Workplace social capital, job satisfaction and workplace performance in developed and developing countries

Abstract

Although social capital had been found to solve collective action problems, socialcapital at work or workplace social capital has only recently begun to be researched.This is noteworthy given that most of our waking hours are spent in the workplace.While workplace social capital is suggested to improve workplace performance, jobsatisfaction had been found to improve workplace performance. However, workplacesocial capital and job satisfaction have never been examined together with regard toworkplace performance. Furthermore, most studies on workplace performance havefocused on developed countries with evidence from developing countries is lacking.The aims of this thesis were to investigate 1) whether workplace social capitalaffects job satisfaction; 2) the relationship of social capital, job satisfaction andworkplace performance; 3) whether individual characteristics differ in determiningjob satisfaction in developed and developing countries; and 4) whether context of or-ganisations in developed and developing countries differ in determining the relation-ship of social capital, job satisfaction and workplace performance. To achieve thoseaims, this thesis selects two sets of secondary data representing developed countries: EWCS2010 in Europe combining workers with their regions and countries andWERS2011 in Britain linking workers to their workplaces; while primary data froma developing country have been gathered from public hospitals in Indonesia associating workers with workplaces. As such, this thesis exploits two approaches usingstructural equation modelling in multilevel models. First, the customary Macro-micro approach is used to examine the relationship between workplace social capitaland job satisfaction treating both variables as latent constructs. Second, the lesscommon micro-Macro approach is exercised to investigate the relationship betweenworkplace social capital, job satisfaction and workplace performance.Results from developed countries show that workplace social capital is positivelyassociated with individual outcomes such as job satisfaction and well-being evenin times of financial crisis. Comparing the results between developed and developing countries, workplace social capital is positively significantly associated withjob satisfaction in Britain and in Indonesia. With regard to higher level outcomes,workplace social capital is associated with better financial performance, while jobsatisfaction is associated with higher quality in British general industry. Turningto results from Indonesia, workplace social capital is associated with lower expenditure per bed; job satisfaction, however, failed to be associated with any workplaceperformance measures. Several individual and workplace characteristics in bothdeveloped and developing countries have similar influences on job satisfaction andworkplace performance. Nevertheless, there are some contrasting results regardingthe influence of those characteristics in developed and developing countries.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2016
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Gindo Tampubolon (Supervisor) & Ronald Ramlogan (Supervisor)