Organizational Culture and Employee Behavior 4

Central Michigan University

Master of Science in Administration (MSA) Program

Course Title: MSA 600 Administration Research and Report Methods

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Research Project Title: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY EXAMPLE

An Investigation of the Feasibility of Implementing an Alternative Work Schedule Program at the 55th Rescue Squadron in Tucson, Arizona: Can it work?

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I certify that I am the author of this paper and that any assistance I receive in its preparation is fully acknowledged and disclosed in this paper. I have also cited any sources from which I used data, ideas, or works, either quoted directly or paraphrased. I also certify that this paper was prepared by me specifically for this course.

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An Investigation of the Feasibility of Implementing an Alternative Work Schedule Program at the 55th Rescue Squadron in Tucson, Arizona: Can it work?

MSA 600 Administrative Research and Report Methods

Submitted by:

Jennifer Kunkel

Project Instructor:

Dr. Thomas Kessler

December 2008

Table of Contents

Page Number

List of Tables ii

List of Figures ii

Chapter 1 Problem Definition 1

Chapter 2 Literature Review 7

Chapter 3 Research Methodology 15

Chapter 4 Data Analysis [Future]

Chapter 5 Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations [Future]

Terminology and Definitions Page 18

References Pages 19-22

Appendix A Permission to Conduct Study

Appendix B Transmittal Letter/Survey Instructions

Appendix C Survey/Interview Questions

Chapter 3

Research Methodology

Research Approach

Although the literature on alternative work schedules revealed far more advantages than disadvantages, it is not until a program is evaluated and tested within one’s own organization that one can determine its true success or effectiveness. This is also the case for the 55th RQS.

The 55th RQS is made up of approximately 75 personnel who perform various functions in the organization. This includes both officer and enlisted staff members and men and women. Within the organization, some personnel are assigned as aircrew. Aircrews are defined as personnel who actually perform flight operations; pilots, co-pilots, flight engineers, and gunners are considered aircrew. There are other support personnel in the squadron not considered aircrew such as maintenance and life support.

The mission of the 55th RQS is to provide worldwide combat search and rescue. Their mission is specific and requires tremendous training time so that lives of the aircrew and those they are rescuing are not put in further danger. While the crew is located at home (in Tucson, Arizona), they are responsible for planning and training for the types of missions they are likely to be faced with in combat. Although this is the primary mission, there are always several other support tasks to be accomplished in a given week.

Currently, the 55th RQS deploys to Iraq or Afghanistan 1-2 times per year for approximately four months. This is a dynamic to the work-family conflict that most other private sector organizations do not face under normal operations. It is also what makes the importance of work-life balance even more essential in the military environment when extended separations from family are routine and frequent. A primary task for squadron commanders is effective and efficient work scheduling. It appears that the benefits of alternative work schedules in terms of increased employee satisfaction and morale would support evaluating the feasibility of implementing an alternative work schedule.

In order to determine the feasibility of implementing an alternative work schedule program, one must collect data. The methodology for data collection is program design. Currently there is no formal written alternative work schedule program at the 55th RQS. Personnel work a standard 5/40 work week unless the aircrew is scheduled to fly during that week. Flights can be scheduled for day or night operations. Aircrew assigned to fly must have the required “crew rest” hours before arriving on shift. This is not a flexible rule as the safety and well being of the entire aircrew is at stake.

The objective of a program design methodology is to evaluate the rationale, advantages, and disadvantages of implementing a new program by collecting data from the organization that it will impact. Data will be collected by surveying the current personnel and interviewing leadership. The surveys will be anonymous, voluntary, and collect data on how employees feel about the existing schedule, alternative work schedules, and individual characteristics that affect whether one uses these programs. The surveys will be distributed at a staff meeting and by e-mail. A secure drop-box will be placed at the squadron for completed surveys. Face-to-face interviews will be conducted with the following positions: Squadron Commander, Director of Operations (DO) and the Group Commander. The purpose of the interviews is to determine if the current organizational culture supports alternative work schedules and what benefits and impacts are expressed from a leadership perspective.

Data Collection Approach and Procedures

Data to Be Collected

Because of the overwhelming evidence to support that alternative or flexible work week programs increase employee’s job satisfaction and commitment to the organization, the purpose of this research is to gather information about the use of flexible work arrangements and what issues may influence a decision on the use or lack of use of these types of programs (Lambert, 2006). Survey data will be collected in the following categories:

· Use of Flexible Work Arrangements

· Support for Use

· Determinants for Use

· Follow Up Questions

· Demographic Information

The questions within each category provide the specific details about whether a program is in use and what individual characteristics affect the likelihood of using the program.

The survey that will be used for this research was selected because it highlights some key factors that may affect whether a flexible work program is feasible based upon the nature of the work and current organizational environment. The questions address how supportive supervisors and coworkers are perceived to be and what work-life conflicts may be affecting the likelihood of using such programs. The demographics information is especially helpful in understanding the workforce and what generational gaps may be present.

It is also important to interview key leadership positions. Leadership is responsible for the overall productivity and morale of the organization and the attitudes and behaviors exhibited by leaders significantly affect the effectiveness of these policies. It is critical to understand the leadership and organizational environment to determine the feasibility of implementing a new program. Leadership will be asked similar questions relating to the survey so that a correlation may be made as to any similarities and/or differences between the interviews and survey respondents. Most questions will be directly from the survey. Other open-ended questions will be used to fully understand the nature of the work and potential barriers for implementation.

Existing data about the advantages and disadvantages of flexible work week schedules are not sufficient to determine the feasibility of implementing an alternative work schedule program at the 55th RQS. Another important factor is the military environment and the effects of frequent deployments. It is possible that an alternative work schedule program is not a motivational factor for military personnel since there may be perceived lack of control over schedule and whether they deploy or not. Therefore, it is essential to this research to survey the personnel within the 55th RQS. Data from this research may or may not support other research in the private sector.

Data Collection Procedures

All survey and interview materials have been reviewed and approved by Central Michigan University, Institutional Review Board, and all participation is voluntary, anonymous, and confidential. Survey’s will be handed out at a staff meeting and sent via email by the Squadron Commander or Director of Operations (DO). The researcher will not have access to any of the email addresses of the survey participants. To assure confidentiality and anonymity, survey respondents are not being asked any personal data that may link survey respondents to specific survey responses.

55th RQS personnel will receive an email from the Squadron Commander or DO inviting them to participate. The email will include a cover letter from the researcher explaining the purpose of this research and the survey; survey instructions will also be included. Hard copies of the survey will also be handed out at a staff meeting and will include the cover letter and survey instructions. No surveys will be collected at the staff meeting to assure participation is confidential and anonymous.

It is possible that some members of the squadron will be deployed during the research period. If that is the case, the researcher will investigate designing a secure website to collect responses but at this point, deployed personnel will not be included in the study.

Approximately 60 surveys will be handed out at the staff meeting. The exact number distributed will be collected at the staff meeting; 75 surveys will be available at the staff meeting and the number left over will reflect the exact number of surveys distributed. Email notifications will include a partial duplicate list of survey participants and include those who may not have been present at the staff meeting for various schedule reasons. Because servicemen and service women tend to be very diligent, it is estimated that 40-50% of the surveys will be returned resulting in a response rate of 24-30%. The number of surveys and respondents greatly depends on the number of deployed aircrew at the time of the survey.

Personnel will be given two weeks to complete the survey. A secure and locked drop-box will be placed in the squadron common area. Only the researcher will have a key to the drop-box. A reminder email will be sent out one week after the initial request and two days prior to the ending date.

Although the researcher is not affiliated with the 55th RQS or a member of the Department of Defense (DoD), the researcher is the spouse of the Squadron Commander. The Squadron Commander will invite personnel to participate but there is no penalty for not responding. In order to assure confidentiality, completed surveys will not be kept at the home of the researcher but in a secure location at the Davis Monthan Base Education Office. There is again no personal data being collected that may link survey responses to survey respondents. This measure assures the data being collected will remain secure and confidential.

The survey to be used was obtained from a previous research project conducted by Alysa D. Lambert. The research project was conducted in 2006 in affiliation with the University at Albany, State University of New York, as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The survey underwent a multi-stage pilot study in order to create a reliable measure and dispose of inappropriate or flawed questions (Lambert, 2006). The final reliabilities from the pilot study are as follows: supervisory support = .92, coworker support = .83, spousal/partner support = .87, program knowledge = .90, and lifestyle = .81 (Lambert, 2006).

The survey contains different types of rating scales. According to Lambert (2006), using different scale endpoints for collecting criterion and predictor reduces the chance for single source bias within the study. A five point Likert scale and dependent variable items asked for “Yes” or “No” responses (Lambert, 2006). Part IV of the survey provides the respondents the opportunity to answer open-ended questions in case the survey questions do not adequately address issues relating to flexible work arrangements. Results from Part IV, Follow-up Questions, will be used to determine the frequency of any common responses.

Lastly, face-to-face interviews will be initiated by the researcher through direct contact. The researcher anticipates calling the interview candidates and scheduling an appointment. Interviews will be conducted in-person at the office of the respective interview candidates: Squadron Commander, DO, and Group Commander. These candidates were selected because of their direct authority and responsibility for work scheduling and morale. These candidates would be responsible for evaluating and implementing any new programs offered by the squadron and assuring the necessary resources were available to support the new program. Interview candidates will be asked to review and sign the Informed Consent Form indicating voluntary participation in the research project prior to the beginning of the interview. No videotape or audiotape will be used.

In order to attempt to identify similarities and differences between leadership and personnel in terms of flexible work arrangements, the interview candidates will be asked similar questions to those participating in the survey. The interview questions have three (3) parts. In Part I: Use of Flexible Work Arrangements, the questions is identical to those questions on the survey. The researcher will ask the interview candidate the questions instead of them completing that part of the survey independently. This also allows for open discussion on some of the questions.

In Part II of the interview, candidates will be asked similar questions from the Part II: Support for Use of the survey. The interview candidate will be asked questions relating to the importance of allowing staff to rearrange schedules and tasks, being supportive, listening, and encouraging. These questions were selected in order to determine any notable similarities or differences in leadership perception between the survey participants (i.e. staff) and the leadership.

Part III of the interview consists of open-ended questions relating to the nature of the work within the squadron and how suitable the organization and certain tasks may be for a flexible work week program. These same questions were asked of survey participants as well. It is important to understand the nature of the work and what specific barriers are noted by those actually performing the work.

Proposed Approach for Data Analysis and Synthesis

Content Analysis is a systematic examination of the contents of a particular body of material for the purpose of identifying patterns, themes, or biases (Leedy & Ormond, 2005). For the purposes of this research, content analysis will be the primary data analysis method. The results from the surveys and personal interviews will account for the body of material to be examined and studied.

According to Leedy and Ormrod (2005), the researcher must sort and categorize the original data and gradually boil it down to a small set of abstract, underlying themes. After the submission date for all completed surveys to be returned, the researcher will organize the survey data by compiling the responses for each question. The researcher anticipates using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to manage the data. The researcher will note any general perceptions from the data and preliminary interpretations.

In addition to the survey data, the researcher will review the interview notes and identify any common categories or themes discussed during the interview. During the interview, the researcher asked several identical or similar questions to that on the survey. The researcher will organize the responses from the leadership interviews and make some general notes regarding preliminary interpretations. A separate Microsoft Excel spreadsheet will be used to manage the leadership responses.

After several reviews, the researcher anticipates identifying the major categories or themes of the data. The data will be reported in table format and present the percentages of each response for each question. For open-ended questions, the data will be reported in table format and present the frequency of responses by survey participants.

Based upon the data, the researcher will discuss the rationale, advantages, and disadvantages of implementing an alternative work schedule program. The discussion will include any associated direct or indirect costs, any benefits to the organization, and anticipated problems.

Methodological Limitations

There are several known limitations of this research. The first limitation is the sample size. It is possible that part of the 55th RQS may be deployed when this research project is scheduled to begin. The researcher hopes to mitigate this limitation by reviewing the deployment schedule and arranging to conduct the research while the majority of the squadron is not deployed but it may not be possible. If a significant portion of the squadron will be deployed, the researcher anticipates investigating the use of a secure website for responses but it is not yet determined if this is feasible. Even if it is feasible, it still may affect sample size due to geographical separation.

A second limitation of the research is that the project only surveyed personnel from the 55th RQS. The opinions expressed on the surveys and interviews may or may not represent all USAF rescue helicopter squadrons. Therefore other USAF rescue helicopter squadrons may see different results making the recommendations observed in this project not applicable to other interested squadrons.

A related limitation is also the fact that survey research only captures a moment in time. It is possible that the results can not be extrapolated once the leadership and personnel of the 55th RQS changes. The opinions and attitudes expressed during the research are only representative of the population used for the survey and interviews.

Survey length is another possible limitation. The survey takes approximately 20 minutes to complete and asks several redundant questions (Lambert, 2006). The same sets of questions are used for supervisor and coworker support and for flextime and compressed work weeks (Lambert, 2006). It also has six open-ended questions. These issues may contribute to lack of participation and respondent fatigue (Lambert, 2006).

A potentially significant limitation is the researcher being related to the Squadron Commander. The researcher is the spouse of the 55th RQS Squadron Commander. Although mitigation steps are in place to assure confidentiality and anonymity, it is possible that the researcher may not obtain the expected response rate due to issues relating to perceived non-confidentiality and anonymity.

Although several limitations have been identified, it remains important to investigate whether the 55th RQS can implement an alternative work schedule program. The effect of high deployment rates on work-life balance remains a major issue for Air Force leadership and one that most squadron commanders face during their term. It opens future dialogue about creative ways to increase morale and remain competitive with recruitment and retention.

Chapter IV

Data Analysis

Introduction

[Future]

Data Presentation and Analysis

[Future]

Data Analysis Conclusions

[Future]

Chapter V

Summary Conclusions, and Recommendations

Summary

[Future]

Conclusions

[Future]

Recommendations

[Future]

Future Research Suggestions

[Future]

TERMINOLOGY AND DEFINITIONS

References

Ahmadi, M., Raiszadeh, F., & Wells, W. (1986). Traditional vs. Non-Traditional Work Schedules - A Case Study of Employee Preference. Industrial Management, 28(2), pg 20-23. Retrieved February 22, 2008, from ABI/INFORM database.

Air Force Association. (2007). 2007 USAF Almanac: People. Air Force Magazine (90)5, pg 48-52.

Air Force Personnel Center. Retrieved February 29, 2008 from http://wwa.afpc.randolph.af.mil/demographics/

Baltes, B., Briggs, T. Huff, J., Wright, J., & Neuman, G. (1999). Flexible and Compressed Workweek Schedules: A Meta-Analysis of Their Effects on Work-Related Criteria. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84(4), pg 496-513. Retrieved February 22, 2008, from ABI/INFORM database.

Department of the Air Force. Air Force Instruction 36-807: Weekly and Daily Schedules of Work and Holiday Observances. Washington: HQ USAF, 21 June 1999.

Dunham, R. & Pierce, J. (1983). The Design and Evaluation of Alternative Work Schedules. The Personnel Administrator, 28(4), pg. 67-75. Retrieved February 20, 2008, from ABI/INFORM database.

Faram, M. (2008). 4-day work week? Just one of the 12 test perks. Navy Times. Retrieved February 23, 2008 from http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/01/navy_perks_080127w/

Golden, L. (2001). Flexible work schedules: what are we trading off to get them? Monthly Labor Review, 124((3) pg 50-67. Retrieved March 3, 2008, from http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/benefits-other/flexibleschedules.htm

Hays, S. (1999). Generation X and the art of the reward. Workforce, 78(11), pg. 44-48. Retrieved February 25, 2008, from ABI/INFORM database.

Kelly, E. & Moen, P. (2007). Rethinking the Clockwork of Work: Why Schedule Control May Pay Off at Work and at Home. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 9(4), pg. 487-506. Retrieved February 19, 2008, from ABI/INFORM database.

References (con’t)

Lambert, A. (2006). Individual differences: Factors affecting employee utilization of flexible work arrangements (Doctoral disseratation, University of Albany, State University of New York, 2006). Retrieved March 3, 2008, from ABI/INFORM database.

Leedy, P. & Ormrod, J. (2005). Practical Research: Planning and Design, 8th Edition. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall

Morgan, R. (2004). Teleworking: an assessment of the benefits and challenges. European Business Review, 16(4), pg. 344-357. Retrieved February 19, 2008, from ABI/INFORM database.

Newman, S. (1989). Working Alternatives. SuperVision, 50(7), pg 11-13. Retrieved February 22, 2008, from ABI/INFORM database.

Pekala, N. (2001). Conquering the generational divide. Journal of Property Management, 66(6), pg 30-38. Retrieved February 25, 2008, from ABI/INFORM database.

Rau, B. & Hyland, M. (2002). Role conflict and flexible work arrangements: The effects on applicant attraction. Personnel Psychology 55(1), pg. 111-136. Retrieved February 19, 2008, from ABI/INFORM database.

Robinson, W. (2005). Ethical Consideration in Flexible Work Arrangements. Business and Society Review, 110(2), pg. 213-224. Retrieved February, 19, 2008, from ABI/INFORM database.

Turney, J., & Cohen, S. (1983). Alternative Work Schedules Increase Employee Satisfaction. Personnel Journal, 62(3), pg 202-207. Retrieved February 20, 2008, from ABI/INFORM database.