The Effect of Promotion and Job Training on Job Satisfaction of Employees: An Empirical Study of the SME Sector in Bangladesh

Abstract

SME sector's success also depends on its employees' job satisfaction as satisfied employees are likely to be more productive at the workplace and positively enhance SME business performance. Small and medium firms are the heart of the economy, and employees are the main and valuable asset for the SME firms. If SME business managers can increase employee satisfaction, then SMEs' performance will also increase in the future. Hence, the current study aims to determine the job satisfaction of SME employees by analyzing the impact of job training (JT) and promotion (PRO) opportunities on employee job satisfaction. Purposive sampling is applied in the study, and 202 SME employees have participated as sample respondents. The final sample size is n = 202. SPSS 26.0 version is used to analyze the hypotheses. The study findings show that both job training (JT) and promotion (PRO) have a positive effect on SME employee job satisfaction. It does indicate that SME managers need to provide necessary training programs and timely promotion to their current working employees to keep them satisfied with their job. Promotion and effective job training will certainly enhance employees' job satisfaction. The study has also offered a few strategic implications for SME business managers.

1. Introduction

Job satisfaction is an employee’s attitude toward the duties and responsibilities received by the management (Oktem et al., 2020). It helps establish a sound environment that encourages high employee participation (Ali et al., 2018; Baqir et al., 2020). The modern business world is turbulent, complex, and competitive, and the success of any business institution depends on satisfied employees (Shuvro & Alam, 2020). So the organization desires to build a strong connection with the employee (Afzal et al., 2021; Ali et al., 2021; Batool et al., 2021; Ali et al., 2020). So in order to achieve the target, the SME business managers should determine different factors to create satisfaction levels of employees (Mefi & Asoba, 2021; Mefi & Asoba, 2020; Almaamari & Husain, 2021; Asoba & Patricia, 2021). Many studies have demonstrated that job security, attractive compensation, job-related facilities, location of the firm, working environment, flexible working schedule, peers relations, good performance appraisal process, goodwill of the firm, career opportunity, and employee’s autonomy impact job satisfaction. In addition, it is found that team spirit, working environment, promotion, bank image, job security, job rotation, professional development, empowerment, training and development, attractive salary, and leadership impact job satisfaction (Chien, 2015). In the past studies, several factors were examined to determine the job satisfaction of SME employees (Islam & Miajee, 2018). However, there is limited research on measuring the impact of promotion and job training that helps to enhance job satisfaction of SME employees. A good number of studies have been conducted in the field of job satisfaction in Bangladesh, but few of them are conducted in sectors other than the SME sector (Rahaman et al., 2021; Rahaman et al., 2020a; Islam & Alam, 2019). SME sectors played a critical role in accelerating the achievement (Asheq et al., 2021; Asheq & Hossain, 2019; Kumar et al., 2019; Hossain & Asheq, 2019; Islam & Barghouthi, 2017).

Bangladesh is recognized as one of the emerging and developing nations in the Asian region, and the country has received decent growth in economic development and progress (Islam et al., 2021; Ahmed et al., 2021; Rahaman et al., 2020b; Ahmed et al., 2021; Islam & Bhuiyan, 2021; Akhter et al., 2020a; Akhter et al., 2020b; Jahan et al., 2020; Hossan & Asheq, 2020; Tu et al., 2021; Hossain et al., 2019). At the same SME sector has been one of the significant business segments for Bangladesh’s economy. The SME sector is regarded as the nation’s backbone since the SME section has played a pivotal role in national economic development (Hossain et al., 2021; Hossain, 2021). Therefore, the government has started to focus heavily on developing SME business organizations in Bangladesh. On the other hand, employee satisfaction in the SME sector has remained as one of the major concerns for the country’s policymakers. The business owners and business managers of the SME firms have realized the significance of the employees’ job satisfaction. Because satisfied employees are more productive at their workplace, they have the higher efficiency to add more value to business performance. Still, little is revealed about how the various factors such as promotion and job training might affect SME employees’ job satisfaction. Hence, the study wants to explore the variables that might impact SME organizations’ employee performance in Bangladesh. Hence, the study will determine whether promotion and job training impacted employee satisfaction within SME sectors in Bangladesh. The study will answer the following research questions:

(i) Does promotion affect employees’ job satisfaction within the SME business sector?

(ii) Does job training affect employees’ job satisfaction within the SME business sector?

2. Literature Review

2.1. Job Training (JT)

Human resource managers focus on providing effective and efficient on-the-job and off-the-job training programs for their employees to enhance and increase their job performance and work productivity (De Grip & Sauermann, 2013; Liu & Lu, 2016). The training programs are such a managerial tool that helps employees boost their workplace happiness and fulfillment (Hidayat & Budiatma, 2018). Job training aims to provide necessary guidelines and other job-related knowledge to enhance employee job productivity and performance (Elnaga & Imran, 2013). Training helps employees develop sufficient competencies and decision-making skills for a positive outcome. Hidayat and Budiatma (2018) found that job training programs affect the performance of the employees at the workplace. Tukunimulongo (2016) also found that on-the-job training has an impact on employee performance. Hence, it is hypothesized that

H1: Job training will have a positive impact on job satisfaction.

2.2. Promotion (PRO)

Promotion is an essential part of an employee’s job career life as it will affect his/her attachment and engagement level at the workplace (Kosteas, 2011). If an employee receives a timely promotion to the next seniority post, then he/she will become more motivated and satisfied with his/her job role (Lup, 2018). Sheaffer et al. (2018) stated that promotion is pivotal for organizational personnel as it helps enhance individual employee performance. Koo et al. (2020) argued that if employees perceive that there has been a dearth of promotion opportunities, they might be dissatisfied with their current jobs. Tsai (2018) found that promotion is a critical success factor of employees’ job satisfaction.

H2: Promotion (PRO) has a positive effect on employees’ job satisfaction (EJS).

2.3. Conceptual Model

The study’s objective is to examine the determining factors of employee job satisfaction in the SME business segment in Bangladesh. Based on the study objective, the study proposes the following null and alternative hypotheses:

H10: There is no positive relationship between job training (JT) and job satisfaction.

H1a: There is a positive relationship between job training (JT) and job satisfaction.

H20: There is no positive relationship between promotion (PRO) and job satisfaction.

H2a: There is a positive relationship between promotion (PRO) and job satisfaction.

Based on the above hypotheses, the study proposes the conceptual model of this research (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Conceptual Model

3. Methodology

The study gathered data from Dhaka-based SME firms’ working employees from Bangladesh, followed by the purposive sampling method. A survey questionnaire was developed based on previous pieces of literature. Altogether 240 SME employees were invited to attend the survey, and 202 responses were received correct responses. Therefore, the sample size is n=202, leaving a response rate of 84 percent. The questionnaire included demographic information about SME employees (i.e., age, gender, marital status, employment length) and a Likert point questionnaire on study variables, namely job training, promotion, and job satisfaction. In the Likert scale, “1” is meant as “completely dissatisfied, ” and “5” is meant as “completely satisfied.” Tables 1 and 2 show the study variables’ reliability and validity measurement, which was found acceptable.

In order to measure the reliability and validity of all variables, the cut-off value of at least 0.70 Cronbach Alpha (α) value and at least the cut-off value of 0.50 loading value of each variable were considered. As a result, according to Table 2, it is seen that the value of Cronbach Alpha (α) of all study variables was found as reliable as they were above 0.70. Also, factor loading values of items of the variables were valid as they were above 0.50. The latest version of the statistical software of “Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS)” was used in this study to perform the analyses and hypotheses.

Table 1: Cronbach Alpha (α) Value of the Variables

Table 2: Validity Measurement

4. Results and Discussion

Table 3 explains the demographic information of the respondents of the research. The study analyzes the demographic statistics based on respondents’ gender, age, marital condition, and employment time period described in Table 3.

The study obtained samples from SME employees from various cities within Bangladesh. In table 3, demographic information of the samples was present. Table 3 shows that out of 202 samples, 143 male SME employees (70.8 percent) took part in the study, and only 59 (29.2 percent) female SME employees participated. Table 3 also shows that 66 SME employees (32.7 percent) were aged from 21 years to 30 years, 112 SME employees (55.4 percent) were aged from 31 years to 40 years, 18 SME employees (8.9 percent) were aged from 41 years to 50 years, and only 6 SME employees (3.0 percent) were more than 50 years. Furthermore, from table 3, it is seen that 128 SME employees (63.4 percent) were single, and only 74 SME employees (36.6 percent) were married. In terms of the employment period, 70 SME employees (34.7 percent) were employed in between 0 to 4 years, 96 SME employees (47.4 percent) were employed in between 5 to 8 years, 26 SME employees (12.9 percent) were employed in between 9 to 12 years, and 10 SME employees (5.0 percent) were employed for above 12 years.

Table 3: Descriptive Statistics

*n = 202.

Table 4: Regression Analysis

Dependent variable: Job Satisfaction (EJS)

*p < 0.05 (n = 202)

Durbin Watson Value: 2.003

R² = 0.39 or 39.0%

Table 5: Hypotheses Results

In this study, hypotheses were tested by SPSS software (Tables 4 and 5). H₁ states that job training (JT) has a positive relationship with employee job satisfaction (JS), and it is also accepted (β = 0.773, p < 0.05). The result is supported by prior researches (Haryono et al., 2020; Guan & Frenkel, 2019). It means that if SME business organizations provide training programs for their employees, employee satisfaction will also be enhanced due to the training initiatives. It also means that more effective training programs will ensure more job happiness and fulfillment for the employees working in the small and medium business sectors. To maintain a satisfactory job satisfaction of the current workforce, human resource managers and SME business owners should critically consider including several training programs yearly to motivate and inspire current employees to remain happier with their job roles. H₂ states that promotion (PRO) has a positive effect on employees’ job satisfaction (EJS), and H₂ is supported (β = 0.693, p < 0.05). Therefore, it does mean that better promotion opportunities are necessary to satisfy employees at their work station (Bhardwaj et al., 2021; Kosteas, 2011). This also means that the current employers in the SME business sectors should pay more attention to providing timely promotion to their workers so that SME workers could feel motivated and satisfied with their workplace conditions. Timely promotion will ultimately lead to more job satisfaction and fulfillment for the SME employees and workers in the SME sector.

5. Conclusion

The study aimed to find out and determine the factors that could affect the job satisfaction of SME working employees in Bangladesh. In order to achieve the research aim, the study considered the role of job training and promotion on the satiation and fulfillment of SME employees’ present job positions. The findings found out that job training and promotion positively impact the SME employee’s current job profiles and their overall satisfaction while working in the SME business sector. The study had few limitations as the study gathered data from employees of SME business firms in Bangladesh. Hence, future studies should consider various job sectors such as the production sector, service sector, tourism sector, and so on.