Employee Job Satisfaction in Furniture Manufacturing Companies in the Slovak Republic

The research was focused on the comprehensive understanding of motivation factors that affected empoyee job satisfaction in furniture manufacturing companies in the Slovak Republic in 2015. Questionnaire analysis was selected as the key research method. Questionnaires consisted of 36 most motivating factors organized into 5 sub-cathegories, analyzed on the basis of the degree of satisfaction for respondents. Based on the collected data, top 10 motivation factors, which the employees of Slovak furniture manufacturing companies rated as the most satisfying, were identifi ed. According to respondents, 3 most satisfying factors included physical work demands, “interestingness” of work and the ability to use the qualifi cation. Research outcomes resulted in a series of recommendations for the furniture manufacturing companies to focus on in order to boost employee job satisfaction with regards to the fact that only well-motivated employees can increase the effi ciency of the whole enterprise.


INTRODUCTION 1. UVOD
Business cannot be regarded as a closed and isolated system as the world fi nancial crisis has infl uenced the whole entrepreneur society (Marková and Lesníková, 2015;Vetráková et al., 2013).Turbulent changes infl uenced by the world business depression have created an absolutely new set of conditions for the operation of various entrepreneurs.To be able to react to the said changes and to ensure their continuous sustainable development, it is necessary to optimize their performance (Čambál and Cagáňová, 2010).Against the background of increasing local and global competitiveness, it is crucial for any organization to ensure that it consistently develops and retains a loyal, committed and able workforce.This presupposes employees who are satisfi ed with the work that they do and with the culture of the organization that they are employed by and who are consequently motivated to continue their relationship with that organization (Roos et al., 2008).Hitka and Štípalová (2011) take a similar view according to which the existence of the enterprise, its prosperity and dynamic progress are primarily affected by the quality of human resources.Kucharčíková (2014) also considers human resources as signifi cant production input for economies and companies.As performance of employees is signifi cant for organizations, the management should consider improving the performance of workers in their companies by encouraging them to do their tasks and duties as effi ciently and effectively as possible.Therefore, motivation in fi rms is absolutely important and necessary because it could change the behaviour of employees in positive ways.That is why many managers believe that when they establish motivated employees in the workplace, they can observe signifi cant achievements in their organizations (Aarabi et al., 2013).
Human resources management is one of the most important parts of the business.Success of the whole enterprise depends on human resources management (Vaníčková, 2015).One of the most important and at the same time the most diffi cult task of human resources management is motivation of employees (Hitka et al., 2011).For better understanding the role of motivation, the meaning of motivation should be made clear.Motivation is a Latin word and it means "to move" (Wade & Tavris, 2008).Motivation can be defi ned in a number of ways.At a fairly straightforward level, it could be described as: "What makes us do what we do" (Bagshawe, 2011).Psychologists believe that motivation is the process that drives an individual towards achieving a goal.Moreover, motivation gives a person a purpose and the drive that he needs to achieve it.It helps people to push or pull from a bad situation, which are negative features in their lives (Aarabi et al., 2013).Halepota (2005) defi nes motivation as "a person's active participation and commitment to achieve the prescribed results".Without motivation, employees cannot offer their best, meaning that they are less effi cient in the company's performance.According to Antomio-ni (1999), the amount of effort people are willing to put in their work depends on the degree to which they feel their motivational needs will be satisfi ed.Greenberg and Baron (2003) defi ne motivation as: "The set of processes that arouse, direct, and maintain human behavior towards attaining some goal".Motivation, in general, is more or less basically concerned with factors or events that move, lead, and drive certain human action or inaction over a given period of time under the prevailing conditions (Kachalla, 2014).
Thanks to globalization, the requirements on the quality of human resources are increasing (Kampf et al., 2015).Nowadays, nobody doubts that success of every company on the global market depends, in a great extent, on how fast it can adjust to quick changes of the business environment.This is also one of the reasons why human capital is becoming a crucial and more valuable factor as technology, processes and organizational structure can be copied but the value that competent and dedicated employees can bring to companies cannot be easily taken away (Antošová, 2010;Ahmad et al., 2012).Times, when the main role of a manager or supervisor in the workplace was to assign tasks to employees, are over.Employees want to be familiar with the business process and not only to be paid.To provide higher productivity, they are expected to work with responsibility and to contribute to successful achievement of the company goals (Hitka et al., 2015).For traditional approaches of business performance measurement, the most important objective is the maximization of profi t but prosperous enterprises realize that the most profitable capital of the enterprise is its employees and their motivation, through which an enterprise can successfully meet its objectives (Potkány et al., 2014).Moynihan and Pandey (2007) have pointed out that the organizational effectiveness depends on how organizations manage their employees.Motivated employees are needed to ensure the operational health of each organization.This is because motivated employees help businesses to succeed, as they are more productive (Alnıaçık et al., 2012).Hence, motivated employees can contribute to making an organization more valuable and profi table (McKenzie-Mohr & Schultz, 2014).To be effective, managers need to understand what motivates employees within the context of the roles they perform (Noor et al., 2016).Of all the functions a manager performs, motivating employees is arguably the most complex.This is partly due to the fact that what motivates employees changes constantly (Bowen & Radhakrishna, 1991).For example, when an employee's income increases, money becomes less of a motivator (Kovach, 1987).Therefore, it is crucial to understand the factors that may cause the changes in employee motivation.Anitha (2014) syth, 2003).Early research has reported that unsatisfied employees show lower job performance and leave their jobs more often than satisfied employees (Judge et al., 2001;Hellman, 1997).

MATERIJAL I METODE
In order to acquire empirical data, a questionnaire method, with regards to multiple benefi ts, has been selected as the key research method.Among other positives, questionnaires enable collecting of respondents' opinions and attitudes in a short period of time and the follow-up bulk data processing.Additonal relevant information about the respondents (such as age, education and other identifi cation data) can also be collected.Anonymous questionnaires further enhance opennes and sincerity of respondents.Finally, in comparison with a personal debate, questionnaires are less stressful and responses are less affected by the atmosphere and the place.The main part of the questionnaires included closed type questions focused on the level of motivation analyzed through motivation factors in the particular company measured by the level of satisfaction for respondents.Motivation factors were further cathegorized into 5 sub-cathegories according to Table 1.
The total number of 36 motivation factors has been analyzed by the extrapolation method.Respondents were asked to match each motivation factor with 5-point rating scale of satisfaction indexes, 1 = minimum and 5 = maximum (Table 2).competitive compensation, stable place of work, interesting job, high prestige, good performance evaluation, pleasant working atmosphere, peaceful private life, competent leadership, appreciation, participation in decision-making and fringe benefits.Nevertheless, there are many more factors that infl uece employee motivation.Therefore, we have extended the overall scope of motivation factors to 36 (Table 1) and these were further divided into fi ve sub-cathegories related to the nature of work, physical conditions of work, economic conditions of work, technical and logistic conditions of work, interpersonal relationships at workplace.The aim of the research was focused on the comprehensive understanding of motivation factors that affected empoyee job satisfaction in furniture manufacturing companies in the Slovak Republic in 2015.
All organizations aim to have workers who will become key employees that the organization will retain over the long term.Therefore, the motivation factors and values that affect the quality of a worker's performance must be systematically explored because if a manager does not find the right way to motivate staff, workplace absenteeism and fluctuation will rise and taking breaks in an inappropriate way (surfing the Internet, private phone calls), interruption, intrigues, conflicts, dissatisfaction with management will be more obvious (Urbancová et al., 2015).At the same time interest in work, quality and productivity at work, willingness to become responsible, level of submitting proposals, concentration at work, personal participation of an employee and punctuality are declining (For- Pre-research and questionnaire pilot-testing to minimize inadequacities was conducted in 3 companies.After innitial error elimination, questionnaires were distributed in FM-companies, specifi cally, in companies focused on complex furniture manufacturing and shipping and on custom-based interiors.However, according to the Slovak Bureau of Statistics, there were as many as 76 furniture companies registered in Slovakia in 2013 with 9,594 average numbers of registered employees and, therefore, the whole sampling unit could not be analyzed.Generally, the larger the sampling unit is, the more accurate and confi dent results will be acquired; proportionally, however, expenses and efforts rise.Therefore, it was essential to strike balance between the sampling unit size and desired accuracy, confi dence and effectiveness of survey.In order to calculate the minimum sampling unit size (n) the mathematical relation has been used, where n is the function of desired confidence and accuracy at certain estimated variability of analyzed phenomena in the sampling unit.Given the 95 % confi dence secured by the tabular value z 0.025 = 1.96, desired accuracy x = 0.05 and average variability of responses according to the satisfacion scale of various motivation factors, given by variance of σ x 2 = 0.3, a minimum number of respondents has been set as follows: The minimum sampling unit size has been set at pre-defi ned 0.05 accuracy and 95 % confi dence criteria.461 returned questionnaires were thus the necessary minimum to meet the pre-defi ned accuracy and confi dence requirements.In order to collect the necessary set of questionnaries and well aware of the low turnover of e-questionnaires, three times more questionnaires (1,500) were distributed between June 2015 and October 2015.In October 2015, 522 valid questionnaires (sampling unit size of this research) were correctly completed and returned.The overall questionnaire response rate was thus 34.80 %, which meets the minimum sampling unit size criterion.
Structure of sampling unit: 20.69 % women and 79.31 % men participated in the research; a majority of them were manual workers (75.86 %), only 24.14 % were managers.A majority of respondents were 31 -40 years old (48.28 %).The same percentage, 48.28 % of respondents, had lower secondary education (without a school leaving exam/certifi cate).58.62 % respondents have been working in the company for 6 -8 years.No respondents younger than 20 years and older than 50 years, and no respondents with only primary education or those who have been working for the company for more than 10 years participated in the research.
Survey results were processed by mathematical--statistical methods, using the statistical software program STATISTICA 12. Except for the descriptive statistics, inductive statistics method such as specifi c interval estimates and one-way analysis of variance which, based on testing of hypotheses, enabled generalizing of results, were used to process the data.(Note: in spite of the term "variance analysis", what we really mean is the test of equality of k averages).The null hypothesis H 0 : μ 1 = μ 2 = . . .= μ k, was tested and compared with an alternative hypothesis H 1 .In the context of the overall research, H 0 was tested: average results of satisfaction in 10 observed motivation factors are the same when compared with H 1 : at least two motivation factors differ in average satisfaction values.By this, the fact can be confi rmed that FM-employees view these factors differently in terms of their job satisfaction.The key of research thus lies in the analysis of variance into its individual items.
where r p is called the least signifi cant studentized range and depends upon the error degrees of freedom and the numbers of means in the subset, n is the sample size, and s 2 is the error mean square from the analysis of variance table (Bewick et al., 2004).

REZULTATI I RASPRAVA
The fi rst part of the questionnaire gathered data on the degree of motivation according to employee job satisfaction.Respondents responded to the spectrum of motivation factors, ordered according to the degree of their satisfaction.Following fi gures represent absolute multiplicity of respondents evaluating motivation factors organized into 5 sub-cathegories based on Table 1.2).
Based on the gathered data, in the area of nature of work, the following conclusion can be drawn: 79.31 % of respondents were "satisfi ed" with their physical work demands and 75.86 % were "satisfi ed" with the "interestingness" of work.As many as 41.38 % of em- ployees were "quite satisfi ed" with the varibility of work.In the fi eld of education and personal growth, 13.79 % of respondents were "dissatisfi ed" and 3.35 % were "very dissatisfi ed" with the educational and personal growth potential in their company.
In the fi eld of physical conditions of work, very low number of repondents rated the analyzed factors as "very satisfactory".Only 6.90 % of respondents were "very satisfi ed" with work safety and only 3.45 % with anti-dust precutions.Many respondents rated most criteria with lower ratings, mostly as "quite satisfying".For example, as many as 72.41 % were "quite satisfi ed" with the workplace equipment, 55.17 % with their workplace equipment and 51.72 % with work safety.Respondents were seriously dissatisfi ed with anti-dust precautions -37.93 % of respondents were "dissatisfi ed" and 10.34 % were "very dissatisfi ed".
3.35 % of employees expressed their maximum satisfaction with job security, salary, company's reputation and their company's ecological policy.Salary proved to be one of the most crucial motivation factors.Ony 3.35 % of respondents were "very satisfi ed", 31.03% were "dissatisfi ed" and 13.79 % were "very dissatisfi ed".What needs to be taken into consideration is the fact that as many as 62.07 % of respondents considered salaries to be "the most important factor".
As long as the organization of work is concerned, respondents rated work organization (10.34 %) and the fl ow of work (6.90 %) as "very satisfactory".62.07 % of respondents were "quite satisfi ed" with the technical equipment of their workplace and 55.17 % with work distribution.
Only 3.45 % of respondents were "very satisfi ed" with interpersonal relationships at their workplaces, including their working team, workplace atmosphere, employer-employee relationships, superior's recognition and with the opportunity to express one's opinion.Interpersonal relationships and related factors were generally rated very low, especially those considering superior's recognition (24.14 %), criticizing by superior and just rewarding system (both factors acquired 20.69 %).These factors proved to be most sensitively perceived by the employees.
Table 4 presents motivation factors, ordered by satisfaction, as rated by respondents.10 bold-marked motivation factors acquired the highest values of selected averages.Except for selected averages and standard deviations, Table 4 presents 95 % confi dence intervals for sampling unit averages.Based on the results, generalizations can be made.For example, when considering the motivation factor "salary", the respondents will evaluate this motivation factor by average value of 2.41 -2.56 with 95 % confi ndence.
Based on collected data, the research outcomes can now be generalized and further assumptions made.The research has proved that employees were generally satisfi ed with physical work demands.Based on the statistical data analysis, it can be assumed, with a 95% confi dence, when FM-company employees would rate the factor "physical work demands" by an interval rating from 3.96 to 4.04 in a similar survey.The second and third place among most satisfying motivation factors are "interestedness" of work and usefulness of Top 10 motivation factors that proved to be most satisfying were subject to a more detailed analysis based on Table 5.
By one-way analysis of variance with a = 5 %, it has been verifi ed that average values of importace of 10 motivation factors are statistically signifi cantly different (p = 0.000).Based on the follow-up post-hoc tests (Duncan test a = 5%), signifi ant differences have also been identifi ed in the rating of importance among motivation factors in individual pairs.In Table 5, under the diagonal line, p-level pairs of motivation factors with statistically signifi cant differences in the degree of satisfaction are highlighted.It has been observed that pairs of motivation factors with p < 0.05 signifi cantly differ in average satisfaction results, which means that Slovak employees working in furniture company rate these factors differently in terms of their satisfaction.Top 10 motivation factors that proved to be the most satisfying for FM-company employees can be furhter devided into 5 sub-cathegories according to the degree of satisfaction, which, however, signifi cantly differ.Intra-group motivation factors were, according to the employee satisfaction criterion, rated as equally satisfying.
The fi rst group with the highest degree of satisfaction is represented by the physical work demands factor."Interestingness" of work and usefulness of one's qualifi cation represent the second group of motivation factors.The third group is only represented by a single factor, work independence.The fourth group includes 4 factors: the content of work, working hours, work safety and company's reputation.The last, fi fth group comprises factors such as job security and variability of work.
Research outcomes proved that FM-company employees were generally satisfi ed with factors belonging to the the nature of work area.Employees were generally satisfi ed with physical work demands, given the fact that the work is not physically overly demanding or bound to an assembly line.Each employee was independent in his/her job performance and could set his or her own pace of work.Moreover, many types of work could be done in a comfortable sitting position.As far as the content of work in the fi eld of furniture maufacturing was concerned, the work was not monotonous in any way.The assignments varied and were manifold and interesting, as each product was slightly different or custom-made according to cutomer's needs.Employees were also satisfi ed with work safety as furniture manufactures pay extra attention to work safety and invariably maintain strict safety regulations.
Finally, FM-company employees were also satisfi ed with their job security.Their employers often run joint ventures with bigger international enterprises DRVNA INDUSTRIJA 67 (4) 351-362 (2016) Figure 6 Representative averages and 95 % confi dence intervals of top 10 motivation factors with the highest values according to the criterion: the degree of satifaction Slika 6. Reprezentativni prosjeci i 95 %-tni intervali pouzdanosti deset motivacijskih čimbenika s najvišim vrijednostima prema kriteriju stupanj zadovoljstva cused on the analysis of those motivation factors that most signifi cantly affect employee job satisfaction in furniture manufacturing companies operating in Slovakia in 2015.In order to gather the most precise data, a questionnaire (focused on the degree of satisfation of various motivation factors, as viewed by employees) has been generated.The degree of motivation was rated on the basis of 36 motivation factors (further organized into 5 sub-cathegories according to their relations to the nature and physical conditions of work, economic conditions of work, logistics and technical conditons of work and interpersonal relationships at workplace).Out of 1,500 respondents, 522 valid questionnaires were collected.Questionnaire responses were bulk-data processed by mathematical and statistical methods, using satistical software program STATI-STICA 12, descriptive statistics and inductive statistical methods, including interval estimates and one-way analysis of variance.Some research revealed that motivation contains factors that motivate and direct one's behaviour (Daft et al., 2000).It has shown that human activities are motivated by one or many known and sometimes unknown complex factors (Možina, 2002).There are individual factors that infl uence human acitivities, and they are very often part of the human social life (Faletar et al., 2015).According to Závadský et al. (2015), the most commonly used tools of motivation are various incentives, extra holidays, corporate entertaining and rewards.In our research, motivation factors were ordered according to criteria: the degree of satisfaction.Top 10 motivation factors, rated by the employees of Slovak furniture manufacturing companies as the most satisfying, were identifi ed.On the basis of collected data, it can be concluded that 3 most satifying motivations factors for FM-companies in Slovakia in 2015 included physical work demands, "interestingness" of work and usefulness of one's qualifi cation.Supporting our conclusions with the research outcomes, we would like to recommend to the Slovak funiture manufacturing companies to pay special attention to the aforementioned 3 most satisfying motivation factors as these factors signifi cantly affect motivation as well as the overall job performance of employees.Many renowned scholars (Grladinović et al., 2007) agree that motivating the employees is of key importance to increase their efficiency and quality of work.Kampf et al. (2014) point out that the enterprise management should pay dequate attention to motivation programs.Similar positive effects will undoubtedly result not only in enhancement of the overall employee job satisfaction but also in more effective and effi cient use of employee work potential, which will eventually lead to more prosperous enterprises.Additional research should be done to gain a continuous view of what motivates people to do their work best.The ability to motivate subordinates is critical to every manager´s job.Demographic changes in the workplace, as well as technological advances and globalization, only accentuate the need to continue to determine what motivates people to perform well (Wiley, 1997).A motivated workforce can make powerful contributions to the profi ts of a fi rm.

Figure 1 Figure 2
Figure 1 Absolute multiplicity of respondents evaluating motivation factors related to the criteria of nature of work Slika 1. Apsolutna raznovrsnost ispitanika pri vrednovanju motivacijskih čimbenika koji se odnose na kriterije prirode posla

Table 2 5
-point rating scale: the degree of satisfaction Tablica 2. Rangiranje motivacijskih čimbenika u pet razina: stupnjevi važnosti i zadovoljstva which means that there are statistically signifi cant differences between k averages."Post hoc" tests (Duncan test) were used to provide a more detailed evaluation and to identify the groups with signifi cantly different averages.The aim of this testing was to prove which pairs of motivation factors differ in average satisfaction values and which are similar or the same.Duncan's multiple-range test is based on the comparison of the range of a subset of the sample means with a calculated least signifi cant range.If the range of the subset exceeds the least signifi cant range, then the population means can be considered signifi cantly different.It is a sequential test and so the subset with the largest range is compared fi rst, followed by smaller subsets.Once a range is found not to be signifi cant, no further subsets of this group are tested.The least signifi cant range, Rp, for subsets of p sample means is given by: