Conducting a Longitudinal Study of Employee Satisfaction During Organizational Transformation

Time plays a number of roles in the design and execution of research, quite aside from the time it takes to do research (Babbie 1989). Hence studies differ in the way that they deal with time, with a distinction often made between cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. Longitudinal studies are valuable to organizations faced with the process of transformation; in order to observe changes in their employees' behaviour over an extended period of time. The main purpose of this study was to conduct a longitudinal study of employee satisfaction during organizational transformation over a period of three years. The variable employee satisfaction was measured using the employee satisfaction survey (ESS). Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed on data collected from convenient sample sizes of N = 1140 (2003), N = 920 (2007) and N = 759 (2008). The results of this study indicate changes in employee satisfaction and dissatisfaction during organizational transformation. There are also significant differences between the three samples regarding the areas of employee dissatisfaction and satisfaction. Recommendations are made on how managers can use longitudinal studies to conduct employee satisfaction audits during organizational transformation, in order to determine, monitor and compare changes. As a result, organizations will be able to leverage on their areas of strength and to initiate relevant interventions for their developmental areas.