Submitted in part-fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration

Title Page

Job Satisfaction and Product and Service Quality: A study of the Mauritian textile industry

By

Florian Ferret

University of Surrey

School of Management

May 2009

© Florian Francois Ferret

I

ABSTRACT

This research has for objectives to investigate on the possible relationship of job

satisfaction, organisational, commitment product quality and service quality in the

Mauritian textile factory. It is belief that job satisfaction combined with

organisational commitment creates that favourable environment to product and

service quality. From the literature review a conceptual model was design and

formulated. It was then tested in order to clarify the relationship formulated in

order to answer the questions of the main areas.

Research work was done through personally administered questionnaires using

validated instruments. The result obtained was statically significant and strongly

and moderately correlated between variables.

Results confirm a moderate correlation between job satisfaction and

organizational commitment and also moderately correlated between job

satisfaction and service quality. No sound correlation was found regarding

organisational commitment and product quality. A strong correlation between job

satisfaction and service quality was found. Further test were made to in order to

have a better view on the probable relationship of other independent variables on

product quality. None of the result obtained indicated a good correlation. A

modified conceptual model was presented in order to show clearly the

relationship between those variables.

II

DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY

I declare that my work entitled "Job Satisfaction and Product and Service

Quality: A study of the Mauritian textile industry” for the degree of Master of

Business Administration, embodies the results of an original research

programme.

I have included explicit references to the citation of the work of others or to my

own work which is not part of the submission for this degree.

Author's signature: ………………………………

Name: Mr. Florian Francois Ferret

Date: 23rd May 2009

III

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Quality Components of Textile Companies .............................................3

Table 2: Employment in EPZ sector by gender...................................................46

Table 3: Distribution of EPZ enterprises and employment, 2006 ........................46

Table 4: Coefficient Alpha Analysis for Pilot Study .............................................47

Table 5: Summary of Hypotheses in Study.........................................................48

Table 6: Gender distribution of population ..........................................................49

Table 7: Age distribution of population................................................................49

Table 8: Marital Status distribution of population ................................................50

Table 9: Education distribution of population ......................................................50

Table 10: Number of years in company ..............................................................51

Table 11: Number of years in sector ...................................................................51

Table 12: Departmental distribution of population...............................................52

Table 13: Cronbach’s Alpha Analysis .................................................................52

Table 14: Job Satisfaction Responses................................................................53

Table 15: Organisational Commitment Responses.............................................54

Table 16: Product Quality Responses.................................................................55

Table 17: Service Quality Responses .................................................................56

Table 18: Measures of Central Tendencies and Dispersion ...............................57

Table 19: Correlation statistics for main constructs.............................................58

Table 20: Statistics for main hypotheses ............................................................59

Table 21: Correlation statistics for sub-hypotheses ............................................60

Table 22: Multiple Regression Analysis between Job Satisfaction and

Organisational Commitment ........................................................................61

Table 23: Multiple Regression Analysis between Organisational Commitment and

Product Quality ............................................................................................62

Table 24: Multiple Regression Analysis between Organisational Commitment and

Service Quality.............................................................................................63

Table 25: Multiple Regression Analysis between Intrinsic Satisfaction and

Behavioural Commitment ............................................................................64

IV

Table 26: Multiple Regression Analysis between Extrinsic Satisfaction and

Attitudinal Commitment................................................................................65

Table 27: Multiple Regression Analysis between Extrinsic Satisfaction,

Behavioural Commitment and Service Quality.............................................66

Table 28: Multiple Regression Analysis between Extrinsic Satisfaction, Attitudinal

Commitment and Product Quality ................................................................67

V

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Herzberg’s Two-Factors Theory Models ..............................................11

Figure 2: Supplier Performance Quality Model ...................................................13

Figure 3: Employee Characteristics, Performance and Turnover Model.............18

Figure 4: Satisfying Condition Model ..................................................................19

Figure 5: Behavioural Outcomes on Performance ..............................................20

Figure 6: Employee-Customer links in the ECSI Model ......................................31

Figure 7: The performance/buyers retention model ............................................33

Figure 8: Profitability and Customer Retention Model.........................................34

Figure 9: Conceptual Model of the Study............................................................37

Figure 10: EPZ exports by product category (2006) ...........................................45

Figure 11: Main supported relationships in study................................................69

VI

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page 1

ABSTRACT ...........................................................................................................I

DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY......................................................................II

LIST OF TABLES................................................................................................III

LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................. V

TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................... VI

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................. IX

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................ X Chapter 1 : INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................1

1.1 Overview of the Mauritian EPZ sector.................................................1

1.2 Purpose of study .................................................................................3 Chapter 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW....................................................................6

2.1 Introduction .........................................................................................6

2.2 Job Satisfaction...................................................................................7

2.2.1Factors influencing Job Satisfaction...................................................8

2.2.2Extrinsic and Intrinsic Factors of Job Satisfaction two factors

construct...................................................................................................10

2.2.3Outcomes of Job Satisfaction...........................................................12

2.3 Commitment......................................................................................14

2.3.1 Organisational commitment............................................................15

2.3.2 The Nature of commitment.............................................................16

2.3.3 Attitudinal commitment ...................................................................17

2.3.4 Affective commitment .....................................................................18

2.3.5 Behavioural commitment................................................................19

2.3.6 Employee Commitment ..................................................................21

2.4 Quality...............................................................................................22

2.4.1 Quality Culture ...............................................................................24

2.4.2 Service Quality ...............................................................................26

VII

2.4.3 Product Quality...............................................................................28

2.4.4 Quality and value ...........................................................................30

2.4.5 Employee Commitment, Product Quality and Service Quality........32

2.5 Conclusion ........................................................................................35 Chapter 3 : METHODOLOGY ...........................................................................36

3.1 Introduction .......................................................................................36

3.2 The Proposed Conceptual Model......................................................36

3.3 The Independent variable .................................................................38

3.4 The Dependent variables ..................................................................38

3.4.1 Hypotheses ....................................................................................39

3.4.2 Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment..........................39

3.4.3 Organizational Commitment and product quality...........................40

3.4.4 Organisational Commitment and service quality ............................41

3.5 Sub Hypotheses................................................................................41

3.5.1 Intrinsic Job Satisfaction and Behavioural commitment .................41

3.5.2 Extrinsic Job Satisfaction and Attitudinal Commitment...................42

3.5.3 Job satisfaction and service quality ................................................42

3.5.4 Job satisfaction and product quality ...............................................43

3.6 Survey Methodology .........................................................................44

3.6.1 Research design ............................................................................44

3.6.2 Data collection methods .................................................................44

3.6.3 Questionnaire Design......................................................................44

3.6.4 Population and sample...................................................................45

3.6.5 Pilot study.......................................................................................46

3.6.6 Statistical Tools Used.....................................................................47 Chapter 4 : PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS49

4.1 Sample Characteristics .....................................................................49

4.2 Reliability of Measures: Cronbach’s Alpha........................................52

4.3 Frequency Distributions of responses on the Likert scale .................53

4.4 Measures of Central Tendencies and Dispersion .............................57

VIII

4.5 Correlation Tests between Main Constructs .....................................57

4.6 Bivariate Regression .........................................................................60

4.6.1 Hypothesis H1: Job Satisfaction and Organisational Commitment 60

4.6.2 Hypothesis H2: Organisational Commitment and Product Quality .62

4.6.3 Hypothesis H3: Organisational Commitment and Service Quality..63

4.6.4 Sub-Hypothesis H4: Relationship between Intrinsic Satisfaction and

Behavioural Commitment .........................................................................64

4.6.5 Sub-Hypothesis H5: Relationship between Extrinsic Satisfaction and

Attitudinal Commitment ............................................................................65

4.6.6 Sub-Hypothesis H6: The relationship between Extrinsic Satisfaction

and Service Quality is influenced by Behavioural Commitment ...............66

4.6.7 Sub-Hypothesis H7: The relationship between Extrinsic Satisfaction

and Product Quality is influenced by Attitudinal Commitment ..................67

4.7 Interpretation of Findings ..................................................................68

4.7.1 Job Satisfaction and Organisational Commitment..........................70

4.7.2 Organisational Commitment and Product Quality ..........................72

4.7.3 Organisational Commitment and Service Quality...........................73

4.7.4 Job Satisfaction and Product/Service Quality.................................74 Chapter 5 : CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS.................................75

5.1 Main findings of the Study.................................................................75

5.2 Academic Implications ......................................................................77

5.3 Managerial Implications ....................................................................78

5.4 Limitations and Weaknesses of the Research ..................................79

5.5 Recommendations for further research.............................................79

5.6 Conclusion ........................................................................................80

REFERENCES ................................................................................................81

APPENDIX ......................................................................................................94

IX

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

All my love goes to my three children: Laetitia, Xavier and Adryelle.

Special thanks to Yogeeny, my wife, Doctor Alf Crossman, my supervisor Prof

David Gilbert.

This journey would not have been possible without the support of my parents and

Mrs Varina Koon.

Finally all my gratitude to all my friends who really supported me.

X

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

α Level of Significance

AHRIM Association des Hoteliers et Restaurateurs - Ile Maurice

IM Internal Marketing ROI Return on Investment ECSI European Customer Satisfaction Index MSQ Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire EPZ Export Processing Zone

1

Chapter 1 : INTRODUCTION

Mauritius; an island in the Indian Ocean of approximately 2,040 sq km with

around 1,274,189 inhabitants (C.I.A, 2008), where sugar cane industry is no

more the main capital contribution. Far from riche countries in the world,

Mauritius has to rely on Air and Sea transportation in order to export its textile

products to those market places. Further more globalisation, the constant

increase of resources and low-cost emerging economies, such as China and

India, are threats to the Mauritian exportations. Meaning this industry has to

compete head to head with those emerging countries. One possible way for

Mauritius to fight back is bank on its human capital.

1.1 Overview of the Mauritian EPZ sector

In the 1970’s the Mauritian Export Processing Zone (EPZ) was formed in order to

help the diversification of the economy which was mainly based on sugar

industry (Joomun, 2006). The EPZ Act of 1970 gave opportunities to foreign

investors to beneficiate from incentives such as:

1) Duty-free imports of machinery, raw materials and other inputs,

2) Substantial tax holidays,

3) Subsidized power rates and factory space,

4) Free and unlimited repatriation of profits and dividends

5) Access to concession credit rates (Ancharaz, 2003).

Three decades later, the Mauritian economy has evolved considerably and was

cited as a “success story” (M.C.C.I., 2003) and this success story was mainly due

2

to the preferential treatment offered by the European Union (Bhujun, 2006,

Hurreeram, 2007).

In Mauritius the EPZ sector is composed mainly of clothing and textile

manufacturing factories and according to Mr. L.A. Darga, chairman Enterprise

Mauritius this industry has a complex supply chain with its own dynamics, that

influences consumption in main markets, and negotiation at the multilateral level

(UNCTAD/WTO, 2006, p44). Today the preferential treatment is over (Bhujun,

2006) with the end of the Multi Fibre Agreement (Hurreeram, 2007) causing a

major negative impact on growth rate where most of the Hong Kong investors left

the island leading to job losses (Bhujun, 2006).

The industry was forced to react to these changes and therefore, much effort

were put to remain competitive in terms of reducing production cost, adopting a

quality culture, been flexible, deliver in promised time, been innovative

(Hurreeram, 2007). As these textile factories are more cost conscious, they are

doing their best to control wastage, exterior factors such as the constant increase

in crude oil forces the Mauritian organization, such as CIEL textile, Soniawear Ltd

to switch from mass market segment to intermediate and eventually high end

market and also most organizations are now shifting from a defensive strategy

(Rosunee 2005, UNCTAD/WTO, 2006) to an offensive strategy (UNCTAD/WTO,

2006).

In order to adopt an offensive strategy , Mauritian textile organizations need to

rely on their Human assets which is a determining factor (Rosunee, 2005,

Joomun, 2006), as in this competitive world other resources are easily accessible

where the determining factor.

3

Table 1: Quality Components of Textile Companies

Apparel Knitwear Light Knits (T-shirts) Bottoms Shirts

Employment 10000 20000 10000 10000

Up-market 20% 20% 20% 65%

Intermediary 80% 20% 80% 20%

Basic - 60% - -

Quality components of each segment

Source: (UNCTAD/WTO, 2006, p46)

1.2 Purpose of study

The Mauritian textile industry has to survive in this new business world, i.e.

organisations have to fight against global companies. Unfortunately all the raw

materials are imported, and then transformed into garments, thus, making it quite

impossible to compete with low cost countries in this new business era.

Consequently, many factories closed down causing psychoses among

employees on whom companies need to rely to deliver a product that is of

superior quality in order to meet customer’s expectation. In order to reach such

customers’ expectation, it is important to select and recruit employee who has in-

born characteristics and behaviour that would fit the organisation values (Broady-

Preston and Steel, 2002).

4

Unfortunately, it is now that some of the textile factories in Mauritius are starting

to have a proper recruitment exercise for head of departments. An example,

CIEL textiles sent potential candidates to sit for an MBTI test and based on the

results the candidates are embark in the company. However, machinists,

supervisors and operators are still been recruited after a simple interview with the

departmental manager and the human resource manager. The reason why MBTI

test is not done for all potential employees is the cost incurred in doing so.

Today, Mauritian textile factories have to bear with a workforce who has not

undergone a proper recruitment and selection exercise, implying that some of

them do not adhere to the values of the organisation.

The Mauritian textile sector needs to deliver product and service of high quality,

as it is no more competitive in the mass-market segment. Therefore, it would be

interesting to establish if committed and satisfied employees working in a

pleasant environment would eventually adopt a quality culture and hence, deliver

high-perceived value. The main focus of this study is to see the employees’

perception of value when they are satisfied and committed to their job.

We proceed to present a review of theoretical perspectives of employee

commitment, job satisfaction, internal service quality and product quality in

general. Finally, we summarise the important questions in this study to try to

establish a relationship among them for the textile industry. Chapter 1 gives an

5

overview of the challenges the Mauritian textile industry has to face and the

research interest. Chapter 2, the literature relates on the independent, dependent

variables and the possible relationship that exist between them. Chapter 3

argues on the research methodology. A thorough analysis of the findings would

be discussed in chapter 4 and finally chapter 5 would be the conclusion of the

research work.

6

Chapter 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

Product and service quality is vital for the Mauritian textile industry to stay afloat.

It is a fact that resources such as technology, finance, raw materials and labour

are easily accessible for emerging countries such as China, India and some

South American countries. Consequently, the Mauritian textile manufacturers

need to bank on their labour forces to do things right first time, implying that the

human assets intervention can be a competitive advantage as performance is not

only driven by machines. In that respect, it is important to have committed

employees who are satisfied of their jobs and who in turn would deliver quality,

however if those employees do not believe in their participation to quality, it

would be difficult to sustain value delivered to textile buyers.

Pfeffer (1995) argued that people must be linked to organisation’s success as

high committed employee would deliver service quality or contribute to product

differentiation and hence, be a good marketing strategy. Eventually, he argued

that textile organisations are now not competing solely on product differentiation.

Now to have individuals or group of people to positively interact between each

other in order to achieve organisational performance and commitment, is not an

easy task (McKenna, 2000).

Lee (1993) based on Edwards (1979, p17) said that in order to achieve such

behavior that an employee would deliver high-quality work and follows

instructions in order to contribute to an organization success, firms need to

employ mechanisms that would motivate people in doing so. In this research

work the author would investigate on the possible relationship of job satisfaction

7

and employee commitment to foster a quality culture that would impact on

perceived value.

2.2 Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is one of the most studied areas in organisational psychology

and is defined in various ways (Morgan, McDonagh et al., 1995). Most

researchers agreed that job satisfaction is closely related to behaviours and

attitudes at work (McKenna, 2000). According to (Locke, 1976, Spector, 1997)

cited in (Crossman and Abou-Zaki, 2003) Job satisfaction is a positive emotional

state, resulting from the pleasure a worker derives from his job. Job satisfaction

is a multifaceted concept related to employee’s attitude and feelings towards his

or her job Mullins (2005) and they are, according to Crossman and Abou-Zaki

(2003), are interdependent.

In general term, Job satisfaction is simply the combination of the employee’s

psychological emotional reaction (Morgan, McDonagh et al., 1995, Long and

Swortzel, 2007) towards his job; resulting from the discrepancy between what is

been expected and received (Locke, 1976, Cranny, Smith et al., 1992, Miner,

1992). Consequently, if personal expectations are met, job satisfaction would

follow and adversely if expectations are crushed, dissatisfaction would arise

(McKenna, 2000). Eventually dissatisfaction could lead to conflict, impacting

negatively on behaviour (Gold, 2007) and in order to understand the mechanism

which builds up job satisfaction researchers explored its precursors and

outcomes (Bradley and Arthur, 2007).

According to (Herzberg, Mausner et al., 1967) cited in ( Long and Swortzel, 2007,

p42) the reasons to evaluate job satisfaction is to answer the question “What

odes the worker want from his/hers job?”. Such question is useful to managers

8

because bad attitudes and behaviours can be one factors reducing

organisational performance (McKenna, 2000). Management applying new

motivating methods in playing on a particular facet of job satisfaction valued by

the employee would influence employee’s feelings (Locke, 1976, Long and

Swortzel, 2007), creating a proper environment for the employee to be more

efficient (Scott, Swortzel et al., 2005, Long and Swortzel, 2007).

2.2.1 Factors influencing Job Satisfaction

As mentioned above there are various factors that can influence a person's level

of job satisfaction (Mullins, 2005). Workers attitudes towards each of these

factors may differ(Behling, Labovitz et al., 1968) and job satisfaction can be seen

as the sum total of all the positive and negative attitudes an employee held

towards aspects of his/ her work (Torrington, Hall et al., 2005).

(Hodgetts, 1991) cited in (McKenna, 2000, p277) identified some factors one

could consider to be drivers of job satisfaction.

1 Pay and benefits - Fair promotion and pay policies are likely to encourage

employees to adopt a positive attitude.

2 Promotion - The system in place should be acceptable, whether it is based on

years of service or merit. Lack of scope for promotion may well lead to

dissatisfaction.

3 Job - This covers the skills required and the challenging nature of the job.

Employees are more productive and satisfied in the job when their interests

match the job requirements.

9

4 Leadership - It is suggested that people centred or a leadership style is an

important factor.

5 Workgroup- Better personal and social relationships in the working group are

a contributing factor towards the maintenance of high morale and favourable

attitude. Good teamwork and supportive colleagues prevents job’s

dissatisfaction to emerge, as there is a sense of belonging and a better

feeling of job satisfaction.

6 Working conditions- when conditions are good, comfortable and the

environmental settings are conducive to personal feel good factor, job

satisfaction is liable to be present.

Arvey et al. (1994) pointed out that people’s attitudes to their job are related to

genetic inheritance which could account up to 30% of job satisfaction incidents.

Other researchers have argued that this research has not taken into account all

the environmental factors, which can impinge significantly on it (Crossman and

Harris, 2006) and also individual characteristics would influence job satisfaction

(Judge, Locke et al., 1998).

Lefkowitz (1994) and Clarke (1996) have identified age, gender and education

factors to influence job satisfaction. According to (Briner, 1999), recognition and

praise are also important factors in improving job satisfaction. Feldman and

Arnold (1985) cited in (McKenna, 2000) added that the personality factor could

also influence job satisfaction. Judge et al. (1998) in his four Core Self-

evaluations Model argued that it is self-esteem, general self-efficacy, locus of

control, and neuroticism which determine one’s disposition towards job

satisfaction. A higher level of self-esteem, a general self-efficacy, an internal self-

efficacy and a low level of neuroticism lead to higher job satisfaction and

motivation.

10

Herzberg, Mausner et al. (1959) in their research work develop the dual factor

theory. This widely use well know theory was subject too some controversy as

the experimenter used a different approach in their survey compared to what was

conventionally expected to be used; that is to measure overall job satisfaction

on a scale afterward to relate these scores to factors creating job satisfaction

(Behling, Labovitz et al., 1968).

In his research work on motivation he found out that people could report about

what made them satisfied or dissatisfied with their job (Armstrong, 2001). He

continued on saying that job satisfiers were related to the job content and that

job dissatisfiers were related to the job context (Armstrong, 2001). Afterwards he

denoted that satisfiers are motivators and dissatisfiers are hygiene factors, now

well know as the two-factor theory (Hackman and Lawler, 1972, Steers and

Mowday, 1977, Luthans, 1995).

2.2.2 Extrinsic and Intrinsic Factors of Job Satisfaction two

factors construct

According to Herzberg Motivator Factors are intrinsic to the job and Hygiene

factors are extrinsic factors to the job (Steers and Mowday, 1977). These

motivating factors such as pay, company policies, supervisory practices, and

other working conditions are considered to be intrinsic to the job (Lacy and

Sheehan, 1997).

The theory does not consider individual differences, conversely predicting that all

employees will react in an identical manner to changes in motivating/hygiene

factors is difficult (Hackman and Lawler, 1972). However this theory support the

idea what intrinsic factors leads to satisfaction and on the other hand what

extrinsic factors lead to dissatisfaction (Behling, Labovitz et al., 1968).

11

Figure 1: Herzberg’s Two-Factors Theory Models

For example according to Hinrichs cited in (Lichtenstein, 1984, p58) there is a

correlation between satisfaction and the intrinsic factors of the job itself such as:

“work demands; the immediate manager; pay; future opportunities; the company

in general; work associates; work obstacles.” Also Smith et al cited in

(Lichtenstein, 1984, p58) identified extrinsic aspect of the job that is correlated to

satisfaction. They are pay; promotions; satisfaction with the work itself;

supervision and co-workers, which are extrinsic factors of job satisfaction

(Herzberg, Mausner et al., 1959).

In his research work (Lichtenstein, 1984) raised out that according to previous

studies physicians in Organized setting were often dissatisfied, consequently

there was a high turnover. Further more he said that for such professional

workers job satisfaction may perhaps positively correlated to performance hence

Positive Impact

High State of Motivation Satisfaction and performance

Source: (Steers and Mowday,1977, p647)

Hygiene Factors Extrinsic Pay, Supervision Company policies, Co-workers relationship

Neutral State of Motivation Dissatisfaction Or Satisfaction and performance

Motivation Factors Intrinsic Achievement Advancement Recognition

Negative Impact

12

impact on quality of care. Therefore he wanted to demonstrate that by changing

identified job factors producing the greatest amount of dissatisfaction would

improve job satisfaction; hence one can deduce reducing turnover; improving

performance and quality of care.

Buitendach and White (2005) investigated the possible relationship between job

insecurity, job satisfaction and organisational commitment of maintenance

workers in a parastatal organisation. He used The Minnesota Satisfaction

Questionnaire’s (MSQ) of (Weiss et al, 1967) to demonstrate how employees

were satisfied or dissatisfied with their job. According to the result obtained; the

MSQ confirmed the two dimensions, that is intrinsic and extrinsic factors, and

were statistically and practically significantly correlated. The results also

suggested that “higher levels of job satisfaction will result in higher levels of

affective commitment to the organisation” (Buitendach and Witte, 2005, p31).

Among a series of hypothesis he formulated; two were dealing with the

differential impact of job insecurity on both components of job satisfaction. A

higher score for job insecurity is correlated to a lower score for extrinsic job

satisfaction and that job insecurity is not correlated to intrinsic job dissatisfaction.

2.2.3 Outcomes of Job Satisfaction

The impact of job satisfaction on individual performance is not well established

(McKenna, 2000) as overall job satisfaction does not consider individual

differences (Hackman and Lawler, 1972) and also there are factors beyond the

control of individuals that can affect performance (McKenna, 2000).

However according to (Ostroff, 1992) cited in (McKenna, 2000, Hwang and Chi,

2005) organisation with more satisfied employees tend to have higher performer

than organisations with less satisfied employees. It was found out by Presley

(1999) that poor performance is significantly related to high turnover and higher

13

job satisfaction is associated to lower employee turnover (Lee and Mowday,

1987). Further more dissatisfied employees are likely to absent themselves for

unexplained reasons (Luthans, 1995).

Assessing job satisfaction allows an organisation to identify areas in need of

improvement. In opposition, organisation that does not create conditions for a

minimum level of job satisfaction could expect to have a high level of employee

turnover, low performance (Feldman and Arnold, 1985, Judge, Locke et al.,

1998, McKenna, 2000). High level of absenteeism results in losses for the

employer in terms of reduced production and failure to meet deadlines.

Consequently, the need for additional overtime to cover for absent employees

among others (McKenna, 2000). Deadline is an important issue for the Mauritian

textile factories. Very often goods are air-freighted which tends to cut in a small

profit margin and this is done only for the sake of retaining the buyers. According

to the performance evaluation matrix, late shipment would impact on buyers

retention as it is viewed by textile buyers to be a poor service quality (Teng and

Jaramillo, 2005).

Figure 2: Supplier Performance Quality Model

Source: Adapted from Teng and Jaramillo (2005 p509)

Three related factors and when combined in a multiplicative manner they reflect

the employee’s desire or motivation to perform the task.

Textile/Apparel

Supplier Performance

Percentage

of Time Shipment

Quality

14

In their research work on hotel performance, Hwang and Chi (2005) established

a positive relationship between job satisfaction , performance and internal

marketing (IM). IM concept is to have employees been treated as customers

whose needs are to be satisfied. In doing so organizations are in a better

position to pass quality to customers (Ahmed and Rafiq, 2003).

“IM generates involvement and commitment to organisational programmes.

Involvement and commitment coupled with clear sense of purpose are pre-

requisite for the much needed coherence and focus that are ultimately required

to produce successful outcomes” (Ahmed and Rafiq, 2003, p1179).

2.3 Commitment

According to Kanter (1968) social systems are there to meet systematic “need”.

People who form part of it tend to react positively or negatively, emotionally and

intellectually to situations. Therefore according to him, employee working

positively in association and interact positively with the system tend to attached

to it. (Peters and Waterman, 1982, Meyer and Herscovitch, 2001) argued that

commitment is a multidimensional construct, which has various definitions and

can be measured in different ways.

According to Becker (1960), sociologists have studied these interactions in order

to identify characteristics of both; individuals and organisational behaviour and

Becker (1960) cited in Powell and Meyer (2003, p158) said ‘‘commitments come

into being when a person, by making a side bet, links extraneous interests with a

consistent line of activity’’. Mowday, Steers et al. (1979) argued that commitment

is a positive or negative attitude developed by an employee towards an

organisation and varies in intensity and it reflects the extent to which an

employee identifies himself to company’s goals and objectives. For Balfour and

15

Wechsler (1996) commitment is the degree to which an employee identifies

himself to the organisation goals, values and enclose loyalty, job involvement, job

attachment, job commitment and moral commitment.

Actually employees who are so strongly bond to organisation will feel pride to be

part of the organisation and obviously will defend the organisation’s interest

(Balfour and Wechsler, 1991).

All authors agreed on saying that commitment binds an individual to a course of

action but the mind-set presumed to characterize commitment is different (Powell

and Meyer, 2003).

2.3.1 Organisational commitment

Torrington et al. (2005) referred organisational commitment to the psychological

attachment an employee has with his organisation and according to Reichers

(1985) when this arises the employee strongly identifies himself with the

organization’s goals and values; resulting in employees willingness to do that

extra effort to accomplish organisational goals and the desire to stay (Hunt and

Morgan, 1994). Further more according to him Organisational commitment

should not be viewed at employee level only, rather to the collective

constituencies that form part of the entire organization.

According to Balfour and Wechsler (1991) to elicit high level of organisational

commitment there is a need to increase job satisfaction and he concluded on

saying; higher commitment leads to higher productivity, reduce turnover and

absenteeism.

16

AL-Hussami (2008), in his study on the relationship of nurses' job satisfaction to

organizational commitment, found out that there is a significant relationship

between those two variables. Also, commitment can impact positively on

employee relationship at work as organizations are made up of a number of

factions with different agendas and conflicting objectives (Reichers, 1985).

Mowday (1998) focused on what binds an employee to organisational goals.

O’Reilly and Chatman cited in (Garvin, 1986) focused mainly on attitudes and

behaviour of employees, binding them to organisation objectives. (Meyer and

Allen, 1991) based their research on three forms of organisational commitment,

affective, continuance and normative commitment. However, attitudes and

behaviours are closely related to emotion. Emotion can be valued by the

employee depending if his expectations are obtained from the organisation

(Farber and Hall, 2007).

Most research work on job satisfaction and organizational commitment has

explored the relationship of attitude and behaviours performance relationship

(Schneider, Hanges et al., 2003). Eventually, it would be interesting to investigate

on the relationship between emotion and performance, hence, to correlate job

satisfaction and employee commitment with value.

2.3.2 The Nature of commitment

According to (Mowday, Steers et al., 1979, Meyer and Allen, 1991) the nature of

commitment has two distinct perspective, attitudinal and behavioural and those

two parameters are well define in organisational commitment literature.

17

2.3.3 Attitudinal commitment

For Mowday et al., (1982, p.26) cited in (Meyer and Allen, 1991, p62) attitudinal

commitment, also known as affective commitment, relates to the degree an

employee identifies himself to an organisation (Porter, Steers et al., 1974).

Attitudinal commitment “focuses on the process by which people come to think

about their relationship with the organisation” Mowday et al., (1982, p.26) cited in

(Meyer and Allen, 1991, p62).

In many ways it can be thought as a mind set in which individuals consider the

extent to which their own values and goals are congruent with those of the

organisation. For Mottaz (1989, p144) “from this perspective, commitment refers

to an affective response (attitude or orientation) resulting from an evaluation of

the work situation which links or attaches the individual to the organisation.”

Commitment is an area which has received significant research attention (Jaussi,

2007); like Meyer and Herscovitch (2001) developed a three-component

conceptualisation model of organisational commitment which consists of three

different employees’ mindsets to characterize their commitment to their

organisation which include the affective, continuance and normative forms of

commitment. However according to (Jaussi, 2007) there are some

inconsistencies across some research work as “ operational and definitional

omissions increase the potential for omitted variable biases in study results.” For

Jaussi (2007) attitudinal commitment is a three dimensional concepts which are:

1) Positive affect for the organization

2) Identification with the organisation

3) Willingness to exert effort in behalf of the organisation

In separating attitudinal commitment into these dimensions the author provided

empirical support to show that this structure is as robust and superior to other

18

models. However data were collected within a single corporation in the petroleum

industry.

2.3.4 Affective commitment

Affective commitment it mostly discussed as a form of psychological attachment

of an employee to an organisation and most research work on this area was

based on Kanter’s work (Jaros, Jermier et al., 1993) who defined affective

commitment as “the willingness of social actors to give energy and loyalty to the

organisation” (Kanter, 1968, p499) and resulting from that strong bond the

employee commits to the organisation’s goals and believes; therefore the

employee stays with the company (Meyer and Allen, 1991).

Powell and Meyer (2003) expected that affective commitment should have the

strongest positive impact on behaviours that is performance and organizational

citizenship behaviour.

Figure 3: Employee Characteristics, Performance and Turnover Model

Source: Meyer and Allen (1991, p68)

In their research Powell and Meyer (2003) found out that there is a strong

correlation between satisfying conditions and commitment, hence, on

performance and quality (Meyer and Allen, 1991). A loving organisation will foster

a positive commitment hence would surely be in position to develop a quality

Personal Characteristics

Affective Commitment

Performance

Turnover

19

culture. Those individual employees would take ownership over the quality of

their work (Bowen, 1996).

Figure 4: Satisfying Condition Model

Sourced from Powell and Meyer (2003 p169)

2.3.5 Behavioural commitment

Behavioural commitment is the process by which an individual bond himself to an

organisation (Becker, 1960, Iverson and Roy, 1994); through the employee’s self

investment and is rewarded accordingly (Becker, 1960). Mowday, Steers et al.

(1979) assessed situational factors which may increase employees’ commitment

to specific courses of actions which in turn the employee find it difficult to alter.

According to Brunetto and Far-Wharton (2003) the employee gets stuck with the

organisation as he perceived the cost of leaving high.

Most literatures have correlated behavioural commitment to the intention to leave

(Becker, 1960, Iverson and Roy, 1994) or the intention to stay which is;

according to Bergmann, Lester et al. (2000) employee commitment. Also

Mowday, Steers et al. (1979) in their research work find a linkage between

attitudinal and behavioural commitment.

Satisfying Condition Affective Commitment Performance

An adapted Satisfying condition model on Performance

20

However Pate, Martin et al., (2003) made a study on the possible impact of

psychological contract on employee attitudes and behaviours in a medium-sized

textile company in a small town of Britain. They found out according to

quantitative data that employee did adjusted their attitudes towards the

organisation but they could not find significant changes in behaviours though the

hard contextual factors prevailing at the time of their research work. According to

them possible reasons is the power difference between the employer and

employee would influence the employee not to display negative behavioural

attitudes due to fear redundancy and possibly the relationship between attitudes

and behaviours is more complex than most common literatures would suggest.

It is interesting to note in their findings that employees made a clear difference

between the job itself and their negative feelings towards the employer.

Guest et al. (1997) cited in Gold (2007) developed a theoretical framework of

HRM practices which implies that high employee commitment would turn out in

superior individual and organisational performance.

Figure 5: Behavioural Outcomes on Performance

Source: Guest et al. (Cited in Gold, 2007, p21)

HRM Outcomes: High Employee Commitment

Behaviour Outcomes 1) Effort/ Motivation 2) Cooperation 3) Involvement 4) Organizational

Citizenship

Performance Outcomes 1) High Productivity 2) High Quality 3) High Innovation

21

2.3.6 Employee Commitment

Bergmann et al. (2000, p15) defined employee commitment as “the individual’s

desire to remain as a member of his or her work-related interest groups” and that

employee commitment encompasses the three domains of organisational

commitment, professional commitment and professional association

commitment. In this rapidly changing environment, organization need to respond

quickly to changes in order to survive and actually, change is done through

employee.

People, who are self-discipline, who can manage their own performance and

make the organization’s objectives a priority, are crucial for an organisation

(Balfour and Wechsler, 1991, Dessler, 1993) and moreover, Mayer and

Herscovitch (2001) argued that no organization can survive this competitive

world unless employees are committed to the organizations objectives and works

in effective team spirit. Bergmann, Lester et al. (2000) argued that committed

employee contributes to a great extent to organizational performance and

creates wealth for shareholders and stakeholders.

Beardwell and Holden (1994) states that high commitment derived from

behavioural commitment and high-quality employees impact directly on the

quality of the goods and services provided. Retaining such individuals and

attracting developing others like them is crucial (Bearwell and Holden, 1994). It is

therefore important to secure the commitment of employees to organisation’s

goals and purposes (Peters and Waterman, 1982). For such organisation,

potential are enormous and any threats would be viewed as a challenge where

each member of the organisation would perform beyond expectation to overcome

those challenges (Balfour and Wechsler, 1991).

22

Jackson (Ancharaz, January 2004) argued that the commitment of employee to

quality is fundamentally important in manufacturing and service sector.

Omachonu and Ross (1995) argued that interaction between employees and

buyers in the service sector would impact on buyers satisfaction and such

interaction is usually found between merchandisers and buyers in the textile

sector. He also argued that in manufacturing sector, controlling quality in terms of

waste, rework and returns would ensure a good product value.

“Manufacturers are careful to measure material yield, waste scrap, rework,

returns and other costs of poor quality processes. Service companies also

have these costs, which reflected in the cost of customers who will not

come back because of poor service” Omachonu and Ross (1995, p129).

Vilares and Coelho (2003) in their research work found that there is a correlation

between employee commitment and product/service quality. However according

to Balfour and Wechsler (1991) and Mowday (1998), committed employees do

not necessarily mean they would make that extra effort for the benefit of the

company.

.

2.4 Quality

Quality is an imperative key competitive weapon in today’s global market place

for successful companies who want to retain or recover market share and it

should be everybody’s concerns (Freeman, 1995). Zeitham (1988, p3) defines

quality broadly as superiority and perceived quality eventually as the “The

consumer’s judgment about a product’s overall excellence or superiority”.

Crosby et al. (1994) argued that quality can be evaluated when ever customers

are satisfied or dissatisfied with the product and service offered and Waller and

Ashire (1996) emphasized on the importance of knowing this judgement.

23

Rice (1990) argued that this useful concept can be used to gain competitive

advantage which allows the firm to remain in the market place. Actually when an

organisation has compromised on quality and allowed its constant degradation ,

buyers have switched to other alternatives (Zeithaml, 1988). Therefore, it is

crucial for organisations to consider the dynamic needs of their buyers in order to

compete effectively (Shepetuk, 1991). According to Kotler (2001) the issue is to

design a product with a performance and conformance fitting the buyer’s need

and to exceed the competitors’ performance level at the same time.

Previously, Mauritian textile factories were competing on performance and

conformance quality in order to win orders. Today it is not the case anymore and

to remain competitive in the market place Mauritian manufacturers need to add

valued service such as speed delivery, ordering ease (Kotler, 2001), be flexible

in adapting to new buyers parameters (Teng and Jaramillo 2005).

Product and service quality are two distinct aspect but essential to combine them

together in order to create product differentiation (Kotler, 2001). Those two

aspects of quality have characteristics which are important in order to satisfy

buyers’ expectations (Kotler, Keller et al., 2006) and for them if their expectations

are close to their perceptions, buyers would be delighted(Jones and Kutsch,

2006).

Actually Feigenbaum (1991, p7) defined quality as “the total composite product

and services characteristics of marketing, engineering, manufacturing, and

maintenance through which the product and service in use will meet the

expectations of the customer.” It is an issue to meet customers, expectation and

to continually satisfy it is another one. The strategic concern of this is branding as

in the end premium price can be charge (Huber, Holbrook et al.). Therefore, it is

important to develop and sustain quality oriented culture in an organization and

this would only be possible through managers who adhere to quality culture and

24

who do not feel threatened by changes (Waller and Ashire, 1996). Hence, quality

can be measured through internal customers’ satisfaction where superior quality

is the product of the wealth and happiness of all employee involved in the

process of delivering satisfaction to buyers hence value (Setijono and Dahlgaard,

2007).

2.4.1 Quality Culture

Quality culture was developed due to the rapid changes in buyers needs,

numbers and behaviours (Draaijer, 1992). Hence, managers need to view

product and service quality as one of the major issues in an organisation where

effort should be made to promote such a culture that would enhance quality

resulting in an alignment between customers’ and managers’ view of the firm’s

product/service quality (Rust, Zahorik et al., 1995; Waller and Ashire, 1996).

Such culture that should fit the organisation’s purpose (Rust, Zahorik et al., 1995)

and failures can occur for organisations which made only cosmetic changes

without grasping the need to change the fundamental cultural mentality (Grant,

Shani et al., 1994).

Furthermore, managers when adopting a quality culture should foster such

attitudes that will create trust and a happy environment in the workplace (Bowen,

1996). Drummond (1992) cited in (Bowen, 1996, p16) states: “in a quality culture

the managerial imperative is not how to make do, but to do” and also it implies

that managers should transfer that quality mentality and culture to supervisors

and floor workers which is a major challenge (Lau and Anderson, 1998). Further

more he added that managers should see the link between their products’ quality

and their customers’ perception of the products’ quality (Lau and Anderson,

1998).

25

Managers have therefore a key role in creating a quality culture which will bring

along higher productivity, improved customer satisfaction and employee co-

operation resulting in achieving company’s goals (Larson and Sinha, 1995) thus

creating employee commitment which will favour communications between

buyers and employees in order to adjust strategic goals and continuous

improvement (Waller and Ashire, 1996).

Guest (1989) cited in (Torrington, Hall et al., 2005, p33) developed the

Universalist Approach where four HR policy goals are expected to produce

desirable organisational outcomes and they are:

1) Strategic integration- ensuring that HRM is fully integrated into strategic

planning, that HRM policies are coherent, that line managers use HRM

practices as part of their everyday work.

2) Commitment- ensuring that employees feel bound to the organisation and

are committed to high performance via their behaviour.

3) Flexibility- ensuring an adaptable organisation structure, and functional

flexibility based multi-skilling.

4) Quality- ensuring a high quality of goods and services through high-

quality, flexible employees.

According to (Baffour, 1999) is not enough looking at the product design,

customer service and going through a constant study of the market situation but

everyone in an organisation should share a similar view in order to make a strike.

Consequently, quality delivered to buyers depends on the internal relationship

between employees and managers.

26

Crosby, Grisaffe et al. (1994) argued that it is important to have truly motivated

employees with the desire to deliver work of quality. Meaning internal service

quality will impact on the desired value delivered to buyers as it is expected that

internal service quality will improve external service quality (George, 1990).

However, according to (Rust, Zahorik et al., 1995) some organisations did run

out of financial difficulties since they were overspending on customers service,

consequently, it is important to have a good balance between those two. Internal

marketing is an important approach for fostering a service- and customer-

oriented culture in an organization. Having customer-conscious employees is a

necessary but not sufficient condition of effective service delivery.

2.4.2 Service Quality

Service is all about delivering a personal attention to customers and Svensson

(2004, p279) defined it as the interactive process between a “service provider”

and “service receiver” where it is a “theatre”, “show”, or “performance”; example

the waiter who welcome a guest while entering a restaurant or during a flight the

stewardess who cares for the passengers (Rotfeld, 2001). Eventually, if the

performance delivered by the actors is not at the expected level, customers

would be unhappy (Russell, 2005), therefore delivering a high quality service is

important in order to delight customers and consequently, retaining them

(Quester, 1997). In fact due to customers’ role in the perception of service

quality; organisations are more and more prioritising on its specific contribution

(Wang and Lo, 2002).

Organisations are driven by the need to survive (Zeithaml, Berry et al., 1996) and

therefore, to remain competitive, service provider should constantly look for

potential gaps in the market in order to improve service delivery in order to retain

27

customers (Coulthard, 2004; Agus, Barker et al., 2007). However, service quality

has unique features, such as being intangible, inseparable, perishable, can not

be stored and heterogeneous making it complex (Quester, 1997).

Cowell (1984), argued that consequently it is an issue when it has to be

measured (Quester, 1997). Moreover, the perception of service quality varies

from customers to customers (Santos, 2002) as the consistency in delivering the

same quality would differ from employee to employee (Zeithaml, Parasuraman et

al., 1985). Service quality once produced is consumed strait away (Quester,

1997) and according to Priluck (2003) when wrongly delivered, would alter

customers’ view on the quality of the service, thus impact on company’s image or

brand.

Edvardsson (1998, p144) states “ service quality is that the service should

correspond to the customers’ expectations and satisfy their needs and

requirements”. However, to achieve such level, human error should be kept as

low as possible and many organisations fails to consider that in fact the human

element is part of any service transaction; therefore managing the internal

actions would facilitate the consistency in delivering such high service quality

(King and Grace, 2005).

According to (Ballantyne, 2000, p3) any functional organisation will tend to result

in a “silos effects” in turn would impact on the internal actions within the

organisation. This situation is very common in the textile factory in Mauritius

where each functional group preserves its own hegemony (Ballantyne, 2000)

meaning impeding on the service delivered and for him, to avoid this cross-

functional constraint each employee should treat each other as internal

customers.

28

2.4.3 Product Quality

The empirical study conducted by Jacobson and Aaker (1987) found that product

quality has a positive influence on ROI, market share, and price. In addition, the

empirical study conducted by Phillips et al. (1983) rejected the hypothesis that

higher quality comes only at a cost premium. These studies indicate that there

are positive effects associated with better quality; therefore, they show an indirect

relationship between actual quality and customer-perceived quality. The thinking

is that if customers did not see the relationship, the above results would not be

observed.

Although there is indirect empirical evidence that higher quality products are

perceived to be of higher quality by customers, it does not mean that managers

believe that the link is valid. If they do not think the link is valid, they will have

less motivation to improve quality. It has been found that product quality has a

positive influence on ROI (Waller and Ashire 1996), market share, and price

(Jacobson and Aaker, 1987).

In order to have organizational commitment to quality, which is associated with

high quality performance’s level (Garvin, 1986), employees should believe in

their product quality and thus, implement and sustain quality culture (Waller and

Ashire, 1996).

Organisations which have been able to implement and sustain a quality culture

would surely not loose track in achieving product characteristics. Actually with

new and ever changing product specification employees need to adapt to

situations where small batches of customized orders should be produced in a

very short delay (Baffour, 1999).

29

According to Garvin (1988) cited in (Wang, Lo et al., 2003) there are eight

characteristics to product quality which should be correctly balanced in order to

make that composite “which provides the intended functions with the greatest

overall economy” (Feigenbaum, 1991, p7) and they are;

1) performance: a product’s primary operating characteristics

2) features: the additional features or the “bells and whistles” of the product

3) conformance: the extent to which a product’s design and operating

characteristics meet established standards

4) reliability: the probability that a product will operate properly over a

specified period of time under stated conditions of use

5) durability: the amount of use the customer gets from a product before it

physically deteriorates or until replacement is preferable

6) serviceability: the speed, competence, and courtesy of repair

7) aesthetics: how a product appeals to our five senses; and customer-

perceived quality: customer’s perception of a product’s quality based on

the reputation of the firm

8) Customer-perceived quality indicates the customer’s perception of a

product’s quality, based on the reputation of the firm (Wang, Lo et al.,

2003, p75).

30

”It would seem plausible for managers to think that: product quality should be a

major focus of quality efforts; and customers view of the firm’s product quality will

be commensurate with the managers’ perception of their firm’s product quality”

(Waller and Ashire, 1996).

2.4.4 Quality and value

Value is a broad concept which has various definitions but It is used as a

marketing strategy to gain competitive advantage where all processes regarding

product-service attributes are well are efficiently and effectively managed in

order to delight customers (Walters and Jones, 2001). Consequently delivering

value to customers is a significant issue for marketing researchers to consider

and can be used to predict consumers’ behaviour Tsiotsou (2006). According to

marketing literature suggests that values do affect purchase intention decision

process (Pitts and Woodside, 1984).

Value is mostly defined by the customer’s point of view where the provider

should identify the set of actions which creates value, that is beginning with the

appropriate selection of raw materials to the different manufacturing process and

finally to the delivery of the products to the buyers (Jones and Kutsch, 2006).

Wang and Lo (2002, p53) defined it as” the emotional bond established between

a customer and a producer after the customer has used a salient product or

service produced by that supplier”. In the textile industry, value cannot be

perceived only in terms of fitness for use anymore, but it is the perception of the

superior quality of the products and services offered to meet customers’

satisfaction (Setijono and Dahlgaard, 2007).

31

Setijono and Dahlgaard (2007) argued that value is inherent in the design and

inherent in the conformance to that design meaning improving design quality

and conformance quality will likely increase value. Consequently, (Setijono and

Dahlgaard, 2007) in their research work wanted to identify the best pathway to

deliver value to customer, hence try to identify simultaneously how to improve

product quality.

Jones and Kutsch (2006) stated that even if manufacturers believe they are

delivering quality does not mean they are meeting buyers’ requirements, hence

expected value. However, Vilares and Coelho (2003) based on their Employee-

customer links in the ECSI model argued that employees’ commitment,

satisfaction and hence participation, are directly related to quality. Therefore,

value depends on employees’ willingness to produce added value product and

services (Waller and Ashire, 1996). In fact, the degree of employees’ involvement

in quality efforts depend significantly on rewards (Bowen, 1996). Kotler (1997)

cited in (Wang, Lo et al., 2004) pointed out that customer value has more to do

with product, service , employee and image value which is more from the

organization point of view not the customers’.

Figure 6: Employee-Customer links in the ECSI Model

Source:(Vilares and Coelho 2003) Employee-customer links in the ECSI model

32

Actually most research work studied value through the customers’ point of view

which would be the normal approach (Vilares and Coelho, 2003) (Rust, Zahorik

et al., 1995) rather from the employees’ perception. Referring to (Kotler, 1997)

value is related to employee value also ,therefore, for this research value would

be assessed through the point of view of the employee. Value creating system

depends greatly on each members who work together in order to create and

deliver value which is a strategy in order to be a key player in the market place

(Walters and Lancaster, 2000).

“Value is created by identifying and understanding customer benefits and costs

and the combinations of organizational knowledge and learning, together with

organisational structures that facilitate response and delivery. Essentially this

requires management of information and relationships” (Walters and Lancaster

2000, p161).

2.4.5 Employee Commitment, Product Quality and Service

Quality

Successful organisations need to keep pace with dramatic changes which are

driven by the growing rate of change itself, technological advances and changes

in buyers demand (Howard, 1995) cited in Jackson, 2004) implied that committed

employee is fundamental for organisations where those kind of dedicated

employees are willing to deliver high quality of work, resolves customers’

problems and highly recommend company’s products (Crosby, Grisaffe et al.,

1994).

33

Furthermore, (Teng and Jaramillo, 2005) argued that to enhance product and

service value, textile manufacturers need to continually improve their operations

supply chain process, thus, retaining actual textile buyers or even bringing

additional buyers. He added that in this competitive world, textile buyers are

constantly relentlessly seeking for new suppliers with better service and product

at a competitive cost. In the same view, relating to their supplier performance

evaluation matrix one can deduce that delivery speed, flexibility, cost, quality and

reliability would impact on buyers’ retention.

According to (Chandpraralert, 2002) textiles buyers behaviour is influenced by

different variables such as: price, quality, service. Consequently their decisions

would be based on two sets of variables which are: task variables and non-task

variables.

“Task variables, which concern product characteristics including product quality,

design, price, delivery, and service availability; and non-task variables, which

include exporter characteristics such as the organizational buyer’s perceptions of

suppliers’ reputations, knowledge, trustworthiness, co-operativeness, orientation

to the buyer, and personal qualities” (Chandpraralert, 2002, p50).

Figure 7: The performance/buyers retention model

Source: Teng and Jaramillo (2005 p509)

Textile/apparel supplier performance

Delivery

Speed

Flexibility

Cost

Reliability

Quality Buyers Retention

34

Omachonu and Ross (1995, p130) argued, according to their profitability and

customer retention model, that there is a relationship between internal service

quality, employee retention external service quality and customer satisfaction and

those variables would impact on customer retention. Hence, as committed

employee would tend to remain with the organization and that employee

retention would impact on customer satisfaction, there should be a relationship

between employee commitment and buyers’ satisfaction.

However, through this literature there is no evidence that there is a direct

relationship as Customers’ satisfaction depends on variables such as internal

service quality and external service quality. According to Reade (2003)

customers’ satisfaction is associated to high individual performance where that

valuable extra effort underlies exemplary customer experiences. Such individual

who identifies himself to the organisation goals are usually bond psychologically

to the company and this phenomenon is referred as Organisational Identification.

Figure 8: Profitability and Customer Retention Model

Source: Omachonu and Ross (1995)

Internal Service Quality

Employee Retention

External Service Quality

Customer Satisfaction

Driver

Employee Satisfaction

Customer Retention

Profit

35

2.5 Conclusion

Organisations are considered to have an entity and to survive those

organisations need to have the interaction between its members. Members are

individuals who have their own beliefs, attitudes and behaviours which could be

influence by personal motivation. Nevertheless organisations need those

individuals to achieve targeted goals which can be in the form of tangible or

intangible goods and services. Finally profits, substantial or superficial, should

result from all those resources which are pulled together in order to produce

tangible and intangible goods and services. This literature tries to establish if

components of job satisfaction and employee commitment can be a major factor

influencing product and service quality. According to the literature review there is

a linkage between job satisfaction and employee commitment. However some

research work has demonstrated some correlation between job satisfaction and

product/service quality. There is some evidence of the impact on commitment on

product and service quality. However some researchers have agreed that the

environmental factor can influence results obtained. Therefore here under this

dissertation will try to unveil the possible mechanism between:

1) Intrinsic job satisfaction, behavioural commitment and service quality

2) Extrinsic job satisfaction, attitudinal commitment and product quality.

36

Chapter 3 : METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

The literature in the previous chapter has enabled the definition of the research

questions, the statement of variables and their conceptual interaction in a

conceptual framework. This framework has been further refined into a number of

hypotheses stated in operational terms that need to be tested through an

appropriate research approach. This chapter discusses the proposed conceptual

model, the hypothesis statement, the study design, the population of

respondents, sample design, measurement and scaling, the data collection

method, the statistical analysis used, test performed on the collected data as well

as problems encountered during the survey and their solutions.

3.2 The Proposed Conceptual Model

The proposed conceptual model (Figur 9) has been derived from a combination

of Herzberg’s Two-Factors Theory Models; Barry M. Staw Intrinsic

Motivation/performance Model cited (Steers and Mowday, 1977) p654; Meyer

and Allen (1991) three conceptual model; Powell and Meyer (2003) evaluation

performance model; Omachonu and Ross (1995) Profitability and customer

Retention model; Teng and Jaramillo (2005, p509) evaluation and selection of

suppliers model, in view to study the relationship between Job Satisfaction,

Employee Commitment, Product Quality and Service Quality. Hence to evaluate

which aspect of job satisfaction and organizational commitment relationship in an

organisational set up that would channel employee effort towards the creation of

desired value expected by buyers?

37

Figure 9: Conceptual Model of the Study

Job Satisfaction Employee commitment Quality

Intrinsic Behavioural Service

Extrinsic Attitudinal Product

Source: Literature Review

Herzberg’s Two-Factors Theory Models and Barry M. Staw Intrinsic and Extrinsic

Motivation cited in (Steers and Mowday, 1977) debates on the relationship of job

satisfaction, motivation at work and performance. Meyer and Allen (1991), Powell

and Meyer (2003) studied the nature of commitment and its relationship with

employee retention and performance. Omachonu and Ross (1995) argued on the

relationship between internal service quality, employee retention and external

service quality. Teng and Jaramillo (2005) showed the importance of supplier

performance on buyers retention.

Most research work explored the relationship between employee commitment

and product quality or employee commitment and service quality and job

satisfaction on performance. Today the textile industry has to find new strategies

to stay competitive. The Mauritian textile industry is not an exception to the rule

and as all raw materials need to be sourced abroad makes its competitiveness

more fragile. Consequently human assets is an important tool (Galunic and

Anderson, 2000) to get that competitive advantage which will at least keep its

actual customer by adopting a defensive strategy (Fornell and Wernerfelt, 1987).

Therefore textile organisation in Mauritius should bank also on human capital. In

this regard it is important to understand and predict human behaviours.

38

3.3 The Independent variable

As established from the literature review Job Satisfaction and Employee

Commitment are important, the former debates on the motivational aspect of the

job itself and the latter deals with attitude and behaviour at work. Based on

Buchanan (1974) and others, (Steers, 1977) argued that commitment is

influenced by: the quality and nature of an employee, the experience gain during

his or her tenure in the organization. Actually according to (Meyer and Allen,

1991) personal characteristics will tend to influence commitment hence

performance. According to most research work higher performance is correlated

to job satisfaction and employee commitment meaning there is a possible

relationship with quality, however this relationship is not clearly demonstrated

(Harber, Ashkanasy et al., 1997). Therefore this research work will try to

establish the possible relationship between intrinsic, extrinsic job satisfactions on

attitudinal, behavioural commitment influencing product/service quality. It is

expected, based on the literature review, that when those two independent

variables are combined together, the possible outcomes is to have motivated

employees, in a turbulence environment, willing to do that extra effort to promote

organizational goals.

3.4 The Dependent variables

In general product quality can be classified as a qualifier (Jones and Kutsch,

2006) however quality is achievable by most manufacturers and the textile

industry is not an exception (Teng and Jaramillo, 2005). It is evident that

resource such: as technology, finance, raw materials are easily accessible to

everyone. Competition is so fierce in the textile industry that orders are won just

on a difference of a wire strand and therefore when looking closely to the sector it

is clear that there is a part “Product” part and also a service part, which can be

39

the determinant (Teng and Jaramillo, 2005). Based on the literature review

service quality can be unique as it is delivered by employees. Therefore both

dependant variables combined together would tend to retain buyers. However it

is the client who would judge the product and service quality and according to

Schneider and Bowen (1985) cited in (Harber, Ashkanasy et al., 1997) there is a

correlation between employees’ perception and customers’ perception on the

service quality delivered hence value meaning a good employee perception on

quality would lead to a good customers perception on quality delivered (Vilares

and Coelho, 2003). Therefore, it would be interesting to investigate on

employees’ perceptions of product and service quality.

3.4.1 Hypotheses

The hypotheses have been set up in a way in order to verify possible

relationship: between job satisfaction and organizational commitment;

organizational commitment and product/service quality; to establish the degree

intrinsic satisfaction will correlate to behavioural commitment; same for extrinsic

satisfaction and attitudinal commitment relationship. Finally if there is a direct

relationship between extrinsic and intrinsic aspect of job satisfaction with product

and service quality. Consequently hypotheses are formulated as follows.

3.4.2 Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment

According to many research work there is a correlation between job satisfaction

and employee commitment but there are variables that could influence that link

(Taormina, 1999, Balfour and Wechsler, 1991) such as demographic, age,

gender, personal characteristics (Lefkowitz, 1994, Clarke, 1996, Judge, Locke et

40

al., 1998). In addition there is no clear view on which comes first. In the present

environmental context of the Mauritian textile industry it is possible to have a

different result compared to past research as the variables would differ. Hence

the hypothesis is formulated as follows:

H0: There is no relationship between Job Satisfaction and organizational Commitment

H1: There is a relationship between Job Satisfaction and organizational

Commitment

3.4.3 Organizational Commitment and product quality

Mowday, Steers et al., (1979) and Mottaz, (1989) argued that high levels of

employee commitment are likely to spend extra effort for organizational values

and performance and eventually, based on Mowday et al. (1962) work, may

maintain and attract good employees. Good employees are assets that would

drive performance which in turn will drive quality culture as according to

(Buchanan, 1974) commitment is assumed to lead to particular work-related

behaviour. Those employees will deliver expected quality as they are willing to

do that extra effort (Crosby, Grisaffe et al., 1994). Hence the hypothesis is

formulated as follows:

H20: there is no relationship between Organisational Commitment and product

quality

H21: there is a relationship between Organisational Commitment and product

quality

41

3.4.4 Organisational Commitment and service quality

Delivering service quality is not an easy task as it is not an engineered processed

rather delivered intact by employee to customers (Zeithaml, Berry et al., 1988).

He further more argued that for service delivery human performance is often

used as a measuring stick and actually in their research work they established

that at American Express, timeliness, accuracy and responsiveness is an

important issue and actually as established in the literature review section 5.7

commitments plays an important role on quality.

Therefore the relationship between commitment and service quality is set as

follows:

H30: there is no relationship between Organisational Commitment and service

quality

H31: there is a relationship between Organisational commitment and service

quality

3.5 Sub Hypotheses

3.5.1 Intrinsic Job Satisfaction and Behavioural commitment

In the literature review motivational factors “Intrinsic” if satisfied would increase

performance and behavioural commitment would create this attachment to

course of action which in turn would be difficult to alter. The question is if altering

intrinsic job satisfaction would it impinge on behaviours?

42

Hence the following hypothesis is formulated:

H40: There is no relationship between Intrinsic Job Satisfaction and Behavioural

Commitment

H41: There is a relationship between Intrinsic Job Satisfaction and Behavioural

Commitment.

3.5.2 Extrinsic Job Satisfaction and Attitudinal Commitment

In the literature review extrinsic job satisfaction if not met would lead to

dissatisfaction and attitudinal commitment to the employee.

H50: There is no relationship between Extrinsic Job Satisfaction and Attitudinal

Commitment

H51: There is a relationship between Extrinsic Job Satisfaction and Attitudinal

Commitment

3.5.3 Job satisfaction and service quality

In the literature review it is clearly set out that job satisfaction and performance is

closely linked. However there is no clear evidence that there is a direct

relationship between job satisfaction and service quality. As example Hwang and

Chi (2005) demonstrated that job satisfaction and internal marketing has a

positive impact on performance. Consequently service quality is measured by

performance (Zeithaml, Berry et al., 1988).

43

Therefore the hypothesis is set out as follows:

H60: The relationship between Extrinsic Job Satisfaction and Service Quality is

not influenced by Behavioural Commitment

H61: The relationship between Extrinsic Job Satisfaction and Service Quality is

influenced by Behavioural Commitment.

3.5.4 Job satisfaction and product quality

There is no clear link between job satisfactions and product quality but it is for

sure the product quality is important for buyers (Chakraborty, Srivastava et al.,

2007) in the textile industry. Actually Guimareas (1996) cited in (Chakraborty,

Srivastava et al., 2007) argued that job satisfaction refers to employee

recognition that they are effectively contributing to overall organizational

performance. Hence as product quality is a target that a textile organization

should achieve; it would be interesting to see if there is a positive relationship

between job satisfaction and product quality. Therefore the hypothesis is

formulated as follows:

H70: The relationship between Extrinsic Job Satisfaction and Product Quality is

not influenced by Attitudinal Commitment

H71: The relationship between Extrinsic Job Satisfaction and Product Quality is

influenced by Attitudinal Commitment.

44

3.6 Survey Methodology

3.6.1 Research design

This cross-sectional field study focused on employees’ perception of product and

service quality offered to the client in the textile industry. A survey was done in

order to validate the hypotheses derived from the proposed model. The four

validated measuring instruments which were used to asses the variables are:

The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) short form from Weiss,

Organizational commitment (Porter, Steers et al., 1974), perceived product

quality(Walker and Ahire 1996) and internal service quality (Kang, Jame et al.,

2002). See Appendices I, II, III and IV.

3.6.2 Data collection methods

A list of predetermined questions is set on a questionnaire, which is delivered to

factories and collected after it has been filled, is asked to respondent through an

interviewer in each factory. The interviewer in each is selected in relation to his

capacity to understand each question set and translate then in creole (native

language). In doing so the data collection method is not costly and the time

required to have the amount of data is not lengthy. This also permits a good

response from interviewee as most form the pilot.

3.6.3 Questionnaire Design

A questionnaire is a data collection mechanism (Sekaran, 2003) which used to

get valuable data enabling a researcher to derive conclusion (Morris, 1996).

Close-ended question has been set using a 5-point Likert scale in order to enable

45

respondent to be at ease in answering question as they can make quick decision

(Sekaran, 2003). The questionnaire consists of 46 questions and addressed at

first demographic characteristics, job satisfaction, organizational commitment,

perceived product quality and internal service quality. It was set in English and

was distributed to heads of department in textile factories. Some interviewer

reported they had to translate the wordings but most of the interviewee could

understand the question. This method was adopted as this allows the survey to

take a shorter time than if the survey was personally administrated.

3.6.4 Population and sample

The population consists of textile organisation in the apparel sector EPZ exports

categories.

Figure 10: EPZ exports by product category (2006)

76%

7%

1%

4% 6%6% Apparel

Others

Watches & Clocks

Textile & Yarn

Jewellery

Fish & fish Preparations

Source: (C.S.O. 2007)

46

The sample was drawn in respect to 76% of population employment size in the

EPZ sector by gender which is 18021 male and 31083 female.

Table 2: Employment in EPZ sector by gender

2004 2005 2006Male 23,808 35% 24,564 37% 23,711 37%

Female 44,214 65% 42,367 63% 40,898 63%

Total employment in EPZ Sector 68,022 66,931 64,609

Source: (C.S.O. 2007) Table 3: Distribution of EPZ enterprises and employment, 2006

Number Percentage Cumm.% Number Percentage Cumm.%Under 10 135 31 31 344 1 110 - 50 147 34 65 3,749 6 7

51 - 100 54 12 77 3,934 6 13101 - 300 53 12 89 8,907 14 27301 - 500 18 4 93 6,689 10 37

501 - 1000 11 3 96 7,854 12 49More than 1000 16 4 100 33,132 51 100

TOTAL 434 100 64,609 100

Employment size Enterprise Employment

Source: (C.S.O. 2007)

3.6.5 Pilot study

A pilot study was done in five textile factory, where access to employees was

easier granted, which ranged from 301 to 500 employees and 501 to 1000

employees. 40 pilot questionnaires were delivered to textile organizations’

47

department heads in the morning and 60% were collected in the end of

afternoon. The rest were collected on the next day. All questionnaires were all

properly filled and this was due to the fact that the interviewers could understand

each question as they were familiar with English and also could direct an

interview. This pilot study would have been more time consuming if the

questionnaire were personally administered and also access was easily granted.

Table 4: Coefficient Alpha Analysis for Pilot Study

Variables No of questions Coeff. Alpha

Job Satisfaction 20 .89 Employee commitment 15 .76 Product Quality 5 .81 Service Quality 22 .93

Source: Research Study, 2009

3.6.6 Statistical Tools Used

Data collected was input in an SPSS statistical software program. Information

retrieved was compiled on Microsoft excel in order to provide a better

examination of information provided through descriptive analysis and the

relationship is determined through inferential statistic as stated in the following

table.

48

Table 5: Summary of Hypotheses in Study Hypotheses Variable Test

1

there is no relationship between job

satisfaction and organisational commitment

Ind:Job Satisfaction

Dep:Organisational

Commitment

Correlation

Regression

2

there is no relationship between organisational

commitment and product quality

Ind:organisational

commitment

Dep:Product quality

Correlation

Regression

3

there is no relationship between organisational

commitment and service quality

Ind:organisational

commitment

Dep: Service quality

Correlation

Regression

4

there is no relationship between Intrinsic

satisfaction and behavioural commitment

Ind:Intrinsic Job

satisfaction

Dep:Behavioural

commitment

Correlation

Regression

5

there is no relationship between extrinsic

satisfaction and attitudinal commitment

Ind:Extrinsic

satisfaction

Dep:Attitudinal

commitment

Correlation

Regression

6

The relationship between extrinsic satisfaction

and service quality is not influenced by

behavioural commitment

Ind:Extrinsic

satisfaction and

behavioural

commitment

Dep:Service quality

Correlation

Regression

7

The relationship between extrinsic satisfaction

and product quality is not influenced by

attitudinal commitment

Ind:Extrinsic

satisfaction and

attitudinal commitment

Dep:Product quality

Correlation

Regression

Source: Research Study, 2009

49

Chapter 4 : PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

OF FINDINGS

4.1 Sample Characteristics

The population consisted of 148 men and women in the Mauritian textile industry.

63 percent were women and 54 percent were men. Their age range was

between 18 and above 60 years. Seventy seven percent of employees were

under the age of 40 years and the rest were above forty.

Table 6: Gender distribution of population Gender No %

Men 54 37Women 94 63

Total 148 100

Source: Research Study, 2009

Table 7: Age distribution of population Age (in years) No %

Under 20 2 1%20 > 30 68 46%30 > 40 44 30%40 > 50 30 20%50 > 60 4 3%60 and above 0 0%

Total 148 100%

Source: Research Study, 2009

50

In the population, 66 percent were married and 27 percent were single. The rest

were divorced.

Table 8: Marital Status distribution of population Marital status No %

Single 40 27%Married/Cohabiting 98 66%Divorced 10 7%

Total 148 100%

Source: Research Study, 2009

85 percent of employees interviewed went to secondary school and 9 percent

had only primary school education. It is interesting to note that 5 percent of

employees had technical training.

Table 9: Education distribution of population Level of education No %

Primary 14 9%Secondary F4 64 43%SC/HSC 62 42%Vocational 8 5%

Total 148 100%

Source: Research Study, 2009

From the tables below, it can be concluded that there is a substantial group of

young employees (30 percent) with up to 5 years of experience in the company.

Moreover, the same percentage (30 percent) has up to 10 years experience in

the industry. 23 percent has between 10 to 20 years experience and 14 percent

has over 20 years experience in the industry.

51

Table 10: Number of years in company No years in company No %

upto 1 year 14 9%1 to 5 44 30%5 to 10 44 30%10 to 15 14 9%15 to 20 18 12%20 and above 14 9%

Total 148 100%

Source: Research Study, 2009

Table 11: Number of years in sector No years in sector No %

upto 1 year 10 7%1 to 5 30 20%5 to 10 54 36%10 to 15 14 9%15 to 20 20 14%20 and above 20 14%

Total 148 100%

Source: Research Study, 2009

It can be concluded that there are still young comers to the industry and only 6

percent which has moved from another company to their present one in the same

industry. However, it is commendable to note that 28 percent of employees have

more than 15 years of service in the industry.

The sample consisted of 28 percent of Knitting, Dyeing and Finishing employees

and 39 percent of machinist employees. Finally, 34 percent of the sample

consisted of Quality Control and Maintenance employees.

52

The population can be described as equally distributed among semi-skilled,

skilled and technical workers.

Table 12: Departmental distribution of population

N %

Knitting 20 14%

Maintenance 20 14%

Q. Control 30 20%

Dyeing 10 7%

Finishing 10 7%

Machinists 58 39%

Total 148 100%

Factories

Source: Research Study, 2009

4.2 Reliability of Measures: Cronbach’s Alpha

The Cronbach’s alpha for the variables in the study were obtained and are as

presented in Table 13 below.

Table 13: Cronbach’s Alpha Analysis

Reliability of Measures: Cronbach’s AlphaVariable No Items Alpha

Job Satisfaction 20 0.85Organisational Commitment 15 0.78Product Quality 5 0.85Service Quality 22 0.92

Source: Research Study, 2009

As all results were above 0.60, then the reliability of the measuring instrument

can be considered as valid for the study (Sekaran, 2003).

53

4.3 Frequency Distributions of responses on the Likert scale

Job Satisfaction

The Job Satisfaction Questionnaire was set with twenty questions. Respondents’

answers were somewhat oriented towards being either satisfied or strongly

satisfied (fifty percent of employees). Twenty five percent of employees seemed

to be not satisfied with their employment and twenty five percent has no opinion.

Table 14: Job Satisfaction Responses

Not AgreeSomewhat

AgreeNeither Agree Nor Disagree Agree Strongly Agree

Keep Busy Intrinsic 8 8 16 46 22

Work Alone Intrinsic 14 23 14 38 12

Do Diff Work Intrinsic 23 23 9 39 5

Status Intrinsic 7 9 9 50 24

Manager relations Extrinsic 4 4 19 49 24

Supervisor competence Extrinsic 4 8 27 38 23

Moral values Intrinsic 4 5 11 53 27

Job Security Intrinsic 28 16 35 15 5

Help co-workers Intrinsic 1 4 16 58 20

Authority Intrinsic 16 22 23 34 5

Use own ability Intrinsic 4 1 11 64 20

Work conditions Extrinsic 11 16 39 30 4

Pay satisfaction Extrinsic 27 23 27 20 3

Advancement Extrinsic 9 15 39 30 7

Responsibility Intrinsic 9 12 16 41 22

Creativity Intrinsic 5 15 38 32 9

Working conditions General 5 15 42 31 7

Good co-workers General 9 8 15 49 19

Recognition Extrinsic 1 8 22 55 14

Happy with work Intrinsic 1 12 38 41 - Source: Research Study, 2009

54

Organisational Commitment

The Organisational Commitment Questionnaire was set with fifteen questions.

Respondents’ answers were somewhat oriented towards being either committed

or strongly committed (sixty six percent of employees).

Table 15: Organisational Commitment Responses

Not AgreeSomewhat

AgreeNiether Agree Nor Disagree Agree Strongly Agree

Make Effort Atttudinal 4 4 3 54 35

Praise Work Atttudinal 3 5 14 53 26

Loyalty Atttudinal - 3 19 22 57

Participation Atttudinal 42 19 28 7 4

Value same Atttudinal 8 11 46 31 4

Proud Atttudinal 4 14 12 53 18

Change comp Behavioural - 3 26 34 38

Company support Atttudinal 8 7 30 41 15

Stability Behavioural 1 1 9 24 64

Company identification Atttudinal 1 7 24 49 19

Job prospect Behavioural 3 1 23 30 43

Organisational policies Atttudinal 19 20 35 22 4

Attachment Atttudinal 7 8 3 30 53

Best Company Atttudinal 4 12 30 31 23

Company choice Behavioural - - 16 12 72 Source: Research Study, 2009

Thirteen percent of employees seemed to be not committed and twenty one

percent had no opinion.

55

Product Quality

The Product Quality questionnaire was set with five questions. It is very striking

to note that most employees agreed to the product meeting technical

requirements.

Table 16: Product Quality Responses

Not AgreeSomewhat

AgreeNiether Agree Nor Disagree Agree Strongly Agree

Performance - 1 7 53 39

Product Reliable 5 - 5 57 32

Product meet Spec - 3 5 46 46

Product is durable - 1 8 47 43

Customer perception - - 7 53 41 Source: Research Study, 2009

Service Quality

Twenty two questions were set for the Service Quality questionnaire. Fifty

percent of respondents agreed that they delivered a good quality of service. It is

to be noted a significant amount of employees have a good perception that there

is a clear communication among them, more dedicated to work within a group

and they have the necessary knowledge to sustain that service quality. See

Table 17 next page.

56

Table 17: Service Quality Responses

Not AgreeSomewhat

AgreeNiether Agree Nor Disagree Agree

Strongly Agree

Promised service 1 5 18 62 14

Handling Problem 7 12 19 47 15

Right first time 4 14 41 27 15

Provide correct information 3 11 26 47 14

Coworkers Reliable 12 9 16 51 11

Trust Coworkers 7 12 28 39 14

Safe dealing with coworkers 12 14 36 30 8

coworkers Polite and Polite 7 3 42 36 12

Coworkers Knowledge 3 5 27 50 15

Equipment up to date 3 5 19 43 30

Environment is good 7 5 41 36 11

Apperance neat and nice 3 5 35 36 20

Material is nice looking 4 5 9 61 20

Coworkers Problems 9 13 18 40 20

Working hours 9 15 26 39 11

Coworkers individual Attention - 7 28 53 12

Coworkers best Interest 5 6 14 47 28

Sensitivity to Coworkers needs 4 14 12 53 18

Clear communication - 4 9 62 24

Quick reponse to request 11 12 35 38 4

Help coworkers 7 9 20 49 15

Accomodate Request 12 8 28 41 11 Source: Research Study, 2009

57

4.4 Measures of Central Tendencies and Dispersion

The mean, Standard Deviation, Skewness, Minimum and Maximum responses

were obtained for each variable. Table 18 below shows the results.

Table 18: Measures of Central Tendencies and Dispersion

JSAT OCOM PQUAL SQUAL

N Valid 148 148 148 148

Missing 0 0 0 0

Mean 3.3986 3.7423 4.2838 3.5519

Std. Deviation 0.5506 0.4933 0.5705 0.6303

Variance 0.3031 0.2434 0.3254 0.3973

Skewness -0.7146 -0.5570 -0.4350 -0.3358

Std. Error of Skewness 0.1993 0.1993 0.1993 0.1993

Minimum 1.5000 2.0667 3.0000 1.4545

Maximum 4.5000 4.7333 5.0000 4.7727 Source: Research Study, 2009

The summary above shows that the mean response of Job Satisfaction,

Organisational Commitment and Service Quality are above average (3.4, 3.7 and

3.6 respectively). The mean of 4.3 for Product Quality indicates a rather high

perception of employees about the product quality.

Histograms for each variable were produced and are as shown in Appendix V

Furthermore, Normality graphs (Appendix VI) for the four measures were

generated and examination of the P-plots suggested a normal distribution.

4.5 Correlation Tests between Main Constructs

SPSS for Windows was used to compute correlation data between the four

variables and the results are shown in Table 19 next page.

58

Table 19: Correlation statistics for main constructs

JSAT OCOM PQUAL SQUAL

JSAT Pearson Correlation 1.00 0.49 0.09 0.70

Sig. (2-tailed) - 0.00 0.27 0.00

N 148.00 148.00 148.00 148.00

OCOM Pearson Correlation 0.49 1.00 0.28 0.43

Sig. (2-tailed) 0.00 - 0.00 0.00

N 148.00 148.00 148.00 148.00

PQUAL Pearson Correlation 0.09 0.28 1.00 0.24

Sig. (2-tailed) 0.27 0.00 - 0.00

N 148.00 148.00 148.00 148.00

SQUAL Pearson Correlation 0.70 0.43 0.24 1.00

Sig. (2-tailed) 0.00 0.00 0.00 -

N 148 148 148 148

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Correlations

Source: Research Study, 2009

Following Cohen’s (1988) guidelines, the values of the correlation have been

interpreted as follows;

r = .10 to .29 or r = -.10 to -.29 weak

r = .30 to .49 or r = -.30 to -.49 moderate

r = .50 to 1.0 or r = -.50 to -1.0 high

A table showing the detailed statistics for each main hypothesis follows next

page:

59

Table 20: Statistics for main hypotheses

Hypothesis Independent

variables Dependent

variable R Sig.

H1 Job Satisfaction Organisational

Commitment 0.49 0

H2 Organisational

Commitment Product Quality 0.28 0

H3 Organisational

Commitment Service Quality 0.43 0

Level of Sig. = 0.05

Source: Research Study, 2009

The computed values show that Job Satisfaction is moderately positively related

to Organisational Commitment (r = 0.49). Organisational Commitment is weakly

positively correlated with Product Quality (r = 0.28). Organisational commitment

is moderately positively correlated with Service Quality.

Further correlation tests were done between Intrinsic Satisfaction, Extrinsic

Satisfaction, Attitudinal Commitment, Behavioural Commitment, Product Quality

and Service Quality. The results are shown in Table 21 next page.

Interpreting the results, there is a strongly positively correlation between Extrinsic

Job Satisfaction and Service Quality. Extrinsic Job Satisfaction is moderately

positively correlated with Attitudinal Commitment. However, the correlation

between Extrinsic Job Satisfaction and Product Quality is weak.

Intrinsic Job Satisfaction is also positively strongly correlated with Service

Quality. The correlation between Intrinsic Satisfaction and Attitudinal

Commitment is moderate. Attitudinal Commitment is weakly correlated with

Product Quality and Service Quality.

60

Table 21: Correlation statistics for sub-hypotheses

Intinsic Satisfaction

Extrinsic Satisfaction

Attitudinal Commitment

Behavioural Commitment PQUAL SQUAL

Intinsic Pearson Correlation 1 0.6848 0.4549 0.1394 -0.0679 0.5979Satisfaction Sig. (2-tailed) 0.0000 0.0000 0.0911 0.4123 0.0000

N 148 148 148 148 148 148Extrinsic Pearson Correlation 0.6848 1 0.4573 0.1518 0.2432 0.6637

Satisfaction Sig. (2-tailed) 0.0000 0.0000 0.0656 0.0029 0.0000N 148 148 148 148 148 148

Attitudinal Pearson Correlation 0.4549 0.4573 1 0.4261 0.2490 0.3843

Commitment Sig. (2-tailed) 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0023 0.0000N 148 148 148 148 148 148

Behavioural Pearson Correlation 0.1394 0.1518 0.4261 1 0.0531 0.2254

Commitment Sig. (2-tailed) 0.0911 0.0656 0.0000 0.5219 0.0059N 148 148 148 148 148 148

PQUAL Pearson Correlation -0.0679 0.2432 0.2490 0.0531 1 0.2357

Sig. (2-tailed) 0.4123 0.0029 0.0023 0.5219 0.0039N 148 148 148 148 148 148

SQUAL Pearson Correlation 0.5979 0.6637 0.3843 0.2254 0.2357 1

Sig. (2-tailed) 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0059 0.0039N 148 148 148 148 148 148

**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Correlations

Source: Research Study, 2009

4.6 Bivariate Regression

Bivariate Linear Regression tests were done for each main hypothesis in the

study.

4.6.1 Hypothesis H1: Job Satisfaction and Organisational

Commitment

Following are results of the linear regression for hypothesis H1. The p-value is

0.000. Consequently, hypothesis H1 is supported. Thus, Job Satisfaction

61

influences Organisational Commitment. As R2 is 0.238, meaning that 24 percent

of Organisational Commitment is explained by Job Satisfaction.

Table 22: Multiple Regression Analysis between Job Satisfaction and Organisational Commitment

Model Summaryb

.488a .238 .233 .43217 .238 45.542 1 146 .000Model1

R R SquareAdjustedR Square

Std. Error ofthe Estimate

R SquareChange F Change df1 df2 Sig. F Change

Change Statistics

Predictors: (Constant), JSATa.

Dependent Variable: OCOMb.

ANOVAb

8.506 1 8.506 45.542 .000a

27.269 146 .18735.775 147

RegressionResidualTotal

Model1

Sum ofSquares df Mean Square F Sig.

Predictors: (Constant), JSATa.

Dependent Variable: OCOMb.

Coefficientsa

2.257 .223 10.128 .000.437 .065 .488 6.748 .000

(Constant)JSAT

Model1

B Std. Error

UnstandardizedCoefficients

Beta

StandardizedCoefficients

t Sig.

Dependent Variable: OCOMa.

Source: Research Study, 2009

62

4.6.2 Hypothesis H2: Organisational Commitment and Product

Quality

The p-value is 0.001. Consequently, hypothesis H2 is supported. Thus,

Organisational Commitment influences Product Quality. As R2 is 0.079, meaning

that 8 percent of Product Quality is explained by Organisational Commitment. Table 23: Multiple Regression Analysis between Organisational Commitment and Product Quality

Model Summaryb

.282a .079 .073 .54927 .079 12.571 1 146 .001Model1

R R SquareAdjustedR Square

Std. Error ofthe Estimate

R SquareChange F Change df1 df2 Sig. F Change

Change Statistics

Predictors: (Constant), OCOMa.

Dependent Variable: PQUALb.

ANOVAb

3.793 1 3.793 12.571 .001a

44.048 146 .30247.841 147

RegressionResidualTotal

Model1

Sum ofSquares df Mean Square F Sig.

Predictors: (Constant), OCOMa.

Dependent Variable: PQUALb.

Coefficientsa

3.065 .347 8.843 .000.326 .092 .282 3.546 .001

(Constant)OCOM

Model1

B Std. Error

UnstandardizedCoefficients

Beta

StandardizedCoefficients

t Sig.

Dependent Variable: PQUALa.

Source: Research Study, 2009

63

4.6.3 Hypothesis H3: Organisational Commitment and Service

Quality

The p-value is 0.000. Consequently, hypothesis H3 is supported. Thus,

Organisational Commitment influences Service Quality. As R2 is 0.181, meaning

that 18 percent of Service Quality is explained by Organisational Commitment.

Table 24: Multiple Regression Analysis between Organisational Commitment and Service Quality

Model Summaryb

.425a .181 .175 .57238 .181 32.243 1 146 .000Model1

R R SquareAdjustedR Square

Std. Error ofthe Estimate

R SquareChange F Change df1 df2 Sig. F Change

Change Statistics

Predictors: (Constant), OCOMa.

Dependent Variable: SQUALb.

ANOVAb

10.564 1 10.564 32.243 .000a

47.833 146 .32858.397 147

RegressionResidualTotal

Model1

Sum ofSquares df Mean Square F Sig.

Predictors: (Constant), OCOMa.

Dependent Variable: SQUALb.

Coefficientsa

1.518 .361 4.203 .000.543 .096 .425 5.678 .000

(Constant)OCOM

Model1

B Std. Error

UnstandardizedCoefficients

Beta

StandardizedCoefficients

t Sig.

Dependent Variable: SQUALa.

Source: Research Study, 2009

64

4.6.4 Sub-Hypothesis H4: Relationship between Intrinsic

Satisfaction and Behavioural Commitment

The p-value is 0.091, which is greater than the α-value of 0.05. Consequently,

hypothesis H4 is not substantiated. This suggests that Intrinsic Satisfaction is not

a predictor of Behavioural Commitment of employees.

Table 25: Multiple Regression Analysis between Intrinsic Satisfaction and Behavioural Commitment

Model Summaryb

.139a .019 .013 .47199 .019 2.893 1 146 .091Model1

R R SquareAdjustedR Square

Std. Error ofthe Estimate

R SquareChange F Change df1 df2 Sig. F Change

Change Statistics

Predictors: (Constant), IntinsicSatisfactiona.

Dependent Variable: BehaviouralCommitmentb.

ANOVAb

.645 1 .645 2.893 .091a

32.524 146 .22333.169 147

RegressionResidualTotal

Model1

Sum ofSquares df Mean Square F Sig.

Predictors: (Constant), IntinsicSatisfactiona.

Dependent Variable: BehaviouralCommitmentb.

Coefficientsa

3.870 .254 15.239 .000.124 .073 .139 1.701 .091

(Constant)IntinsicSatisfaction

Model1

B Std. Error

UnstandardizedCoefficients

Beta

StandardizedCoefficients

t Sig.

Dependent Variable: BehaviouralCommitmenta.

Source: Research Study, 2009

65

4.6.5 Sub-Hypothesis H5: Relationship between Extrinsic

Satisfaction and Attitudinal Commitment

The p-value is 0.000, which is less than the α-value of 0.05. Consequently,

hypothesis H5 is substantiated. This suggests that Extrinsic Satisfaction is a

predictor of Attitudinal Commitment of employees. As R2 is 0.204, it is concluded

that 20.4 percent of the dependent variable Attitudinal Commitment is explained

by the predictor Extrinsic Satisfaction, which is not a weak percentage.

Table 26: Multiple Regression Analysis between Extrinsic Satisfaction and Attitudinal Commitment

Model Summaryb

.457a .209 .204 .47818 .209 38.606 1 146 .000Model1

R R SquareAdjustedR Square

Std. Error ofthe Estimate

R SquareChange F Change df1 df2 Sig. F Change

Change Statistics

Predictors: (Constant), ExtrinsicSatisfactiona.

Dependent Variable: AttitudinalCommitmentb.

ANOVAb

8.828 1 8.828 38.606 .000a

33.384 146 .22942.211 147

RegressionResidualTotal

Model1

Sum ofSquares df Mean Square F Sig.

Predictors: (Constant), ExtrinsicSatisfactiona.

Dependent Variable: AttitudinalCommitmentb.

Coefficientsa

2.518 .183 13.722 .000.337 .054 .457 6.213 .000

(Constant)ExtrinsicSatisfaction

Model1

B Std. Error

UnstandardizedCoefficients

Beta

StandardizedCoefficients

t Sig.

Dependent Variable: AttitudinalCommitmenta.

Source: Research Study, 2009

66

4.6.6 Sub-Hypothesis H6: The relationship between Extrinsic

Satisfaction and Service Quality is influenced by

Behavioural Commitment

In this case we are interested in comparing the contribution of Extrinsic

Satisfaction and Behavioural Commitment, therefore we will use the beta values

[Sekaran….] on Service Quality. The largest beta coefficient is 0.644 which is for

Extrinsic Satisfaction. The Beta value for Behavioural Commitment was slightly

less (0.128) indicating that it made less of a contribution.

Table 27: Multiple Regression Analysis between Extrinsic Satisfaction, Behavioural Commitment and Service Quality

Model Summaryb

.676a .456 .449 .46789 .456 60.877 2 145 .000Model1

R R SquareAdjustedR Square

Std. Error ofthe Estimate

R SquareChange F Change df1 df2 Sig. F Change

Change Statistics

Predictors: (Constant), BehaviouralCommitment, ExtrinsicSatisfactiona.

Dependent Variable: SQUALb.

ANOVAb

26.654 2 13.327 60.877 .000a

31.743 145 .21958.397 147

RegressionResidualTotal

Model1

Sum ofSquares df Mean Square F Sig.

Predictors: (Constant), BehaviouralCommitment, ExtrinsicSatisfactiona.

Dependent Variable: SQUALb.

Coefficientsa

.979 .372 2.628 .010

.559 .054 .644 10.402 .000

.169 .082 .128 2.060 .041

(Constant)ExtrinsicSatisfactionBehaviouralCommitment

Model1

B Std. Error

UnstandardizedCoefficients

Beta

StandardizedCoefficients

t Sig.

Dependent Variable: SQUALa.

Source: Research Study, 2009

67

Checking the Sig. value, both predictors made a unique and statistically

significant contribution to the prediction of Service Quality, as the Sig. value is

less than α = 0.05. Thus Hypothesis H6 is supported.

The model explains 45.6 percent of the variance in Service Quality. Of these two

variables, Extrinsic Satisfaction makes the largest unique contribution (beta =

0.644), although Behavioural Commitment also made a statistically significant

contribution (beta = 0.128).

4.6.7 Sub-Hypothesis H7: The relationship between Extrinsic

Satisfaction and Product Quality is influenced by

Attitudinal Commitment

In this case we are interested in comparing the contribution of Extrinsic

Satisfaction and Attitudinal Commitment, therefore we will use the beta values

[Sekaran….] on Product Quality. The largest beta coefficient is 0.174 which is for

Attitudinal Commitment. The Beta value for Extrinsic Satisfaction was slightly

less (0.164) indicating that it made less of a contribution.

Table 28: Multiple Regression Analysis between Extrinsic Satisfaction, Attitudinal Commitment and Product Quality

Model Summaryb

.288a .083 .071 .55000 .083 6.575 2 145 .002Model1

R R SquareAdjustedR Square

Std. Error ofthe Estimate

R SquareChange F Change df1 df2 Sig. F Change

Change Statistics

Predictors: (Constant), AttitudinalCommitment, ExtrinsicSatisfactiona.

Dependent Variable: PQUALb.

68

ANOVAb

3.978 2 1.989 6.575 .002a

43.863 145 .30347.841 147

RegressionResidualTotal

Model1

Sum ofSquares df Mean Square F Sig.

Predictors: (Constant), AttitudinalCommitment, ExtrinsicSatisfactiona.

Dependent Variable: PQUALb.

Coefficientsa

3.186 .319 9.978 .000.128 .070 .164 1.829 .069.185 .095 .174 1.948 .053

(Constant)ExtrinsicSatisfactionAttitudinalCommitment

Model1

B Std. Error

UnstandardizedCoefficients

Beta

StandardizedCoefficients

t Sig.

Dependent Variable: PQUALa.

Source: Research Study, 2009

Checking the Sig. value, both predictors made did not make a unique and

statistically significant contribution to the prediction of Service Quality, as the Sig.

values are more than α = 0.05. Thus Hypothesis H7 is not supported.

4.7 Interpretation of Findings

The figure next page shows the correlation and the pathway between each

variable. Job satisfaction components impact directly and positively on attitudinal

commitment and on service quality.

69

Figure 11: Main supported relationships in study

0.70

0.45 0.38

0.46

0.66

IntrinsicSatisfaction

ExtrinsicSatisfaction

AttitudinalCommitment

Service Quality

Source: Research Study, 2009

70

4.7.1 Job Satisfaction and Organisational Commitment

Most research work has established the significant positive correlation between

job satisfaction and organizational commitment (Lalopa, 1997). However

between those two variables the chicken-and-egg debate still exist (Steers, 1977,

Glisson and Durick, 1988). According to the result obtained, a positive correlation

has been established, but only 24 percent of Organisational Commitment in

Mauritian textile factory is explained by Job Satisfaction. It was expected that job

satisfaction would have been a higher predictor of employee commitment

(Steers, 1977, Lalopa, 1997).

Having a closer look to the result obtained in the organisational commitment

survey; this unexpected outcome could be explained by the fact that twenty

percent of the employees response was in balance and thirteen percent was not

committed. Another possible explanation is; some employees in the Mauritian

textile factories are more concerned by the advantages set by the job itself than

the organisational concern. For them commitment is secondary issue. This

assumption can be related by the fact that the thirty nine percent of the

population is machinist and this category of employees have to do overtime very

often which will allow them to have relatively good earnings.

According to (Herzberg, Mausner et al., 1967) extrinsic factors such as salary,

fringe benefits “hygiene factors” are needed in order that an employee is not

dissatisfied. Also it has to be noted according to the survey, there are a

percentage of youngsters joining this sector. Actually approximately thirty percent

of the population sample had less than or five years service in their respective

organisation. As commitment is concerned by the attachment formed by an

employee to his organisation consequently may be commitment would have

been more consistent with those thirty percent if they would have a longer period

of service with their respective organisation (Mowday, Porter et al., 1982) and

71

also job satisfaction is more related to an attitude influenced by working

conditions, facets or aspect of the job itself (Wiener, 1982) compared to

commitment which is more related to a global response to an organisation

(Mowday, Porter et al., 1982).

Now this research work reveals that Attitudinal Commitment of employees is

explained by 20.4 percent Extrinsic Satisfaction, which is a weak percentage.

The highest extrinsic contributor is: the manager relationship and work

recognition. On the counter part: pay, promotion and work condition were the

lowest contributor to satisfaction. Referring to Appendix VIII those aspects of

extrinsic job satisfaction have influenced negatively on attitudinal commitment; as

they are classified as dissatisfiers but the chart shows that the relation between

those two variables is proportionally related. Further more according to Mowday

et al. (1982) attitudinal commitment is the process by which the employee will

start to think about his/her relationship with the organization. This relationship is

clearly demonstrated as in Table 15 about 89 respondents on 148 of the sample

population are willing to make that extra effort for their respective company, 79

respondents agreed that they are loyal to their respective company; 71 are proud

of their company. According to Appendix VII attitudinal commitment is highly

influenced by intrinsic satisfaction where it can be observed that a small increase

in satisfaction would give a sharp increase in employee commitment. The

intrinsic factors which are highly positively rated by employees in the Mauritian

textile factory are: employee status, helping co-workers, and use own ability. The

intrinsic factors of job satisfaction are motivators for Mauritian employee in this

sector. If hygiene factors were more of a concern for Mauritian organisation,

there would have been a substantial increase in employee commitment as

according to Appendix VII satisfaction and commitment are proportionally

positively correlated. Also according to (Glisson and Durick, 1988) those two

variables should be highly correlated it is possible to find employees who are

attached to companies beliefs and goal but not at all satisfied with their salaries.

72

4.7.2 Organisational Commitment and Product Quality

In most literature employees committed to organisation goals will yield better

quality performance level (Garvin 1986). Quality is a must (Waller and Ashire,

1996), specially in the textile industry and one of the organisational goals is

product quality (Teng and Jaramillo, 2005) and In order to have organizational

commitment to quality, employees should believe in the quality of the product

itself (Waller and Ashire, 1996).

According to (Baffour, 1999) product quality is a major performance dimension

where organisations should be able to produce product small volumes of

customised quality products for evolving non mass market. Such approach is

important for the Mauritian textile producers. However according to the result

obtained Table 15 this relationship is week as only eight percent of organisational

commitment contributed to quality and actually according to Appendix XII there is

no clear relationship between organisational commitment and product quality.

However from Table 16 most of the respondent strongly agreed that the product

meet the expected requirements. This could be explained by; for employees in

the Mauritian textile factories product quality does not depend entirely on them;

as product quality can be affected by equipment. For Gelade, Dobson et al.

(2006) there is strong evidence of the positive correlation between high level of

commitment and organisational outcomes “performance” which in turn is

associated to higher sale and customers satisfaction. Therefore if the level of

organizational commitment in the Mauritian textile industry was higher then the

results obtained should have been higher.

This research failed to demonstrate the validity of this relationship. As

commitment is more related to the employee personnel attachment to an

organisation (Mowday, Porter et al., 1982), employee in the Mauritian textile

73

industry dissociates quality and there personnel attachment with the company.

If the relationship between attitudinal and product is not so evident, it seams

according to Appendix XI the relationship between extrinsic satisfaction and

product quality is proportionally correlated though this relationship is not so

significant.

4.7.3 Organisational Commitment and Service Quality

According to (Ballantyne, 2000, p3) any functional organisation will tend to result

in a “silos effects” in turn would impact on the internal actions within the

organisation meaning that co-workers relationship would be threatened. In the

research work it is clearly set that the internal relationship between co-workers

stands right.

According to Table 17 employees responded positively to variables such as: co-

workers problems, sensitive to co-workers problem and co-workers best interest,

showing that the silos effects are not an issue. However organizational

commitment contribution to service quality is eighteen percent, which is more

commitment contribution to product quality. It is a fact according to results

obtained organizational commitment in the Mauritian textile industry is positively

weakly correlated to service quality.

Actually service delivered is strongly attached to the person delivering the service

(Rotfeld, 2001) as the human element is part of any service transaction (King and

Grace, 2005). Further more according to Appendix XIII Attitudinal commitment

there is directly proportional to service quality. For (Elmadag, Ellinger et al.,

2008) attitude and behaviours greatly influenced the service quality delivered. In

table employees’ respondent positively attitudinal commitment question where

variables such as: make extra effort, praise work, loyalty and company support

received the highest marking.

74

4.7.4 Job Satisfaction and Product/Service Quality

Job Satisfaction is mostly correlated to turnover, absenteeism (Presley, 1999)

(Lee and Mowday, 1987) and performance(Feldman and Arnold, 1985, Judge,

Locke et al., 1998, McKenna, 2000). However according to table… Job

satisfaction is highly significantly correlated to service quality. Though according

to most literature the direct relationship between job satisfaction and

product/service quality is not so obvious however according to (Lam, 1995) it is

impossible to anticipate for service quality and reliable product if job satisfaction

is absent.

According to Appendix IX and Appendix X Job Satisfaction is directly proportional

to service quality but not so obvious regarding the relationship between extrinsic

satisfaction and product quality. Job satisfaction is mostly related to the pleasure

derived from work (Locke, 1976, Glisson and Durick, 1988). According to his

research (Brown and Peterson, 1993) stated that performance is the antecedent

of job satisfaction though some literature would say the contrary and he also find

out that there is a modest positive association between those two construct.

75

Chapter 5 : CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Main findings of the Study

The Mauritian textile industry is facing great difficulties to survive in this highly

competitive world. We are assisting presently many shut down of companies

who can not subsist as the selling price of that product does not match the quality

offered. More and more buyers like are shifting their production to countries such

as Bangladesh, India or China consequently most of the Asian manufactures

relocated their factory to those areas.

Today even Mauritian manufactures are relocating their make up to Madagascar

and eventually to Bangladesh and India. As example CIEL textile has relocated

practically all its knitwear production to Madagascar. However where intensive

capital investment is required for heavy sophisticated machinery, local

companies are cautious. For how long this situation would stand, nobody knows.

Recently SOCOTA relocated all his heavy equipment to Madagascar. The

Mauritian government is really concerned by this situation but companies such as

City Textile and R.T. Knits are doing quite well and they are investing on

renewable energy. Also those organisations know very well that they need to

shift segment and consequently they are taking necessary measures to position

themselves for the new ecological green product that customers are looking for.

Customers are very difficult regarding quality and delivery service. The orders

are not any more bulky for mass market but small one for higher segment with a

lot of added product value. Example Soniawear does a lot of small batch

compared to Saint Malo export which does a lot of basic product with relatively

low added value for mass market. Their respective clients are from different

76

countries and segment. However they both have the quality issue as product and

service quality depends on dedicated employees.

Job satisfaction and employee commitment are two constructs which contributes

to employee performance hence organizational goals. In this research job

satisfaction is precursor to organizational commitment. It has also been

established that job satisfaction is significantly positively moderately correlated to

organizational commitment. However organisational commitment failed to

establish a clear significant relationship with product and service quality.

The intrinsic part of satisfaction has the best response among employees in the

textile sector with variables such as: Work Status, Values compared to extrinsic

part where pay condition and working condition were the highest de motivators.

However there is a strong positive relationship between job satisfaction and

service quality. Once can deduce that even if even if important hygiene variables

such as pay and work condition are not so well serviced the correlation between

intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction and service quality. In the Mauritian textile

organisations even salary are considered to be unsatisfied by employee,

organisation can still expect service quality to be delivered by the employees.

Even though job satisfaction can not be considered as the precursor of product

quality it factual that dissatisfaction will tend to affect negatively product quality.

If the product quality is not at an acceptable by buyers, organizations will have to

fear that they would loose business. Now would be a good strategy to deliver an

fair product with low service quality. Those two constructs though distinct must

be combined together in order to attract and withhold buyers. The difficulty

resides on how to deliver consistently the same service quality standards.

For product quality it a different issue as machinery will tailor the product

according to set standards. Employee’s task regarding product quality would be

only to see that the equipment is performing to set standards and if not that

77

particular equipment is being removed of the actual production line or if a bigger

machinery, maintenance has to fix the problem. It was expected that

organisational commitment would be a strong precursor to service quality which

would in phase with most literature. This did not show up in this research work

but attitudinal commitment shows some degree of correlation to Service quality.

This relationship could have been negatively affected by the bad response

employees have regarding the participation.

5.2 Academic Implications

Most literature and research work have associate job satisfaction with turnover,

intention to leave or stay and absenteeism. Some researches agreed on saying

that without job satisfaction it would be difficult to yield performance. Actually

according to this research work there is a strong positively correlation between

job satisfaction and Service quality. The Intrinsic variables of job satisfaction

were a higher contributor to service quality than extrinsic variables. This research

work has demonstrated that there is a direct relationship between job satisfaction

and service quality. In Mauritian textile organisation where there is a high rate of

turnover and absenteeism there would be a low level of service quality and

obviously product quality.

It has also been established that there is a positively moderately correlation of

job satisfaction and organisational commitment and that job satisfaction is a

precursor of organizational commitment. Some research did find a higher

correlation between those two constructs and according to the result obtained

Intrinsic satisfaction has nearly the same contribution of extrinsic satisfaction on

attitudinal commitment. Attitudinal commitment also know as affective

commitment is the physical attachment an employee develops with the

organization (Porter, Steers et al. 1974) and behavioural is the bond which and

employee develops with an organisation and is mostly linked with intention to

78

leave or stay (Becker 1960). Between those two construct it is attitudinal which

would correlate to service quality as attitudinal is mostly correlated to the

intention to leave or stay. Actually most employee responded positively to

attitudinal commitment than behavioural.

5.3 Managerial Implications

It is obvious that managers should pay attention to hygiene factors as if to

negative can impact on quality service provided. In order to avoid deterioration of

product and service quality managers need to have the necessary tools that they

can use to predict such negative consequences. As stated before job satisfaction

is correlated to absenteeism and turnover and according to this research work

service quality is directly related to job satisfaction which in turn is related to

turnover and absenteeism. A negative tendency in those two construct would

implicitly means a decrease in the service level and eventually in the product

also. The fastest way to correct this situation would be to give incentive or salary

increase.

According to this research work even employees are not satisfied with their

salary; managers could still influence the intrinsic variables of job satisfaction and

still keep the level of service quality. Salary increase or any other form of

monetary motivation can impact seriously on the organization profitability.

Therefore it would be interesting for managers to unveil which variables of Job

satisfaction will create that pleasant atmosphere which will foster quality. Not

knowing them could be lethal as one can impact negatively on one particular

variable without knowing what he is doing.

Consequently Managers will try to the most important element in the hygiene

factors are pay benefits. Money can be good motivators but in actual present

79

condition can be a disaster for Mauritian textile factories. However the company

need to advance

5.4 Limitations and Weaknesses of the Research

The survey was done by personally administered questionnaires. This method

allows the employees to take the questionnaires and return them back after

completion. However sometimes questionnaires were partly filled, took longer

time to come back and some were never returned. Also doubt won’t be cleared

off if the respondent has any.

5.5 Recommendations for further research

This research did not take into consideration job satisfaction at a managerial and

supervisory level. It would be interesting to asses’ job satisfaction in regards to

that level. Those person will actually drive job satisfaction and hence all

outcomes that will derive from it. Apart of been the driver they also have their

own beliefs. They have to drive satisfaction and at the same time been satisfied

themselves with the job.

This research also does not really asses the customers view on service and

product quality. What make this part more difficult is most the Mauritian Textile

buyers are abroad. To make these survey possible questionnaires would to be

send abroad. What would it very interesting is that it would possible to asses the

whole chain up to the buyers therefore allows a better view of the situation and

able mangers to take corrective measure if any

80

5.6 Conclusion

In this chapter important elements of relationship of the main variables were

presented and discussed. Previous chapters discussed the main variables and

then a proposed model was made.

The conceptual background of the hypotheses were formulated and discussed

according to know concepts. They were tested and validate and rejected when

they were not supported. Academic implications were then presented and

managerial implications were formulated.

Limitations and weaknesses of the study were formulated and recommendation

were made for further research.

81

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APPENDIX Appendix I

Master of Business Aministration Survey QuestionnaireJob Satisfaction Questionnaire Strongly

DisagreeSomewhat Disagree

Agree Nor Disagree

Somewhat Agree

Strongly Agree

1 Being able to keep busy all the timeIS

2 The chance to work alone on the jobIS

3 The chance to do things from time to timeIS

4 The chance to be somebody in the communityIS

5 The way my boss handles his/her workersES

6 The competence of my supervisor in making decisionsES

7 Being able to do thins that don’t go against my conscienceIS

8 The way my job provides for steady employmentIS

9 The chance to do things for other peopleIS

10 The chance to tell people what to doIS

11 The chance to do something that makes use of my abilitiesIS

12 The way company policies are put into practiceES

13 My pay and the amount of work I doES

14 The chances for advancement on this jobES

15 The freedom to use my own judgmentIS

16 The chance to try my own methods of doing the jobIS

17 The working conditionsGI

18 The way my coworkers get along with each otherGI

19 The praise I get for doing a good jobES

20 The feeling of accomplishment I get from the jobIS

95

Appendix I (Contd.)

96

Master of Business Aministration Survey Questionnaire

Education Primaire Form1 Jiska Form 4 SC/HSC Formation

Travail Knitting Maintenance QC Dyeing Finishing Machiniste

Job Satisfaction Questionnaire MSQ

Mo pa daccore

ditou

Un pe pa daccore

Entre daccor ek pa daccor

daccord Vraiment daccore

1 Mo travay garde moi vraiment occuper

2 Parfois la compani laisse moi fair travail la tou sel

3 Parfois mo kapave faire un lot travay

4 Parfois mo senti ki mo form parti sa travay la

5 Mo patron korek avec so ban travailleur

6 Mo superviseur prend bon decision

7 Mo pas forcer fair kitchose contre mo conscience

8 Mo travay garanti

9 Mo kapave aide mo prochain dans travail

10 Mo kapave dire un lot travayeur ki li bizin fair dans so travay

11 Mo kapave servi mo conaissance dans mo travay

12 Condition travay dan compani bon

13 kantiter travail mo faire reflect kasse ki mo ganier

14 li possible patron donne moi un promotion

15 Mo kapave servi mo prope jugement pou fair un travay

16 Mo kapave servi method ki mone trouve bon

17 Condition travay bon

18 Camarade travay koreck kapave travay ensame

19 La compani apprecié kan mo fair un bon travail

20 Mo travay kan bien fair mo kontent

Status Single Divorcer Marier ou vive Ensame

Ann de Service dan la compani Anner de service dan textile

Sex Zome Fame Lage

Appendix II

97

Master of Business Aministration Survey QuestionnaireOrganizational Commitment Questionnaire

Strongly Disagree

Somewhat Disagree

Neither Agree Nor Disagree

Somewhat Agree

Strongly Agree

21 I am willing to put a great deal of effort beyond that normally expected in order to help this organization be successful a

22 I talk up this organization to my friends as a great organization to work for a

23 I feel very little loyalty to this organization (reversed scored) a24 I would accept almost any type of job assignment in order to

keep working for this organization a25 I find that my values and the organization’s values are very

similar a26 I am proud to tell others that I am part of this organization a27 I could just as well be working for a different organization as

long as the type of work was similar (reversed Scored) b28 This organization really inspires the very best in me in the way

of job performance. a29 It would take very little change in my present circumstances to

cause me to leave this organization (Reverse Scored) b30 I am extremely glad that I chose this organization to work for

over others I was considering at time I joined a31 There’s not too much to be gained by sticking with this

organization indefinitely. (reverse scored) b32 Often, I find it difficult to agree with this organization’s policies

on important matters relating to its employees. (reverse scored)a

33 I really care about the fate of this organization a34 For me this is the best of all possible organizations for which to

work a35 Deciding to work for this organization was a definite mistake on

my part (Reverse Scored) b

98

Appendix II (Contd.)

Master of Business Aministration Survey QuestionnaireOrganizational Commitment Questionnaire OCQ Mowday & Steers 1979

Mo pa daccore

ditou

Un pe pa daccore

Entre daccor ek pa daccor

daccord Vraiment daccore

21 Mo konten fair plis zéfor pou compani vine profitable

22 Mo cause mo compani en bien avec mo ban kamarade en dehor travay

23 Mo pas trop konten mo compani

24 Mo kapave fair nimporte ki travay jiste pou mo rest dans la compani

25 Mo trouver mo valair moral pareil ek valair moral la compani

26 Mo fier pou dire lezote dimoune ki mo travay pou sa compani la

27 Mo kapave travay pou un lot compani pouvi ki mo fair meme travay

28 Mo compani done moi tou soutien pou mo kapave fair mo travay bien

29 Un ti zafair kapave fair moi kite travay allé

30 Mo bien konten ki mone choisir sa compani la pou travay

31 Pena recopense pou travay pou sa compani la

32 Parfois mo pa daccord ek politic company pou bien etre travailleur

33 Mo pou bien chagrin si la company fair failite

34 Sa company un de meilleur compani pou travail

35 Mo fine fair un grand érreur kan mo fine vine travay pou sa compani la

99

Appendix III

Master of Business Aministration Survey QuestionnairePerceived Product Quality

Strongly Disagree

Somewhat Disagree

Neither Agree Nor Disagree

Somewhat Agree

Strongly Agree

36 The Primary product does what it supposed to do for the customer

37 The primary product is reliable

38 The primary product conforms to its engineering specifications

39 The primary product is durable

40 Customers have a good perception of the quality of the primary product

Master of Business Aministration Survey QuestionnairePerceived Product Quality

Mo pa dacorre ditou

Un pe pa daccore

Entre daccor ek pa daccor

daccord Vraiment daccore

36 produit la pe respecter kality client pe demander

37 Produit la pa gatte vitte38 Produit la respecter tou ban

specification comme,couleur, size etc39 Produit la solide40 client kontent kalite produit la

100

Appendix IV

Master of Business Aministration Survey QuestionnaireInternal Service quality battery

Strongly Disagree

Somewhat Disagree

Neither Agree Nor Disagree

Somewhat Agree

Strongly Agree

41 Coworkers provide service that is promised 42 Coworkers are dependable for handling my problems43 Coworkers performe service right the first time to avoid having

correction later44 Coworkers provide correct and necessary information45 Coworkers are reliable46 I can trust my coworker47 I feel safe deeling with my coworker48 Coworkers are polite and Kind49 Coworkers are Knowledgeable 50 we have up to date equipment51 Working environment is comfortable and attractive52 Coworkers have a neat, professional appearance 53 The materials used in the work are visaully appealing 54 Coworkers are sincerely concerned about problems55 We have convenient working hours 56 Coworkers give me individual attenition 57 Coworkers seem to have each others best interest in mind58 Coworkers are sensitive to my work related needs 59 My communication with coworkers is appropriate accurate and

clear60 Coworkers respond quickly and efficiently to my request61 coworkers are willing to help me62 Coworkers are willing to accommodate special request and

needs.

101

Appendix IV (Contd.)

Master of Business Aministration Survey QuestionnaireInternal Service quality battery

Mo pa dacor ditou

Un pé pa dacor

Entre dacor ek pa dacor

dacor Vraiment dacor

41 Travayeur entre zote mem done bon service dans travay

42 Dans travay saken aide so prochain

43 Dans travay un seul koute faire bon kike chose. Pa bizin faire mem travay deux fois

44 Kolegue travay done bon information lor travail ki pe faire

45 mo kapave depane lor mo kolegue travay

46 mo kapave fair confiance mo kolegue travay

47 mo senti moi en sékirité dans mo travay parmi mo bane kolegue

48 Kolegue travail bien gentil ek poli dans travay

49 Bane travayeur ena un bon konaisance dan zotte travay

50 Equipeman production de bon kalité

51 environneman travay bien bon ek bien korek pou travail dans sa compani la

52 Travayeur ena ene l'aparence propre ek profesionel

53 Matiere premiere ki servi pou travay bien bon

54 Kan ena problème dans travay tou travayeur aidé

55 l'heure travay bien convenable

56 bane kolegue travay donne moi ene attention spécial

57 kolegue defan l'intéré zotte prochain

58 Mo kolegue aide moi dans mo travay si mo bizin un service

59 Fason ki mo cause avec mo kolegue bon

60 Mo ban kolegue travay repone vite a mo bane demande

61 Mo ban kolegue toujours pré pou aide moi

62 Si mo demande mo kolegue un service special pou mo travail li pa refuge moi

102

Appendix V

Error!

Appendix I (Contd.)

103

104

Appendix VI

5.04.54.03.53.02.52.0

Observed Value

4

2

0

-2

-4

Expe

cted

Nor

mal

Normal Q-Q Plot of OCOM

105

Appendix VI (Contd.)

5.04.54.03.53.0

Observed Value

1

0

-1

-2

Expe

cted

Nor

mal

Normal Q-Q Plot of PQUAL

54321

Observed Value

4

2

0

-2

-4

Expe

cted

Nor

mal

Normal Q-Q Plot of SQUAL

106

Appendix VII

2.00 3.00 4.00

IntinsicSatisfaction

2.00

3.00

4.00

Atti

tudi

nalC

omm

itmen

t

Appendix VIII

2.00 3.00 4.00

ExtrinsicSatisfaction

2.50

3.00

3.50

4.00

Atti

tudi

nalC

omm

itmen

t

107

Appendix IX

2.00 3.00 4.00

ExtrinsicSatisfaction

2.00

3.00

4.00

SQU

AL

Appendix X

2.00 3.00 4.00

IntinsicSatisfaction

2.00

3.00

4.00

SQU

AL

108

Appendix XI

2.00 3.00 4.00

ExtrinsicSatisfaction

4.00

4.25

4.50

4.75

5.00

PQU

AL

Appendix XII

2.00 3.00 4.00

AttitudinalCommitment

3.00

3.50

4.00

4.50

5.00

PQU

AL

109

Appendix XIII

2.00 3.00 4.00

AttitudinalCommitment

2.00

3.00

4.00

SQU

AL