well as the influence of the dependent variable to the

independent variable of the study.

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Research Locale

The findings of the study will be specific to the context of medical institution of

Davao city. The possibility for the general applicability of the findings will be limited by

the scope, and the sample, accordingly, even though there could be common

features, the findings may not have general applicability to other systems.

The study will be conducted in a selected Medical Institution. It is the first and

oldest medical school in the Davao Region. It has approximately 200 employees,

including both rank-and-file and managerial positions. The location of the conduct of

the study is in Davao City, Philippines. It has a total land area of 244,000 hectares

which make it as the largest city in the country and composed of 182 barangays.

Davao city is among those progressive cities in the Philippines (Davao City, 2017).

Furthermore, the city is located at south-eastern Mindanao, on the north-western

shore of Davao golf, opposite to Samal Island. Figure 2 shows the map of the

Philippines consisting of seven regions in which the Davao City is located in Region

XI.
 24

Figure 2. Map of the Philippines and Davao City

 25

Population and Sample

The respondents in this study include employees born in 1981 up to 1996 who

are currently working in a medical institution in Davao City. Only probationary and

regular employees directly hired by the participating medical institutions will be

recruited for the survey. The sampling technique will be purposive sampling which is

a non-probability sample that is selected based on characteristics of a population and

the objective of the study. Purposive sampling is also known as judgmental, selective,

or subjective sampling. A reliability test will be done using the Cronbach's

alpha which is a measure of internal consistency that is, how closely related a set of

items are as a group. It is considered to be a measure of scale reliability. A "high"

value for alpha does not imply that the measure is unidimensional. A total of 20

employees can be invited to participate in the study.

Inclusion criteria: employees who are born between 1981 to 1996 Exclusion

criteria: employees born before 1981 or after 1996 and employees who will not

agree to answer the survey will not be included in the study.

Research Instrument

The Job Training and Job Satisfaction Survey by Schmidt (2004) from East

Carolina University will be adopted. This tool was developed based on the Job

Satisfaction Survey by Paul Spector. Although the modified Job Satisfaction Survey

consists of 38 items and 5 facet scales, with subscales for opportunities and rewards,

supervision, fringe benefits, operating rules and procedures, co-workers, and the

nature of work performed.

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Include this one.

Range of Descriptive Level Interpretation

Mean
4.20 – 5.00 Very High This purports that the items concerning to
psychological needs are always
manifested.
3.40 – 4.19 High This purports that the items concerning to
psychological needs are oftentimes
manifested.
2.60 – 3.39 Moderate This purports that the items concerning to
psychological needs are sometimes
manifested.
1.80 – 2.59 Low This purports that the items concerning to
psychological needs are rarely manifested.
1.00 – 1.79 Very Low This purports that the items concerning to
psychological needs are never manifested.

To check the appropriateness and accurateness of the items in the

questionnaire, the panel members will be requested to validate the questionnaire.

Their comments, suggestions and recommendations will be incorporated afterwards.

After the validation and approval of the researcher’s adviser, the questionnaire will be

immediately administered to the respondents of the study.

Data Collection

Permission to conduct this study from the administration of the selected

medical institution will be secured. Then, clearance will be sought from the Ethics

Review Committee for the conduct of the study.

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A list of all the probationary and regular employees (tenured or not) will be

obtained from the Human Resource Office of the medical institution. Personnel not

born between 1981 up to 1996 will be excluded from the list. This sampling list will be

clustered into offices and departments. Three departments will be chosen in random

from the offices. All qualified employees from the chosen departments will be

recruited for the study. All employees who give their consent to join the survey will

answer the Job Training and Job Satisfaction Survey. The subjects will choose from a

5-point Likert scale (strongly disagree [1pt], disagree [2pts], undecided [3pts], agree

[4pts], strongly agree [5pts], to answer the questions in the survey. For negatively

worded questions, the scores for the Likert scale choices must first be reversed. The

higher the total points, the higher the job satisfaction of the employee.

After the totals and averages are computed, a thematic analysis will be done

based on human resource management to improve conditions based on the job

satisfaction constructs of opportunities and rewards, supervision, fringe benefits,

operating rules and procedures, co-workers, and the nature of work performed.

The duration of the study is two semesters. The researcher will tallied the data

ready for submission for statistical treatment and will be treated using applicable

statistical tool with the help of the researchers statistician.

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Statistical Tools

The data gathered from the questionnaire were treated using the following

statistical tools:

Mean. This tool will be used in order to determine the level of job satisfaction

of employees.

Significant difference. A Significant Difference between two variables means

that there is a measurable difference between the groups and that, statistically, the

probability of obtaining that difference by chance is very small (usually less than 5%).

T-test. This will be used to determine the effect of gender in job satisfaction.

A t-test is an analysis of two population means through the use of statistical

examination; analysts commonly use a t-test with two samples with small sample

sizes, testing the difference between the samples when they do not know the

variances of two normal distributions.

ANOVA. This tool will be used to determine the effect of age in job

satisfaction. Analysis of variance, a statistical method in which the variation in a set of

observations is divided into distinct components.

Ethical Considerations

There were substantial ethical issues and concerns that have specific

repercussions for this quantitative inquiry. Such issues and concerns have ascended

primarily from the methodology involved embedded in this study. The ethical

challenges those were pertinent to this research concerns the issues of the right to

conduct the study, confidentiality and anonymity.

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This study is in adherence to the seven key principles of ethical research as

pointed out by McLeod (2015) to protect the participants throughout the research

undertaking. For this research study, the ethical measures will be adhered to

confidentiality, minimization of risk, privacy, prior informed consent of participants,

and full disclosure of information about the research, cultural responsibility, and

research adequacy. All proper names and identification details will be changed in filed

notes, interview manuscripts and oral and written interpretative accounts.

Primarily, ethical approval will be obtained from the UM Professional Schools.

Informed consent will be the cornerstone of my ethical research based on Creswell &

Poth (2017), and an important aspect of this is the quality of information provided to

potential subjects. Prior to conducting the data collection process, a permission to

conduct the study shall be sought at UM Professional Schools. This will be granted

after the interview guide has already undergone validation process and the study’s

protocol already passed ethical review.

Privacy and Confidentiality. I will require myself to consider ethics in all

aspects of my research study because the consideration of ethical issues is

necessary in ensuring the privacy as well as the safety of my participants. Among the

significant ethical issues that I will consider in the research process include the

consent and confidentiality to make my participants more comfortable in sharing and

explaining their personal views (Cobb & Forbes, 2002). Moreover, in order to secure

the consent of the selected participants, I will relay important details of the study,

including its aim and purpose. By explaining to them these important details, the

respondents will be able to understand the importance of their role in the completion
 30

of the research. I will advise the participants that they may possibly withdraw from the

study even during the process if they think it would bring personal biases on the

beliefs and views on life.

To meet the privacy requirements of the participants, anonymity will be

maintained using false name to conceal their identity (Brody et al., 2007; Trochim,

2006). Since the participants might be revealing some sensitive information, it is a

must to ensure the anonymity of the participants for them to feel safe and reveal the

needed information of the study. To this end, I will assign false name to each of my

participants to protect their identity. I will become a good listener to them and will give

feedback on the outcome of the investigation.

Informed Consent. The informed consent letter will articulate the procedural

steps to maintain privacy, confidentiality and the non-attribution of individual

responses. The informed consent letter will declare that the participant’s background

information will remain confidential and will not be released without prior expressed

personal approval. Restricted access will protect and secure participants’ information

thus maintaining the confidentiality and anonymity. This will also ensure that all

responses will be secured from inappropriate disclosure to enhance reliability and

validity of provided data.

Voluntary Participations, the millennial employees of medical institution were

given the free will to participate without any form of consequences, penalty or loss of

benefits. The researcher respected the views and opinions of the respondents and its

decision whether or not they will participate during the course of gathering the data.

Thus, after the purpose and the benefits of the study described and presented to the
 31

respondents, the rights of them to contribute to the body of knowledge were carefully

considered and adhered upon. Finally, it is my responsibility to inform the participants

to sign voluntarily the informed consent form to reduce suspicion and encourage

sincere responses from them.

Recruitment, the distribution of respondents as reflected in data collection

showed how the population was being disseminated. Furthermore, the data collection

procedures indicated, as well, how the questionnaires were being administered and

the manner the population were going to be involved in the study.

Risk and Benefits, the study did not involve any high risk situation that the

population may experience in the area of physical, psychological, or socio-economic

concerns. And the benefit is the result of the study benefited the employees and the

Human Resource Office. After the survey, the result of the study benefited to the

millennial employees about Job satisfaction in terms of indicators including

opportunities and rewards, supervision, fringe benefits, operating rules and

procedures, co-workers and the nature of work performed can affect job satisfaction

of millennial employees which will help in the maximization of Human Resource

Office of the Medical Institution.

Plagiarism. In this study, plagiarism or the use of another person's ideas,

processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit is addressed through

citing or giving credit to the work of others, whether published or unpublished and

whether it had been written work, an oral presentation, or material on a website. In

particular, “Turnitin”software will be used to check plagiarism. Each and every citation

is reflected in the Reference section. If there is a word-for-word copying beyond a

 32

short phrase or six or seven words of someone else's text, that section will be

enclosed in quotation marks or indented and referenced, at the location in the

manuscript of the copied material, to the original source.

Fabrication and Falsification. Moreover, any type of misleading information,

as well as representation of primary data findings in a biased way will be avoided to

ensure that no fabrication and falsification is committed. To be able to do this, I will

also prepare copies of the manuscript of the research findings to be made available

to the participants’ organization or should the participant ask for it. I will also obligate

myself to maintain a clear and complete record of data acquired in order to preserve

accurate documentation of observed facts with which later reports or conclusions can

be compared. Furthermore, I will keep the records which include sufficient details to

permit examination for the purpose of replicating the research, responding to

questions that may result from unintentional error or misinterpretation, establishing

authenticity of the records, and confirming the validity of the conclusions. Falsification

is also avoided by making sure that the research materials or processes used are the

exact ones used. There will be no changing or omitting of data or results such that

the research is not accurately represented in the research record.

Conflict of Interest and Deceit. Affiliations in any forms, sources of funding,

as well as any possible conflicts of interests have to be declared. Should any of these

occur in the study, I will include a conflict of interest statement when I submit my

manuscript for review so that the committee will be the one to decide if the conflict is

one that should be included with the publication of my article. If no such thing occurs,

the author shall disclose in this study that no support, financial or otherwise, has
 33

been received from any organization that may have an interest in the submitted work;

and that there are no other relationships or activities that could appear to have

influenced the submitted work.

In relation to ensuring that participants are shown fair treatment and justice, each

participant will be treated equally without judgment or prejudice. The principle of

veracity or truth telling (Banner, 2010) is inherently important and I will show this by

honestly telling the participants the aim of the research and proposed outcomes.

Most importantly, in this study, research subjects will not be subjected to any harm in

any ways whatsoever; hence, I will also not give any misleading information to the

respondents but provide them with enough actual and honest information before the

start of their participation in the study. This includes that the participants will be

informed about the fact that they may be subject to emotional distress when

discussing about the topic and so it is up to them to commit their voluntary

participation.

Permission from Organization/ Location. The researcher will obtain written

consent through the Human Resource Officer of the Medical Institution in which the

data are to be collected. This is to make sure that the person to be contacted in the

Medical Institution has the authority and the activities will be organized in advanced.

Authorships. Finally, to ensure that authorship and contribution is enforced,

proper listing of the people who should be given credit will be done by drafting an

authorship contribution statement and acknowledging the contribution of all the

people who helped in the Acknowledgment section, from the research panel and
 34

reviewers to the statistician and grammarian of my study. I plan to make my adviser

as a co-author of this study as she has made significant contribution to the

conception or design of the project and the acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of

data for the work. She has also made significant contribution in reviewing my

manuscript critically for important intellectual content.

Lastly, I will make my study participants realized that that their dignity is a

paramount importance and I will also emphasize that they will not be used simply as

a means to achieve my research objectives (Mack et al., 2005). Ultimately, the point

of ethics in research is to ensure that participants are not harmed by the process.