(Luận văn thạc sĩ) the relationship between teamwork practices with employees job satisfaction a study at akademi laut malaysia (ALAM)

The Relationship between Teamwork Practices with Employees Job Satisfaction:
A Study at Akademi Laut Malaysia (ALAM)
Ahmad Binti Nurbarirah
Afrah Hayati Abdul Rahman
Khalijah Mohd Nor
Siti Rosnita Binti Sakarji
Syamimi Binti Samsudin
Wan Aisyah Amni Wan Mohamad Saferdin
University Teknologi Mara, Cawangan Melaka, Malaysia
Abstract
Most of the organization nowadays practices the team working style to achieve their objective in the
company. Sometimes it is look like a trend toward the company who practice the teamwork style. When
employee working in a team, they will produce a quality product and services and also effect the employee
job satisfaction. That is why working in team nowadays becomes an important and interesting practice toward
organization.

The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between the characteristics of the

teamwork with employee job satisfaction. This research is focuses on the relationship of practicing working
in team in organization toward employee job satisfaction at Akademi Laut Malaysia (ALAM). The objective
of this study is to identify the relationship between the teamwork that plays a role to achieve the employee job
satisfaction. The sample of this study consisted of 80 staff from ALAM that come from every department with
different background in term of education, ages, gender and working experiences. The primary data is
collected from questionnaires that were distributed to the employee who has been choosing randomly.
Literature review supported the relationship between diversity and communication among team toward job
satisfaction.
Keywords: Job Satisfaction; Teamwork; Communication; Diversity
1. Introduction
Background of Study
Teamwork is an increasingly popular way of achieving greater organizational flexibility, as well as other
benefits such as reduced costs of supervision, faster lead time, innovation, more effective decision-making,

better customer service, and enhanced employee morale. Most investment and financial advisory companies
have reorganized employees into teams to serve clients better and make better investment. This trend toward
teamwork is, in fact, increasingly common in many industries. More than half of the U.S organizations polled
in one survey use teams to a high or very high extent to conduct their day-to-day business. In Akademi Laut
Malaysia (ALAM), working in a team is often practiced especially among 4 (four) departments which are
Corporate Planning & Business Development Department (CPBD), Registry Department, Student Affairs

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Department (SAFD) and Director Training & Education Department (DTE). In this study, the arrangement of
an outsider registers for doing a course at ALAM has been chosen to show how these four departments work
together to ensure their customers enjoyed themselves throughout their training at ALAM. According to Rico,
Hera & Tabernero (2011) over the last forty years, teams have come to be considered as a central element in
the functioning of organizations. Teamwork has also been applied in doing a research especially scientific
research. A study of almost 20 million research publications reported that the percentage of journal articles
written by teams rather than individuals has increased substantially over the past five decades. According to
Benrazavi, Seyed Rahim & et.al. (2013), teamwork is also known as a motive of job satisfaction as almost all
work on job satisfaction and team performance matters. To achieve employee job satisfaction when working
in a team is very hard to accomplish. The members within the team have their individual factors to gain job
satisfaction which includes the reward when the job is completed, the communication between team members
and leader, size of the team and duration for the task to be completed. Therefore, the aim of this study is to
examine the issue of the relationship between the characteristics of teamwork and employee job satisfaction.
Statement of the Problem
Working in a team contributes many benefits towards the organizations success such as reduced costs of
supervision, faster lead time, innovation, more effective decision-making and better customer service. Teams
are not always effective as for individuals who love working alone. When working in a team, the task or
project given can be done more effectively and with better quality. The burden of an individual responsibility
is also reduced because the tasks are divided into small portions. A team is built to complete a mission and
task. Not every people like to work in a team. People join a team only to fulfill their personal needs.

Individual factors and communication can be some of the factors that prevent from teamwork to be developed
into an organization. There are some people who only prefer to work with the same gender, the same
generation, the same education or the position, the same department and many more. According to
Sammartino, (2002), the challenge for business is manage diverse teams effectively so as to harness the
potential performance. These factors bring the issue of why working in a team sometimes could not fulfill
employee job satisfaction. He also adds that diverse teams have the potential to outperform homogenous
teams. When an employee fails to receive job satisfaction, the teamwork concept to complete a mission cannot
be achieved. This is because there is no cooperation and understanding among the team members.
Communication is an important part for people to start a conversation. According to Hassal (2009),
communication is assumed to be central to the successful performance of team. As a team, each member needs
to communicate with each other to make sure the information will be received clearly. Otherwise, the job
satisfaction of each employee will be absent. How does communication between team members have an effect
on employee job satisfaction? Effective communication can help employees to decrease their morale problem
and will ensure they are satisfied that they are in the loop and part of them. However, a lack of communication
can cause confusion between team members. Poor communication skills create business problems such as
team communication issues and people problem, losing the trust of co-workers and cooperation of team
members. All this issue can bring dissatisfaction. Hassal also stated that communication sometimes not
related to team performance. Therefore, this research paper will identify the problem of communication
towards employee job satisfaction. Consequently, this study is conducted to identify which characteristics of
teamwork give the most effect toward employee job satisfaction among Akademi Laut Malaysia (ALAM) staff.
Research Objective
This study focuses on the relationship between the characteristics of teamwork and employee job
satisfaction. There are several objectives, which need to be taken into consideration in carrying out this study.
All these objectives are mentioned as follows:

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1. To investigate the level of job satisfaction among employee at Akademi Laut Malaysia (ALAM).
2. To identify the relationship between team member diversity and employee job satisfaction.

3. To identify the relationship between communication in team and employee job satisfaction.
Research Question
1. What is the level of job satisfaction in Akademi Laut Malaysia (ALAM)?
2. Is there any relationship between team member diversity and employee job satisfaction at Akademi
Laut Malaysia (ALAM)?
3. Is there any relationship between communication in team and employee job satisfaction at Akademi Laut
Malaysia (ALAM)?
2. Literature Review
The main purpose of writing a literature review is to convey the readers what knowledge and ideas have
been established with regards to the research topic on the effects of working in a team with employee job
satisfaction. Relationship between Independent Variable and Dependent Variable
Relationship between Communication and Job Satisfaction:
The process of communication must happen between sender and receiver by which the process starts with
the sender who initiates a message by encoding a thought, and this message is the actual physical product
from the senders encoding. According to Steingrimsdottir (2011), both internal communication and job
satisfaction are related to each other. Poor information flow can maintain acceptable job satisfaction but
interpersonal communication factors have much greater effect on how satisfied the employees are.
Relationship between Team’s Diversity and Job Satisfaction:
Employee job satisfaction and cultural diversity are very important in the workplace. Ethnic diversity can
often enhance or reduce employee job satisfaction (Piraglia, 2015). People’s degree of overall job satisfaction
or their degree of satisfaction with a specific element of their job could be affected by their experience,
including their gender, race, or ethnicity. Evidence of this would be the legitimate studies that did find a
correlation between job satisfaction and diversity.
Characteristics of Teamwork
i.
ii.

Employee Job Satisfaction

Team Member

Diversity
Communication
Among Team
Member

(Independent Variable)

(Dependent Variable)

Figure: 2.1. Conceptual Framework for Relationship between Characteristics of Teamwork and
Employee Job Satisfaction
Figure above show the dependent and independent variable of the study on the relationship between
teamwork and employee job satisfaction. The paper will study on the two characteristics of teamwork which
is the team member diversity and communication among team member toward employee job satisfaction.

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3. Methodology
In this study, a research on the relationship between characteristic of teamwork and employee job
satisfaction are conducted in Akademi Laut Malaysia (ALAM). There are populations of approximately 107
staff in the organization. Krejcie and Morgan’s sample size table was used as a reference to determine the
suitable sample size for the population. The 80 respondents were suggested as a sample size. Therefore, 80
respondents will be selected at the Akademi Laut Malaysia (ALAM) as the sample size to answer the
questionnaire. The equation of the sample size will be n=80.
Data Collection Method
The questionnaire will be administered to 80 staff at Akademi Laut Malaysia (ALAM). This, refer to the
primary resources of data that will be used in this study. The sample will give a period at least one day to
complete the survey. If researcher distributes the survey at 0800hrs then it will be collected at 1700hrs. The
time taken to complete all 80 surveys is almost two weeks because some of staff sometime takes time till 2

days to complete the questionnaire. The reason is they are too busy to complete their task before they spend
their free time to answer the questionnaire.
4. Finding & Discussion
In this chapter, the discussion will display the result or findings and analysis of the study on The
Relationship between Teamwork Practices toward Employee Job Satisfaction in an Organization at Akademi
Laut Malaysia, Melaka (ALAM). The data was analyzed by using SPSS Statistics 20.0. All of 80 questionnaires
were distributed toward all 80 samples. This chapter will focus on the finding of the research data that has
been analyzed which shows the results of respondents’ profile, descriptive statistics, reliability test and
correlational of the variable. The dependent variable of the study is employee job satisfaction while the first
independent variable of the study was teamwork diversity which consists of gender, education and age and
the second independent variable was communication. Furthermore, the findings will help to answer the
research question and also want to achieve the objective of this study.
Research Question 1:
What is the level of job satisfaction in Akademi Laut Malaysia (ALAM)?
In order to measure the level of job satisfaction, mean and standard deviation is used to measure the level
of job satisfaction through likert scale that consist of agreement level from strongly disagree to strongly agree.
This RQ1 is to find the level of job satisfaction among employees in ALAM. Based on the result, it can be
indicated that majority of the respondents were happy working in their department with the highest mean
4.05 and standard deviation .825 (m=4.05, std.dev= .825). They also claimed that they love their job very much
with the result (m=4.01, std.dev= .755). The result indicates that majority of the employee show that they are
satisfied working with the organization.
Research Question 2:
Is there any relationship between team member diversity and employee job satisfaction at Akademi Laut
Malaysia (ALAM)?
The study found that there is a positive relationship between team diversity and job satisfaction at Akademi
Laut Malaysia (ALAM). The correlation of team diversity shows that the r value (r = .488). The range between
0.4 and 0.5 said as a moderate relationship. Besides that, the p value show that it was .000 that is equal to
p<0.05. Thus, the hypothesis H1 for this study is rejected while they hypothesis H2 is accepted.
Discussion

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Based on the Pearson Correlation of team member diversity, it shows a positive relationship of correlation.
It is means that if the team consist of diversity the job satisfaction will achieved. Example for team member
diversity is the mix in gender, level of education and differences in age. If there is a diversity in a team, the
employee job satisfaction will achieve.
Research Question 3:
Is there any relationship between communication in team and employee job satisfaction at Akademi Laut
Malaysia (ALAM)?
Based on the result, the study found a positive relationship between communication in team and job
satisfaction at Akademi Laut Malaysia (ALAM). The correlation of team communication show that the r value
(r = .801). The range between 0.8 and 1.0 said as a very strong relationship. Besides that, the p value show
that it was .000 that is equal to p<0.05 Thus, the hypothesis H3 for this study is rejected while they hypothesis
H4 is accepted.
Discussion
Based on the Pearson Correlation of team communication, it is shows that the relationship between
communication in team and job satisfaction is positive and have a strong correlation. It is means that if the
team communicate to each other when working in team, the employee job satisfaction will achieve.
5. Conclusion
The result from the finding showed that the respondents in this study were dominated by the male
employee. Meanwhile, the majority of the sample come from the age range between 21-30 years old. In the
other hand, the most popular of respondent have an education background with a Degree. Other than that,
most of the employee at Akademi Laut Malaysia already give a service toward the organization for 1-2 years
long. Therefore, the majority of the respondent in Akademi Laut Malaysia is a male from age 21-30 years old
are degree holder and already work for 1-2 years with the organization. According to the descriptive statistic
table, the level of employee job satisfaction will be achieved when there is a communication among team
member. Based on the result, the communication factor got a higher mean which show that a communication
is one of the important element that a team should have when there is a task do. This is supported from the
previous research conducted by Rashida (2005) which state that communication play an important role in the

work place. She also stated that a good leader must be able to communicate and correspond to the subordinate
to make sure the subordinate will receive a clear instruction so they will be motivated to achieve the task goal
and also improve the employee job satisfaction. Therefore, this study has proved that a communication among
team member and leader is a key to have a good teamwork. When employee working with a good team, then
the job satisfaction will achieve has been said in an article from Essay, UK (2013) which state that a good team
is essential to job satisfaction. Based on the finding result, both variable which is team diversity and
communication show a significance relationship with the employee job satisfaction. However, the
communication factor displays a very strong relationship toward employee job satisfaction when working in
team compare to team diversity factor.
References
Benrazavi, Seyed Rahim, Silong & Abu Daud. (2013). Employees’ Job Satisfaction and its Influence on Willingness to Work in Teams.
Journal
of
Management
Policy
and
Practice
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(1).
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from
/>Essays,
UK.
(2013).
Teamwork
Leads
to
Job
Satisfaction
Management

Essay.
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from
leads-to-job-satisfaction-management-essays.php?cref=1
Hassal S. L. (2009). The Relationship between Communication and Team Performance: Testing Moderators and Identifying
Communication Profiles in Established Work Teams. Retrieved from />
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Pirraglia W. (2015). Cultural Effect on Employee Satisfaction. Retrieved from DemandMedia: 2702.html
Sammartino A., O’flynn J. & Nicholas S. Prof. (2002). Managing Diverse Work Teams a Business Model for Managing Diversity. Retrieved
from +satisfaction

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