Case Study: Satisfaction in the ICT Market in Egypt

The objective of the study was to test the level of job satisfaction among ICT professionals in Egypt through identifying their key motivational factors, as well as further understanding their willingness to seek job opportunities abroad. An empirical investigation was carried out attempting to answer the research question and test the formulated research hypotheses. The study is best described as an exploratory quantitative case study, aiming at understanding and gaining insights on the level of job satisfaction in the ICT sector in Egypt. Primary data needed were mainly collected through an employee survey conducted using self-administered questionnaires and personal interviews. Additionally, secondary data was used to explain the theoretical concepts of job satisfaction, as well as benchmarking with other surveys previously conducted in the field. In order to collect sufficient information to cover various segments of the ICT sector, it was necessary to select a relatively large and diverse random sample representing private, public and multinational companies operating in Egypt. Furthermore, because ICT professionals are employed in various industries, it was necessary to additionally include a diverse sample, employed in different industries, such as financial institutions, telecommunications, retail and service providers. In obtaining a representative sample, it was necessary to further classify the sample by job titles, years of experience, gender and age. Therefore, both organizational sampling (based on the nature of company) as well as employee sampling (based on employee demographics) were used for this survey.

The total sample size used in the analysis was 110 ICT professionals, including 100 questionnaires and 10 interviews. The self-administered questionnaire was circulated among 75 ICT professionals, whereas the online questionnaire was mailed to a mailing list of 180 employees. The response rate for the self-administered questionnaire was 87 percent, as for the online questionnaire; the response rate was 19 percent. Survey respondents represent a cross-section of industries, primarily led by IT and telecommunication companies. In this case, it was difficult to select a stratified sample, due to the nature of the sample. Organizations also included multinational service providers, government agencies, information centers, financial institutions and retailers. It is important to note that the sampling considered a number of elements including gender, age, years of experience in ICT as well as in managerial and technical capacities and expertise. Interviews were conducted with 10 senior level ICT executives and professionals. With respect to the questionnaire, they mainly included structured close-ended questions; as for open-ended questions, they were mainly addressed in personal interviews. The questionnaire was divided into three sections; the first covered personal information, the second section addressed the aspects related to the level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction and the third section covered the level of importance of job aspects. All rating scales for close-ended questions were based on the Likert rating having five scale categories.

Figure 1 demonstrates the conceptual framework, developed based on the literature covered, and used in the study analyzing job satisfaction in the ICT sector in Egypt and further understanding the willingness and key motivational factors driving the employees to seek work opportunities abroad. The model groups the various job factors (pay, rewards, promotion, motivational schemes, mentally challenging work, training and development, keeping up with new technologies, people - management, colleagues and work teams, equality, working conditions and work environment) into four major groups, namely economic, social, psychological, and training/development: Job Satisfaction = f (economic, social, psychological, training).


Figure 1: Conceptual framework

The questionnaire used in the survey was constructed based on the four groups of variables, whereby data collected would indicate respondents' levels of satisfaction with job aspects as well as their ranking for each. The questionnaire used was successful in gathering the sufficient information needed, covering:

  • the satisfaction and the importance of economic aspects (pay, rewards, benefits)

  • social aspects (relations with colleagues, team work and support, working conditions and interdepartmental communications)

  • psychological aspects (interest and scope of work, challenges, disciplinary procedures, working hours)

  • personal versus professional life balance

  • scope for own input for decision making

  • aspects related to training and development (amount of training received, access to new technologies, career path) as shown in Table 2.

    Table 2: Groups of job aspects

    Economic Aspects

    Psychological Aspects

    q  

    Pay

    q  

    Rewards

    q  

    Benefits

    q  

    Interest and scope of work itself

    q  

    Challenges

    q  

    Disciplinary procedures

    q  

    Working hours

    q  

    Personal versus professional life balance

    q  

    Scope for own input for decision making

    Social Aspects

    Training and Development Aspects

    q  

    Relationships with colleagues

    q  

    Team work and support

    q  

    Working conditions

    q  

    Interdepartmental communication

    q  

    Amount of training received

    q  

    Access to technologies

    q  

    Career path

The data collected was analyzed using statistical models. The job facets were analyzed, both, separately and as combined groups of aspects with an objective to identify the importance of each factor to individuals, and understanding the level of satisfaction held by individuals for each factor. Job aspect ranking by importance and by degree of satisfaction was also undergone based on separate factors as well as on groups of related aspects. Ranking the four groups of aspects by importance and by degree of satisfaction allowed for performing a gap analysis aiming at identifying the factors with highest disparity between importance and satisfaction. Further analysis was undergone, comparing the importance and degree of satisfaction of job aspects among the different sample classes. Correlations were done based on age, gender, title and years of experience. Percentages of the respondents willing to seek job opportunities abroad were also calculated and the key driving forces for traveling were ranked based on the most frequently occurring reasons ranked by respondents. Furthermore, the most preferred countries were reached by analyzing the most frequently named countries.

Job satisfaction is studied in terms of four groups of job aspects, (economic, social, psychological, and training). Both, the importance of and satisfaction with job aspects were analyzed in addition to a gap analysis that was undergone to indicate the extent to which employee needs were met. Following are some analysis illustrating the overall satisfaction ratings as well as the detailed ratings of each of the job variables and further providing analysis and comparisons of each group of aspect based on age, gender, years of industry experience and job position. Importance and satisfaction ratings for all job variables listed within the four groups of aspects, were measured on a five-point scale, where the number one corresponds to very unimportant or very dissatisfied and number five corresponds to very important and very satisfied. Furthermore, data analyzed also indicated the levels of turnover and employee willingness to seek jobs abroad. Through statistically modeling the research findings and the data collected from the sample size of 110, the following empirical evidences regarding levels of job satisfaction among ICT employees in Egypt were obtained.

Overall Job Satisfaction

By analyzing job satisfaction as a function of the four groups of job aspects, (economic, psychological, training and development and social), and by calculating the weighted average of overall satisfaction of the job facets, research findings showed that, overall, more than 50 percent of all respondents were satisfied with their current jobs as illustrated in Figure 2.


Figure 2: Overall job satisfaction

General Satisfaction for Working in the ICT Sector

Respondents were also surveyed to determine their general level of satisfaction working in the field of ICT in general, as well as their satisfaction working in the ICT sector in Egypt in specific. In that respect, 90 percent of the respondents stated that they were satisfied; however the ratio dropped to 58 percent when asked about their satisfaction working in Egypt indicating that 32 percent of the respondents were dissatisfied working in the market in Egypt even though they were satisfied with an ICT career.

Importance of Various Job Aspects

During the survey, 15 job factors that impact employee satisfaction were listed and respondents were asked to rate each factor based on its importance to their satisfaction. Figure 3 indicates the ranking of these factors by importance, number five being very important and one being very unimportant. The results show that the majority of respondents ranked recognition on work they do and access to new technologies as the two most important factors contributing to their job satisfaction. Good working environment and training and development were equally ranked as the next most important factors. Monetary rewards were listed further down the list, with salary ranked as the fifth most important factor. Psychological aspects such as regular feedback on performance and opportunity to contribute to business goals, and job security were rated as the least important factors. Clearly, ICT professionals demand more from work recognition, access to new technologies and high training than they demand from monetary rewards. By grouping these factors, it was clear that the most important group of factors that affects employees' satisfaction was the group of economic aspects which clearly meets Maslow's need hierarchy whereby physiological and basic needs come first.

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Figure 3: Ranking of various job aspects by importance

Training and development aspects were rated as the second most important, followed by social aspects and lastly psychological aspects. Ranking job security as the least important contradicts with Maslow's where safety needs come second after physiological needs. However, this may be explained by the job stability available in companies in Egypt due to local labor laws. These ranking results are very similar to those obtained in other ICT surveys, where aspects like training, opportunity for advancement, pay and rewards were ranked as top priority, followed by social and psychological aspects.

Gap Analysis - Overall Disparity Between Importance and Satisfaction

Respondents were asked to indicate their satisfaction levels on each of the job aspects. When comparing the results of satisfaction and importance, it was clear that, although economic factors and training and development have been ranked as the most important aspects, however, they feature the highest level of disparity between importance and satisfaction, and are rated at the lowest satisfaction levels. Figure 4 illustrates that the importance rating is slightly higher than the satisfaction rating for economic and training aspects. Satisfaction was lowest for the most important job aspects and highest for the least important job aspects, indicating that employees' needs were not being met, as they desired.

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Figure 4: Job aspects with highest disparity between importance and satisfaction

Social Aspects Ratings

Overall satisfaction with social aspects was the highest among the other groups of job aspects. Respondents were most satisfied with their working relations with their direct managers. However, their view of the level of cooperation among the different departments in their organization was less favorable with only 34 percent indicating positive interdepartmental cooperation. When comparing social aspects based on different age groups, it was clear that individuals' age and importance of social aspects were directly related. The survey results indicated that the level of satisfaction with respect to social aspects was slightly higher for those above 30 years of age; it also indicated that social aspects were more important to female professionals than they are to males. However, males were more satisfied with these aspects than females, despite their lower importance to the former. The results indicated that males had lower social job expectations than females, thus were easily satisfied. ICT professionals with five to ten years of industry experience were more satisfied with all social aspects relative to those with less than five years and those above ten years. Furthermore, this class of respondents showed the highest importance ranking for all social job aspects. When looking at respondents with different job positions, it was clear that the importance of social aspects was the same for managerial and technical employees and higher for juniors. Surprisingly, managers were those least satisfied with this group of aspects and the results further indicates that managers were very dissatisfied with the level of cooperation between different departments within the company, and showed disappointment towards team spirit and support. Figure 5 shows the ratings of the social aspects.


Figure 5: Social aspects ratings

Psychological Aspects Ratings

On average, 66 percent of the respondents were satisfied with all psychological job aspects. The exception was with satisfaction with the time they had away from work for their personal lives. Only 25 percent of respondents were satisfied with this aspect, and most of those satisfied were employed in governmental organizations. Employees, however, seem to feel that their work contributes high value and importance to their organizations, especially that they show high satisfaction in the way they understand their job fit within the company. Satisfaction with psychological job aspects followed the same pattern among the age groups as with social aspects. It was indicated that the importance of psychological aspects was higher among females than males who also showed higher satisfaction for psychological aspects. Psychological aspects were most important to employees with five to 10 years of industry experience. Similarly, the level of satisfaction among this segment was highest. Although managers rank psychological aspects more important than junior and technical employees, however, the level of satisfaction of managers was lowest. Figure 6 demonstrates the psychological aspect ratings.

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Figure 6: Psychological aspects ratings

Training and Development Aspects Ratings

Although respondents ranked training and development as the second most important group of aspects, unfortunately, overall average showed that employees were dissatisfied with the amount of training they receive. Furthermore, they had a negative perception on the opportunity they had for improvement and having a clear career path. Empirical evidence indicates that ICT professionals in Egypt barely feel that they have a clear career path and that there is no further career development available for them. Although some employees stated that they were satisfied with the technologies they use emphasizing that the growth of Internet has facilitated their access to updated technologies and information, it remains that in many other companies, high tech is not provided unless it is badly needed. Individuals upgrade themselves through personal efforts and not company efforts. Interview results further prove that multinationals are more concerned, to an extent, with training and developing their employees than local companies. Public sector institutions have the highest dissatisfaction with all training and development aspects, especially, their access to updated technologies. The major factors mentioned that are deterring the level of training provided were costs and high risk of training.

The survey results showed that there was no significant difference among the age groups with respect to the importance of satisfaction with the training and development aspects. The importance of both aspects had no significant difference between females and males. Unlike the previous groups of aspects, the importance of training and development was highest among those who have less than five years of industry experience. However, the level of satisfaction was highest among employees who have five to 10 years of experience, although its importance to them was lowest. Managers were dissatisfied with all aspects related to training and development indicating that companies need to provide more training to their employees as well as stress more on ICT professionals career path and future within the organization. Figure 7 demonstrates the training and development aspect ratings.


Figure 7: Training and development aspects ratings

Economic Aspects Ratings

Economic variables have received the lowest satisfaction rating among the four groups of aspects, although the majority of non-public sector respondents had clearly indicated that the level of salaries among ICT professionals had rapidly increased over the past couple of years. Salary increases were caused by the aggressive competition caused by multinationals who were aggressively penetrating the market with high salaries and better packages. In fact, they believe that they are paid relatively higher when compared to other sectors but they were still convinced that their salaries did not fully pay off their skills and efforts when compared to other markets rendering them extremely underpaid. The dissatisfaction with economic variables was highest among ICT professionals employed in public sector and governmental institutions with a satisfaction average for those above 30 being relatively higher as well as among female respondents. It is important to note that although the economic aspects were the most important group of aspects across all segments. Unfortunately, people who had more than 10 years of experience were dissatisfied and the remaining respondents were slightly satisfied. In general, managers were dissatisfied with the economic aspects of their jobs, the pay raises, and promotions and salary structures as well as the pay they received when compared to others in similar managerial positions in the company. Figure 8 demonstrates the economic aspect ratings.

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Figure 8: Economic aspects ratings

Overall Satisfaction Levels

Overall satisfaction was slightly higher among respondents above those 30 years of age. This relates to Cranny's (1992) emphasis on individual demographics as a factor affecting job satisfaction. On average, female ICT professionals were slightly more satisfied than males with regard to economic, training and development and psychological job aspects. Male respondents, on the other hand showed higher satisfaction with social job aspects, especially with those related to team spirit and support. One of the significant results was that the most satisfied ICT professionals were those who have been in the industry for a period between 5 to 10 years. Those with less than five years come next and were still satisfied with all job aspects. However, respondents who have been in the industry for more than 10 years were least satisfied and were actually dissatisfied with the two most important job aspects, namely training and development and economic aspects. These results show that employees in the ICT sector in Egypt reach maximum satisfaction between five to 10 years of industry experience but after 10 years, the level of satisfaction with all job aspects deteriorates. Moreover, the results have clearly shown that managers were the least satisfied group of employees whereas juniors were the most satisfied with all job aspects representing high risk to organizations due to the presence of de-motivated managers as well as facing high turnover rates of skilled professionals. For example, 75 percent of surveyed managers expected to be employed in new organizations within five years showing low stability ratios.

Turnover Ratios and Brain Drain Implications

The survey results showed that 46 percent had less than five years of overall work experience and over 75 percent have been employed in their current company for a period less than five years, which indicates a high level of turnover in the ICT sector. Additionally, 60 percent of the employees surveyed expected to be employed in other companies within the next five years and 38 percent expect to be promoted by their current employer. The high turnover is caused by the scarcity of ICT skills, lack of stability and corporate loyalty and turning their focus primarily to monetary aspects. Some of the employees entertained the idea of moving to more challenging sectors where they can improve and be able to define clearer career paths and also have the chance to hold higher posts in other sectors than in ICT. Strauss (1999) indicates that culture and user trends towards technology need to be studied to be able to determine the market capacity and penetration. In Egypt, the public sector employees of ICT companies that were employed for more than five years have shown the highest company loyalty level and were the least willing to change their current employers at least for the coming five-year period. In other segments, 60 percent stated that they expected to move to new companies in five years' time.

Overall job satisfaction results indicated that 71 percent of respondents were willing to seek job opportunities abroad. The primary three forces urging them to search for overseas opportunities were their desire for having a clear and promising career path, which they lack in Egypt; the possible access and exposure to high levels of technology; and better pay. In addition to a number of other factors including more training, better work experience and work environments. Such opportunities they feel could present itself in a number of countries including the US, Canada, the UK, UAE, Germany, Australia and France.



Managing Globally with Information Technology
Managing Globally with Information Technology
ISBN: 193177742X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2002
Pages: 224

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