University of Amsterdam Amsterdam Business School Executive Program Management Studies –
Business Studies – Strategy Track
Thesis
The influence of outsourcing on job satisfaction and
organizational commitment: An assessment of
employee perceptions
Student name: Kris Sloot Student number: 0237930 Date of first submission: 08-06-2014 Date of final submission: 07-07-2014
First supervisor: E. Dirksen MSc Second supervisor: dr. W. van Eerde
2 Preface
I would like to thank my supervisor, Erik Dirksen, for his assistance during the last six months. In this period I was advised by him in writing my thesis for my Master of Science in Management Studies. Furthermore I would like to thank one of my best friends Jan
Moolenaar for his patience and time by reading parts of my thesis and providing feedback. Last but not least I am grateful towards my girlfriend, Saskia Doolaege, for giving me support and the opportunity to finish my thesis.
3 Abstract
Firms are increasingly outsourcing business to a provider and business objectives are the drivers why firms outsource, however what often is neglected when outsourcing, is the employee perspective on outsourcing. This study tries to understand, from an employee perspective, what factors influence job satisfaction and organizational commitment when outsourcing. 12 Semi-structured interviews are conducted and a qualitative research method is applied in order to understand the employee perspective on outsourcing. By applying existing theory, described in the literature review chapter, this research finds that outsourcing can have a positive, negative or no effect on job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
Furthermore it can be derived from the data that there are different factors influencing job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Further research can take this study as a starting point, as this research has its focus solely on one firm within the Dutch banking industry. By applying the same research setting as this study, however then within different industries and firms, the generalizability can be enhanced.
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Table of contents
Preface ... 2 Abstract ... 3List of tables ... 6
List of figures ... 6
1.0 Introduction ... 7
2.0 Literature review ... 10
2.1 Outsourcing ... 112.1.1 Resource Based View ... 12
2.1.2 Transaction Cost Theory ... 13
2.2 Job satisfaction ... 14 2.2.1 Motivation-Hygiene theory ... 16 2.3 Organizational commitment ... 19
3.0 Methodology ... 25
3.1 Research approach ... 25 3.2 Research design ... 26 3.3 Data Collection ... 303.4 The case setting ... 32
4.0 Formal data analysis ... 34
4. 1 Data reduction and data display ... 35
4.2 Results ... 36
4.2.1 Job satisfaction ... 36
4.2.1.1 Positive and change in effect on job satisfaction ... 37
4.2.1.2 Negative effect on job satisfaction ... 39
4.2.1.3 No effect on job satisfaction ... 41
4.2.2 Organizational commitment ... 43
4.2.2.1 Positive and change in effect organizational commitment ... 44
4.2.2.2 Negative effect on organizational commitment ... 45
4.2.2.3 No effect organizational commitment ... 48
5.0 Conclusion ... 50
5.1 Conclusion of propositions ... 50
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Proposition 2... 52
Proposition 3... 52
Proposition 4... 53
5.2 Conclusion of the research question ... 54
6.0 Limitations of this research and further research ... 56
Appendix ... 58
References ... 58
Interview protocol ... 63
Affective Commitment Scale Items ... 66
Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire ... 67
Codes and frequencies ... 68
Data display ... 71
Interview questions ... 72
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List of tables
Table 1 Characteristics of the respondents page 34
Table 2 Effects on job satisfaction page 36
Table 3 Negative effects on job satisfaction page 39
Table 4 No effect on job satisfaction page 42
Table 5 Effects on organizational commitment page 43
Table 6 Negative effects on organizational commitment page 45
Table 7 No effect on organizational commitment page 49
Table 8 Factors influencing organizational commitment page 52
Table 9 Negative effects on job satisfaction page 53
List of figures
Figure 1: Dual-Factor Continua page 16
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1.0 Introduction
Outsourcing has been a subject of interest over the last three decades for many firms and in the current globalization outsourcing has a prominent role in industry practice. The concept outsourcing has received wide attention in prior research (e.g. Belcourt, 2006; Nooteboom et al., 1997; Quinn, 1992). When outsourcing firms believe they can achieve competitive advantage (Quinn, 1992) and by doing this a firm should be able to capture a more prominent role in their industry. According to Bettis et al. (1992) outsourcing will lead to a decrease of manufacturing costs and thus will increase the financial performance of a firm (Reitzig & Wagner, 2010). Firms may also benefit from economies of scale by outsourcing activities (Gupta & Gupta, 1992). Khosrowpour et al. (1996) argue that the ultimate goal of outsourcing is reducing costs and use talents for the core strategic business.
The aim of the aforementioned studies was to identify the organizational objectives of outsourcing. These research data provide insight into outsourcing from an outsiders, strategic perspective, whereas the insiders, employee perspective, is often neglected (Kessler et al., 1999; Benson, 1998).
There is little research on the effects of outsourcing from the employee perspective. Although the employee perspective has had little attention there is some research within this subject. Gupta & Gupta (1992) argue that within the outsourcing process employees may feel threatened and demoralized which could lead to the efflux of personnel. The research findings by Logan et al. (2004) are interesting because they indicate that outsourcing has impact on job satisfaction on employees who have been outsourced. However, the question how job
satisfaction of employees who are being outsourced is affected during an outsourcing process remains unanswered. Barthélemy (2003) argues that retaining employees, who will be
transferred to a provider is a key issue, because the outsourcer needs to secure the commitment of the employees. This in order to retain the knowledge and skills of the
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employees being outsourced. When employees of the outsourcer decide to quit their job before the outsourcing process has finished, this could lead to a efflux of the required knowledge and skills that are necessary to successfully complete the outsourcing process. What Barthélemy (2003) argues is interesting because it raises the question if the outsourcing process influences organizational commitment of employees that are being outsourced, and if so what are the consequences of this organizational commitment?
Albeit job satisfaction and organizational commitment have been extensively a research subject (e.g. Chahal et al.,2013; Mowday et al., 1979), the effects of outsourcing from the employee perspective is underexposed (Kessler et al., 1999).The outcomes of job satisfaction have received wide interest in the literature. Outcomes of job satisfaction such as performance (Petty et al., 1984), and turnover (Hacket & Guion, 1985) have been researched. Within the literature the outcomes of organizational commitment have also been extensively studied. The relationship of organizational commitment with performance (Steers, 1977; Zhang & Zheng, 2009) and turnover (Mathieu & Zajac, 1990; Modway et al., 1979; Porter & Steers, 1973) has been the subject of prior research. These studies on job satisfaction and organizational commitment show that there is (negative) correlation with the different outcomes.
Not only the outcome on the concepts job satisfaction and organizational commitment has received wide attention in the literature, antecedents of both concepts have been subject of many research as well. Job satisfaction is caused and influenced by many factors. Chahal, et al. (2013); Weiss et al. (1967) argue that job satisfaction is influenced by intrinsic (e.g opportunities, recognition, and responsibility) and extrinsic factors (e.g. supervision, and wage). The study conducted by Bateman & Strasser (1984) focused on the relationship between organizational commitment and the antecedents punishment, and leader reward. Another study by Steers (1977) focuses on the relationship between organizational
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commitment and personnel characteristics antecedents, e.g. age and education.
Antecedents have the characteristic to influence some concept, e.g. job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. From this point of view outsourcing can be marked as a antecedent of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Within the outsourcing process numerous factors can be considered to influence job satisfaction, and organizational
commitment. The focus of this study is to identify these factors. For the management of organizations identifying the factors within the outsourcing process that influence job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and take them into account are helpful to successfully complete the outsourcing process (Gupta & Gupta, 1992; Barthélemy 2003). The aim of this paper is to create insight on outsourcing from the employee
perspective in order to understand what factors affect job satisfaction and organizational commitment in the outsourcing process. Thereby developing an understanding of how organizations might better understand the personnel issues that are often neglected during outsourcing. The results of this study might help organizations to overcome the pitfall of neglecting personnel matters during the outsourcing process, and to adequately take care of the personnel matters during outsourcing.
In order to get an answer on the research question of this study “What factors, from the employee perspective ,influence job satisfaction and organizational commitment within the outsourcing process?” this research has its focus on a single case, a Dutch bank. By
conducting twelve semi structured interviews with employees that will be outsourced to a provider, qualitative data will be obtained and analyzed.
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2.0 Literature review
Whenever a firm decides to outsource a certain part of its business activities, the firm needs to retain its employees in order to successfully complete the outsourcing process (Barthélemy, 2003). According to Barthélemy (2003) neglecting the insiders perspective is one of the deadly sins within outsourcing. Barthélemy (2003), who conducted a survey of nearly a hundred outsourcing projects in Europe and the United States, comes to the conclusion of seven “deadly sins”. One of these deadly sins is that within the outsourcing process the outsourcer is overlooking personnel issues.
Whenever employee jobs are terminated due to outsourcing of a service it is important for the outsourcing organization that the provider can deliver the service at the same quality or at an even higher quality as when the service is produced in-house, otherwise outsourcing is detrimental for the outsourcing organization. Whenever jobs will be terminated it is important for the outsourcer that the knowledge and capabilities are transferred to the provider before the employees, whose jobs are terminated, will leave the organization (Barthélemy, 2003). If employees are outsourced to a provider it is important for the outsourcer that the outsourced employees will remain working for them and will not quit their jobs before the outsourcing process has been completed. If not, this might negatively influence the quality of the service being outsourced, because the provider may not have access to the requisite knowledge or capabilities (Barthélemy, 2003). Thus, to have a low employee turnover rate before the outsourcing process is completed, it is of vital importance for the outsourcer to retain the quality of the service. Keeping the level of performance of employees steady during the outsourcing process is also important, i.e. employees directly being involved in outsourcing should perform the same or even better during the outsourcing process than before. As there is little known about the factors that during the outsourcing process influence job satisfaction and organizational commitment, the aim of this study is to identify these factors and
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understand why these factors are important. The antecedents of job satisfaction and organizational commitment have been subject of prior research, however not within the context of outsourcing. Lease (1998) argues that it is important to understand what the antecedents are in order to reduce turnover. Job satisfaction and organizational commitment are antecedents to behavior such as turnover (Lease, 1998).
Before exploring the concepts outsourcing, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. the focus on the type of outsourcing and its impact on employees need to be examined. Outsourcing can have, according to Logan et al. (2004) three different ways of personnel impacts: i) the job of the employee is terminated and the tasks are taken over by the provider (i.e. insourcer); ii) a certain department within a firm becomes a standalone
operation; iii) the tasks and employees are outsourced to a provider. Employees will do the same work, albeit now for a new employer. This study will focus on the impact when tasks and employees are outsourced to a provider. The only and main reason for this, is that the case setting of this research is concerned with the fact that the employees and their tasks are
transferred to the provider.
2.1 Outsourcing
Outsourcing has many definitions in the business economics literature. One definition by Barthélemy (2003, p. 87) is “turning over all or a part of an organizational activity to an outside vendor” Another definition used by Gupta & Gupta (1992, p. 1) is “hiring outside professional services to meet the in-house needs of an organization”. According to Belcourt (2006, p. 269) outsourcing refers to “a contractual relationship for the provision of business services by an external provider. In other words, a company pays another company to do some work for it”. Gilley & Rasheed (2000, p. 764) define outsourcing as “the strategic
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decision to reject the internalization of an activity”. The aforementioned definitions on outsourcing have their roots in two economic theories, the Resource Based View (RBV) and the Transaction Cost Theory (TCT). These two theories will be further examined by literature review in the next part.
2.1.1 Resource Based View
Barney (1986) introduced the concept of the RBV. Within this concept Barney stated that a firm is a combination of resources. Whereby the performance of the firm is determined by the use of the resources, and the use of these resources can create (sustainable) competitive advantage. Barney (1991) stipulates that resources could have the following characteristics: i) valuable, “in the sense that it exploits opportunities and/or neutralizes threats in a firm’s environment” (Barney, 1991, p. 105); ii) rare, few or no firms have the resource; iii)
inimitable, the resource is difficult to imitate due to e.g. unique historical conditions; iv) non-substitutable, the resource cannot be substituted by another similar resource. Whenever, according to Barney (1991), firms have resources with the afore mentioned characteristics a firm could create sustainable competitive advantage, as the resources are heterogeneous amongst firms.
The RBV argues that a firm should outsource an activity when this activity relies on peripheral competencies (Gilley & Rasheed, 2000). Peripheral activities can be characterized as activities that will not create current or potential competitive advantage. When a firm outsources a peripheral activity, the outsourcer can focus itself on developing core
competencies which create competitive advantage for the organization (Prahalad & Hamel, 1990). Alexander & Young (1996) argue that an activity critical to business performance is a core activity which needs core competencies.
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2.1.2 Transaction Cost Theory
The viewpoint of the TCT by Williamson (1981) is that a firm should not outsource an activity whenever the costs of using the market are greater than the costs of internal
development. Williamson (1981) defines transaction costs as the costs that are made when negotiating and writing contracts and costs of monitoring contractual performance. Within the TCT Williamson (1979) argues that one of the two assumptions underlying this theory is the bounded rationality of humans when deciding to buy (and thus no internal development). With this first assumption is meant that humans cannot negotiate and write complete contracts where the obligations and responsibilities of each agent within the buy decision (i.e. when outsourcing) are fully described (Lieblein, 2003). This is not due to the fact that the agents involved are unwilling to write down all the obligations and responsibilities, however underlying is the human’s limited cognitive abilities. The second assumption of the TCE is that some people have opportunistic behavior. People with opportunistic behavior are motivated by self interest, and thus this opportunistic behavior could lead to not fulfilling obligations.
When using the market, and thus not choosing for internalization, the height of the transaction costs involved by using the market depends on three dimensions: i) asset specificity; ii) uncertainty or complexity; iii) transaction frequency. The dimension asset specificity is defined by Williamson (1979, p.142) as “the degree to which an asset can be redeployed to alternative uses by alternative users without sacrifice of productive value”, resulting in higher transaction costs whenever the asset specificity is increasing. Uncertainty or complexity refers to “the degree to which ex-ante contractual costs and ex-post monitoring and enforcing costs are augmented by environmental and behavioral unpredictability” (de Vita et al., 2010, p. 658). The higher the uncertainty or complexity, the higher the transaction
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costs. The last dimension, transaction frequency, is about the frequency of transactions, whereby the higher the frequency, the higher the costs.
The aforementioned part described the two main economic theories on outsourcing. Many research on outsourcing has focused on these two theories, and on the strategic objectives of organizations (Bettis et al., 1992; Quinn, 1992). As earlier mentioned in the introduction, thus far the employee perspective in outsourcing has often been neglected. The following part will introduce the concepts job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
2.2 Job satisfaction
Many scientists have focused their research on job satisfaction since Hoppock started to study job satisfaction in 1935. During the time that job satisfaction has been researched, two mainstream theories developed; content theory and process theory. Content theory is concerned with identifying specific factors that affect job satisfaction (e.g. Herzberg, 1966; Maslow, 1943). These theories try to explain job satisfaction by looking at one’s particular needs that must be fulfilled for being satisfied with his or her job. Process theories of job satisfaction argues that job satisfaction is not only the result of the nature of the job and its context within the organization, but that job satisfaction is also based on how workers perceive treatment (e.g. Adams, 1965; Vroom, 1982). Basically, process theory tries to explain job satisfaction by measuring the difference between one’s expectations and values. Within this set of theories job satisfaction can be defined as the degree to which individuals feel positively or negatively about their jobs. However, this is not the only definition used. The common definition used by academics is the definition given by Locke (1976, p 1300) “as a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experiences”. In short this definition refers to how much employees like their job.
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Job satisfaction is caused and influenced by many factors. Chahal, et al. (2013); Weiss et al. (1967) argue that job satisfaction is influenced by intrinsic (e.g. opportunities,
recognition, and responsibility), and extrinsic factors (e.g. supervision, and pay). Many of these factors have been researched. Baker (2004) summarizes the four theoretical approaches to job satisfaction i) task characteristics approach, argues that task characteristics have impact on job satisfaction; ii) social information processing approach, is about the fact that job satisfaction is influenced by social cues processed from the work environment; iii) dispositional approach, personality characteristics have impact on job satisfaction (Judge et al., 2002); iv) combined or integrated approach, a combination of the task characteristics and social information processing approach (Griffin, et al., 1987). In this study it is interesting what the factors are amongst the different theoretical approaches. It is expected that within the outsourcing process different factors from the different theoretical approaches will have impact on job satisfaction.
On the one hand different factors influence job satisfaction, on the other hand however there are multiple outcomes to job satisfaction. One of the outcomes that has had great
attention in the literature is employee turnover. Reviews of the literature on the relationship between employee turnover and job satisfaction have reported a consistent negative
relationship (Brayfield & Crockett, 1955; Locke, 1975; Vroom, 1964 in Mobley, 1977). A study on the relationship between job satisfaction and job turnover conducted by Hacket & Guion (1985) showed a negative correlation between both variables of r = -.37. Another outcome that has received widely attention is the relationship between job satisfaction and absenteeism. Job absenteeism can be classified as voluntary or involuntary. Voluntary absenteeism is characterized by absence of which is under direct control of the employee. Involuntary absenteeism is characterized by absence which is not under control of the
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Taylor (1985) argue that there is a strong relationship between job satisfaction and voluntary absenteeism, i.e. employees who do not have high job satisfaction are likely to show higher rates of voluntary absenteeism than employees with high job satisfaction. In line with these findings Sagie’s (1998) research shows that high organizational commitment and high jobs satisfaction leads to low voluntary absenteeism.
Within this study it is expected that extrinsic and intrinsic factors will influence job satisfaction within the outsourcing process. One of the theories on the concept job satisfaction that tries to explain job satisfaction by extrinsic and intrinsic factors is the Herzberg’s
Motivation-Hygiene theory (1966). In the next section this theory will be further explored.
2.2.1 Motivation-Hygiene theory
The Motivation-Hygiene theory of Herzberg is based on the principle that job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction are two separate and distinct continua. Meaning that the absence of factors creating satisfaction, will not lead to dissatisfaction (see Figure 1). This conclusion has been drawn by Herzberg and his colleagues through a research study on 200 accountants and engineers.
Figure 1: Dual-Factor Continua
They asked the subjects to recall a time when they had felt exceptionally good about their jobs. By further questioning the subjects, Herzberg and his colleagues determined the reasons for their feelings of satisfaction. In the second part of the research, at a later time, Herzberg and his colleagues did the same questioning with the same subjects, however now
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the subjects were asked to recall a time when they had felt exceptionally negative about their jobs. Based on the results Herzberg defined six motivation factors that deal with job content (personal factors) and lead to job satisfaction, i) growth refers to the opportunity to develop oneself, e.g. new skills or position; ii) work itself is about the content of the job and contains characteristics such as interesting, varied, difficult, and creative; iii) responsibility refers to responsibility given to the employee to perform tasks, i.e. control over one’s work; iv) achievement is according to Herzberg about feelings of accomplishment when finishing a task, i.e. personal satisfaction; v) advancement is related to the attitude following one’s change in position; vi) recognition refers to the recognition by others of the job done, i.e. positive or negative feedback. The seven hygiene factors that deal with job context, external factors, and lead to job dissatisfaction defined based on the research results are, i) company policies and administration are about the rigidness of the policies and include
communications and dministrative practices; ii) supervision refers to attitude about the
relationship with direct supervisor; iii) interpersonal relations is concerned with the quality of the relationship with colleagues and includes job and social interactions; iv) status of the employee within the company should be fair and matching with the position of the employee, e.g. big office; v) working conditions is concerned with physical work atmosphere, i.e. should be clean and hygienic; vi) security is about the employees job tenure; vii) salary, meaning that wage and other forms of compensation should be reasonable, and must be comparable to others in the same industry. Within this study it is assumed that outsourcing is an external factor, thus part of one’s job context. An employee has no personal influence on whether to outsource or not, as the board of directors make these kind of decision. Therefore outsourcing could lead to job dissatisfaction.
Since the introduction of the Motivation-Hygiene theory it has been extensively tested by researchers. Therefore the Motivation-Hygiene theory has often been reviewed, criticized,
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and validated. Studies by e.g. Lodahl (1964), Myers (1964), Saleh (1964), Centers & Bugenthal (1966) do support the Motivation-Hygiene theory. Another research by Soliman (1970) confirmed the motivation and hygiene need categories. Although these research validate the concept of the theory there exists criticism as well on the theory. Criticism can be set in two categories i) validity of the data obtained by the research of the critical incidents (e.g. Locke, 1965; Vroom, 1964); ii) validity of the conclusions drawn from the data (e.g. Friedlander, 1965; Lindsay et al., 1967).
Albeit there is no clear consensus on the theory within the literature, the Motivation-Hygiene theory will be used within this study. This theory is part of the content theories stream within job satisfaction. Content theories try to identify factors that influence job satisfaction. The purpose of the (content) Motivation-Hygiene theory has great connection with a part of this study’s research question as both try to identify “factors that influence job satisfaction”. However this research tries to identify these factors within the specific context outsourcing. Another reason why the Motivation-Hygiene theory will be the main focus for this study, is that although there are criticism, the Motivation-Hygiene theory is still widely acknowledged within the literature. The theory is still up to date within the current economic environment, as employers still have to deal with job satisfaction. As argued by Rantz et al. (1996) in Wu et al. (2008) managers have used the Motivation-Hygiene theory in different industries to increase job satisfaction. Furthermore Motivation-Hygiene theory has its focus on job content (motivation factors), and job context (hygiene factors), and not on individual characteristic differences in order to identify what factors influences job satisfaction. It is expected that within the outsourcing process the factors that influence job satisfaction are related to job content and job context. Also the interviews that will be used to collect data for this study, will not have the focus on individual characteristics.
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outcomes of job satisfaction, such as turnover, and absenteeism have been numerous
objectives of research. These outcomes show (negative) correlations with job satisfaction. In the introduction it was mentioned that in order to successfully complete the outsourcing process, the outcomes of job satisfaction, e.g. turnover, and absenteeism, should be limited. In the different research mentioned in this section the antecedents of the four theoretical
approaches (Baker, 2004) have had many attention, and it seems that outsourcing as an antecedent has received little attention in the current literature. Thus the impact of job satisfaction can have impact on e.g. turnover, and absenteeism, however it is of interest for this study to identify the factors within the outsourcing process that affect job satisfaction, to limit the turnover, and absenteeism degree. Job satisfaction is the concept to define if
employees like their job, whereas organizational commitment is about one’s loyalty to the organization. The concept organizational commitment is explored through literature review in the next section.
2.3 Organizational commitment
Organizational commitment has been a major subject of research in the last decades. Although many definitions are used in the literature, there is consensus that organizational commitment is about the attachment of an individual to the organization. Porter et al. (1976) argue that organizational commitment is the relationship of an individual to an organization. Organizational commitment is defined by Noble & Mokwa (1999, p. 61) as “the extent to which a person identifies with and works toward organization-related goals and values”. Meyer & Allen (1991, p. 62) define organizational commitment as “a mind set, or
psychological state, i.e. feelings and/or beliefs concerning the employee’s relationship with an organization”. Underlying this definition of Meyer & Allen (1991) are the concepts attitudinal and behavioral commitment. Mowday et al. (1982, p. 26) define attitudinal commitment as “a mind set in which individuals consider the extent to which their values and goals are
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congruent with those of the organization”. The research on attitudinal commitment has its focus on identifying the factors that create organizational commitment and the behavior consequences of this commitment. Behavioral commitment is defined by Mowday et al. (1982, p. 26) as “the process by which individuals become locked into a certain organization”. Behavioral commitment research is aimed at “determining conditions under which a behavior, once exhibited, tends to be repeated” (Meyer & Allen, 1991, p. 62). Meyer & Allen (1991) have developed the Three Component Model (TCM) on organizational commitment. This framework incorporates attitudinal and behavioral commitment and their complementary relationship. Allen & Meyer (1990) use explicitly the term components, as employees can experience the different psychological states to varying degrees. Figure 2 illustrates the TCM model on organizational commitment.
Figure 2 TCM on organizational commitment (Meyer & Allen, 1991)
The TCM on organizational commitment distinguishes three forms of organizational commitment: i) affective commitment; ii) continuance commitment; iii) normative
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Affective commitment is defined as the emotional attachment of an employee to an organization (Meyer et al., 1993). According to Porter et al. (1976) highly affective committed employees have i) a desire to remain at the organization; ii) a strong belief and acceptance of the organizational values; iii) a strong belief in and willingness to achieve the organizational goals. Meyer et al. (1993) argues that part of affective commitment is feeling of an employee being part of a family or attachment to colleagues.
Continuance commitment refers to “commitment based on the costs that employees associate with leaving the organization” (Allen & Meyer, 1990, p 1). These costs are perceived by employees such as lose of income.
Normative commitment refers to the feelings of an employee being obliged to remain at an organization.
Allen & Meyer (1990, p. 3) explain the three component model by “Employees with strong affective commitment remain because they want to, those with strong continuance commitment because they need to, and those with strong normative commitment because they feel they ought to do so”.
Organizational commitment is influenced by different factors. Based on the model of Steers (1977) the following antecedents of organizational commitment can be distinguished i) personnel characteristics, e.g. age and education; ii) job characteristics, e.g. feedback and job challenge; iii) work experience, such as group attitudes towards the organization, rewards of expectations, and compatibility of one’s value with organizational values. The results of the research by Steers (1977) show that all three dimensions of antecedents have a strong
correlation with organizational commitment.
According to Meyer & Allen (1991) the three different dimensions of organizational commitment have different antecedents. For instance the authors argue that affective
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(1988) on this antecedent revealed that affective commitment has a relationship with
decentralization of decision making. Another antecedent that Meyer & Allen (1991) connect to affective commitment is the compatibility of one’s values with those of the organization. Meyer & Allen (1991) argue that antecedents of continuance commitment are all those elements that will increase one’s perceived costs, as continuance commitment is about the cost of leaving the organization. One could think of the availability of alternative
employment. Another antecedent is “side bet”, meaning an employee who invested a lot of effort in a particular skill that is of value for only its current employer. The antecedents defined by Meyer & Allen (1991) for normative commitment are not clearly tested
empirically. The authors however, argue that prior entry into the organization antecedents are the so called familial or cultural socialization, and after entry into the organization
antecedents is the so called organizational socialization.
The relationship between organizational commitment and different outcomes has received much attention in the literature. One of the relationships that has had great attention is that between organizational commitment and turnover. Research has shown that there is a negative correlation between organizational commitment and turnover (Mathieu & Zajac, 1990; Modway & Steers, 1979; Porter & Steers, 1973). As earlier mentioned it is of key importance for the outsourcer to retain the employees who will be transferred to the provider until the outsourcing process is completed. Thus the turnover rate should be low during the outsourcing process. Allen & Meyer’s (1996) study reveals that turnover is significantly related to affective commitment. Thus, these results of this study show that highly affective committed employees show low turnover rates. Allen & Meyer (1996) study shows
furthermore that affective commitment has in comparison to the two other commitments the highest correlation with several attitudes, such as career commitment and job involvement. Albeit the TCM on organizational commitment can been seen as the dominant model
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on organizational commitment, there are also critiques on this model. Solinger et al. (2008) have different critiques on the TCM on organizational commitment. First, they argue that the model is just a predictor for turnover and the TCM on organizational commitment should not be seen as a general model on organizational commitment. Secondly, Solinger et al. (2008) argue that the model suffers from conceptual inconsistency. Research by Sersic (1999) on organizational commitment and turnover intentions shows that the three component models is actually a two component model. Whereby affective and normative commitment show
relationship with turnover. Besides these critiques, the TCM on organizational commitment is the dominant model in the literature on organizational commitment and many research argue that the TCM on organizational commitment is valid (e.g. Bentein et al., 2003, Allen & Meyer 1996). Within the TCM on organizational commitment affective commitment is the most strongly related to organizational commitment, and has the highest correlation with multiple attitudes measures (Allen & Meyer, 1996). Meyer et al. (2002) argue that affective
commitment of the TCM has the strongest relationship of the three commitments with work related behaviors (e.g. attendance). Based on the aforementioned one could say that the focus of this study should be on affective commitment. However, as the factors that influence organizational commitment within the context of outsourcing are not yet defined, the
narrowing down to only affective commitment cannot be done. When gathering information by conducting interviews, it could be possible that interviewee respondents address factors that are part of continuance commitment, as they experience costs associated with leaving the organization. Interviewees could even pinpoint factors of normative commitment, e.g.
employees feel they ought to remain at the organization.
This section described that many research has been conducted on organizational commitment, its antecedents, and outcomes. From an outsourcing perspective the factors that influence organizational commitment are not yet identified. The identification of these effects
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is important because the outcomes of organizational commitment, as stipulated in this section could lead to higher turnover. It is mentioned in the introduction that it is important to have low rates on these outcomes in order to successfully complete the outsourcing process.
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3.0 Methodology
This section presents how this study has been conducted. It will provide a guide
through the methodology used and justify the choice of method to achieve the objectives. This chapter starts to explain what type of research approach has been applied. Thereafter the research design section emphasizes why a qualitative research design is most appropriate for this research. Within the same section the rigor of this study will be discussed, followed by the part where the case for this research is described. The last part of this chapter is a guide through the data collected of this study. Before starting to explore the methodology section, the research question is ones more presented and the propositions created will be outlined.
Research question:
What factors, from the employee perspective, influence job satisfaction and organizational commitment within the outsourcing process?
Propositions:
1 When employees understand the strategy of the organization to outsource operations, this has a positive effect on one’s organizational commitment during the outsourcing process.
2 Factors influencing organizational commitment during the outsourcing process are mostly connected to affective commitment and not to continuance or normative commitment.
3 Job satisfaction is during the outsourcing process negatively influenced by job context, hygiene, factors.
4 When employees participate in the outsourcing project their job satisfaction could increase.
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According to Saunders et al. (2009) academic research is a systemic way to find things out by collecting and interpreting information. According to Saunders et al. (2009) research can have two approaches i) inductive and ii) deductive. The inductive approach is
characterized by the development of theory after empirical research, i.e. building theory. This study is set up by a deductive research approach. Deductive research approach emerges when a research and thus this research, first develops theoretical propositions prior to the collection of qualitative data. Within a deductive research approach the propositions are subjected to rigorous (empirical) testing via a case study. The outset of this study started with a literature review of the Motivation-Hygiene Herzberg theory (1966) and the Three Component Model on organizational commitment by Allen & Meyer (1990). Based on these theories,
propositions were derived. These propositions are concerned with the identification of the factors that influence job satisfaction and organizational commitment within the outsourcing content. Hyde (2000) argues that a deductive research approach is characterized by
commencing with generalizations, and seeking to explore whether these generalizations apply to a specific context. In this case study the generalizations are the two theories and the
specific context is outsourcing.
3.2 Research design
This study is characterized by a qualitative methodology. This means that this study is seeking to understand why and which factors influence job satisfaction and organizational commitment within the outsourcing context. Rather than just, as within a quantitative
approach, focusing on the general characteristics of a population and ignoring the “how” and “why” questions, this study seeks to identify the factors and understand why these factors influence jobs satisfaction and organizational commitment. Furthermore Eisenhardt (1989) argues that qualitative research is characterized by the fact that the researcher tries to
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determine motivation and beliefs of certain phenomena.
The research design applied for this study is a case study. According to Yin (2012, p. 16) a case study can be defined as “An empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon (e.g. a “case”), in depth and within its real-world context”. Next to that Merriam argues (2009, p.14) the aim of qualitative research is “understanding the phenomenon of interest from the participant’s perspective”. In order to determine what factors, from the employee perspective, influence job satisfaction and organizational commitment in the context of outsourcing, the application of a case study is most appropriate. For this case study the employee perspective is the central point of gathering information. The qualitative
approach for this case study focuses on gaining insight in the perspective from employees within the context of outsourcing on job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The aim of this study is not only to explore the factors that influence job satisfaction and
organizational commitment within the outsourcing context, however, of interest is even to determine why these factors are important for employees.
Semi-structured interviews will be used within this study to collect thorough information (data) from the employees. This approach for gathering information is applied and finds support by the argument of Cassel & Symon (2004) who argue that the qualitative research interview is to understand how and why the interviewee has come to a certain perspective. By using semi-structured interviews the researcher will have a list of themes and questions to be covered and by using this type of interview the “researcher will have the opportunity to probe answers, where the researcher wants the interviewees to explain, or build on, their responses” (Saunders et al., 2009, p. 324). By collecting the qualitative data the researcher will be able to collect a rich and detailed set of data (Saunders et al., 2009). When conducting interviews the interviewer is able to get insights from the employees by focused questions and broader questions to identify the factors that influence job satisfaction and
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organizational commitment. Via semi-structured interviews the interviewer is able to raise additional questions to explore the research question in more depth (Saunders et al., 2009). Taylor (2005) argues that with a qualitative case study the research centers round the examination of the context and interactions with participants by direct contact between
participants and interviewer. This qualitative approach is especially applicable for exploratory studies like this one.
The aim of this study is to identify the factors (antecedents) that influence job satisfaction and organizational commitment and why these factors are important for the employees. The data collection, as earlier mentioned, will be achieved via semi-structured interviews. The requisite organization where this case study must be held should be an organization that is currently in the process of outsourcing a service whereby the employee tasks and the employees themselves are transferred to the provider. My current employer, the Dutch bank KAS BANK N.V., is in such a process. The bank has an agreement with a provider, dwpbank, to outsource different services. The type of case study for this research is according to Yin (2012) a holistic, single-unit of analysis. The benefit of a single case study is that it “can represent the critical test of a significant theory” (Yin, 2012, p. 51). In this
research the theories Motivation-Hygiene theory and Three Component Model on
organizational commitment will be the examined. Yin (2012) argues that a rationale to apply a single case study is that the objective is to capture the circumstances and conditions of an everyday situation. This research, whereby the context is outsourcing, is becoming a more and more daily situation in the current globalization (Quinn, 1992). Thus a single case study is suitable for conducting this research. However, one limitation of a single case study is the risk of shifting the entire nature of the case study (Yin 2012), meaning that the particular case, in this research KAS BANK N.V., will decide not to outsource any service and inducing that this particular case is not suitable anymore and the research thus should focus on another
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organization that is currently outsourcing a service. This could lead to delay in completing the research in time. Another limitation could be the generalizability (or validity) of this case study. Yin (2012) argues that the validity of the results depends on the generalizability. Generalizability of the research findings can be achieved when results can be generalized to other situations by analytic generalization (Yin, 2012). Analytic generalization is defined by Yin (2012, p 18) “analytic generalization depends on using a study’s theoretical framework to establish a logic that might be applicable to other situations”. As this study is one of its kind, no other research has been done within the context of this study, generalizability could be a limitation. Generalizability “could be” a limitation and is not a limitation per se, as Flyvbjerg (2006) argues that it is a misunderstanding that one cannot generalize on the basis of just one single case study. Thus in the literature there seems to be no consensus about generalizability of a single case study.
This study does not have only limitations, there are obviously strengths with conducting such a single case study like this one. First, by identifying the factors that
influence job satisfaction and organizational commitment a qualitative approach is necessary. This approach provides a insights and explanations which and why certain factors influence job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Experiments and surveys are according to Yin (2012) not the type of methods to obtain data to gather rich information about these factors. Second, this study is one of a kind and has not been previously conducted. By the exploratory nature of this study, this study could be a starting point for cross-case analysis (Eisenhardt, 1989).
30 3.3 Data Collection
Outsourcing different services of KAS BANK N.V., inducing the transfer of 139 employees to the dwpbank. Not only “employees” will be transferred, however included are senior employees, operational management, and senior management. The unit of analysis of this study will be KAS BANK N.V., and the elements of analysis will be 12 employees within the bank. When selecting these 12 employees this study uses purposed sampling. Purposed sampling, which enables the researcher to judge and select the interviewees, that will suit the study best (Saunders et al., 2009). By applying this concept the researcher selects the
interviewees who can purposefully inform the researcher on the research question and
provides the researcher an understanding of the central phenomenon (Creswell, 2013). This in order to answer the research question. One senior manager, two operational managers, and nine (senior) employees were interviewed. The duration of employment was taken into
consideration as well. Experience at KAS BANK was in the range of 2 years until 33 years. In the end the interviewees covered five different departments. By investigating this
phenomenon from multiple hierarchical levels, length of work experience within the bank and multiple departments this research aims to increase the validity of acquired data (Eisenhardt, 1989). Yin (2012) argues that by using multiple sources of evidence, the construct validity of the study will increase. A limitation of this study is that it solely gathers the qualitative data from interviews.
A week before the interview started, the interviewee received a guide (see appendix for the guide). This guide clarified this research and also included an explanation of the different concepts, such as job satisfaction. Before each interview started, the interviewee had the opportunity to ask questions about the content of the guide. This in order to make sure that the interviewee understood the purpose of the research and the different concepts. Each interview taken lasted for about 1 hour, whereby each interview was recorded, after consent
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of the interviewee. Afterwards the interviewee has received the transcription of his/her interview and his/her consent was needed to use the transcripts.
In order to measure what effects during the outsourcing process influence the construct organizational commitment, this study will make use of the Affective Commitment Scale (ACS). Items have been developed by Allen & Meyer (1990) and are widely used within the literature. This questionnaire covers the principle of affective commitment which is
previously described in my study and will be of interest during the research of this study. In order to identify what factors influence organizational commitment during the outsourcing process, the semi structured interviews will reflect questions that can be matched with the eight items within the ACS (see appendix for the questionnaire).
The construct job satisfaction will be measured according to the Minnesota
Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) by Weiss at al. (1967). This questionnaire is developed with two versions. The first version contained 100 questions to measure job satisfaction on different aspects of the job. A short version was introduced in 1977 which contains 20
questions from the 100 of the long version. The short version of the questionnaire will be used in this study, as according to Fields (2002) the questions of the short version represent the most used measurements of general job satisfaction and the short version can be used to measure intrinsic and extrinsic components of job satisfaction. As the effects within the outsourcing process that influence job satisfaction have not yet been defined, we cannot focus only on either intrinsic or extrinsic components of job satisfaction. The same procedure as with measuring organizational commitment will be followed by identifying the effects that influence job satisfaction during the outsourcing process, the semi structured interviews will reflect questions that can be matched with the 20 items of the short version of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (see appendix for this questionnaire).
32 3.4 The case setting
The case presented here is a Dutch bank, named KAS BANK N.V., with 736
employees as of 31 December 2013 and located in Amsterdam, London and Wiesbaden. KAS BANK N.V. is listed on the exchange NYSE Euronext Amsterdam. Its profit in 2013 was € 12,3 million with a turnover of €114 million. The bank is a European specialist, founded in 1806, in wholesale securities services. It delivers its services solely to professional
institutions, such as pension funds, insurance companies, and financial institutions. The services delivered have a focus on the administration of assets (securities). The value of the assets under administration is currently around 300 billion euro’s.
Since the present financial crisis, which started after the fall of Lehman Brothers in 2008, KAS BANK saw a decrease in profit. This has its origin in a decrease of transactions (trades done by clients) and a decrease of asset value (held under administration). Due to a decline in profit, KAS BANK decided in 2012 to an agreement of a partnership with a German bank, named dwpbank. The two organizations decided that KAS BANK would outsource the processing of several services to dwpbank. In the context of this outsourcing, dwpbank will open a branch in Amsterdam with 139 employees from KAS BANK. The location for the dwpbank branch in Amsterdam is a particular floor within the KAS BANK building. The 139 employees of KAS BANK are specialists in the processing of the services that will be outsourced. The employees will be transferred from KAS BANK to dwpbank in June 2015 (target date for change of control). Dwpbank has the (IT) platform for processing the services more efficiently, with less risk and at lower costs than KAS BANK. With the partnership and outsourcing, KAS BANK decided to alter its strategy. The new strategy covers that standardized operations processing should be delivered by a provider, in this case dwpbank, and should not be internalized. Due to this change of strategy, KAS BANK will be able to focus on value added services on the administration of assets.
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As the outsourced processes, which are so called in scope, only affect the location Amsterdam, this branch will be the focus of this study. The location of Amsterdam covers 681 employees as of 31December 2013. The number of affected employees which will be
outsourced is 139 and it covers (senior) employees, line management, and senior management.
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4.0 Formal data analysis
Table 1 shows the respondents characteristics that were used for transcription. Table 1 Characteristics of the respondents
Interview Age Male/Female Work experience
at KAS BANK
Job title
1 45 Male 8 Senior employee
2 39 Male 10 Manager
3 42 Female 9 Senior Manager
4 48 Female 23 Manager
5 59 Male 33 Senior employee
6 36 Female 5 Operations employee
7 30 Female 10 Operations employee
8 38 Male 11 Operations employee
9 27 Male 5 Senior employee
10 32 Male 7 Operations employee
11 27 Female 2 Operations employee
12 55 Male 21 Senior employee
After the interviews were held and recorded, the transcription of each interview was completed within a maximum of four days. O’Dwyer (2004) argues that the interviewer “must” transcribe each interview himself, as this is of major value to get a better feeling of the data. By applying the aforementioned opinion of O’Dwyer it was possible for this research to create codes and themes from the interviews. The interviews and transcripts are both in
Dutch, however the quotes used in this research are translated from Dutch into English. When using transcripts the reliability of a study increases (Gibbert et al., 2008). The transcriptions led to a big chunk of data, which was highly messy. In order to unravel the data
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that arose in the data collection phase the Huberman & Miles (1994) framework was applied in this research. According to Huberman & Miles (1994) data analysis phase enfolds three linked sub processes i) data reduction; ii) data display; iii) conclusion drawing/verification. The last phase can also be described as data interpretation (O’Dwyer, 2004). The framework makes it possible to reduce, display, and interpret the large pile of data in a structured and systematic way. Before starting the data analysis phase it was once more considered to use software for qualitative analysis such as Nvivo or use Excel. In order to get the best
“personal” feeling of the data it was decided to use Excel and not any software for qualitative data analysis. Furthermore, much qualitative studies which has been read did not use any software to help reducing the data.
The next part will outline the first two phases of the Huberman & Miles (1994) framework which have been applied for this research.
4. 1 Data reduction and data display
The data reduction phase was challenging and quite time consuming, but it led to a better feeling of the data. Every single interview recording was listened once more and subsequently the interview transcripts were thoroughly read twice. All this was done to get a better understanding and feeling of the data.
The first open codes were designed during the literature review of this study. These open codes were based on the different themes of the theories and on the concepts which are being examined in this research, such as outsourcing, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. When the first four interviews were held, it seemed that the basis of this study, namely that outsourcing influences organizational commitment and job satisfaction, was not consistently supported. The first thoughts of the employees being interviewed did not show the consistency that outsourcing has major influence on organizational commitment and job satisfaction. This finding made it necessary for this research to create (sub) codes out of the
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interview transcripts. During the second time of in depth reading of the transcripts sub codes emerged. These sub codes relate to the themes, however they are more specific, e.g. job satisfaction is influenced positively, values of KAS BANK are positively experienced. It created, by using the codes from the interview, a better understanding of why employees either felt the impact of outsourcing or why they were not influenced by the outsourcing (see appendix for an overview of the codes used).
The data display phase was to sort all codes in a systematical view in Excel (see appendix for a part of the display used). By using colors and counting the different codes it was possible to visualize how many times different codes were mentioned by the
employees. Preceding the third phase of data analysis, conclusion drawing, the results of this research will be described in a systematical way. The next part will outline the results.
4.2 Results
This section will explore the results based on the twelve interviews. First the results regarding job satisfaction will be outlined. The factors will be explored per effect, e.g.
positive and negative. The second, and last part of this chapter will outline the same, however then for organizational commitment
4.2.1 Job satisfaction
The results can be captured in table 2, which quantifies the responses of the interviews on the effect of outsourcing on job satisfaction.
Table 2 Effects on job satisfaction
Effect on JS Number of persons References Positive 5 8 Negative 10 18 Change in effect 4 5 No Effect 7 36 74
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It can be extracted from this table that respondents stated 36 times that outsourcing has no influence on job satisfaction. Whenever respondents did mention that outsourcing has impact on their job satisfaction, the respondents mentioned 18 times that it had a negative effect. On the other hand it was indicated 8 times that outsourcing has a positive impact on job satisfaction. Whereas 5 times respondents showed a change in their job satisfaction during the outsourcing process. The following part of this research will explore the factors that influenced job satisfaction.
4.2.1.1 Positive and change in effect on job satisfaction
There are 5 respondents indicating that outsourcing has a positive effect on their job satisfaction. All of these respondents stated that participation in the outsourcing project has positive effect on their job satisfaction. Answers that illustrate this positive effect:
However….there is dwp again. We have to do a lot of testing. This makes my work even more interesting….. Thus….to talk in your terms….I have then more job satisfaction (respondent 1).
….when one is involved it gives you the feeling that you can influence decisions….this creates support….and this leads for me to a more satisfying job (interviewee 3).
Participating in the project does not only have a positive effect. One of the respondents declared that her job satisfaction was increased when participating. However, since this participant does not participate in the project anymore her job satisfaction has undergone a change1, i.e. from an increased job satisfaction to a decrease in job satisfaction.
1 Respondent 4 indicated that at the start of the project, when just a few people knew about the intended cooperation with dwpbank, she was asked to work in the project. However, when the cooperation with dwbank was publically announced, others were asked to participate in the project and her input was no longer needed.
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Yes….in the beginning very much…..it has motivated me to be part of something
new….something unique….it gave me satisfaction boost….surely because you were part of the core people who were busy with the project….however now, as I am no longer part of the project….the perspective…what is my perspective…. I still do not have an answer on this. Next to that I still have not heard how my team will be transferred to dwpbank… will
everybody from my team be transferred? These questions have not been answered yet….now already for two and a half year (respondent 4).
As can been extracted from this answer the lack of information has surely a negative effect on job satisfaction. This will be further explained in the section 4.2.1.2.
Another reason that has been given by 3 respondents that lead to a change in job satisfaction, is the time frame from when KAS BANK has announced that it will outsource a certain part of their operations until the actual outsourcing will take place. In 2012 KAS BANK announced that it will enter with dwpbank into a partnership to outsource a part of their operations to dwpbank. The actual live date for “change of control” is set for June 2015. All of these 3 respondents suggested that once it was announced that KAS BANK would outsource, their job satisfaction increased. The reason for this is that the respondents saw going to dwpbank as something new and exciting. Albeit outsourcing was seen as something new and exciting, these 3 respondents nowadays indicate that after two and a half year there are still a lot of things unclear and they question what the actual outsourcing will look like.
We were at the start of an adventure, something will change…we are going to dwp…Okay… a new adventure…we get into the rollercoaster and will see where we will end….this gave a very positive feeling….very exciting of what will happen….yes., due to these reasons I was more satisfied (respondent 7).
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The counter side is illustrated by the following answer given:
.. I do not know if it is achievable…June 2015… let alone the employee matters…every employee needs to sign a new contract…what kind of contract will that be… Will it be part of a bank CAO? Is the contract for just one year? Is the contract for an indefinite period of time? What will dwpbank do when we are transferred to them? (respondent 5)
4.2.1.2 Negative effect on job satisfaction
Table 3 Negative effects on job satisfaction
Negative effect on JS Number of persons References Company policies 3 5 Security 5 10 Experience 1 1 Feelings 1 2 18
Several respondents indicated that by outsourcing a certain part of operations their job satisfaction is negatively influenced. Table 3 illustrates that there are multiple factors,
according to the respondents, that influence this negative effect on job satisfaction.
The majority of the responses which point out a negative influence of outsourcing on job satisfaction contains the insecurity of what will happen in the future. It has been said by the respondents that insecurity of their jobs and insecurity of what kind of work they will have to, influences their job satisfaction negatively. 5 Respondents addressed 10 times that they have an insecure feeling about their job in the future at dwpbank. Examples of an answers given which elucidate this insecurity:
I cannot image that a company like dwp, that has a cost focus and delivers standardized products… I do not believe that they will keep us here in Amsterdam. This insecurity does not ensure my job satisfaction positively (respondent 10).
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I do not know what I exactly will do at dwp and what my role will be and this insecurity influences my job satisfaction, because I do not know what to expect (respondent 4).
... the development of the outsourcing project which put my job in danger…do I still have my job when outsourcing takes place, will dwpbank say that they do not need me…. these
thoughts … influences my satisfaction… this insecurity is something that nobody likes (interviewee 2).
Inherent to insecurity is also the lack of information, this is part of company policies Respondents indicated that they have the feeling that much more information could be provided about the status of the project, e.g. what is going on in the project. By providing more information respondents feel that a lot of issues could be clarified. Lack of information was stressed by 3 respondents. It was having a negative impact on their organizational commitment. This is clearly elucidated by the following answers:
I still do not have an answer on this. Next to that I still have not heard how my team will be transferred to dwpbank… will everybody from my team be transferred? These questions have not been answered yet….already two and a half year (respondent 4).
And whenever I have to pinpoint something that influences my satisfaction and not positively…is that according to me not everything is yet clarified, however a lot of things are… this should be communicated. I believe that a lot of things are going round in the
project, however we… do not hear anything. This disturbs me. Even though there is nothing to announce… announce that there is nothing to announce…. this is much better than keep the employees in uncertainty (respondent 5).
One respondent is negatively influenced by earlier experiences with outsourcing. This particular respondent signed a contract with KAS BANK because this respondent lost his
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former job, at another employer, due to outsourcing. KAS BANK is now outsourcing his job and because of his earlier experience, the respondent does not have a comfort feeling of what will happen.
…unfortunately there is a unpleasant history for me regarding outsourcing….my former employer gave us a hard time and in the end we were laid off… .My former experience with outsourcing gives me today a skeptic feeling of KAS BANK outsourcing my current job…. I do not have a good feeling on this outsourcing project (respondent 1).
One respondent did not gave a clear reason why job satisfaction is influenced negatively by the outsourcing project. This particular respondent could only clarify by feelings. To illustrate this answer:
I believe that there are specific agreements within the KAS BANK and dwp construction that set our wages and that kind of things… I believe that dwp has a lot to say on this kind of agreements….thus…whenever I am thinking about these things…well…then all of this has no positive influence on my job satisfaction (respondent 10).
4.2.1.3 No effect on job satisfaction
For the purpose of this research not only the positive, negative or change in effect due to the outsourcing on job satisfaction need to be explored, however also when outsourcing has no effect on job satisfaction this should be elaborated. Table 4 shows multiple factors that were mentioned by respondent and did not influence their job satisfaction.
Based on the interviews 7 respondents mentioned 36 times that outsourcing has no positive nor negative impact on their job satisfaction. The answers given are captured in table 4. All the 7 respondents stated that the work setting, meaning their colleagues, supervisors,
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salary, and the work itself would not change when going to dwpbank. As this, according to
the 7 respondents, will no not change, they do not feel any current change in job satisfaction.
I think that all the colleagues from the 5th floor will go to dwp with the same contract conditions as nowadays…… dwp does have a better system, however I am looking forward using that system…... All of this has no impact on my satisfaction as much will remain the same as today and I do not notice that much of the outsourcing nowadays (respondent 6).
….I assume that…more or less my task will remain the same and perhaps even the same colleagues….this has currently no influence on my job satisfaction (respondent 8).
Table 4 No effect on job satisfaction
No effect on JS Number of persons References Company policies 5 6 Supervision 7 7 Interpersonal relations 7 7 Security 2 2 Salary 7 7 Work itself 5 5 Responsibility 1 1 Feelings 1 1 36
There are 5 respondents who believe that the company policies currently affected by the outsourcing do not have impact on their job satisfaction. A part of company policies is management communication, thus also on the status of the outsourcing project.
…whenever I look back at the last 2 and a half year….I notice that there is not much
communication on the project… however…luckily I understand that as management you can never communicate good…so….this has no further influence on my satisfaction (respondent 12)
