Testing Organizational Communication Satisfaction

Testing organisational discourse cheerABSTRACTCommunication Satisfaction plays a real critical role in achieving employee dispute in schemes. It becomes even more than squ atomic number 18 and relevant in the context of the novel ball-shaped crisis wherein organizations focus on employee network was tall and was aimed towards employee retention and motivation. season several look intoers take aim canvas the relationship betwixt conversation and employee elaborateness, very hardly a(prenominal) studies deal set up a relationship amid Communication Satisfaction and Employee Engagement. Using the second-generation analytical technique Structural Equation Modeling, the present study examines the relationship surrounded by various components of Organization Communication Satisfaction (Organization Integration, Supervisory Communication, Personal Feedback, Communication Climate and Media Quality) and various components of Employee Engagement ( organizational Commitme nt, phone line Satisfaction and Withdrawal Cognition). A modify version of the Downs Hazens Communication Satisfaction Questionnaire was administered on 235 personnel in the In take a shitation Technology/ training Technology Enabled Services industry in India. The scale was tested for reli cleverness and hardiness using Confirmatory component part Analysis. The results indicate that Organization Communication Satisfaction has a positive impact on Employee Engagement. The study findings have strategic implications for organizations with regard to laying a greater emphasis on increasing communion blessedness with various human resource interventions, two at macro and micro levels in the organization.IntroductionEmployee fight has been drawing a lot of importance in various organizations in recent magazines. A global workforce study conducted by Towers Perrin in 2007-2008 revealed that only 21% of the employees were engaged. A more disturbing finding of the study was that 38% of the employees were partly to richly disengaged. The study similarly reason that companies with the higher levels of employee engagement atomic number 18 able to retain their valued employees as besides achieve better financial results. Similarly, Gallup has also conducted a study on employee engagement and found that 29% of employees be actively engaged in their projects, 54% atomic number 18 not engaged, and 17% argon actively disengaged. Many researchers have studied employee engagement and have found that employee engagement predicts employee outcomes, organisational success and financial performance (Bates, 2004 Harter et al., 2002,). Similarly, Hewitt Associates (LLC, 2005, p.1) have also accomplished a strong relationship between employee engagement and pro panorama world power through higher productivity, sales, customer satisfaction and employee retention. Unfortunately though, a lot of literature forthcoming is only those from Consulting firms and there is very little theoretical or empirical research available on employee engagement.Today, as a result of continuous organizational restructuring (mergers, acquisitions, downturn imperatives), it is commonly observed that organizations are resorting to right sizing strategies. It certainly becomes the most critical priority of CEOs around the world to ensure that the employees who survive the layoffs are fully engaged. Research indicates that there is a decline in engagement levels and that there is deepening disengagement among employees today (Saks, 2006 Richman, 2006 Bates, 2004). It has also been reported that the majority of workers today, roughly half of all Americans in the workforce are not fully engaged or they are dis engaged leading to what has been referred to as an engagement breakout that is costing US business $300 billion a year in lost productivity (Saks, 2006, Bates 2004, Johnson, 2004 Kowalski, 2003). Further, with the world nice a global mart place, where every th ing is becoming a commodity, people and management of peoples talent are becoming very critical components of an organizations ability to service its customer. Managing dis-engaged employees or non-engaged employees in a customer facing role is therefore that much more critical to the success and profitability of the business. Lockwood explains, As organizations move forward into a boundaryless(prenominal) environment, the ability to attract, engage, develop and retain talent will hence, become increasingly importantIn addition to the various literatures available from consultants, there have been a few researches conducted on the predecessors and consequences of employee engagement and also What is employee engagement. A very exhaustive analysis of employee engagement has bee done by Macey and Schneider (2008). In the study employee engagement has been explained as 3 facests viz., Psychological state engagement (Satisfaction, involvement, commitment, empowerment), Trait engagement ( individual(prenominal)ity, conscientiousness) and Behavioural engagement (Organizational Citizenship Behaviour, Personal initiative, role expansion). Another research indicates that employee engagement constitutes two aspects viz., job engagement and organization engagement (Saks, 2006). Saks (2006 further found that employee engagement was significantly positively related to job satisfaction, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behaviour and negatively related to intention to quit.Organizational Communication plays a very critical part in ensuring employee engagement. It has been puddleed that clear, consise and honest conference is an important tool for employee engagement (Lockwood). It is further established that insufficiency of communication or poorly communicated training can lead to dis self-assertion, dissatisfaction, skepticism and unwanted employee turnover. Studies demonstrate that there is a significant influence of Interpersonal trust on ind ividual, group and organizational achievements (Earley, 1986 Robinson, 1996), billet Satisfaction (Driscoll, 1978 Muchinsky, 1977), Job Involvement (Saks, 2006) and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (Konovsky Pugh, 1994 McAllister, 1995). Studies have also to a lower placelined the telephone exchange role of communication in developing and maintaining Trust (Gail, Zolin, Hartman, 2009 Becerra Gupta, 2003 Muchinsky, 1977).With particular reerence to recession, retrenchment has become a harsh candor over the past 2 decades. These downsizing strategies come with other negative consequences of attrition of employees who are not impacted by downsizing. The problem is more profound when the attriting employees are top performers or employees with skills critical to future growth plans of the organization. Various studies have proved that downsizing negatively affects attitudes of employees surviving the downsizing by reducing organizational commitment, morale, job satisfaction a nd also increasing intention to quit and job stress (Arnold and Feldman, 1982 Greenhalge, 1982 Koz scurvyski et. al, 1993).It is therefore, very important for organizations to find ways to retain the attriting employees afer downsizing. Managerial communication and Organizational condense can be looked at as possible avenues to reduce the negative effects of downsizing. Communication becomes very critical because employees believe that their organization holds them in low regard and ignores their interest (Anderson, 1996 Mclean Parks and Kidder, 1994). They also suspect that management communication is not credible for tat information is being withheld (Noer 1993, ONeill and Lenn, 1995). Employees need to understand how they fit into the overall plans of the organization in terms of their roles and contribution to the growth plans of the organizations. Various surveys in this regard indicate that employees want more communication with their managers (Argenti, 1998). There are vari ous studies that have established a positive relationship between communication satisfaction and job satisfaction (Petit, Goris and Vaught, 1997 Pincus 1996) and organization commitment (Varona, 1996). A communication ROI study by Watson Wyatt (2007-2008) revealed that firms that communicate effectively are 4 times as likely to report high levels of employee engagement as firms that communicate less effectively.This study therefore, attempts to establish the impact of Organizational communication on mediating role of Trust in the relationship between Organizational Communication Satisfaction on Employee Engagement in the Information Technology / Information Technology Enabled Services (IT/ITES) industry in India. We have selected the IT/ITES) industry because of the significance of the impact during the recent recessionary period.Literature Review and Research HypothesisOrganizational CommunicationOrganisation communication constitutes many dimensions spanning from formal and inform al means of internal communication and outside communications. A review of literature in this area reveals that Organizational communication can be classified into four different levels (SHRM Magazine)(i) Overall Organizational communication(ii) Inter-organizational communication(iii) Group-level communication(iv) Interpersonal communicationFurther, review of the research in this area underlines the importance of organizational communication towards building commitment, satisfaction and retention of employees in an organization. A number of studies (Burhans 1971, Downs 1971, Jain 1970) studied the relevance and importance of satisfaction with organizational communication. Such examinations of the communication-satisfaction relationship have produced, a execute called communication satisfaction, which is becoming a common reference in organizational literature (Downs and Hazen, 1977). Downs and Hazen, introduced the Communications Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ) and conducted a fa ctor analytic study of communication satisfaction. This study established eight stable definitions of communication satisfaction, which has also been enumerated as follows in another study by Clampitt Downs, 1993Communication Climate reflects communication on both the organizational and personal level. On one hand, it includes items such as the tip to which communication in the organization motivates and stimulates workers to meet organizational goals and the extent to which it makes them identify with the organization. On the other, it includes estimates of whether or not peoples attitudes toward communicating are healthy in the organization.Supervisory Communication includes both upward and downwardly aspects of communicating with superiors. Three of the principal items include the extent to which a superior is open to ideas, the extent to which the supervisor listens and pays attention, and the extent to which guidance is offered in lick job-related problems.Organizational I ntegration revolves around the degree to which individuals receive information roughly the flying work environment. Items include the degree of satisfaction with information close departmental plans, the requirements of their jobs, and some personnel news.Media Quality deals with the extent to which meetings are swell up organized, written directives are short and clear, and the degree to which the amount of communication is active right.Co-worker Communication concerns the extent to which horizontal and informal communication is accurate and desolate flowing. This factor also includes satisfaction with the activeness of the grapevine.Corporate Information deals with broadest kind of information about the organization as a whole. It includes items on notification about changes, information about the organizations financial standing, and information about the overall policies and goals of the organization.Personal Feedback is concerned with the workers need to know how they are being judged and how their performance is being appraised. hyponym Communication focuses on upward and downward communication with subordinates. Only workers in a supervisory capacity respond to these items, which include subordinate responsiveness to downward communication and the extent to which subordinates initiate upward communication.Crino White (1981) investigated Communication Satisfaction with 137 supervisors from textile mills. Similarly, Pincus (1986) used the CSQ in a study of nurses and their supervisors to investigate the relationship between communication and job satisfaction and job performance. These findings had resulted in the CSQ being the most widely used scale when measuring communication satisfaction. The notable aspect though is, that the studies by Downs Hazens (1977) and Crino White (1981) exploratory factor analysis rather than confirmator factor analysis for assessing the validity of the CSQ. Theerefore, the convergent and discriminant validity of the CSQ was under question.Further, until the introduction of CSQ, Communication was considered as an unidimensional construct. The underlying belief was that employees are either satisfied or dis-satisfied with communication. However, with the introduction of the CSQ changed it communication satisfaction to be viewed as a multi-dimensional construct wherein, employees could be satisfied or dis-sastisfied with one or more aspects of communication and be dis-satisfied.Gary and Laidlaw (2004) assessed the CSQ using Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Their study used a series of congener measurement models to study the validity and reliability of the CSQ. Based on the study, Gary Laidlaw concluded, the results substantiate CSQ as a valid instrument for measuring communication satisfaction and supports the multi-dimensional aspects of the communication satisfacation construct.This study therefore, proposes to establish the convergent and discriminant validity and reliability of the CSQ for th e purpose of IT/ITES sector in India. The study also proposes to establish the relationships between the individual dimensions of Organizational Communication Satisfaction using First order and Second order Confirmatory Factor Analysis.H1 Dimensions of Organisation Communication Satisfaction are inter-relatedH2 Organisational Communication Satisfaction is explained by Organisational Integration, Supervisory communication, Personal Feedback, Corporate Information, Communication Climate and Media Quality.Employee EngagementEmployee engagement has been drawing a lot of importance in various organizations in recent times. There have been few research works on employee engagement (Robinson et al, 200) and most of understanding comes from Consulting firms and Independent Research agencies. There have been various definitions of employee engagement. Employee engagement is the level of commitment and involvement an employee has towards their organization and its values (Vazirani, 2007). E ngagement is the willingnessand ability to contribute to company success, the extent to which employees put arbitrary effort into their work, in the form of extra time, brainpower and energy (Towers Perrin, 2007). Often used as a synonym for motivation or motivation and retention engagement is really more fundamental. Engagement is an employees decision to apply his discretionary effort to the goals of the enterprise, to accept those goals as his own and wholeheartedly commit himself to achieving them. (Fineman Carter 2007)Though employee engagement as a pattern has been drawing a lot of importance, it is still a term widely referred among consulting firms and independent research agencies. There have been very few empirical research initiatives in the academic world to establish the definition of the construct employee engagement.Mickey and Schneider (2008) have done a detailed study on the convey of employee engagement and have established a series of propositions covering 3 f acets a) Psychological stage engagementb) Behavioural engagementc) Trait engagement.This research though will focus on the psychological state engagement facet since this has received maximum attention and is central to the engagement issue. Further, the scope of the research is focused towards examining the impact of Organizational Communication Satisfaction on Employee Engagement. Past researches on similar subjects have all focussed on studying the relationship between Organizational Communication Satisfaction on individual aspects of State Engagement viz., Satisfaction, Commitment and Involvement.Mickey and Schneider (2008), art object explaining the psychological state engagement have studied 4 different aspects viz., Job satisfaction, Organizational commitment, Psychological empowerment and Job involvement. They have further referred to various related research in each of the preceding(prenominal) aspects and thereby analyse each of the aboe aspects as a facet or antecedent or consequence of employee engagement. Their study and analysis is as follows Engagement as Job SatisfactionIn defining Job Satisfaction as a facet of employee engagement, the views of Erickson (2005) are noteworthyEngagement is above or beyond simple satisfaction with the employment arrangement or basic loyalty to the employer. Engagement in contrast is about passion and commitment, the willingness to invest oneself and expand ones discretionary effort to help the employer succeedTherefore, it is beyond basic loyalty and is about the emotional aspect of Job satisfaction that triggers emotions and whole stepings of energy, enthusiasm and thereby constitutes a very important aspect of Engagement.Engagement as Organization CommitmentIn defining Organizational commitment as an important facet of employee engagement, the views from various contributions are noteworthy (Wellins and Concelman, 2005 OReilly Chatman, 1986 Mowday, Porter Steers, 1982 Meyer and Allens, 1997 Meyer, Becker Vanderberghe, 2004). These significant contributions lead to definitions employees exert extra energy in support of the organization, sprightliness proud as a key contrinbutor to the organization and its success and enjoy a personal identity with the organization. This leads to organization commitment being defined as a key facet of engagement (Mickey Schneider, 2008).While analysing organization commitment, there is also an analysis around organization / job withdrawal thereby suggesting that commitment as a state of engagement also relates to how long an employee stays as a result of commitment (The Corporate Executive Board, 2006)Engagement as Job InvolvementThe next aspect analysed by Mickey and Schneider (2008) is Job Involvement. Job Involvement has been defined as the degree to which an employee psychologically relates to his or her job and the work performed therein and specifically equated job involvement and job commitment (Cooper-Hakim and Visweswaran, 2005). Brown (1 996), Mathieu and Zajacs (1990) have also come up the conclusion that job involvement is an antecedent to organizational commitment. Brown further concluded that organizational withdrawal decisions are less related to job involvement than to organizational commitment. Erickson (2005) described job involvement as a key antecedent of the state of engagement. Based on the analysis and significant well researched contributions, we identify Job Satisfaction, Organizational commitment and withdrawal as key facets of employee engagement.Further, Saks (2006) has conducted a corking study on the antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. The research conceptualized engagement as being reflective of the extent to which an individual is psychologically present in a particular organizational role (Kahn, 1990 Rothbard, 2001). It was further conceptualized that there are two dominant roles attributable to most organizational sections viz., their work role and their role as a member of the organization. These two roles led to the two components of employee engagement Job and Organization engagement. Saks (2006) further found that that Job and Organization engagement were significantly positively related to Job satisfaction, organizational commitment and Organizational Citizenship Behavior, and negatively related to intention to quit.In summary, employee engagement is about ones emotional commitment towards the organization, being psychologically involved and willingness ability to walk that extra mile in achieving the Organizational goals and objectives. Based on the above review, it is understood that employee engagement mainly constitutes three aspects viz., Organizational commitment, job satisfaction and intention to stay.This study aims at establishing a relationship between the facets / components of Employee Engagement using 2nd order Confirmatory Factor Analysis. This study further proposes to establish the convergent and discriminant validity and reliabi lity of the various facets of employee engagement using First and Second order Confirmatory Factor AnalysisH3 Dimensions of Employee Engagement are coordinatedH4 Employee engagement is explained by Organisational Commitment, Job Satisfaction and Withdrawl Cognition Organization Communication Satisfaction and Employee EngagementThe next dimension studied was the relationship between Organizational Communication and Employee Engagement in organizations. Employees see managers as trustworthy when their communication is accurate and forthcoming. In addition, adequate explanations and timely feedback on decisions lead to higher levels of trust (Folger Konovsky, 1989 Konovsky Cropanzano, 1991 Sapienza Korsgaard, 1996). Evidently, managers who take the time to explain their decisions thoroughly are likely to be perceived as trustworthy. Finally, open communication, in which managers exchange thoughts and ideas freely with employees, enhances perceptions of trust (Butler, 1991 Farris, Senner, Butterfield, 1973 Gabarro, 1978 Hart, Capps, Cangemi, Caillouet, 1986). Lockwood states that lack of communication or poorly communicated information can lead to distrust, dissatisfaction, skepticism, cynicism and unwanted turnover. This is even more relevant in times of crisis as observed by Meyers in 1986 When a crisis occurs, employees are affected on a personal level, in ways and to an extent unlike in any other audience. Their immediate reaction is often to be stunned and lose a brain of common purpose and cohesiveness Gripped by fear, employees may stray from their sense of reality and turn inward, focusing exclusively on their personal needs and ignoring the organizations needs. Pincus Acharya, 1998 observed that Employees who are uncertain about their jobs, health, or safety may deny, misinterpret, selectively perceive, or tune out information from management about the crisis situation because they may be blinded by their own sense of a personal crisis.These st udies lead us the understanding that clear, consice, timely and honest communication is a very important management tool towards building employee engagement in Organizations (Lockwood). As discussed earlier, there have been many consultants and independent research organizations, which have established communication as a very critical component in enable employee engagement in organizations. Further, there have been individual studies relating organizational communication and the individual facets and antecedents of employee engagement. This study proposes to study the relationship of Organization Communication Satisfaction on Employee Engagement using second-generation analysis tecnique, Structural Equation Modelling.H5 Organisation Communication Satisfaction has a positive impact on Employee Engagement..Research Methodology Questionnaire traffic patternThe Communication Satisfaction Questionnaire (Downs and Hazens, 1977) was selected for the Organization Communication construct of the study. We have used on seven factors of the CSQ beause the eighth factor, subordinate communication since this study was not aimed at personnel in their role as employees and not supervisors. For the Employee Engagement construct, each of the individual facets was measured on borrowed scales. Job Satisfaction was measured on 5 items taken from the scale developed by Price and Muellar (1986). Organization Commitment was measured on 6 items taken from the scale developed by Meyer, Allen and smith (1997) while Withdrawal Cognition was measured on 3-item scale developed by De Conninck and Bachmann (2005).Since we are using borrowed scales for each of the constructs, it is important to commencement ceremony establish the validity and reliability of the scale. In other words, the items must reflect what they are intended to measure (face validity) and represent a proper sample of the domain of each construct (content valididty), and pass other tests of validity (discriminant, co nvergent and predictive validity) in order for a measure to have construct validity (Hardesty and Bearden, 2003). As a first step, we carried out a face validity of the constructs of the study. Based on the approaches discussed by Hardesty and Bearden, we identified a panel of 7 decide to assess the face validity. The judges were exposed to the definition of each construct, overall scope and objective of the study and the individual items under each construct (Total number of items was 49). Each judge was pass along to rate the importance and relevance of the item to the constructs conceptual definition on a scale of 1-10 (1-Least important to 10-Most Important). (eg. How would items like I find real amusement in my job or I am seldom bored with my job). Additional remarks were also sought from the judges on whether multiple items under a construct mean the same and also which among the items was a better representative of the constructs conceptual definition. These results were summarized by Judge for each item and the items which were given a weightage of less than 8 were considered for reduction. During the content validity stage, the judges unanimously felt that co-worker communication, as a dimension was not too relevant from an engagement perspective since a lot of it was not largely under the control of the organization. However, one item in the co-worker communication was felt necessary to be included viz., Extent to which communication practices are adaptable to emergencies and hence, the same was retained and included in the dimension Communication climate. Similarly, the item viz., Information about changes in our organization and Information about company goals and policies were the only 2 items left under the dimenstion Corporate Information. Since it is required to have atleast 3 items under each dimension / factor for Structured Equation Modelling, these 2 items were grouped under the dimension Organizational Integration. Therefore, in the fi nal questionnaire (total number of items 29), Organizational Communication Satisfaction was reduced to 5 factors viz., Organizational Integration, Supervisory Communication, Personal Feedback, Communication Climate and Media Quality. The factors under Employee Engagement were all retained viz., Organization commitment, Job satisfaction and Withdrawl cognition.In addition to the 2 sections representing the main constructs of the study, the questionnaire also covered a brief write up covering the purpose of the study as well as explicit statements of assurance to the respondents about the confidentiality of their responses and that the responses would be used for academic purposes only.Data Collection and Sampling For this study, primary data was collected through structured undisguised questionnaires adminstered to the respondents. Questionnaires were administered through personal contacts / meetings and through mail as per the convenience of the respondent at home or in office. The respondents were requested to au naturel(p) few minutes to provide categorical responses to items in the questionnaireThe respondents for the study were selected from the personnel of organizations in Information Technology (IT) / Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) industry in India. A total of 275 questionnaires were administered to the respondents. 264 questionnaires were found to be complete in all respects, giving a response rate of 96.%. A further 29 invalid questionnaires were eliminated (those questionnaires where too many items were left unanswered or the same response was given to all the questions) and thereby 235 valid questionnaires were taken for further analysis.MeasurementsThe study supposal covers 2 Constructs Organization Communication Satisfaction (OCS) and Employee Engagement (EE). OCS is measured for 5 key dimensions / Factors viz., Organization Integration, Supervisory Communication, Personal Feedback, Communication Climate and Media Quality while EE is measured on 3 key dimensions / factors viz., Organization commitment, Job satisfaction and Withdrawal Cognition. The 8 categorical dimensions were measured on the following items / variablesFactor / DimenstionItems / Variables of measurementOrganization Communication Satisfaction (OCS)Organization IntegrationInformation about the requirements of my job Information about my progress in my job Information about company policies and goals Information about changes in our organizationSupervisory CommunicationExtent to which my supervisor listens and pays attention to me Extent to which my supervisor offers guidance for solving job related problems Extent to which my supervisor trusts me Extent to which my supervisor is open to ideasPersonal FeedbackInformation about how I am being assessed Information about how my efforts are recognized and rewarded Extent to which superiors know and understand the problems faced by subordinatesCommunication ClimateExtent to which the organizatio ns communication motivates and stimulates an enthusiasm for meeting its goals Extent to which the organizations communication makes me identify with it or feel a vital part of it Extent to which communication practices are adaptable to emergencies Extent to which I receive in time the information need to do my jobMedia QualityExtent to which written directives and reports are clear and concise Extent to which the attitudes toward communication in the organization are basically healthy Extent to which the amount of communication in the organization is about rightEmployee EngagementOrganization CommitmentI really feel as if this organizations problems are my own I do not feel like part of the family at my organization (R) I do not feel emotionally attached to this organization (R) This organization has a great deal of personal meaning for me I do not feel strong sense of belonging to my organization (R)Job SatisfactionI find real enjoyment in my job Most days I am gaga about my job I feel fairly well satisfied with my jobWithdrawal CognitionI would be very happy to take place the rest of my career in this Company Within the next six months, I would rate the likelihood of leaving my present job as highAll the variables are categorical in nature and were measured on a categorical scale (5 point Likert).Data AnalysisWe have employ Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) as the tool of analysis for maximum likelihood estimation for examining the proposed hypotheses. As suggested by many researchers (e.g. Anderson Gerbing, 1998), we have chosen the trip the light fantastic toe analysis method wherein in the first step, we conduct the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) based on the correlation coefficient matrix of each measurement item (i.e. dimenstions / factors of OCS and dimensions / factors of EE). In the second step, after confirming the fitness of the cons