The relationship of service climate, employee commitment, and life satifaction in banking industry in vietnam

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UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
------------------------------

Vuong Thi Thanh Binh

THE RELATIONSHIP OF SERVICE CLIMATE,
EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT, AND LIFE
SATISFACTION IN THE BANKING INDUSTRY
IN VIETNAM

MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours)

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2014


UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
------------------------------

Vuong Thi Thanh Binh

THE RELATIONSHIP OF SERVICE CLIMATE,
EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT, AND LIFE
SATISFACTION IN THE BANKING INDUSTRY
IN VIETNAM

ID: 22120119

MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours)

SUPERVISOR: Dr. NGUYEN THI MAI TRANG

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2014


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Firstly, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Nguyen
Thi Mai Trang for her professional guidance, enthusiastic support, valuable advices and
instructions as well as the encouragement that I was received from her during the time of
doing my research.
Secondly, I would like to express my deep gratefulness to Professor Nguyen Dong
Phong, Professor Nguyen Dinh Tho and Dr. Tran Ha Minh Quan for their precious time as
the members of ISB Research Committee which gave me some useful comments and
meaningful suggestions. All of their comments and suggestions were contributed
importantly in my completion of this research.
Thirdly, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my professors in International
Business School (ISB) – University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City for all the knowledge
which I were received in the past two-year master course.
Finally, I would like to say thank you to my classmates in ISB for their support
during the time I studied and wrote the thesis. Moreover, my truly thanks are also sent to my
workmates as well as all people who joined in my survey and gave the valuable opinions for
my research.


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ABSTRACT
This study examines the roles of service climate through its factors: customer

orientation, managerial support, and work facilitation affecting on employee commitment.
Based on employee commitment created from service climate, it also evaluates the effect of
employee commitment on life satisfaction of employees in the banking industry in Vietnam.
The test processed in a sample of 140 banking staffs in Ho Chi Minh City and Binh
Duong province. Using a seven-point Likert-type scale to measure data together with some
methods of data analysis (Cronbach’s Alpha test, Exploratory factor analysis and Multiple
regression analysis), the findings confirm that working environment included managerial
support merged with work facilitation has the positive effect on employee commitment.
From that result, employee commitment also has the positive significant effect on life
satisfaction.
Extracted from the findings of this research, in order to receive the commitment from
employee, the bank must set up good environment for their staffs such as creating good
relationship between the managers especially the direct manager and the employee. This is
one of the most important conditions to get the employee commitment. Besides, the work
facilitation included the workmate relationship and facilities, which the bank provides to
employee affect on keeping the commitment of employee. However, the most important
thing in this study is having the commitment in job; the employee in the bank will have the
life satisfaction.
Key words Service climate, Employee commitment, Life satisfaction.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ......................................................................................................i
ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................... ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................................... iii
LIST OF FIGURES ..............................................................................................................vi
LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................. vii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 1

1.1 Research background .................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Research problem ......................................................................................................... 2
1.3 Research objectives ...................................................................................................... 3
1.4 Scopes and research methodology of the thesis ........................................................... 4
1.5 Significance of the study .............................................................................................. 5
1.6 The structure of the study ............................................................................................. 5
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................. 7
2.1 Life satisfaction ............................................................................................................ 7
2.2Service climate............................................................................................................... 7
2.3 Employee commitment ................................................................................................. 9
2.4 Service climate and employee commitment ................................................................. 9
2.5 Employee commitment and life satisfaction .............................................................. 11
2.6 Summary ..................................................................................................................... 12
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .............................................................. 13
3.1 Research process ......................................................................................................... 13
3.2 Measurement scale...................................................................................................... 16
3.3 Questionnaire design .................................................................................................. 18
3.3.1Qualitative research ............................................................................................... 19
3.3.2 Quantitative research ............................................................................................ 20
3.4 Data collection method ............................................................................................... 20
3.5 Sampling design.......................................................................................................... 20
3.5.1 Population ............................................................................................................. 20


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3.5.2 Sample size ........................................................................................................... 21
3.6 Data analysis method .................................................................................................. 22
3.6.1 Data code .............................................................................................................. 23
3.6.2 Cronbach’s alpha .................................................................................................. 23

3.6.3 Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) ........................................................................ 23
3.6.4 Multiple regression analysis ................................................................................. 24
3.7 Summary ..................................................................................................................... 24
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DATA RESULTS ............................................. 25
4.1 Sample characteristics ................................................................................................ 25
4.2 Data analysis process .................................................................................................. 27
4.2.1 Scale Validity and Reliability ............................................................................... 28
4.2.2 Exploratory Factor Analysis(EFA) ....................................................................... 29
4.2.2.1 Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) for independent variables ...................... 29
4.2.2.2 Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) for dependent variables ......................... 32
4.2.3 Multiple Regression Analysis ............................................................................... 34
4.2.3.1 Multiple Regression analysis to evaluate the effect of customer orientation,
working environment on the employee commitment ................................................. 35
4.2.3.1.1 Correlation analysis ................................................................................... 36
4.2.3.1.2 Test of assumptions: .................................................................................. 36
4.2.3.1.3 Regression analysis .................................................................................... 38
4.2.3.2 Bivariate Regression analysis to evaluate the effect of employee commitment
on life satisfaction ....................................................................................................... 39
4.2.3.2.1 Test of assumptions ................................................................................... 40
4.2.3.2.2 Regression analysis .................................................................................... 40
4.2.3.3 Summary the result of multiple regressions and linking to the situation in
banking industry in Vietnam ....................................................................................... 42
4.3 Summary ..................................................................................................................... 43
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND LIMITATIONS .................. 45
5.1 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 45


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5.2 Managerial implications ............................................................................................. 46

5.2.1 Customer orientation has not a significant positive effect on employee
commitment. .................................................................................................................. 46
5.2.2 Working environment has a positive effect on employee commitment. .............. 46
5.2.3 Employee commitment has a positive effect on life satisfaction. ........................ 47
5.3 Limitations and future research .................................................................................. 49
References ............................................................................................................................. 51
Appendix A: In-depth Interview’ refinement measurement scale ................................... 58
Appendix B: Questionnaire (English Version) ................................................................. 61
Appendix C: Total Variance Explained........................................................................... 71
Appendix D:Testing assumptions of multiple linear regression ...................................... 73
Appendix E:Testing assumptions of simple linear regression ......................................... 77


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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1: Research Model ...................................................................................................11
Figure 3.1 Research Process ..................................................................................................15
Figure 4.1: Adjusted Research Model. ...................................................................................34


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LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1 Measurement scale of the research ........................................................................17
Table 3.2: The result of collecting questionnaire ...................................................................22
Table 4.1: Sample Characteristics ..........................................................................................27
Table 4.2: Scale validity and Reliability ................................................................................28
Table 4.3: KMO and Bartlett's Test .......................................................................................29
Table 4.4: Rotated Component Matrix...................................................................................30

Table 4.5: KMO and Bartlett's Test .......................................................................................32
Table 4.6: Component Matrix ................................................................................................32
Table 4.7: KMO and Bartlett's Test .......................................................................................33
Table 4.8:Component Matrix .................................................................................................33
Table 4.9: Correlations ...........................................................................................................36
Table 4.10: Model Summary..................................................................................................38
Table 4.11: Anova ..................................................................................................................39
Table 4.12: Coefficients .........................................................................................................39
Table 4.13: Model Summary..................................................................................................40
Table 4.14: Anova ..................................................................................................................41
Table 4.15: Coefficients .........................................................................................................41
Table 4.16: Summary of hypotheses testing result ................................................................42


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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Research background
According to Krau and Oswald, one of the highest human and societal goals is
enhancement the quality of life (as cited in Frank and Enkawa, 2009) and life satisfaction is
the final goal of the human being. Every year, Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) does the survey with 36 members including countries, which have
the highest income in the world and choose some countries have the happiest life all over
the world. Beside some ratio to survey such as health, education, environment quality…it
also has the ratio of life satisfaction in their survey (Thu Hang, 2014).The large part of the
developed countries has the high satisfaction level to their lives and the frequently survey
about life satisfaction express that life satisfaction is important in developed country.
In Vietnam, life satisfaction seems not to be paid attention in the past because
Vietnam is still the developing country (Ready and Dinh,2008), so the economy is not
strong and rich enough to enjoy the life.Vietnamese still have the quotation that “eating for

being full and wearing for being warm” and they do not have the concept of life
satisfaction.In the past ten years, Vietnam is rarely to survey about life satisfaction in our
lives because it is hard to find out the information about life satisfaction of Vietnamese in
the magazines or newspapers.
However, some recent years, life satisfaction starts to be known in the
communication media in Vietnam.According to Linh San (2014), Business Insider, a
prestige magazine of United States of American(USA) is ranked Vietnam in number 16 of
the top 20 the most valuable places to live all over the world. In addition to, the newest
declaration of Pew, a research center in Washington D.C, say that 60 percentage of
Vietnamese has the high life satisfaction just after Mexican and USA (Tra My,
2014).Besides, the survey about the happy level of youth also conducts in Vietnam by
Hilton Worldwide, Vietnam is ranked number eleven, and the rank is higher than some


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countries in the same area such as Indonesia and Philippines. It shows that Vietnamese
begin to know and pay more attention to life satisfaction.
1.2 Research problem
In some previous research, there are many studies about life satisfaction. There is the
research about the relationship between organization support, work-family conflict and the
job-life satisfaction in the University (Dixon and Sagas, 2007) or the other research about
the relative contributions of ethnicity, socioeconomic status, health, and social relationships
to life satisfaction in United States (Barger et al., 2009). On other hand, the research of the
role of personality in life satisfaction also process by Baudin et al. (2011).It also has the
researcher provide the study of the role of work on life (Streimikiene and Grundey, 2009) or
the effects of consumption and work satisfaction on the life of Professional (Hampton et
at.,2013). Cheng and Chan (2006) have the research about the life satisfaction in later life of
the gender and widowhood such as how men and women examine life satisfaction
differently in the context of relationship of each other. Frank and Enkawa (2009) process

the research of whether economic growth enhances life satisfaction of the people.
The most of previous research show that among those factors making life
satisfaction, work plays an important role among them. Job satisfaction is found in many
research being the factor affect life satisfaction, however, the effect of employee
commitment on life satisfaction does not find out in the previous research.
Besides, many researches investigate about the factors affect employee commitment.
McGuire and McLaren (2009) process the research about the impact of physical
environment on employee commitment in call centers. Fedor et al. (2006) make research
about the effects of organizational changes on employee commitment. There are the
research about the effect of service climate on employee commitment of He et al. (2011);
Little and Dean (2006). However, the effect of service climate on employee commitment
find out in service sector of call center and hospital. It does not find out the research of the
effect of service climate on employee commitment in the banking industry.


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In Vietnam, there are many research about life satisfaction of Vietnamese about
many aspects of life satisfaction such as the satisfaction about the family relationship,
individual life, family facilities, life condition, etc. (Hoang Ba Thinh, 2012). Besides, it also
has the research about the life satisfaction of Vietnamese people from the occupations, jobs
and living standard (Nguyen Thi Van Hanh, 2013). It means that some people in Vietnam
begin to think of life satisfaction as well as the factors effect on life satisfaction. However, it
does not find out the research about life satisfaction of employee in service sections,
especially the banking industry in Vietnam. In terms of previous research, related to
banking industry in Vietnam, there just have research about the factors influencing to the
job satisfaction of the commercial banks’staff (Phan Thi Minh Ly, 2011).Other research
concentrates on the employee satisfaction of banking staff (Nguyen Thi Thuy Quynh, 2012)
but it does not study the life satisfaction of banking staff.
Schneider et al. (as cited in Little and Dean, 2006) say that service climate was

significantly related to each of three predictors: customer orientation, managerial practices
and customer feedback. Customer feedback considers as one aspect of customer orientation
(He et al., 2011). Therefore, in order to fulfill the gap of effect of service climate on the
employee commitment in the banking industry; and in an effort to identify the key factors of
service climate influence on employee commitment, the research considers the concepts of
customer orientation, managerial support and work facilitation, three factors of service
climate, to employee commitment in banking industry. Moreover, the relationship of
employee commitment and life satisfaction of employee in banking industry are also
investigated in this research. That is the reason in my study, I concentrate on the service
climate which the bank creates to get employee commitment and from that employee
commitment, how it effect to life satisfaction of employee.
1.3 Research objectives
Based on the research background and research gap, the overall objective of this
study is to examine the relationship between service climate through its three factors:
customer orientation, managerial support, and work facilitation, and employee commitment


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as well as the effect of employee commitment on life satisfaction of employee in the
banking industry in Vietnam. In specific, this research has the purpose of investigating:
1. The effect of customer orientation on the employee commitment in the banking
industry.
2. The effect of managerial support on the employee commitment in the banking
industry.
3. The effect of work facilitation on the employee commitment in the banking
industry.
4. Under the effect of service climate on employee commitment – the influence of
employee commitment to life satisfaction of employee in the banking industry.
1.4 Scopes and research methodology of the thesis

By using the service climate to evaluate the employee commitment and thank to this
employee commitment, it measures the life satisfaction that is the reason why the field of
research is the service industry. Banking is one of service sectors in service industry chosen
joining this survey, especially the banking industry in Vietnam. Through some dimensions
of service climate are customer orientation, managerial support, and work facilitation, effect
to employee commitment – to draw the relationship between employee commitment and life
satisfaction.
Examining the relationship of three independent variables of service climate,
employee commitment and life satisfaction, the author uses the scale of previous research –
structured questionnaire – to collect data from employees in some other bank in Ho Chi
Minh City (HCMC) such as Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank HCMC Branch, Huanan
Commercial Bank HCMC Branch, Far East National Bank HCMC Branch, The Bank of
Tokyo-Mitsubishi HCMC Branch, Agricultural Bank of Vietnam Cho Lon Branch and one
bank in Binh Duong province is Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank Binh Duong Branch. The
constructs were measured by using established scales. Using a seven-point Likert-type scale
to measure the survey.


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1.5 Significance of the study
After this study, it is hopeful that its finding will contribute in bankers’ knowledge
about employee commitment as well as some factors effect on it. From that, the manager of
the bank knows the way to hold the commitment of their employee based on the knowledge
about what thing is important to create the commitment of the employee in banks’ working
environment. Besides, through this study, Vietnamese bankers know more clearly about the
concept of life satisfaction as well as how employee commitment effect on life satisfaction
in order to make the life of bank’s employee more satisfied.
1.6 The structure of the study
This thesis consists of five chapters.

Chapter 1: Introduction
In this chapter, the author introduces the research background of the study,
research problem, research objectives, research methodology and scopes, the
significance of the study and the structure of the study.
Chapter 2: Literature review and hypotheses
In this chapter, the fundamental theories and definition of each concept in the
study are explained based on quoting or paraphrasing the same concepts in some
previous research by the author. Besides, the research model together with hypotheses of
this study are also presented by the author in this part.
Chapter 3: Research Methodology
This chapter discusses about the research design, measures of the constructs
together with the measurement scales of this study. Research process is also mentioned
in this chapter. The method of data analysis with Cronbach’s alpha, Exploratory factor
analysis (EFA) and Multiple regression analysis is introduced.
Chapter 4: Data analysis and data results


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The author presents the characteristics of the collected samples as well as the
result of the research after analyzing the samples with data analysis method mentioned
in chapter 3. From that result, the author draws the conclusions for the proposedhypotheses in chapter 2.
Chapter 5: Conclusions, implications and limitations
In this chapter, the author confirms the supported hypotheses based on the
results of the research in the chapter 4. Based on those supported hypotheses, the author
suggests the contribution of the study in management theory and practice and draws the
limitation of the study for future research.


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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
In this chapter, the author presents the literature related to service climate as well as
the literature of three factors standing for service climate: customer orientation, managerial
support, and work facilitation. Besides, the overview of literature about employee
commitment and life satisfaction is also introduced by the author. Based on the literature
review about the concepts, the author develops the hypothesis from the relationship between
service climate and employee commitment through the relationship of customer orientation,
managerial support and work facilitation to employee commitment.
2.1 Life satisfaction
According to Henrich and Herschbach, life satisfaction is defined as the subjectively
perceived quality of life based on individual preferences and reported satisfaction in various
life domains (as cited in Besier and Goldbeck, 2012). Rode (2004) said life satisfaction
refers to the cognitive element of the subjective well-being of employees. Judge et al.,
(2001) defined life satisfaction as an individual’s conscious, cognitive appraisal of the
quality of his or her life and Lent et al. (2009) said life satisfaction is a lasting indicator
towards the employee’s triumphant adjustment to changes in life (as cited in Mafini, 2014).
It may be described as an emotional reaction of an individual to life consisting of worktime, spare time, and time after work as well as expressing individual’s satisfaction about
life (Heller et al., 2002). Shichman and Cooper (as cited in Wang et al., 2008) stated that
living better, enjoying life and having a high quality of life is life satisfaction.
2.2Service climate
Service climate is defined as “the shared perceptions of employees concerning the
practices, procedures, and kinds of behaviors that get rewarded and supported with respect
to customer service and service quality” (Schneider et al., 1998, p.151). Little and Dean
(2006) said, “the service climate communicates a message to employees about what is
valued by the organization, and the attitudes and behaviors that are desired and will be
rewarded”. Mechinda and Patterson (2011) showed that service climate is a specific subset


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of organizational climate such as the perceptions of employees about what is important in
their organization. Schneider and Bowen (as cited in Johnson, 1996) stated that creating a
climate service starts from identifying the needs and expects of the market for service
quality. This involves measuring customer expectations and satisfaction, sharing the data
with affected employees, and generating goals and plans to ensure improvement in service
delivery.
Schneider and Bowen (1993) argued that service climate might include some
practices, which encourage offering high quality service and creating supportive conditions,
such as efforts toward removing obstacles to work, and other HR policies. In addition,
Shainesh and Sharma (as cited in He et al., 2011) suggested other facets of service climate,
including customer orientation, managerial practices and customer feedback. Schneider (as
cited in Carrasco et al., 2012) showed that customer feedback refers to the request and use
of feedback by customers, customer orientation describes efforts to meet customer needs or
expectations for service quality.
He et al. (2011) stated, “Customer feedback may be considered as one aspect of
customer orientation and climate service is proposed to have three major components in
their research, including customer orientation, managerial support and work facilitation”.
Little and Dean (2006) in their research, the dimensions of service climate are consist of
organizational customer orientation, managerial practices, customer feedback and human
resource management. According to Shainesh and Sharma (as cited in He et al., 2011),
customer orientation mean creating systems to act on the information about customers
which includes the component of customer feedback. So that, in this study, the author
chooses the components to measure the service climate are customer orientation, managerial
and work facilitation.
Customer orientation is defined as the importance that service providers place on
their customers’ needs and expectations relating to a firm’s service offerings (Kelly, as cited
in Scotti et al., 2007).Saxe and Weitz (as cited in Dimitriades, 2007) said that customer
orientation has been defined as the satisfaction of customer needs at the level of the

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employee-customer interaction. In addition, customer orientation means placing a high
priority on customer interests (Day, as cited in He et al., 2011). He et al. (2011) quoted that
“managerial support means actions taken by an employee’s immediate manager in a manner
that supports and rewards delivery of quality service. Work facilitation means all working
conditions that support delivery of quality service, such as general HR practices, guidance,
and cooperation among workmates”. Three components such as customer orientation,
managerial support, and work facilitation use to measure the service climate in this research.
He et al.(2011) recognized that “customer orientation is the basic component of service
climate which determines the direction and guideline of serviceand managerial support and
work facilitation are the two “wheels” of the carriage, to realize quality service”.
2.3 Employee commitment
Herscovitch and Meyer (2002) defined commitment of workers when they recognize
the goals and objectives of the organization and try to make effort and to work harder to
help it prosper. In addition, Bateman and Strasser (1984) described commitment relating
employees’ devotion and faithfulness to readiness to exert effort on behalf of the
organization and the desire to maintain membership. El-Kassar et al. (2011) recognized that
normative commitment is an emotional obligation towards the organization of the
employees who accept about their responsibility towards the organization.
Employee commitment is defined as “the psychological attachment felt by a person
for the organization. Committed individuals believe in, and accept, organizational goals and
values. They want to remain in the organization and commit themselves to provide quality
service on behalf of the organization” (Chen, as cited in He et al., 2011).
2.4 Service climate and employee commitment
Banking industry is the service industry, so customer is the most of their concerns in
bank’s business. All their products of service concentrate on their customer satisfaction.
Mechinda and Patterson (2011) said, “Consumers are better served if service organizations
are structured to meet and satisfy the needs of their employees”. It means that customer will

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be served well when the organization meets the needs of their employee. Tsai et al. (2008)
said if in the service organization, employee can perceive a superior service climate, then
they show the service behavior which the organization desires. So that, building the good
service climate for employee plays the important role to lead to customer satisfaction as
well as job satisfaction. From above literature, it shows that there is the relationship of
customer orientation to the employee commitment in the service sector, especially in the
banking industry. And the hypothesis is set up base on the relationship of customer
orientation and employee commitment.
H1. Customer orientation (CO) has a positive effect on employee commitment (EC).
According to Ready and Dinh (2008, p.11) “Vietnamese students are indicating that
it is very important to them to receive feedback from their supervisor and organization for
the contributions they are making”. The Vietnamese students after graduated, they will
become the employee which may be work in the bank or in another field of the Vietnamese
economy. With the recognition of Ready and Dinh (2008), it shows that the reaction of the
supervisor as well as the manager in workplace has the effect to the employee. From this
concept, the relationship between managerial support and employee commitment is set up.
H2. Managerial support (MS) has a positive effect on employee commitment (EC).
The previous literature mentions service climate is measured by customer
orientation, managerial support, and work facilitation. Service climate is the environment
for employee to work with high commitment and the work facilitation being all working
conditions that support delivery of quality service, such as general HR practices, guidance,
and cooperation among workmates. Mottaz (1988) says that employees who got the
supportive and friendly relationship with their co-workers and supervisors has a strong,
positive commitment to their organization. Basing on this, the hypothesis is made to
evaluate the effect of work facilitation to employee commitment.
H3. Work facilitation (WF) has a positive effect on employee commitment (EC).

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2.5 Employee commitment and life satisfaction
According to the literature, employee commitment is the desire to be a part of the
organization; it is the commitment of the employee to provide the quality service on behalf
of the organization to the customer. By the way trying one’s best to provide the high quality
service to the customer in order to make the organization prospective, employee can be had
the strong connection to this organization. Especially in the banking industry, providing the
good service for the customer is the final target in business of all the banks in Vietnam.
Based on the employee commitment with the bank, this employee gives us the signal that
someone feels satisfied with the current job. Ofovwe et al. (2013) say people who are
satisfied with their job will have the tendency to be satisfied with life. Therefore, through
the job satisfaction, we can see the link from employee commitment to life satisfaction.
Therefore, the hypothesis to express this relationship of two factors is created.
H4. Employee commitment (EC) has a significant positive effect on life
satisfaction(LS).
Basing on four hypotheses setting up, the research model for this study is drawn.

Customer
Orientation

Managerial
Support

H2

Employee
Commitment

Working
Faciliation
Figure 2.1: Research Model

H4

Life
Satisfaction


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2.6 Summary
In this chapter, the author introduces the concept of service climate evaluates by
three factors of customer orientation, managerial support and work facilitation. These
concepts of three these factors are more understand by its definitions that quoted in previous
research. The literature of employee commitment and life satisfaction are mentioned in this
chapter as well. Besides, the author introduces the relationship of service climate and
employee commitment together with the relationship of employee commitment and life
satisfaction. From these relationships, the author presents four hypotheses extracted from
them.


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CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The purpose of this chapter is to introduce methodology used in this research. Firstly,
the research process is introduced. Secondly, the measurements scale applying for this
research is mentioned in this part. Thirdly, the questionnaire design, data collection methods

and sampling design are mentioned. Finally, the introduction of data analysis method using
for reporting the research data is presented.
3.1 Research process
Determining the research problem was the important step of this research. After that,
by reviewing the literature, the relevant concepts related to service climate, employee
commitment, as well as life satisfaction was found out. These concepts were the foundation
for proposing the research model and the hypotheses in the next step. In this study the main
purpose evaluated the factors affecting employee commitment consist of customer
orientation, managerial support and work facilitation. After that, based on that employee
commitment, evaluating the effect of employee commitment on life satisfaction of banking
staffs. An operation model was presented in Figure 2.1. The research design was applied to
identify data resources, methods of collecting data, measurement scale used in this study,
sampling design, and data analysis methods.
Relying on the measurement scale borrowed from previous studies, the
questionnaire’s draft was designed and translated into Vietnamese. The draft of
questionnaire was revised by researcher’s supervisor to correct mistakes before making
qualitative research.
The research was processed through two steps: qualitative research and quantitative
research. The qualitative research was made by in-depth interview used to adjust the
measurement scale for more understandable. Moreover, qualitative research helped to set
the final questionnaire for the main research. After processing qualitative research, the final
questionnaire was used in a quantitative research for main survey to collect data for data


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analysis process (Cronbach’s Alpha test for the scale, Explore Factor Analysis and Multiple
Regression Analysis) to test the hypothesis proposed in Chapter 2.

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Determining the
research problem

Literature review

Research model
and Hypotheses

Research design

Draft
questionnaire

In-depth interview
(n=5)

Final
questionnaire

Revision scale

Main survey
(n = 140)
(n = 80)

Data analysis
(to test hypotheses)

Cronbach Alpha test for scales
Explore Factor Analysis
Multiple Regression Analysis

Conclusions
andRecommendations

Figure 3.1 Research Process


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3.2 Measurement scale
A seven-point Likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree) for
measuring customer orientation, managerial support, work facilitation, employee
commitment and life satisfaction was used in this study. The scale of customer orientation
included six items was gotten from Day; Shainesh and Sharma (as cited in He et al., 2011).
The scale of managerial support made to measure about relationship between an employee
and his direct manager with four items, which was adapted from Foley and Hang (2005).
The scale of work facilitation, which included four items were adapted from Shainesh and
Sharma (2003). Peterson (2004) was the source to borrow the measurement of employee
commitment, which included four items. The measurement of life satisfaction was drawn
from Diener’s Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener et al.; Pavot and Diener as cited in
Slocum-gori et al.,2009) with the design of questionnaires see in Table 3.1.