ISSN: 2167-0269
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Research Article - (2016) Volume 5, Issue 6
Housing is one of the hottest topics in Hong Kong, a city with high population density, 7.24 million residents in mid-2014, and less land. Therefore, a high concern of housing issue and housing development direction occurs in recent years. Residential clubhouse becomes a selling gimmick of the private housing in spite of the unit itself. There are several reasons making residential clubhouse becomes a popular item in the private housing sector. The selling price of each unit can be set higher if there is a clubhouse services in the private housing sector.
A sound human resource supply is expected as there are several leisure and recreation management diploma or bachelor degree programmes offering in Hong Kong, which should be formed a positive relationship under an increasing demand in the industry. However, the fact is hiring staff or retaining staff in residential clubhouse are always difficult. Job satisfaction is one of the important indicators towards staff recruitment and retention. There may be tons of reasons affecting residential clubhouse staffs’ job satisfaction and it is necessary to find them out to rectify the situation. Many researchers had been discussed factors affecting job satisfaction in other fields, but not in the residential clubhouse industry. Most of the researchers agreed achievement, job content, salary, interpersonal relationship, firm size, fringe benefit are the affecting factors. In this paper, achievement including work empowerment, work autonomy, recognition and reward, opportunity of position promotion, sense of self-professional status, and personal future development will be examined and explained in details in affecting job satisfaction and intended turnover rate in Hong Kong residential clubhouse. National Intramural Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) 2009 Campus Recreational Sports Professional Staff Survey was adopted with several amendments to ensure the questions are well fit to Hong Kong situation.
Significant difference was found in result of the flexibility on work arrangement among gender, open communication among age group and opportunity of promotion among different educational level. Moderate correlation of most of the sub-factors under staff achievement was found, and the opportunity of rank promotion and fringe benefit perks had the higher correlation among the others. Hence, it is suggested improving physical reward, training and learning, and recognition practice can help enhancing job satisfaction.
Research results could help the practitioners to understand the current situation as this topic has not been discussed in Hong Kong before and this research study is the pioneer in exploring the satisfaction issue by one of the big factors, staff achievement in the residential clubhouse field.
<Keywords: Residential clubhouse; Staff; Satisfaction; Hong Kong
Housing is one of the hottest topics in Hong Kong, the city with high density of population but less land. There are around 7.24 million of residents, including the local residents and mobile residents, were recorded in mid-2014 with the 0.8% population of increment in the average annual rate compared with the past few years [27]. Therefore, a high concern of housing issue occurs in recent years and it is obvious that the private residential housing stands out from the all three housing sectors among from the development direction which also includes the public rental housing (PRH) and the subsidized home [1]. Under the support by the Hong Kong government with the land supply and policies, more and more private housing are built and according to the record from government, there are around 1.5 million units of the private housing in the market stock in the end of March in 2015, which takes 53.5% of the total housing land use in Hong Kong [1].
Residential clubhouse then becomes the biggest selling gimmick of the private housing in spite of the unit itself. There are several reasons making clubhouse becomes the popular item in the private sector, for instance the high encouragement of government which aims to strike the balance between the public and private leisure facilities [2]. Furthermore, the selling price of each unit can be set higher if there is a clubhouse in the private housing complex thus the developers already put clubhouse as the compulsory part of the private property since they know the buyers (or householders) tend to invest in the property with luxury residential clubhouse more nowadays in order to keep the property value in the market and arouse their self -esteem as well [2].
Knowing that residential clubhouse plays such an important role in the private property field, the situation of manpower is happening in the contrast and negative side in Hong Kong. It is supposed that the demand and supply of the human resource in clubhouse should be in the positive relationship under the increasing needs. However, there is always a difficulty of a clubhouse hiring the staff or retaining a staff and the job satisfaction level is one of the most important indicators towards staff retention [3]. There may be tons of reasons affecting the job satisfaction of clubhouse staffs and it is necessary to find out the relative reason in order to avoid wasting resource on any staff. Many researchers had done their own research on discussing the factors of employee satisfaction in other fields, such as the job content, the salary, relationship among colleagues, firm size and fringe benefit and so on [4].
This research paper aims to investigate the relationship and level of one of the categories, staff achievement, which may affect the job satisfaction of residential clubhouse staff. Hence, provide with the indepth analysis for the clubhouse as reference in order to tackle the high turnover rate problem and enhance the employee satisfaction in Hong Kong.
Job satisfaction (or employee satisfaction) which can reflects the enjoyable level of the job experience of staffs and be affected by various factors from personal to organizational, has been defined as the indicator to show the company issues, including performance, staff retention and business growth [5].
Even though the satisfaction of staff can help on a firm development, the firm size does not reflect the satisfaction level in the same result. It is found that there are less satisfactory of the staff when they are working in the large firm base on four measures, the amount of wage, the staff achievement, the relationship and the job nature [4].
Employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction
Service industry has been grown largely in the recent years and the demand of high quality service becomes more and more by the customer [6]. Meanwhile, customer satisfaction has a high relationship with the employee satisfaction since they have the very close contact and the quality is certainly control only by the staffs which means when the staffs have a higher satisfaction from their job, the attitude and the productivity of staff will be improved a lot at the same time, and the performance of customer service will consider to be better and more likely to reach the total quality management (TQM) efforts [7].
Job satisfaction and retention
Different factors in the below which are about the pay, workplace relationship, job content and staff achievement are all interrelated. They briefly showed that when the supervisor managerial goals are well-delivered to the staffs, the fair pay issued to each workers, the relationship between colleagues are good and the staff are recognized and rewarded appropriately, the loyalty is always higher in the company since every part of the employees is being well-concerned, so the satisfaction level is relatively higher as well [3].
Pay and satisfaction
Salary is the most basic concern of the employees and the most direct reward to enhance employee satisfaction. Adequate pay always motivates staffs to perform in a higher level [8]. Nonetheless, the pay fairness is another concern to the satisfaction level as every individual has their own estimation of the pay and comparison always happen among the coworkers, therefore either overpaid or underpaid will affect the satisfaction level of the employees [9].
Job itself
The work content which includes the tasks, the working hours or even the workplace environment are affecting the degree of employee satisfaction as the staff can complete the task requirement properly with reasonable working hours under certain supports in the environment help them to build up the job success and motivate staff to take the next challenge in work [9].
Relationship and satisfaction
Supervisor and coworkers play an important role in employee satisfaction level when the supervisor provides high goal clarity and space and the coworker are cooperative, the working atmosphere will be enhanced into much positively and everyone can be the role model of each staff as the reminder to maintain the attitude and quality to work. Employees work under positive relationship with colleagues show a higher satisfaction [10,11].
Staff achievement and satisfaction
Building staff achievement is a good tool to enhance job satisfaction, it may through the empowerment to staff or provide autonomy to work which shows the trust of the company to its staffs, reorganization or reward to ensure the efforts that the staff has put or internal promotion as every staff concerns about their career pathway and space of personal development in a company. All these way help increasing the intrinsic motivation which means the satisfaction as well [12].
However, all the previous and current researches are just briefly found out the factors that will affect the employee satisfaction level and the relationship between employee satisfaction to company development or to customer satisfaction in many service fields. Instead, there is lack of research that deeply investigates the importance of employee satisfaction and its influence to an industry, especially in the residential clubhouse field, which is widely developing in Hong Kong. Therefore, this study is mainly focus on one of the measures, staff achievement, to see what kind of employee achievement can affect the level of job satisfaction in residential clubhouse.
Definition of staff achievement: Achievement normally means something that has been accomplished and shows the efforts putting in it. Staff achievement has been defined as the positive result while the staff finishing particular goal in a task or being beneficial to the company that his or her effort will be praised or certain status will be built by the company and themselves [13]. Several factors in below are under the achievement aspect that affecting the employee satisfaction level or even the turnover.
Factors in staff achievement: Work empowerment: Empowerment has been found as an essential act to build a greater employee satisfaction and help the staff to perform better in years ago [14]. The meaning of empowerment is to let the staff participating in the decision making process or providing freedom to the staff in solving the problems in order to secure the staff in their position by offering certain job control.
Factors in staff achievement: Work autonomy: Meanwhile, the autonomy of work shares the similar effect on enhancing the employee satisfaction level. Autonomy is defined as the degree of independence, freedom and the ability that the company provides to its staffs on handling tasks, planning the works and allocating the job duties, which shows the level of control that the staffs can own on their works [15]. It is clearly shown that autonomy is intangible, valuable and important in increasing job satisfaction as staffs are willing to take more responsibility on the work controlling, and be innovative in the tasks without too many restrictions from superiors and less stress of staffs is found with sufficient autonomy (as the reward) on work. No matter empowering to staff or providing autonomy are seem to be a kind of trust from company to the staff which can highly encourage the staffs to move forward and show more ability [16].
Factors in staff achievement: Recognition and reward: Recognition and reward to staff are the very direct way to motivate workers put more efforts in the job and attract them to stay with the company [17]. There is no doubt that every staff would love to be appreciated by the superiors and company and get some extra benefit as the ultimate goal in their position. Understanding the needs of each staff before recognizing and rewarding them is an important process but normally being ignored by the employers which lose most of the meaning and not effective on encouraging staffs and increasing the job satisfaction as well, the reason behind is the employers always put the main focus on the business development and the productivity instead of spending time on considering the needs of staffs [18]. However, an appropriate recognition and rewarding practice can establish a better working atmosphere and boost the staffs’ confidence and productivity in order to help achieving the company’s goals and enhancing the company’s competitiveness, which brings certain benefits to the firm [18]. There are many ways to recognize and reward staffs in the extrinsic and intrinsic aspects. For extrinsic one, providing bonus money or extra discount to the staff who have high performance or contribution to the company, or who behave really well or long-term service staffs and these are the most common practices in a company by sharing part of the profits to the staffs [16]. However, some other intrinsic methods are being more popular and highly addressed among companies as it can reduce the costs and improve the ability of the staffs. Employers and superiors now prefer providing more on-thejob training, development opportunity, and support and suggestion in work freely to their staff, which can satisfy the staffs by improving their skills and ability [16].
Factors in staff achievement: Opportunity of position promotion: Proper staff promotion contributes a lot in strengthening staff selfconfidence and esteem, and it shows the trust and appreciation of the company to the working performance and ability of staffs. Employing and promoting staffs are the process that affecting the development of workers from inside to outside as staff will have the self-assessment as well as the peer assessment on the performance in the mind. If the company can address the staff with excellent contribution and good skill and promote them to the appropriate position, it will enhance the morale of all staffs since everyone will have faith and believe in the company to recognize their hard work and performance, hence try their best to behave and perform better to gain the better impression of superiors and fight for the higher position that they deserve to be promoted [19]. It will consider as the win-win situation to both of the staff and the company. In contrast, if the employers promote the wrong person who is not the outstanding one among the staffs or do not promote the potential staffs who positively contribute a lot appropriately, the morale and satisfaction level of all staffs will be decreased since the rewarding system is not reasonable and reliable. Therefore, many studies indicated the internal promotion has the significant effect on employee satisfaction.
Factors in staff achievement: Sense of self professional status: Not only the promotion of rank can affect the satisfaction level, the job title which indicates the sense of professional level holds a role in the employee satisfaction as well, even in recreational industry. It is suggested that the job title of a staff has a significant influence in the job satisfaction, which means the staff who is in the higher rank with the more professional title will equally have the higher satisfaction in the job [19]. It is believed that staffs also need to be recognized and respected starting by the job position title to the job content, it means deeply to the staff esteem and if they can get the respect and have the sense of profession by the title, they are more likely to satisfy with the job [19].
Factors in staff achievement: Personal future development: Every staff looks for progression within the job and the opportunity of personal development somehow determine the level of employee satisfaction. It seems that the employee will have a higher satisfaction level in the company when the employer is willing to provide sufficient opportunities of training and development to enhance the skills and competency of the staffs [20]. The concern is that staffs always care about their own career development and if the company is able to provide enough training to the staffs, it can secure and retain the staffs into the company as the staffs will believe that they have certain importance on contributing to the company so that the employer would invest on them by offering them training to enhance capability to the higher level and their personal development and career pathway will seem to be better in the future.
Age and job satisfaction
Many of the studies indicated that age is one of the indicators in measuring job satisfaction and they cited out that the older employees who have the longer working experience seem to have the higher job satisfaction than the younger colleagues, the reason that has been mentioned is that the older workers have experienced more and longer, and therefore they will adjust their expectation on work so they are easier to be satisfied than the youth workers [19]. However, this study also mentioned that there are still some researchers argued that age is not one of the factors that influencing employee satisfaction, therefore it leads to the further investigation in this study.
Gender and job satisfaction
There are two sides of view in this factor as the majority of literatures showed that gender is not a significant variable on the levels of job satisfaction and in contrast some indicated that gender has the influence on it since they found that women gained the better sense on job satisfaction than men due to the effort and recognition may be differentiated between genders and women seems to be easier to build the sense of success and their career pathway than men so this study is going to see whether gender really plays an effective role in job satisfaction or not [19].
Education level and job satisfaction
Some researches indicated that education level is not significantly affecting the satisfaction level of staff since the working experience and the ability will become the concern once the employees are participated into the field. However, some researchers disagreed that as they found out the result is totally different that the employees may be advanced in achieving the goals or handling the job tasks when they are well-educated since their professional education level provides them sufficient knowledge to tackle many problems that may find in works so they are easy to be satisfied. Or in an opposite result is that employees who have the higher educational level are hardly gain the job satisfaction and the reason is that those who are considering to be professionals or expertise always have the higher expectation on themselves and therefore they may not easily to be satisfied than those employees who are just averagely being educated and set the lower standard to their working result [19].
This study is going to review all the relationship among the above factors to the job satisfaction level and the interrelationship between factor and factor in the residential clubhouse field to find out the significant variables that is influencing the situation in Hong Kong.
National Intramural Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) 2009 Campus Recreational Sports Professional Staff Survey was adopted base on the comprehensive consideration from a board of six members, five of them are experienced in residential clubhouse, and one of them is totally out of the field. Some amendments were made in the questionnaire to ensure the questions are fit into Hong Kong situation.
Pilot test
Pilot test was conducted to assess the validity and reliability. Eight people with residential clubhouse work experience were invited to participate in the pilot test. They were asked to examine all the items carefully and rate each of them twice, a week before and a week after to check the validity and reliability. To improve the understanding of the questionnaire items, several modifications were made to the instrument to eliminate items that did not seem to fit the context and improve the flow and design of the questionnaires. The result of overall Cronbach’s Alpha is 0.96, which show good reliability achieving scores above the accepted level of 0.7.
Measurement: The questionnaire consisted of 66 questions divided into six sections: 1) overall perception on clubhouse professional, 2) job satisfaction/dissatisfaction with the current job, 3) job satisfaction/ dissatisfaction with the current department/organisation, 4) factor affecting job satisfaction, 5) factor affecting quitting a job, and 6) demographic information. All items were assessed with a four-point scale, labeled as ‘Strongly Agree/Very Satisfied’ (4), ‘Agree/Satisfied’ (3), ‘Disagree/Dissatisfied’ (2), ‘Strongly Disagree/Very Dissatisfied’ (1).
Sample and procedures: The population for this study comprised of operational, supervisory and managerial employees working in residential clubhouse field in Hong Kong. A total of 80 employees were identified by convenience sampling and the data were collected by questionnaire in the first quarter of 2016. Questionnaire distribution involved a visit. All participants were advised of the purpose of the questionnaire, given instructions on filling out and were encouraged to ask questions if any, a consent form was prepared and participants were advised to sign on it to show their agreement on participating in the study. Researcher would accompany the participants when they were answering the questionnaire to avoid any unnecessary disturbance and ensuring the privacy. Participants were told that the survey was completely anonymous and confidential.
Finding: A total of 80 questionnaires were sent to several residential clubhouses in districts and the return rate was 100%. The sample demographic profile for this study was shown in Table 1. 72.6% of respondents showed the positive opinion on the overall job satisfaction level. The respondents were represented by 53.75% (n=43) males and 46.25% (n=37) female; the ratio of their staff rank were 68.75% (n=55) front line level, 25% (n=20) supervisory level and 6.25% (n=5) managerial level; with the salary that 17.5% (n=14) were under HK$10,000, majority at 66.3% (n=53) were between HK$10,001 and HK$15,000, 10% (n=8) were from HK$15,001 to HK$20,000, and 6.3% (n=5) were above HK$20,000. Majority respondents showed the highest education and age at 41.3% (n=33) diploma or associate degree and 48.7 (n=39) 25 to34 years old.
Characteristic | Within Group Percentage | Overall Percentage |
---|---|---|
Gender | ||
Male | 53.7 | |
Female | 46.3 | |
Education | ||
Secondary School | 30.0 | |
Diploma/Associated Degree | 41.3 | |
Bachelor’s Degree | 28.7 | |
Age | ||
15-24 | 46.2 | |
25-34 | 48.7 | |
35-44 | 3.8 | |
45-54 | 1.3 | |
Front line | ||
Under HKHK$10,000 | 25.5 | 17.5 |
HKHK$10,000 - HKHK$15,000 | 74.5 | 51.3 |
Supervisory | ||
HK$10,000 - HK$15,000 | 60.0 | 15.0 |
HK$15,001 - HK$20,000 | 40.0 | 10.0 |
Managerial | ||
HK$20,001 - HK$25,000 | 80.0 | 5.0 |
HK$25,001 - HK$30,000 | 20.0 | 1.3 |
Table 1: The main characteristics of the sample.
Staff achievement and satisfaction
Professional status (n=74) and promotion (n=75) had a very statistical significant relationship (spearman correlation, p<0.01) toward the overall job satisfaction among elements in staff achievement that classified as moderate correlation (r value >0.3-0.5) based on the Will Hopkins’ classification, which shown in Table 2.
Correlations | Overall satisfaction with the job |
---|---|
Professional goals Promotion Attend professional meeting Fringe benefits Earn additional income Further education Professional status Professional staff rank |
0.308** |
0.442** | |
0.314** | |
0.381** | |
0.347** | |
0.303** | |
0.497** | |
0.392** |
*p<0.05, **p<0.01
Table 2: Spearman correlation matrix among job characteristics & job satisfaction.
The other elements such as professional goals (n=76, p<0.01), attend professional meeting (n=74, p<0.01), fringe benefits (n=78, p<0.01), earn additional income (n=69, p<0.01), further education (n=70, p<0.01) and professional staff rank (n=75, p<0.01) also showed there was a very statistically significant result in moderate correlation with the overall job satisfaction (r value >0.3-0.5).
The overall job satisfaction and the satisfaction of clubhouse profession indicated the positive opinion of the staffs in current study, which is opposite of the situation of high turnover rate and some of the results were inconsistent with the previous reviewed research since the influencing level of different personal correlates towards job satisfaction in clubhouse showed unexpected result. Based on the result of Spearman correlation, the staff achievement’s elements were the significant indicators to measure residential clubhouse staffs’ job satisfaction, including professional goals, attend professional meeting, fringe benefits, earn additional incomes, further education, professional staff rank, and the professional status and job promotion showed the higher level of relationship with job satisfaction level. The demographic factors also reflected some different results of the strength on the concerns of clubhouse staffs toward the satisfaction (Table 2).
Factor affecting job satisfaction
Table 3 showed the ranked items under staff achievement that 71.4% fringe benefits perks got the most concern in the upper ranking from 1st to 5th (n=57) and the promotional opportunities for advancement ranking as the second got 47.4% (n=38), nearly half of the respondents chose it for job satisfaction. Conversely, 23.9% participation in decision making (n=19) and 16.3% sense of ownership of the program (n=13) showed the small concern of clubhouse staff towards the job satisfaction level.
Ranking (1st-5th) | N | % | |
---|---|---|---|
Fringe benefits perks | 1st | 4 | 5.0 |
2nd | 21 | 26.3 | |
3rd | 12 | 15.0 | |
4th | 7 | 8.8 | |
5th | 13 | 16.3 | |
Total | 57 | 71.4 | |
Participation in decision making | 1st | 0 | 0 |
2nd | 3 | 3.8 | |
3rd | 4 | 5.0 | |
4th | 7 | 8.8 | |
5th | 5 | 6.3 | |
Total | 19 | 23.9 | |
Sense of ownership of the program | 1st | 2 | 2.5 |
2nd | 4 | 5.0 | |
3rd | 1 | 1.3 | |
4th | 4 | 5.0 | |
5th | 2 | 2.5 | |
Total | 13 | 16.3 | |
Promotional opportunities for advancement | 1st | 5 | 6.3 |
2nd | 5 | 6.3 | |
3rd | 11 | 13.5 | |
4th | 12 | 15.0 | |
5th | 5 | 6.3 | |
Total | 38 | 47.4 |
Table 3: Ranked categories in staff achievement.
Fringe benefit perks received the highest ranking by the respondents referring the most powerful strength and the promotion opportunities among the correlates, such as participation in decision making and sense of ownership of the program in staff achievement that help enhancing job satisfaction in residential clubhouse industry. Staffs in Hong Kong tend to concern about the physical benefits to increase the job satisfaction and work motivation, therefore despite of the salary itself, fringe benefit perks that can be the extrinsic motivation to enhance the employee satisfaction level additionally, which is consistent to the previous reviewed literature. Fringe benefit perks can be distributed in many forms and the previous research suggests using bonus money or the loyalty with the company by long-term serving [16]. Since the rewards can provide the actual help for staffs’ daily life to release burden on the inflation in Hong Kong therefore it means a lot more to the clubhouse staff as most of them only earn around HK$10,000 - HK$15,000 per month.
The opportunity of job promotion ranked the second place within staff achievement’s factors which also illustrated the importance on enhancing the job satisfaction in clubhouse since it was directly related to the future pathway of the staff and the relevant condition can be progressed as well. This result had the similar indication of other research that sufficient and accurate promotion can help increasing morale between staffs and encouraging better performance [19]. Staffs tended to perform better to gain the better impression for future promotion opportunity. This factor can fit into other relevant industry as well, despite of the residential clubhouse, the chance of advancement and development is also one of the top three factors that has the high concern for improving employee satisfaction in hotel industry in Hong Kong [21]. which means this factor had a significant and strong effect on the job satisfaction.
Factor affecting quitting a job
Majority reason of quitting the job that related to staff achievement were 31.3% unsatisfactory benefits (n=25) and 21.3% lack of growth and advancement opportunities (n=17). 15% of feeling devalued and unrecognized (n=12) also showed the effect leading staff to think of job quitting and other were shown in Table 4.
Ranking (1st-5th) | N | % | |
---|---|---|---|
Feeling devalued and unrecognized | Yes | 12 | 15 |
Total | 80 | ||
Inflexible work arrangements | Yes | 3 | 3.8 |
Total | 80 | ||
Lack of growth and advancement opportunities | Yes | 17 | 21.3 |
Total | 80 | ||
Lack of open communication | Yes | 7 | 8.8 |
Total | 80 | ||
Lack of trust in senior leaders | Yes | 11 | 13.8 |
Total | 80 | ||
Unsatisfactory benefits | Yes | 25 | 31.3 |
Total | 80 |
Table 4: Reasons in staff achievement lead to job quitting.
There could have many reason that making a staff think of quitting the current job by staff achievement aspect, including when the staff feel devalued or unrecognized by the superior and company, working in the inflexible arrangements, lack of open communications with colleagues and supervisor, lack of trust from the leaders. The current study showed that the unsatisfactory of benefits and lack of opportunities for growth and advancement were the most important factors leading to the risk of staff turnover, which is consistent with the above analysis result since the residential clubhouse staffs concern these two factors the most for their job satisfaction. The increasing staff turnover rate brings numerous of problems to the residential clubhouse and the problem is continually happening among different properties, such as the annual turnover rate of clubhouse staffs from one properties company is 10.4% in 2010 [22] and the number increased to 22.3% two years later [23], bringing the huge challenge to the company to maintain talents and the morale among the remained staffs.
Gender difference
Gender had a statistically significant difference on one staff achievement element, that is inflexible works arrangement (Mann- Whitney U test, p<0.05). Female staffs had the higher mean rank than male staffs (42.2 and 39.0 respectively) as shown in Table 5.
Factor of staff achievement | Gender | Mean Rank | Sig. |
---|---|---|---|
Sense of Ownership of The Program | Male | 39.66 | 0.72 |
Female | 41.47 | ||
Participation In Decision Making | Male | 36.88 | 0.12 |
Female | 44.70 | ||
Fringe Benefits/Perks | Male | 42.45 | 0.41 |
Female | 38.23 | ||
Promotional Opportunities for Advancement | Male | 39.15 | 0.57 |
Female | 42.07 | ||
Feeling Devalued and Unrecognized | Male | 41.01 | 0.73 |
Female | 39.91 | ||
Inflexible Work Arrangements | Male | 39.00 | 0.05* |
Female | 42.24 | ||
Lack Of Growth and Advancement Opportunities | Male | 41.30 | 0.63 |
Female | 39.57 | ||
Lack of Open Communication | Male | 38.86 | 0.16 |
Female | 42.41 | ||
Lack of Trust In Senior Leaders | Male | 39.65 | 0.55 |
Female | 41.49 | ||
Unexpected Job/Career Opportunity | Male | 41.87 | 0.38 |
Female | 38.91 | ||
Unsatisfactory Benefits | Male | 42.88 | 0.21 |
Female | 37.73 |
*p<0.05, **p<0.01
Table 5: Gender difference and staff achievement towards job satisfaction.
This result is different from the previous research as it mentioned that there was no significant difference on the job satisfaction level affecting by the gender [19]. However, the situation happened oppositely in the inflexible works arrangement and the reason behind may be in the extreme way as the staffs in one gender may hate the restrictions on works that limit their autonomy and creativity or the opposite situation could be the staffs in opposite gender like following guidelines of work and cannot plan ahead for themselves so the order of work and the inflexible work does not matter to them.
Age difference
Table 6 showed that there was a statistically significant difference of the lack of open communication (Kruskal-Wallis H test, p<0.05) through the demographic factor of age. The age group of 45-54 had the highest mean rank (77.00), and following as the staff aged 25-34 (41.00) to aged 15-24 (39.16) and age group of 35-44 (37.00).
Factor of staff achievement | Age Group | Mean Rank | Sig. |
---|---|---|---|
Fringe Benefits/Perks | 15-24 | 43.35 | 0.69 |
25-34 | 37.68 | ||
35-44 | 45.00 | ||
45-54 | 31.50 | ||
Promotional Opportunities for Advancement | 15-24 | 38.58 | 0.43 |
25-34 | 42.88 | ||
35-44 | 44.00 | ||
45-54 | 8.00 | ||
Participation In Decision Making | 15-24 | 41.93 | 0.32 |
25-34 | 38.68 | ||
35-44 | 56.33 | ||
45-54 | 11.00 | ||
Sense f Ownership of The Program | 15-24 | 35.42 | 0.12 |
25-34 | 45.15 | ||
35-44 | 52.00 | ||
45-54 | 12.50 | ||
Inflexible Work Arrangements | 15-24 | 41.16 | 0.90 |
25-34 | 40.03 | ||
35-44 | 39.00 | ||
45-54 | 39.00 | ||
Lack of Growth and Advancement Opportunities | 15-24 | 38.49 | 0.20 |
25-34 | 41.23 | ||
35-44 | 45.33 | ||
45-54 | 72.00 | ||
Lack of Open Communication | 15-24 | 39.16 | 0.01** |
25-34 | 41.10 | ||
35-44 | 37.00 | ||
45-54 | 77.00 | ||
Lack of Trust In Senior Leaders | 15-24 | 40.41 | 0.86 |
25-34 | 41.15 | ||
35-44 | 35.00 | ||
45-54 | 35.00 | ||
Unexpected Job/Career Opportunity | 15-24 | 43.23 | 0.45 |
25-34 | 38.63 | ||
35-44 | 33.50 | ||
45-54 | 33.50 | ||
Unsatisfactory Benefits | 15-24 | 42.05 | 0.83 |
25-34 | 39.28 | ||
35-44 | 41.33 | ||
45-54 | 28.00 |
*p<0.05, **p<0.01
Table 6: Age difference and staff achievement towards job satisfaction.
There was one significant difference on lacking of open communication among different age groups. The results were partially inconsistent with the previous literatures as previous scholars mentioned there was significant difference on the age variable towards the job satisfaction as the workers who gets older or have the longer working experience within one company tend to have a higher satisfaction level since they will try to re-adjust their expectation on works in order to enhance the job satisfaction [19]. However, it showed a significant difference in the level of open communication, which was aligned with the previous study. Some age groups may want to get more respect or already re-adjusted their mindset of it or some may be selfcentered that avoid any communication. However, all the other factors did not reflect the big difference of opinion on the job satisfaction that maybe they had the similar agreement of satisfaction according to the staff achievement indicators.
Difference in educational background
The promotional opportunities had a statistically significant difference among the different educational level (Kruskal-Wallis H test, p<0.05). Staffs with the secondary school education level got the larger mean rank as 50.65, while who got the bachelor’s degree education level and diploma or associate degree education level got 38.22 and 34.71 respectively (Table 7).
Factor of staff achievement | Educational level | Mean Rank | Sig. |
---|---|---|---|
Fringe Benefits/Perks | Secondary school | 40.77 | 0.36 |
Diploma/Associate degree | 36.76 | ||
Bachelor's degree | 45.59 | ||
Promotional Opportunities for Advancement | Secondary school | 50.65 | 0.03* |
Diploma/Associate degree | 34.71 | ||
Bachelor's degree | 38.22 | ||
Participation In Decision Making | Secondary school | 41.85 | 0.51 |
Diploma/Associate degree | 37.11 | ||
Bachelor's degree | 43.96 | ||
Sense of Ownership of The Program | Secondary school | 40.75 | 0.50 |
Diploma/Associate degree | 43.38 | ||
Bachelor's degree | 36.11 | ||
Inflexible Work Arrangements | Secondary school | 42.33 | 0.31 |
Diploma/Associate degree | 40.21 | ||
Bachelor's degree | 39.00 | ||
Lack Of Growth and Advancement Opportunities | Secondary school | 38.67 | 0.54 |
Diploma/Associate degree | 42.91 | ||
Bachelor's degree | 38.96 | ||
Lack of Open Communication | Secondary school | 40.33 | 0.66 |
Diploma/Associate degree | 39.42 | ||
Bachelor's degree | 42.22 | ||
Lack of Trust In Senior Leaders | Secondary school | 38.33 | 0.63 |
Diploma/Associate degree | 41.06 | ||
Bachelor's degree | 41.96 | ||
Unexpected Job Career Opportunity | Secondary school | 40.17 | 0.72 |
Diploma/Associate degree | 41.98 | ||
Bachelor's degree | 38.72 | ||
Unsatisfactory Benefits | Secondary school | 46.33 | 0.14 |
Diploma/Associate degree | 36.48 | ||
Bachelor's degree | 40.17 |
*p<0.05, **p<0.01
Table 7: Educational level and staff achievement towards job satisfaction.
The previous reviewed research indicated the significant difference on the effect of educational level on job satisfaction in two extreme cases, one is the staffs with higher education are more capable to gain the higher satisfaction through work achievements; or they are easier to be dissatisfied due to the higher expectation to the work and themselves that increase the stress and difficulties within work [19]. In the study, there was one staff achievement factor reflected the significant difference on job satisfaction due to the education level, which is the promotional and advancement opportunity, groups of respondents having different expectation on the promotion based on their education level and it was consistent with the referenced research.
Difference in job title or rank
According to the Kruskal-Wallis H test, no significant difference had been shown between the staff title or rank and the job satisfaction level (p>0.05) of all the elements.
Some researchers suggest that the title or rank of the staff’s position can significantly affect the job satisfaction level [24] that the higher position they are at, the better job satisfaction they can get since there may be more support and resource for them to deal with the job tasks and once the mission has been completed, the greater accomplishment they can get. Moreover, the freedom and power of control on work are possibly higher as well as the better working condition and environment are provided to the higher rank staff, therefore the job satisfaction of them are considering in the higher level. In contrast, the position rank did not showed the significant difference in any factors of staff achievement for the residential clubhouse staff and the reason of it can be resulted as the industry or culture difference.
The point that worth to discuss is that the overall job satisfaction and the overall satisfaction with the clubhouse profession are resulted positively but the turnover rate in residential clubhouse industry still remain high that negatively affecting the company resource and daily operation. Some possible reasons can be related due to this situation. Firstly, the overall job satisfaction includes so many other aspect despite of the staff achievement, there are also the relationship with the colleagues and superior staffs, the job content and the salary and so on. All the other factors may help for turning the overall satisfaction from the negative side to the positive side, which means one or two aspects or factors resulted in dissatisfaction may not refer to the overall one as some other aspects may result in the opposite way and it can rewrite the final sense of satisfaction of the staff. To cite a concrete example, the frontline staffs who work in residential clubhouse may be dissatisfied with the low salary but the staffs may still feel happy with the job because of the great relationship with the colleagues and tenants or being highly recognized by the supervisor that having a hope to promote in future.
The second assumption is that the high turnover rate is nothing related to the job satisfaction as it may be many other reason, even lacking of sufficient promotion or advancement opportunity and insufficient fringe benefit perks were resulted as the essential factors leading to the job quitting consideration. Many possible reasons are existing to lead the staff leave the job, such as the continuing of study, starting a new family or hoping to change industry as a new try by the younger and so on. These are the uncontrollable reasons making the turnover that out of the job satisfaction by the company performance.
To conclude with, it is clearly shown that the professional status, position promotion, professional goals, place for attending professional meeting, fringe benefit perks, additional income, opportunity for further education and the professional staff rank are all the statistically significant indicators of job satisfaction in residential clubhouse field. The demographic factors such as gender, age and education level have the significant difference in certain items of the staff achievement aspect while the job title does not.
However, this study is only purposing to study the background and current situation of residential clubhouse staff development and explore the basic factors of staff achievement that influence the job satisfaction, and since none of the related research has been done in this field in Hong Kong so many in depth reasons and the level of influence that affect the job satisfaction the most cannot be included in this study. Therefore, it is necessary to have further studies to figure out the whole cause and effect of each item in order to make the comprehensive result on this complicated topic.
The findings in this study help the industry to understand more on the background and the level of influence with several correlates in staff achievement that may affect the job satisfaction and the staff retention, which is somehow echo with the previous study [19]. The residential clubhouse management company, especially the four big properties development companies, including the Henderson Land Development Company, Cheung Kong Property Holdings, Sun Hung Kai Properties and New World Development Company, can plan for the new strategies to retain their clubhouse staff in order to tackle the high turnover rate issue [22].
Three directions are suggested. The first one is the physical reward, which means the property companies can provide more fringe benefit perks to their clubhouse staffs, such as providing allowances on different aspects including transportation, medical care, education or child-care service [25]. On the other hand, the companies can try on promoting the suitable staff base on their real performance to ensure the fairness.
The second direction is providing sufficient training and learning opportunity to their staff in order to enhance their own competitiveness [25]. This will be a win-win method as the company can train their staffs to ensure their professionalism and the staffs will be advanced with a better qualification and enrich their knowledgebase and protect their place of value.
The third direction that is to establish the recognition system within the companies, which means a better working atmosphere with harmony, is highly encouraged [25-28]. This strategy is totally free and effective by showing the appreciation on every staff’s work and contribution to the company in order praise their efforts and it is psychologically work to enhance the morale among staffs, providing them faith and motivation on the further tasks.