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International Journal of Research in Management & Business Studies (IJRMBS 2015)Vol. 2 Issue 2 Apr. - June 2015 ISSN : 2348-6503 (Online)

ISSN : 2348-893X (Print)

Employee’s Views on Job Satisfaction : A Study on Garment Industry (AKH Group), Bangladesh

IDr. Razia Khatun, IIMd. ShamsuzzamanIAssociate Prof. of Economics, Dept. of Humanities, Khulna Uni. of Engg. & Tech. Khulna, Bangladesh.

IIM. Phil Fellow, Dept. of Economics, Islamic University, Kushtia, Bangladesh.

I. IntroductionSince 1988, when the export-oriented ready-made garment sector foe the first time overtook the traditionally jute sector in terms of gross export accruals, the garment sector has continued to consolidate its predominant position in Bangladesh (Rahman 1999). The sector’s contribution to export earning has increased steadily, with all other sector being comparatively static. In financial year 1998-99, earning in the export-oriented garment sector were 4,020 million dollars, which constituted 75.7 percent of total export earnings. There has been a steady growth in RMG exports during the last three decades (Haider 2007). Ready-made garment industries enjoyed a dramatic rise from 30 enterprises in 1980 to about 4740 in 2007-2008 fiscal years. According to one statistics whereas in 1983-84 RMG sector employed 0.04 million workers, in 2007-08 this figure increased to 2.500 million (BGMEA 2009). The sector’s earnings of RMG, US$ 7.9 billion from US$ 3.36 million in fiscal year 1981 and 2007, 77.4% of total export earnings of Bangladesh came from RMG sector. The share of RMG exports in total GDP became 13.1 in fiscal year 2006 compared with 0.16% in fiscal year 1984. In less than a decade it increased its exports foreign exchange earnings and contribution to the GDP by 4.39%. RMG exports reached a steadfast figure of US$ 17.91billion in fiscal year 2010-2011; accounting more than 78% of national export earnings, which was about 4%-5% of the global total of such exports. It further contributes 10% to the country’s GDP (Mahmud R.B, 2012). It is important that 80% of the total workers of RMG sector are women (Khatun, Rahman, Bhattacharya and Mozzem 2008).Job satisfaction benefits the organizations includes reduction in complaints and grievances, absenteeism, turnover and termination; as well as improved punctuality and worker moral. Job satisfaction and occupational success are major factors in personal satisfaction, self-respect, self-esteem, and self-development (quoted in Brown, p. 123). RMG owner often deny that they have the power to improve the wages or conditions of worker. Worker often try to complement their low wages by overtime, which in effect is mandatory practice in Bangladesh RMG factories (Ahamed F; 2011).In this study, we tried to find out what is the leading of the owners of the RMG sectors toward the performance enhancements of our garments industry. We found that the workers are the key

success factors of our RMG industry. The garments industry contributes the highest portion of our country’s GDP. So enhancing the performance of that industry in terms of diminishing the dissatisfactory factors of the workers may drive our country from developing to a developed one.

II. Objectives of The StudyThe basic objective of this study is to provide a guide line of employee’s views on Job satisfaction. For this purpose the specific objectives are :

to check the job environment of RMG industry;• to examine the marital status of the workers of the RMG • industry;to examine the expected salary of RMG industry;• to determine the behavior of boss to the worker in the garment • sector of Bangladesh (based on AKH group);to identify the employee’s job satisfaction affecting job • enhancement of the RMG sector in Bangladesh based on AKH group.

III. Hypothesis of The StudyIn order to know the satisfaction level of the employees regarding the services provided by the RMG sector of Bangladesh, the following hypotheses are formulated. H1 : The employees of RMG sector are satisfied with the marital status, H2 : The employees of RMG sector are satisfied with the education qualification, H3 : The employees of RMG sector are satisfied with the present and expected salary,H4 : The employees of RMG sector are satisfied with the environment of RMG sector,H5 : The employees of RMG sector are satisfied with the behavior of boss,

IV. Methodology of The StudyExploratory research was conducted to industry different dimension of employee’s views to examine the job satisfaction level through a structured questionnaire. The hypotheses are formulated based on core variables and conclusive research was applied to prove the hypothesis. The research was conducted over 400 sample

AbstractThe ready- made garments (RMG) industry of Bangladesh has been the key export industry and a main source of foreign exchange for the last there decades. More than 78 percent of Bangladesh’s export earnings come from the garment industry. This paper focuses on the job satisfaction of the employees of the RMG industry in Bangladesh. The article reviews the literature on working conditions in Bangladesh RMG sector and failure of its existing labor laws. It shows that after the liberation industrial base here in Bangladesh had to face a sudden vacuum of the entrepreneurs. The paper is organized as follows : section one examines the introduction, section two focuses on objectives of the study, section three analyzes the methodology of the study, section four explore the hypothesis of the study, section five discusses the literature review, section six explains the result and discussion and final section explore conclusion.

KeywordsEmployee, Job, Ready-Made Garment, Entrepreneur and Satisfaction.

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International Journal of Research in Management & Business Studies (IJRMBS 2015) Vol. 2 Issue 2 Apr. - June 2015 ISSN : 2348-6503 (Online)

ISSN : 2348-893X (Print)

units (AKH group, Hemaetpur, Dhaka), using the judgmental sampling technique. Initially this research was designed on the basis of primary data collection tools. We also collect information through literature review, case studies in other countries, journals, research articles, thesis papers, newspapers, online news and survey reports, garments manufacturing industries annual reports, BGMEA yearly report and files. The investigation was done by a questionnaire survey and by observation and measurement in the work place. Bivariate Analysis, Logistic Regression Analysis, Hypothesis Test, Percentage analysis are the primary tools used for the data analysis.

V. Literature Review SSM Sadrul Huda, Nargis Akhtar and Afsana Akhtar (2011) found that workers of garment sector in Bangladesh are not satisfied with wage; safety facilities; leave policy; promotion policy and behavior of the owner. These findings show the true picture because these are in line with the various previous findings of study conducted on the garment workers’ wages and working conditions. Besides, the two resource persons of this study also passed the same comment. The study also found that the workers in garment sector of Bangladesh are satisfied with working environment; present health care facility and overtime benefits. It is known that job satisfaction is a matter of perception and that perception may or may not be accurate. The workers satisfaction regarding working environment and also does not reflect the true picture because in the organizations where trade unions are discouraged by the employers (although forming trade union is a legal right of the workers) and where employers have become cost effective mainly by lowering labor standards at this situations workers cannot get satisfactory work environment. This satisfaction is due to the workers’ lack of awareness regarding the standards of working environment. Khan (2001) in his study mentioned that there is deliberate feminization of the workforce of the garment industry in Bangladesh and there are three reasons behind this deliberate feminization. These are: (1) Garment factory owners perceived that like the poor women workers of other Asian NICs who had been socially and economically oppressed for so long and who have low aspirations wages, teen age girls and young women from rural areas of Bangladesh have low aspiration wages. so, they appointed mainly unskilled teen age girls or young women mainly from the rural areas; (2) Since they are already in a susceptible socio-economic condition, as compared to their male counter parts, will agree to work for extra hours and if situation demands it will be easier to dismiss them; (3) most garment factory owners perceived them as docile, trustworthy and manageable. The author also mentioned in his study that most Bangladeshi garment factory owners have failed to see any causal relationship between labor standards and productivity outcomes. Therefore, many of them have become cost effective mainly by lowering labor standards and taking opportunities for low-wage employment due to the profusion of a young female labour force.Islam and Swierczek (2003) analyzed the impact of technological change on job satisfaction of women garment workers in Bangladesh. The specific relationship between job satisfaction and the overall impact defined in socio economic terms shows that fair pay; task significance, bureaucracy, conflicts and information sharing are significantly related. Task significance and information sharing are positively related to the overall impact. Unfairness in pay, high bureaucracy and higher level of conflicts cause a limited positive overall impact on women workers. The positive

relationships to technological change include improvement of task significance, salary increase, and improvement of the quality of supervision, improved quality of relation and increase benefits. The negative consequences are unfair pay, work dissatisfaction, bureaucracy, conflicts between management and workers, decreased promotion for workers. This study is unique in that although many studies have been conducted on the garment workers in Bangladesh, not a single study has been conducted to explore the job satisfaction of the workers of garment industry. This study is attempted to make a fruitful analysis of employer’s views on job satisfaction.

VI. Results And DiscussionAs job satisfaction is dichotomous numeric variable, we have tried to find out the significant factors affecting on job satisfaction through binary logistic regression model.The odds ratio of sex of the respondents are 2.124 which indicates that job satisfaction of female worker will be 2.124 times higher satisfaction than the male workers (i,e. reference category). The odds ratio of marital status of the respondents are 7.140 and 12.436 respectively which indicates that job satisfaction will be 7.140 and 12.436 times higher for those respondents who are married and divorced than those respondents who are unmarried (i,e. reference category). The odds ratio of education qualification of the respondents 0.000, 0.000 and 0.000 respectively which indicates that job satisfaction will be 0.000, 0.000 and 0.000 times lower for those respondents who are under SSC, SSC and HSC than those respondents who are literate (i,e. reference category).The odds ratio of salary of the respondents are 0.004 and 0.000 respectively which indicates that job satisfaction will be 0.004and 0.000 times lower for those respondents who are 6001-10000 and 10001-20000 than those respondents who are below 6000 (i,e. reference category).The odds ratio of expected salary of the respondents are 0.458 and 0.009 respectively which indicates that job satisfaction will be 0.458and 0.009 times lower for those respondents who are 10001-12000 and highest through 12001 than those respondents who are lowest through 10000 (i,e. reference category).The odds ratio of environment of present residence of the respondents are 0.000, 0.000 and 0.000 respectively which indicates that job satisfaction will be 0.000, 0.000 and 0.000 times lower for those respondents who are unhealthy, wetted and as usual than those respondents who are healthy (i,e. reference category).The odds ratio of salary of behavior of immediate boss are 9.885 and 1.634 respectively which indicates that job satisfaction will be 9.885 and 1.634 times higher for those respondents who are good and as usual than those respondents who are bad (i,e. reference category).The odds ratio of causes of working are 1.350 and 0.523 respectively which indicates that job satisfaction will be 1.350 times higher and 0.523 times lower for those respondents who are unemployment problem and divorced than those respondents who are below insolvency of family (i,e. reference category).AKH group maintains the wage rate, absence of trade association, the working environment is as usual but the condition of present residence of the maximum workers are not healthy and they have no high ambitions.

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International Journal of Research in Management & Business Studies (IJRMBS 2015)Vol. 2 Issue 2 Apr. - June 2015 ISSN : 2348-6503 (Online)

ISSN : 2348-893X (Print)

Table1 : Summary of the resultsDependent Variables : Employee satisfaction (Job satisfaction of garment worker)Independent variable

P- Value Significance level

Implications

Sex of the respondent

0.064 10% Satisfied

Marital status 0.068 10% SatisfiedEducational qualification

0.000 Highly significance

Dissatisfied

Salary 0.040 1% DissatisfiedExpected salary 0.000 Highly

significanceDissatisfied

Environment of present residence

0.000 Highly significance

Dissatisfied

Behavior of immediate boss

0.010 1% Dissatisfied

Causes of working in garment factory.

0.000 Highly significance

Dissatisfied

Source : Field Survey ( Authors calculation)

A. Hypothesis TestingThe result of the hypothesis 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 showed that in some of the cases , the P. value are less than the significance level I,e. 0.05. As a result, Ho is rejected and H1 is accepted, which means that the employees of the RMG sector of AKH group are dissatisfied in those cases of services. However, in some cases P value are greater than the significance level that means H0 is accepted and H1 is rejected, which indicated that in those cases the employees of the RMG sector of AKH group are satisfied with the services provided by the owners of the RMG sector.

VII. ConclusionThe study found that workers of AKH groups are not satisfied with education qualification, wage (salary), expected salary (expected wage), environment of present residence, behavior of immediate boss and causes of working in the factory. These findings show the true picture because these are in line with the various previous findings of study conducted on the garment workers wage and working conditions. The study also found that the workers in AKH group are satisfied with working environment, present health care facility, sex and overtime benefits. It is known that job satisfaction is a matter of perception and that perception may or may not be accurate. The various previous studies show that workers in garment sector of Bangladesh do not get proper health care facility and overtime benefits. The workers satisfaction regarding working environment and also does not reflect the true picture because in the organization where trade unions are discouraged by the employers (although forming trade union is a legal right5 of the workers) and where employers have become cost effective mainly by lowering labour standards at this situation worker cannot get satisfactory working environment. This satisfaction is due to the workers lack of awareness regarding the standards of working environment.

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Author’s Profile

Dr. Razia Khatun, B. S. S Economics with honours 1st Class 1st Position. M. S. S Economics 1st Class 1st Position. She is an Associate Professor of Economics, Department of Humanities, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology, Khulna – 9203, Bangladesh, Email : r_khatun75@yahoo.com

Md. Shamsuzzaman, M. Phil Fellow, Department of Economics, Islamic University, Kushtia, Bangladesh, Email: szamanworld@gmail.com