MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM

RESEARCH PROJECT
(BMBR5103)

RESEARCH ABOUT JOB SATISFACTION
AT XP POWER COMPANY CORPORATE

STUDENT’S FULL NAME
STUDENT ID
INTAKE
ADVISOR’S NAME & TITLE

: TRAN PHAT DUOC
: CGS00019381
: MARCH 2015
: NGUYEN THE KHAI (DBA)

Student: Tran Phat Duoc (ID: CGS00019381)


ADVISOR’S ASSESSMENT

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Advisor’s signature
(JULY 2016)

NGUYEN THE KHAI (DBA)
Student: Tran Phat Duoc (ID: CGS00019381)


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Suggestions have been received from many of my lecturer and classmate during
research progress.

I am using this opportunity to express my gratitude to everyone who supported me
throughout the developing and improving my research. I am thankful for their
aspiring guidance, invaluably constructive criticism and friendly advice during the
project work.


Especially, I would like to express my high appreciation to lecturer NGUYEN
THE KHAI (DBA) for you enthusiastic guidance and full support as well as
encouragement throughout the course of my research.

And, I also specially thank to my members of family, friends and colleagues
always mobilize me to finish this research.
Once again, I thank very much to all.

Tran Phat Duoc Student

Student: Tran Phat Duoc (ID: CGS00019381)


CONTENTS

PART ONE

ABSTRACT

1

INTRODUCTION

2

1

About XP POWER CORPORATE

2


2

Organization structure and Corporate culture

7

Organizational structure based on products line

7

Leadership

7

Corporate culture

9

3

Research problem statement

12

4

Research objective

14


5

Research scope

14

6

Significance of research

15

PART TWO
7

LITERATURE REVIEW

15

Definition of Constructs

15

Job Satisfaction

15

Distributive and Procedural Justice


16

Fairness Perceptions of an Organizational Policy 17

8

Work Values Inventory

17

Procedural Fairness Standards in Pay

20

Argument for the relationship among the constructs

21

Maslow’s needs hierarchy theory

21

McClelland Human Motivation Theory

24

Locke’s Goal-Setting Theory

26


Porter/Lawler Expectancy Model

29

Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory

31

Student: Tran Phat Duoc (ID: CGS00019381)


9
10
PART THREE
11

12
PART FOUR
13

14

15

PART FIVE

Hypotheses

34


Research model

35

METHODS

35

Data collection

36

Design template scale

36

Data collection progress

43

Data analysis

44

RESULTS

44

Cronbach’s Alpha


44

Cronbach’s Alpha standard applied

44

Cronbach’s Alpha of constructs

45

Statistics information

47

Descriptive statistics

47

Correlation statistics

47

Hypotheses testing

48

Hypothesis proposed (H1)

49


Hypothesis proposed (H2)

50

Hypothesis proposed (H3)

50

Hypothesis proposed (H4)

51

CONCLUSIONS

52

16

Discussion

52

18

Limitation of research

53

19


Forecast recommendation

53

REFERENCES

54
56

APPENDIX
Appendix 1: Survey

56

Appendix 2: Presentation

63

Student: Tran Phat Duoc (ID: CGS00019381)


FIGURE & TABLE
FIGURE
Figure 1

Maslow's five-level hierarchy

23

Figure 2


McClelland Human Motivation Theory

25

Figure 3

Locke’s Goal-Setting Theory

28

Figure 4

Basic Expectancy Model

30

Figure 5

Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory

33

Table 1

Job Satisfaction Scale

37

Table 2


Distributive and Procedural Justice

38

Table 3

Fairness Perceptions of an Organizational policy

40

Table 4

Work Value Inventory

41

Table 5

Procedural Fairness Standards in Pay

43

Table 6

Time table for data collection progress

44

Table 7


Cronbach’s Alpha - Internal Consistency

45

Table 8

Cronbach’s Alpha of Job Satisfaction

45

Table 9

Cronbach’s Alpha of Distributive and Procedural Justice

46

TABLE

Table 10

Cronbach’s Alpha of Fairness Perceptions of an Organizational Policy 46

Table 11

Cronbach’s Alpha of Work Value Inventory

Table 12

Cronbach’s Alpha of Procedural Fairness Standards in Pay 47


Table 13

Descriptive statistics

47

Table 14

Correlation statistics

48

Table 15

Model summary of H1

49

Table 16

Coefficients of H1

49

Table 17

Model summary of H2

50


Table 18

Coefficients of H2

50

Table 19

Model summary of H3

51

Table 20

Coefficients of H3

51

Table 21

Model summary of H4

52

Table 22

Coefficients of H4

52


Student: Tran Phat Duoc (ID: CGS00019381)

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Business Research Methods

1

ABSTRACT
he job satisfaction is important to organizational success because
it plays a very large role in determining whether a member will
stay with the organization and zealously work towards
organizational goals. Because of satisfaction in job, so employee will be strong
belief in and acceptance of the organization’s goal and value and also strong desire
to be a membership or part of organization.
The research project is based on the investigation and evaluation of the effect of job
satisfaction on the employee’s work performance.
The purpose of this research is way to find the factors influence to the Job
Satisfaction of employees working at XP POWER CORPORATE and will use
Business Research Methods to determine Job Satisfaction and what other main
factors that it influence job satisfaction. And this research also was conducted by
quantitative method with source data is surveys that it issued by offline to 450
employees of XP POWER VIET NAM COMPANY LIMITED to collect the ideas
and comments of employees about job satisfaction.
The result of these surveys shall be statistically analyzed by software SPSS version
20 (copyright of IBM). Hypotheses used this research includes five constructs: one
dependent


construct

(Job Satisfaction)

and four independent

constructs

(Distributive and Procedural Justice, Fairness Perceptions of an Organizational
Policy, Work Values Inventory, Procedural Fairness Standards in Pay).
Student: Tran Phat Duoc (ID: CGS00019381)


Business Research Methods
As mentioned above, the job satisfaction is very important for organization, so I
hopefully results of this research will help managers of XP POWER CORPORATE
have some reference angle in human resource management. And it also helps
managers of XP POWER to know clearly about job satisfaction of employees that
impacts to working effective, ability of competitiveness of the company on
electronics market.
Key words in this research: Overall Job Satisfaction, Distributive and Procedural
Justice, Fairness Perceptions of an Organizational Policy, Work Values Inventory,
Procedural Fairness Standards in Pay and XP POWER CORPORATE.

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION
About XP POWER CORPERATE
History
James Peters has over 30 year experiences in the electrical industry and training
providers with Marconi Space and Defence Systems, before joining Coutant
Lambda, one of the largest power supply company in the UK, is a skill internal sales

engineers. He joined the Powerline soon after founded in 1980 and has been
involved in all aspects of the business. In November 1988, XP Power was founded
by James Peters and its activities is a leading international provider of solutions for
power control needed. Power directly from the grid is not suitable for devices that it
provides. XP productivity design and manufacture of power converters -

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Business Research Methods
components that convert electrical energy into forms appropriate to the needs of
individual customers of us, allow their electronic devices to operate. XP Power is
committed to being a leading provider of energy solutions, including Xen current energy supply direct current (AC-DC) and DC-DC converters.
XP Power (UK) is a multinational corporation specializing in manufacturing
electronic components - power and energy solutions. XP Power is specialized in
designing and manufacturing power conversion equipment, components can be
converted into the right power for the needs of each individual customer, enabling
their electrical equipment to function properly. XP Power is also a leader in
ensuring safe and sustainable environment through the development of the "green".
So the utility's objectives XP:
The period 2011 - 2013: Introduction and bring products to market. It is the use of
technology panels Solar (born Power) and use a special type of material (turn
sunlight into electricity) to the market. Here are the leading market share (42% in
the market).
The period 2014 - 2015: Market leader in the efficient use of solar cells and ensure
the longevity of the battery. Because the plate including photovoltaic cells with
high efficiency, capacity from 20 - 175Wp and have an average lifespan of 30
years. Accompanying the panels are charging control, battery charging function,

while protecting the battery against overload and discharge too long, increasing the
battery life and improve the use of solar cells . This system also has the power
transformer to convert 12V DC from the battery into AC (110V, 220V), with a
capacity of 0.3-10kVA. The solar panels are usually erected on the roof truss or on
the terrace. When the sun shines on this pin truss, light is converted into electrical
energy, producing an electric current 1 (DC).

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The period 2015 - 2016: Continued marketing strategy, target market customers
are consumers have different needs for products, improve efficiency enhanced by
retailers because the market system schools appear more competitive products.
Scope business
XP POWER CORPORATE operates in electronics field and it focuses on three
main and potential customers.
- Healthcare
- Industrial
- Technology
Development strategy and investment
2014 was a year of significant progress on many fronts despite economically
challenging conditions for the industrial electronics markets. Against this backdrop,
we have again achieved underlying growth in revenues and earnings and taken
share from the competition. In addition, we have strengthened the Board, and
enhanced our competitive position by producing the first complete power
converters in our Vietnam facility and implementing a new Customer
Relationship Management system across the Group.

 Proven strategy of developing and manufacturing our own range of market
leading products produced another year of strong progress.
 First complete power converters manufactured at the Vietnam facility.
 Order intake increased to £105.1 million setting a new record for the Group,
an increase of 6% in constant currency.

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 XP Power’s own-design revenues increased to a record £67.2 million, an
increase of 11% in constant currency and representing a record 66% of
revenue.
 Sales of high efficiency products increased by 36% to £18.6 million
representing 18% of revenues.
 Strong earnings and continued strong cash flows resulted in a net cash
position of £1.3 million at year-end.
 Total dividend for the year increased by 11% to 61 pence per share (2013:
55 pence per share) (2013: net debt of £3.5 million).
 Further product releases including “green” products.
 Search for suitable bolt on acquisitions to expand our product portfolio.
 Further “green” product releases are planned for 2015 which should
continue to drive further revenue growth.
 Continue to grow our share of customers’ business where we are preferred
or approved suppliers.
Vision, Missions and Core values
Vision To inspire our people to be the Experts in Power delivering genuine value to
our customers.

Missions
-

Seeking the market to diversify products.

-

Raising labor productivity in order to gain high quality.

-

Low price.

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-

Expects to double production within the next two years by giving more
advanced machines than in manufacturing.

Core values
Speed: to set the principle “Speed and efficiency in every activity”, to
practice “rapid execution, response, and delivery of results”.
Quality: Quality and reliability are paramount to our customers.
Integrity: to take “Responsibility” as a foundation, to strictly observe the
law and maintain ethics. We comply with all applicable laws, regulations and

company policies – in our words and deeds.
Client Focus: our people had worked closely on site with the customer
regarding the requirements.
Humanity: to develop relationships based on the spirit of humanity and
treating staff as the most treasured asset.
Contact
XP Power plc (Sale Office) Horseshoe Part Pangbourne, Reading Berks RG8 7JW.
+44 (0)118 984 5515.
Send Email. XP Power. 2899 Xie Tu Road, Lobby B.
www.xppower.com.

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Business Research Methods

7

Organization structure and corporate culture

Organizational structure based on products line

Healthcare

Industrial

Technology
Leadership style


Student: Tran Phat Duoc (ID: CGS00019381)


Business Research Methods
Leadership style is the manner and approach of providing direction, implementing
plans, and motivating people. As seen by the employees, it includes the total pattern
of explicit and implicit actions performed by their leader (Newstrom, Davis, 1993).
Team leaders of XP POWER CORPORATE, the convergence of the elite face,
crystallization of talent and business leaders including president of the Board of
Management (Mr. Duncan Penny). During the management process, he have
applied flexible leadership style, fit in the circumstances, to achieve the maximum
effect.
Autocratic leadership style - management by commands and the will of the
leaders, suppress the will and initiative of all members of the collective. The
leader tells his or her employees what to do and how to do it, without getting
their advice.
Democratic leadership style - This style involves the leader including one or
more employees in the decision making process (determining what to do and
how to do it). However, the leader maintains the final decision making
authority. Using this style is not a sign of weakness, rather it is a sign of
strength that your employees will respect.
This is normally used when you have part of the information, and your
employees have other parts. A leader is not expected to know everything—
this is why you employ knowledgeable and skilled people. Using this style is
of mutual benefit as it allows them to become part of the team and allows
you to make better decisions.
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Business Research Methods
Innovative leadership style - Innovative leaders manage the process of
innovation. In some cases, this leader is responsible for generating new ideas
within an organization. In others, he or she is responsible for fostering and
recognizing new ideas put forth by followers.
People-Oriented Leadership - the leader is participating directly with the
employees throughout the process. The leader is involved in every aspect of
the work and is there to offer ideas, advice, and support to his or her
employees and offers a great deal of teamwork within the work community,
and it can allow for a lot of collaboration and brainstorming, stimulating
ideas from every member of the team.
One person on the team is more dominant than the rest and will try to push
his or her ideas onto the group. The leader also has to make sure that he or
she doesn’t take over the conversation without letting team members offer
their thoughts and ideas, or it can lead to an overall failure to achieve the
team’s goals.
Corporate culture
Corporate culture of XP POWER CORPORATE is care about environmental
matters and health of employees. So XP Power is fully committed to leading the
industry on corporate social responsibility matters. XP Power believes it can play a
pivotal role in the world of industrial and healthcare electronics where its ultra-high

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Business Research Methods

efficiency products can save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions year after
year.
In 2009 XP Power established an environmental committee to help achieve its
vision of leading the industry on environmental matters. Beneath that committee
was put in place a network of environmental representatives for each of XP Power's
key sites. These environmental representatives share ideas and best practice across
the company and promote and encourage responsible environmental behavior
among its employees and engagement in the local communities in which it
operates.
After a review, it was clearly evident that the greatest contribution XP Power can
make to protect the environment is by developing and encouraging customers to
adopt XP Power's ultra-high efficiency products. These class leading "Green
XP Power" products waste less energy, consume less physical material and avoid
the use of hazardous substances.
The Vietnamese facility, located in Ho Chi Minh, meets the demanding Gold plus
rating of the BCA Green Mark Scheme, the leading environmental standard set by
the Singapore Building and Construction Authority for non-residential buildings in
tropical climates. This rating covers not only the energy efficiency of the building
but also water efficiency, environmental protection, indoor environmental quality
and other green features and innovations.

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Business Research Methods
Other environmental initiatives implemented by the Environmental Representatives
include:



Low energy lighting



Water reduction initiatives such as water saving toilets



Encouraging the use of electric cars by the installation of charging stations
in key North American facilities



Holding employee awareness events promoting Earth Day, cycling to work
and ride sharing



Recycling of waste materials



Unplugging power converters overnight



Using electronic burn in equipment which is able to reuse 50% of the burn in
power




Recycling solder waste on site

Beside environmental matters, XP POWER also care about employee relations,
health and safety and business ethics. The Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition
(EICC) is an industry organization of leading electronics manufacturers which seek
to improve working and environmental conditions through the promotion of an
industry Code of Conduct for global electronics supply chains. The EICC Code of
Conduct is the highest recognized standard for our industry on environmental and
corporate social responsibility issues and also addresses the treatment of employees
and their well-being, health and safety and business ethics. XP Power achieved Full
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Business Research Methods
Membership of the EICC in March 2011. The Company adopted the EICC Code of
Conduct and have been working with its key suppliers to ensure they too are
compliant with the Code.
As well as adopting the standards set by the EICC Code of Conduct XP Power also
works closely with its suppliers to encourage them to adopt the same high
standards. Supplier audit process includes evaluating suppliers' performance against
the environment, treatment of labor, health and safety and business ethics standards
set out in the EICC Code of Conduct. The policy is to disengage with suppliers
found to be environmentally negligent or non-compliant with XP Power's policies.

Research problem statement
XP POWER CORPORATE is global company so that it has been investing and

operating in many different countries as below picture.

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Business Research Methods
And XP POWER continues to look for the attractive market for long-term
investment.
Viet Nam is satisfy these needs from XP GROUP because Attracted by low labor
costs and other advantages, global electronics manufacturers invested billions in
Vietnam over the past few years. As they continue to build new factories in 2014,
Vietnam’s economy stands to benefit from the influx of foreign capital, talent, and
technology.
In addition, geography of Viet Nam plays an important role. Unlike Indonesia or
the Philippines, which are both archipelago nations on the outer boundaries of
Southeast Asia, Vietnam’s proximity to China makes it easier to integrate into
existing supply chains. Vietnam also faces fewer natural disasters than other
countries in the region, which are generally more prone to floods, earthquakes, and
typhoons. So that XP POWER has been establishing one manufacturing in Viet
Nam from year 2012 to manufacture Mags and another manufacturing to produce
Power Supply from year 2014.
CEO of XP POWER realized that employees are most important assets of
organization but not yet had any researches finding about job satisfaction of
employees at these companies.
XP POWER COMPANY is aggressively developing and growing human resource,
especially in the selection of right people for the company. However, recruiting
right people is not enough and they are embarrassing to know how to keep talent
employees, retain talents, especially how to retain their key staff who plays a key

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Business Research Methods
role in the company. With the shortage of human capital as today, retention good
people are becoming big issue of XP POWER CORPORATE.
And Job Satisfaction of employees are important factor for XP develop sustainably
their human resource to help organization to operate more efficient. But, some
factors such as Distributive and Procedural Justice, Fairness Perceptions of an
Organizational Policy, Work Values Inventory, and Procedural Fairness Standards
in Pay are problems for human resource management at XP POWER
CORPORATE.
Research objectives
It aims to find the factors influence to the Job Satisfaction of employees working at
XP POWER COMPANY.
I will focus on three main factors to perform my research
 Firstly: look for related information and define what meaning Job
Satisfaction is of employees at XP GROUP.
 Secondly: design research model and test related factors to check influence
between factors.
 Thirdly: discuss and propose recommendation to improve the effectiveness
and forecast the human resources management at XP POWER COMPANY
in future.
Research scope
Because of Board of Directors not to sit at Viet Nam site, so the scope of research
is for Viet Nam site only including General Manager, managers, subordinate and
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Business Research Methods
employees working at XP POWER VIET NAM COMPANY LIMITED, and it
does not include employees are under probation period or in maturity leave.
The survey scope is within the territory of Vietnam, which includes 450 employees
of XP POWER VIET NAM LIMITED.
Contents of this research are only including factors influencing to Job Satisfaction
at XP POWER VIET NAM LIMITED, it does not have intention of re-structuring,
changing and replacing the employees.
This survey was conducted from 1 March to 25 March 2016.
Significance of research
This research will help XP POWER CORPORATE’s management understand
more about the important of job satisfaction which directly impacted to
productivity… it also improves employee loyalty to the organization.

PART TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
Definition of Constructs
Job Satisfaction
It was developed by Taylor and Bowers (1974). It includes 7 items. Jos satisfaction
describes the degree of employee satisfaction with the work, co-workers,
supervision, promotional opportunities, pay, progress, and the organization to
assess overall job satisfaction.
The concept of job satisfaction has been developed in many ways by many
different researchers and practitioners. One of the most widely used definitions in
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Business Research Methods
organizational research is that of Kaliski (2007), who defines job satisfaction as”
Job satisfaction is a worker’s sense of achievement and success on the job. It is
generally perceived to be directly linked to productivity as well as to personal wellbeing. Job satisfaction implies doing a job one enjoys, doing it well and being
rewarded for one’s efforts. Job satisfaction further implies enthusiasm and
happiness with one’s work. Job satisfaction is the key ingredient that leads to
recognition, income, promotion, and the achievement of other goals that lead to a
feeling of fulfillment”.
Others have defined it as simply how content an individual is with his or her job;
whether he or she is happy with her or his job or not. Job satisfaction can be
considered as one of the main factors when it comes to efficiency and effectiveness
of business organizations. In fact the new managerial paradigm which insists that
employees should be treated and considered primarily as human beans that have
their own wants, needs, personal desires is a very good indicator for the importance
of job satisfaction in companies. When analytical job satisfaction the logic that a
satisfied employee is a happy employee and a happy employee is a successful
employee.
Distributive and Procedural Justice
It was developed by Sweeney and McFarlin (1997), describes the fairness of
procedures within organization, including procedures relevant to assessing and
communicating performance feedback, solving work-related problems, and
promotion processes. It includes 10 items.
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Business Research Methods
Multiple regression analyses indicated that both the procedural measures and the

distributive measures were significantly related to measures of job satisfaction,
evaluation of supervisor, conflict/harmony, trust in management, and turnover
intention.
Fairness Perceptions of an Organizational Policy
It was developed by Grover (1991) describes fairness directed to a specific policy
area. The policy area is organizational policies that allows parents to take familyrelated leave immediately following the birth of a child. It includes 6 items.
It indicated that being of childbearing age, having children, and holding positive
attitudes toward women were positively related to perceptions of parental-leave
policy fairness. It also replicated the egocentric bias effect such that planning to
bear children and expressing intent to take leave were positively related to
perceptions of policy fairness.
Work Values Inventory
It was developed by Manhardt (1972) describes in three dimensions. These
dimensions are comfort and security, competence and growth, and status and
independence. Comfort and security includes job characteristics such as having
comfortable working conditions, job security, and a regular routine. Competence
and growth includes job characteristics such as intellectual stimulation, continued
development of skills, and a feeling of accomplishment. Status and independence
includes job characteristics such as opportunities to earn high income, supervision

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Business Research Methods
of other employees, and working on problems of importance to the organization
(Manhardt, 1972). It includes 10 items.
Examples: on the Work Values Inventory
 The core values that are important to me in my life

o Being able to meet your goals
o Time for family, work and play
o Control of your own destiny
o Able to have an impact on others
o Telling the truth and knowing that others are telling the truth
o Control over others
o Care and trust of self and others
o Believing in your core beliefs
o Having influence and power over others

 I value work environments that are
o Work that has many things happening at the same time
o Work that is not set to a specific time schedule
o Work that has the potential to make a lot of money
o Work that is intellectually challenging to me
o Work that is in a convenient place and an easy commute
o Work where you know what is going to happen day after day
o Work where there are few disruptions throughout the day
o Work where there are few pressures to get things done
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Business Research Methods
o Work where it is organized and has a specific set time
o Work where you set your own schedule and plan how
and when you do your work
 I value work interactions with co-workers who support:
o Work where you compete with others

o Work where there are people with different ethnic backgrounds
o Work where you socialize with your co-workers
o Work where there are good leaders managing the organization
o Work where there is strong management
o Work where information is not held back from employees
o Work where you are acknowledged for your work and contribution
o Work where you help and support each other
o Work where working together is important
o Work where you can count on each other
 I value work activities that are:
o Work that requires interpretation of data and information
o Work that is mentally or physically challenging
o Work that uses imagination and creative talents to produce results
o Work that is helping people
o Work on new and innovative products or projects
o Work that has a lot of physical activity
o Work that has daily interaction with the public
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