The purposes of this research were 1) to study the level of workplace happiness in express international shipping service provider and 2) to study the factors affecting workplace happiness in express international shipping service provider. The sample was 385 employees in express international shipping service provider in Bangkok. Convenient sampling method was used to collect data. The questionnaire was used as research instrument. Statistics used for data analysis included percentages, mean, and standard deviation. Multiple Linear Regression Analysis was used for hypothesis testing. The research findings were: 1) The workplace happiness in express international service provider was at high level. 2) Employment condition, communication, working relationship, job characteristics, and organizational culture could affect workplace happiness in express international service provider at statistical significance level of .01. Compensation could affect workplace happiness at statistical significance level of .05. All independent variables could explain the variation in workplace happiness in express international service provider at 72.1 

Rojniruttikul, Nuttawut

Yingyong, Kritsanatphong

English

Assumption Journals

 3  WORKPLACE HAPPINESS IN EXPRESS INTERNATIONAL  SHIPPING SERVICE PROVIDER  Kritsanatphong Yingyong1 and Nuttawut Rojniruttikul2  ABSTRACT: The purposes of this research were 1) to study the level of workplace happiness in express international shipping service provider and 2) to study the factors affecting workplace happiness in express international shipping service provider. The sample was 385 employees in express international shipping service provider in Bangkok. Convenient sampling method was used to collect data. The questionnaire was used as research instrument. Statistics used for data analysis included percentages, mean, and standard deviation. Multiple Linear Regression Analysis was used for hypothesis testing. The research findings were: 1) The workplace happiness in express international service provider was at high level. 2) Employment condition, communication, working relationship, job characteristics, and organizational culture could affect workplace happiness in express international service provider at statistical significance level of .01. Compensation could affect workplace happiness at statistical significance level of .05. All independent variables could explain the variation in workplace happiness in express international service provider at 72.1 % Keywords: Job Participation, Organization Support, Workload, Technology Advancement, Work-life balance  Introduction At present, the growth rate of international express delivery service industry in Thailand has continue increased and many entrepreneur are also in the period of continuous growth. However, the growth rate of the economy is still at moderate level as the rapid growth of the e-commerce business and online stores and there are many risk factors involved. Therefore, shipping service providers play the essential in distributing products to the destination. This leads the service provider to emphasize their service operation for product delivery. In the case of large international express delivery business, DHL Express International (Thailand)   1Master Degree Student of Business Administration Program 2Assistant Professor, Faculty of Administration and Management  King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology 1Ladkrabang1kingkaser47@gmail.com 2nuttawut.ro@kmitl.ac.th Company Limited (DHL) conducted the logistics trends study which is necessary for the development of business model.   For Federal Express Company Limited (FedEx) has acquired the TNT Express Company Limited (TNT Express). The integration of FedEx and TNT helps strengthen the two companies, this allows the companies to connect with customers easily and look for more opportunities around the world.  In overall, the trend of express shipping service has increased in Thailand as indicated by the growth of economy. For instance, Kerry Express Thailand Co., Ltd. (Kerry Express) can rapidly grow and to be well-known shipping service provider throughout the country. However, the number of qualified workers is still not enough to support the expansion of this business. Although there is the cooperation between the public and private sectors, including educational institutions, the insufficient of workforce still exists. This problem could impact the ability to  4  compete with others. Therefore, the organization have to focus on the efficiency and effectiveness in order to achieve the organizational goals and sustain in the competitive environment.  Many organizations are changing, motivating, and trying to engage their employees which is the important assets of the company. If the company does not treat employees well enough, this could affect the happiness of employees. Therefore, the employee performance may be lower. On the other hand, when employees feel happy in the workplace and have good relationship with others, this could lead to successful operation as well.  For the reasons mentioned above, the researchers are interested in studying the factors that affect the happiness of the employees in the express international express delivery service providers. The research results could be beneficial for the company to understand the employee's information and improve employees’ happiness in the workplace.  Research Objectives 1. To study the level of workplace happiness of employees in express international shipping service provider. 2. To study the factor affecting workplace happiness of employees in express international shipping service provider  Hypothesis Employment condition, compensation, communication, working relationship, job characteristics, and organizational culture could affect workplace happiness of employees in express international shipping service provider.   Methodology  Conceptual framework In this study, the researchers gather data from employees who work in several express international service providers in Bangkok area. According to Beethoven (1992), happiness is the degree to which a person evaluates the overall quality of his present life-as-a-whole positively. In the past, the study mainly related with human unhappiness until Bradburn’s (1969) discovery of the independence of positive and negative effect. Argyle et.al. (1989) also defined happiness as having three components: (1) the average level of satisfaction over a specific time period: (2) the frequency and degree of positive affect; and (3) the relative absence of negative effect such as anxiety and depression. Maenapothi (2007) provided the meaning of happiness in workplace as a situation at the workplace when personnel are happy working and not feeling like it is work, are efficient and achieve targeted goals, both at the personnel and organizational levels. Therefore, the previous concept of workplace happiness and related theories, the researchers propose the research framework by using workplace happiness as dependent variable and organizational factors as independent variables as shown in Fig. 1          5   Independent Variable                                            Dependent Variable           Figure 1: Conceptual Framework    Population and Sample Population is employees who work in express international service providers in Bangkok. According to Cochran formula with 95 percent confident level, the research determined the sample size which is 385 employees.   Variable 1. Independent variables are employment condition, compensation, communication, working relationship, job characteristics, and organizational culture.  2. Dependent variable is workplace happiness  Timing The researcher gathered data by distributing questionnaires to employees who worked in express international service provider in Bangkok during October 2018 to November 2018. Convenient sampling method was used in this research.   Research Instrument  Questionnaire was used as the research instrument. There are four sections in the questionnaire. The first section is about personal factors of the respondents (8 questions). The second section is about the organizational factors (27 Likert scale questions). The third section is about workplace happiness of employees (15 Likert scale questions), and the last section is the opened-end question for opinion and recommendation. Reliability and validity test were conducted before data collection.  Data analysis       Data was analyzed by using statistical program. Statistics include percentage, mean, and standard deviation. Multiple linear regression analysis was applied for hypothesis testing at 0.01 and 0.05 level of significance. The level of organizational factors and workplace happiness were determined by the following criteria:   1. Employment condition 2. Compensation 3. Communication 4. Working relationship 5. Job characteristics 6. Organizational culture  Workplace Happiness        6  Mean Level of organizational factors/ workplace happiness 4.501-5.000 Highest 3.501-4.500 High 2.501-3.500 Moderate 1.501-2.500 Low 1.000-1.500 Lowest  Results  Table 1 Frequency (f) and Percentage of Personal Factors  Personal Factors f Percentage 1. Gender        Male 193 50.1      Female 192 49.9 Total 385 100.0 2. Marital status Single Married Divorced/Separated  279 94 12  72.5 24.4 3.1 Total 385 100.0 3. Age         Below 25 years old 149 38.7       26 – 35 years old 148 38.4       36 – 45 years old 72 18.7       46 – 55 years old 12 3.1       Over 55 years old 4 1.0 Total 385 100.0 4. Education      Junior high school or below      Senior high school      Diploma      Bachelor      Higher than bachelor  13 53 54 242 23  3.4 13.8 14.0 62.9 6.0 Total 385 100.0     Table 1 (Cont.) Personal Factors f Percentage 5. Working experience Below 1 years 1 – 3 years 4 – 6  years 7 – 9 years 10 – 15 years  Over 15 years  89 113 81 45 38 19  23.1 29.4 21.0 11.7 9.9 4.9 Total 385 100.0 6. Monthly income (THB)     Below 10K     11K – 15K 16K – 20K 21K – 25K Over 25K   29 97 135 76 48  7.5 25.2 35.1 19.7 12.4 Total 385 100.0 Department      Operation 188 48.9    Custom 85 22.1    Office 69 17.9    Administration 39 10.0    Other 4 1.1 Total 385 100.0 Position      Operator 122 31.7    Supervisor in operation 33 8.6    Officer 210 54.5    Supervisor in custom 9 2.3    Management 1 0.3    Other 10 2.6 Total 385 100.0  From table 1, it found that number of male and female respondents were very closed. Majority of employees had single status and age below 35 years old. They graduated in bachelor’s degree and had working experience 1 – 3 years. They had  7  16K-20K THB monthly income and worked as officer in operation department.    Table 2 Mean ( x̄ ) Standard Deviation (S.D.) of Organizational Factors  Factors X  S.D. Employment condition 4.242 0.623 Compensation 4.079 0.680 Communication 4.143 0.643 Working relationship 4.132 0.643 Job characteristics 4.152 0.617 Organizational culture 4.083 0.657 Total 4.138 0.564  From table 2, employment condition had the highest level. For other factors (Job characteristics, communication, working relationship, organizational culture, and compensation), they are at high level.  Table 3 Mean ( x̄ ) Standard Deviation (S.D) of Happiness in Workplace Dependent Variable X  S.D. Workplace Happiness 4.119 0.576  From table 3, employees in express international shipping service providers had high level of happiness in workplace.   Table 4 Multiple Linear Regression Analysis of Factors Affecting Happiness in Workplace  Factors bi p-value Constant 0.543 0.000** Employment condition 0.111 0.007** Compensation  0.090     0.020* Communication 0.135 0.002** Working relationship  0.136 0.001** Job characteristics 0.207 0.000** Organizational culture 0.187 0.000**     * p < 0.05  ** p < 0.01  From table 4, it found that F equal 163.047 and p-value less than 0.01, therefore there is at least one factor could influence the workplace happiness. The results indicated that work characteristics, organizational culture, working relationship, communication, and employment condition could affect the workplace happiness at statistically significant level of 0.01. In addition, compensation could affect the workplace happiness at statistically significant level of 0.05. All independent variables could explain the variation of workplace happiness at 72.1 percent.     Recommendation  Recommendation for the company The company should improve the employment condition, including compensation by creating the communication system to ensure employees can reach the information. In addition, the company should create good working relationship by incorporating with organizational culture to make employees feel happy in the workplace.  Recommendation for future research Qualitative methodology should be conducted to have in-depth understanding of related variables that could influence the happiness in workplace.      8   Reference Argyle, M., Martin, M. & Crossland, J. (1989). Happiness as a function of personality and social encounters. In J.P. Forgas & J.M. Innes (Eds.). Recent advance in social psychology: An international perspective. Amsterdam: North Holland. Argyle, M. & Lu, L. (1990). The Happiness of Extroverts. Personality and Individual Differences. 11, 1011-17. Bradburn, N. (1969). The Structure of Psychological Well-being. Chicago: Aldine. Ghasemi, M. (2001). QWL effect on labor productivity. Unpublished MS Thesis, Tehran University. Tehran. Maenapothi, R. (2007). Happiness in the Workplace Indicator. Master’s Thesis. Human Resource Development. National Institute of Development Administration Veenhoven, R. (1988). The utility of happiness. Social indicators Research. 20, 254-333.  

WORKPLACE HAPPINESS IN EXPRESS INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING SERVICE PROVIDER

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WORKPLACE HAPPINESS IN EXPRESS INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING SERVICE PROVIDER

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