Causes and Effects of Working Long Hours

Causes and Effects of Working Long Hours

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

CHAPTER

 

1.      INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………

Purpose of the Study            ………………………………………………

Importance of the Study        ………………………………………………

Scope of the Study               ………………………………………………

Rationale of the Study          ………………………………………………

Overview of the Study           ………………………………………………

 

2.      REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE            ………………………

 

3.      METHODS USED IN RESEARCH                  ………………………

Approach                               ………………………………………………

Data Gathering Method        ………………………………………………

Data Base of the Study        ………………………………………………

Validity of the Data               ………………………………………………

Originality of the Data           ………………………………………………

Summary                                ………………………………………………

 

Chapter 1

 

Introduction

            A culture of long working days was entrenched in many countries worldwide and played havoc with the family relationships and health of workers. The reasons for workers to work long hours are varied. They also vary from country to country. Although there are benefits to working long hours, it cannot be denied that it also has its disadvantages.

Sometimes grinding away is necessary. In many professions - especially in medicine, but also law, real estate and accounting - the new practitioners have to put in long hours to pay their dues. Their bosses reason that when they were starting up, they had to lose sleep. Salesmen who work on commission usually find a direct relationship between how long they are willing to work and how much money they make. The mathematical aspect of salesmanship is that there's a certain proportion of yesses to nos, and often you have to put in long hours getting enough nos to bring in the yesses you need. Entrepreneurs also have to put in long hours to get their businesses going. Lacking big staffs, they have to put in the work themselves, and if they don't work, they don't eat.

Workers' lives became "narrow" as they gave up hobbies and sport, spent less time with friends and family, and were too tired or simply did not have time for sex. Other impacts were rocky marriages or marital breakdowns, health problems such as suicidal thoughts, high blood pressure and long-term fatigue, and fatigue-related accidents at work.

Whatever the reason may be for some people to work long hours, the fact still remains that this has created another sort of burden for the individual who works long hours. These causes as well as the effects that working individuals have experienced will be the subject of this research.

 

Purpose of the Study

            This paper aims to look into the causes and effects of working long hours. By looking into the experiences of people who work long hours, this paper will attempt to answer the purpose of this research.

 

Importance of the Study

            Although it is important for people to work in order to survive, people must not forget that health is more important. Working too much can have disastrous effects on the health of individuals. Additionally, it is not only health which is affected but personal relations as well are affected.

 

Scope of the Study

This study focuses on the various causes and effects that interact in the situation of working long hours. Data will be collected in a qualitative form of research using questionnaires.

 

 

 

Rationale of the Study

One of the main issues in the rationale for this study was the opportunity to study the interaction the causes and effects that working long hours brings to the working population. Work is good, yes, but not when it comes to the extent that other things have been neglected because the focus is solely on work alone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 2 Literature Review

 

History of Working Time

 

            A social organization of time that served to synchronize hours of work and leisure for much of the twentieth century is gradually disintegrating. The dramatic decline of average hours per worker in the early decades of the century has ceased and possibly reversed in the last two or three decades. It is not yet clear what configuration of hours will emerge to replace the erstwhile standard workweek. What is clear is that the changing level and distribution of hours of work presumably reflect the responses of individuals, plus those of their employers and their government officials, to an array of evolving forces in the state of the economy and culture--trends in wages, inequality consumerism, or the balance of power in the labor market.

            Historically, while there have been uneven waves in the downward path, industrialized economies delivered a portion of improved productivity in the form of reduced work time and greater leisure. The labor movement, in part, arose to battle against the long, rigid workdays imposed by factory-system production. Their goal was to reduce the standard workweek in order both to increase time for leisure and to prevent feared technological unemployment. The shorter-hours crusade eventually led to governmental reform establishing maximum hours.          But the shorter-hours movement attenuated after the depression. Stability in the level of work hours and standardized work schedules for full-time workers became one of the hallmark institutional arrangements of the postwar era. Consequently, average and median weekly hours remained virtually constant through the 1960s, particularly for white, prime-aged men, and exhibited very little cyclical variation. Annual hours continued declining through the 1970s due to the growth in paid holiday and vacation time.

            Three social forces influenced the social organization of time in the late twentieth century. First, the labor-led movement for shorter hours in the European Union achieved significant reductions in the standard workweek. The latest is a legislated decrease to thirty-five hours in France by the year 2002, primarily as a means of work sharing, or spreading employment opportunities. Second, new manufacturing technologies, a twenty-four-hour service economy, and the globalization of organizations, production, and competition are leading employers to create more nonstandard and flexible work-hour practices, at the behest of customers more than of employees. Third, flexible-hours scheduling at the discretion of employees has been proposed as a means of enabling workers to meet their responsibilities outside of work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Current Situation

           

            Working long hours or overtime massively increases the risk of job-related illnesses and injuries, research has found. Those who work overtime are 61 per cent more likely to suffer occupational injuries than those who do only their contracted hours. Working at least 12 hours a day is linked to a 38 per increased risk of injury, and a minimum 60-hour week is associated with a 23 per cent greater chance of being hurt at work. Injuries were particularly likely towards the end of long shifts, as workers became tired and stressed, the researchers found.

 

            A later generation of workers, responding to this threat, developed the idea that the harmful employment effects of machines might be avoided if employers were required to cut working hours as the machines were installed. That way, even if machines took over some of the work once performed by human beings, some work might remain, continuing to require a full crew of workers. With that purpose in mind, the trade union movements in Europe and North America carried on a struggle throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries to bring down the number of daily or weekly hours scheduled at the work place ( 1989).

 

            Intuitively we can see the logic of this argument. The more hours people work, the fewer people will be needed to complete a given piece of work. The shorter the hours, the more workers it will take to do the work. In the short run there is, in other words, a tradeoff between employment and average work hours in the production process. In the long run, of course, the situation is complicated by changes in other factors--for instance, how efficiently the people are working. Also, the amounts of work needing to be done can vary. More people, longer work hours, greater efficiency of production, or a combination of the three, would be required to complete a larger amount of work ( 1989).

 

            The posture of working long hours has long been a management fad. A  article noted that among recent MBA graduates who went into consulting or investment banking, "there is a New York culture; it's almost a macho image: 'I work more hours than you do.' " Down at Salomon Brothers, were found lining up for coffee at 7:15 A.M. Henry Kaufman, the firm's research head, declared: "We are looking for people who don't look at the endeavor as a 9-to-5 business. For some of us, it's a 24-hour business." Over at Gulf & Western headquarters, a spiral of lighted windows was seen late at night leading up to a row of lights on the top floor where the company's CEO, another long- hours prodigy, was presumed to be laboring at his desk ( 1989).

 

            Work, work, work--that is the ticket to success in financial circles. Ivan Boesky, the famed arbitrageur convicted of insider trading, was an exemplar of the " work ethic" as practiced today on Wall Street. An article in Time magazine described his living habits in the these terms: "Boesky was terribly good indeed, thanks to frantic 20-hour work days, obsessive research and a natural trader's ability to talk on several telephones at once.... Boesky works like a machine and claims to sleep only two or three hours a night. He rises at 4:30 each morning and climbs into his chauffeured limousine.... At work Boesky stands behind his desk and punches buttons on a 300-line telephone console as he studies flickering stock market figures (1989).

 

            In this age of technical specialization, the boss cannot be expected to know how well each employee is doing his job. Lacking a good measuring stick, he uses "effort" as a substitute measure. If an employee regularly works long hours, it is assumed that he is putting his all into the job. Such people therefore get promoted into management positions. There are several opinions as to whether working long hours actually improves work performance. On the negative side, a study conducted by two IBM researchers found that "working long hours may have little to do with a manager's effectiveness."

 

A management consultant has called the workaholic boss "an 18-hour-a-day menace." The workaholic manager, he said, was "a contradiction in terms, because if you're a workaholic, you can't be a manager. A workaholic placed in a management position ... is one of the most divisive forces roaming the corridors of the industrialized world."¹³ Even so, almost 60 percent of corporate CEOs who were surveyed in 1984 admitted to working 60 or more hours per week, up from 44 percent in 1980 ( 1989).

 

            How do economists know that in requiring abnormally long hours of work the economy will necessarily produce an endlessly expanding quantity of useful products and not waste? Is it not negligent for powerful persons who are themselves insulated from economic hardship to entertain carelessly optimistic views of how others will fare under their policies? How can they assume that the millions of workers who are discharged from basic industries will unfailingly be picked up somewhere else; or that while wages are being squeezed to make American businesses more competitive, enough people will continue to have enough money in their pockets to buy all the consumer products that industry can produce; or that the pool of money and spending habits we call the U.S. market can be endlessly tapped by businesses all over the world without any thought to its financial replenishment? And free enterprise will take care of everything! Consumer markets do not grow in nature; they need to be grown. One would hope that some economists would again give thought to the process of building or "growing" a strong American market--demand-side economics, if you will--through full-scale wages paid for real, productive work (1989).

 

            The shorter-workweek proposal is not a give-away program to pay people for doing nothing. Rather it is a program to allow more people to become productive. It is also a way to beat back the encroaching wilderness of waste to a more tolerable perimeter.

 

            On the one hand, long hours may be considered a healthy sign of economic vigor and diligence in the United States, as well as a source of gains in aggregate labor productivity and material comfort. But the social costs have become dear. An increasing number of workers report they experience more fatigue, time pressure, speedup, and inability to achieve a desired balance in their lives between paid work and their family, personal, and civic time. A growing share of workers are overemployed -- willing but unable to reduce their hours in exchange for less income at their current jobs. On the other hand, another share, perhaps larger, feel compelled to work more hours because of financial strain, job insecurity, or employer pressure. Even if worked "voluntarily," ever-longer hours can undermine the very quality of living standards they are presumed to boost. In economic terms, short-run static efficiency may be gained at the direct expense of both social welfare and long-run dynamic efficiency, and perhaps equity as well ( 2000).

 

            Evidence suggesting average hours per worker in the United States may be lengthening has ignited a controversy over measuring the actual level of and trends in work hours. Much is at stake, not only for scholars but also for workers and societies, in determining whether the nature of postindustrial economic growth is delivering shorter or longer hours of work. One inherent challenge in analyzing working time is that there are many dimensions to it, and thus alternative units of measuring it. Indeed, measurement is key to the trends controversy. The dimension attracting the most focus is the duration of hours, typically an arithmetical average for the workweek.

 

But there is also its differentiation--the distribution of hours across the whole workforce. Indeed, there are signs that in many countries, including the United States and Canada, work hours have become more polarized by income bracket. Then there is the scheduling of a given volume of hours, increasingly crucial in a globalizing economy and in dual-earner households where timing is becoming almost everything. Moreover, there is the temporal (or dynamic) flexibility of both the duration and scheduling of work hours in the face of either the changing preferences of a worker or the changing desires of an employer. Finally, there is intensification--the extent to which multiple tasks, paid or nonpaid activities, are being attempted in a given block of time, which heightens the pace of time (2000).

 

            The duration of hours is measured in several different units-- over the day, week, year, business cycle, or lifetime. For example, the number of hours may be the same daily, or averaged over a week, month, or year (for example, annualization). Likewise the scheduling of hours can be conceived in alternative ways, including daily shift times, regular or irregular (for example, rotating or staggered) shifts weekly, core plus sliding hours, on-call or on-premises work, days on and days off, blocks of seasonal work, and leave times over the year.

 

Finally, flexibility of hours or scheduling for one party may often come at the expense of flexibility of the other, and coincide only by chance. This situation depends on whether demand, for instance, happens to recede at a time when employees wish to cut back on work time or surges when they wish to earn overtime. Workers may be willing to trade off one dimension of work for another; they might endure a longer duration in order to have a job with a more flexible daily schedule (as is the case for the United States), or accept more volatility in exchange for a shorter duration (as is the case in the European Union) (2000).

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Economic Consequences of Working Longer Hours

 

            The main benefit of longer hours worked by some segments of the work force, to the extent that they are largely uncompensated work hours, is that they contribute to the noninflationary growth experienced over the past decade. However, there are several worrisome potential side effects. Longer hours can eventually impede average productivity of labor per hour and workers' investments in their own human capital, thus diminishing our long-run competitiveness. Too many hours for some, combined with too few hours for others, can further polarize income inequality, as has occurred in Canada. Rising hours may also limit job opportunities, either quantitatively by stifling job creation or qualitatively by reducing the volume of standard-hours jobs, preferred by workers with more nonwork responsibilities. This reinforces gender inequities in opportunity for income gains, since the latter group is disproportionately composed of women ( 2000).

 

            In addition, overwork hampers gender equity in participation within the household and in the labor force.  (i2000) traces the historical shift from home to market economic activity. This shift has profound implications for the gender division of labor.  points out that the provision of child care does not share in the productivity increases that have occurred in most other types of economic activity. Providing child care through one's own resources entails an ever-higher opportunity cost and, at the same time, an ever-greater relative expense for lower-income families. Reducing these costs requires a reconstruction of our current policies toward an eclectic model of shortening the standard workweek, creating high-quality part-time jobs, offering paid parental leave, and providing more public subsidies for child care (, 2000).

 

            While one segment of the U.S. labor market is overworked, another, not coincidentally, is underemployed. There are macroeconomic repercussions if one segment of the workforce is overemployed while another is underemployed. Underemployment, of course, restrains household incomes and thus the economy's aggregate demand. Overemployment, which like unemployment has structural, cyclical, and frictional sources, shortchanges individuals and households on time for leisure and household production.

 

While rising average hours of paid work (assuming constant real wages) may certainly stimulate aggregate demand, in part by leading people to substitute money-intensive for time-intensive leisure activities, they reduce either the quantity (or the quality) of socially productive leisure. They may reduce the time available for being an effective marriage partner, parent, and citizen. That is, the combination of overwork and time-pressured leisure leaves less time not only for recuperation and revitalization, but also for caregiving, volunteering, civic involvement, and lifelong learning. That is, future human capital and social al capital are put at risk, not to mention other health and safety risks. The social cost of maldistributed hours comes back to haunt an entire macroeconomy, not only the individuals and family members who bear the brunt of it (   2000).

 

            Finally, although longer hours may raise production and thus per-worker productivity, they undermine the rate of worker productivity per hour. To the extent that longer workweeks eventually lead to fatigue, burnout, turnover, and absenteeism, employers find that organizational productivity suffers. This may set off a vicious cycle if employers respond to these growing labor costs by further lengthening employee workloads and work hours to curb costs or regain competitiveness ( 2000).

 

            This research suggests that longer hours are here to stay for the foreseeable future. Management will continue to face significant competitive and market pressures to operate 24/7, to schedule work to deliver "just-in-time," and to meet peak demand. Workers will need to better synchronize work with other activities and responsibilities, and they will be induced to give up leisure time, income, or security to attain this.

 

The research results also suggest that recent legislation proposed in the U.S. Congress to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) rules that govern overtime pay are misguided. Resembling part of the EU Working Time Directive of 1996 that allowed employers to use hours-averaging schemes, the ELSA proposals open the door to more variable weekly hours, and will do nothing to curb growth in overtime hours or its sources. Indeed, they may prove counterproductive for workers' welfare unless they ensure that a greater share of workers gain discretion over the number of their scheduled overtime h ours and the timing of the compensatory time off that they earn.

 

            This perspective on the employment relationship emerged among employed people in Britain, Ireland and Portugal, but not Sweden or Norway, where there is a different model of industrial relations and unions remain more influential. Where this emerged young people talked about the need to comply with what employers demand, such as long hours of work, simply because they felt that the labour-market situation left them with no option. They brought few expectations of mutual benefit and perceived little or no obligations on either side beyond the formal contract. They did what they needed to do and expected little in return. There was a decline in their trust in employers that was particularly strong among young people in the study with the least marketable skills, who were most likely to associate employer flexibility with reduced choice and rights for employees (2001).

 

            One country which has defined a word to identify when a worker has died from overwork is Japan and the term is karoshi. “Official statistics show that Japanese put in the longest working hours in the industrialised world: a year long total of 2,088 hours on average versus 1,500 for Europeans and 1,800 for Americans” (1991).  (1993, ) similarly argued that Japanese work approximately six weeks more each year than US employees. However, many of these karoshi victims typically work 3,000 to 3,500 hours a year, according to their surviving family members (1991, ). It might be of interest that, according to official estimates, as many as 10,000 people may die from karoshi in Japan each year (1991).

 

            Men are more likely to work excessive hours than women ( 1998). For women, it has been argued, their careers are often not as orderly as men’s and may include such things as career breaks, which, combined with the “glass ceiling effect”, have required women to take more control over their own careers and rely less on the organization (1998). Marshall (1984) proposes that women are more focused on intrinsic rewards and rely less on promotion and salary than men and, therefore, they spend less time at the office. In fact, Simpson (1998, p. 37) suggested that women were less prone to “presenteeism” (defined as “being at work when you should be at home either because you are ill or because you are working such long hours that you can no longer be effective” (1996,)). However, where such a phenomenon occurs it imposes heavy costs on women who attempt to meet the conflicting demands of home and work.

 

            One way organizations have made an attempt to allow flexible hours is by investing in technology. This investment is very often in labor-saving devices. However, much of the research on labor-saving devices has concentrated on costs, in dollar terms, which derive from the need for increased overtime to cover lost time because of accidents. Clearly it costs less in immediate dollars to have the current workforce put in overtime hours rather than employ replacement staff.

 

            Many countries have realized that in some occupations it is necessary to limit the length of time a person may spend on any one task. For example, for nearly two decades the complaints of computer operators working at VDT’s – eye trouble, headaches, muscle cramps, hand and wrist problems – have been recognized and in fact legislation to restrict the number of hours a person is permitted to work in these direct operations at one time has been enacted. It may be that for other occupations the large number of hours now claimed to be worked by employees can have similar debilitating effects on employees.

 

            The overtiredness from excessive work hours can lead to death (1994). For instance: In the early decades of this century it was not uncommon for maintenance employees to work steady double shifts that added up to 84 hour work weeks … In the early 1900s, on the second part of a shift, the maintenance guys might not work at all. They were on call, but they could rest. Now the companies keep up better maintenance schedules and the maintenance workers are doing more double shifts (without the rest time).

 

 

Chapter 3 Methodology

 

            This chapter discusses the research design, respondents of the study, research setting, data gathering procedure, research instrument and statistical treatment of the research under study.

The methodology to be used in the research will be the Questionnaires. The information gathered from them will be used as a primary and secondary data for the research. Questionnaires will be sent to the participants of the study. Questions are prepared and listed in the appendix. The alternative sources are determined and will be used to collect the data. The respondents for the questionnaire survey are employees from the big firms that promote long working hours within the city.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research Instrument

 

The researchers used a questionnaire (with simple/dichotomous items and multiple choices) in obtaining the information relevant to this study. In administering the tool, respondents will gather self-reported information through self-administration of questions in a paper-pencil format. A follow-up interview was done.

            This method is useful in collecting data for the following reasons: (1) subjects will be asked to respond to the same set of questions, in the same order, (2) they had the same set of options for their responses, (3) it is economical.

            In a questionnaire using closed-ended questions, the investigator offered two alternative replies of true or false from which the subjects chose the one that matched the appropriate answer. A follow-up interview for clarification will also be done.

 

 

 

 

 

Synthesis:

The results from primary and secondary data sources will be synthesized and an attempt will be made to formulate a framework for evaluating firm level understanding. The study includes primary and secondary data collection and analyses, using various statistical tools and techniques. The primary data include idea generation, discussions from the industry, brainstorming and through questionnaire survey. The secondary data include literature survey, study of relevant journal articles and books using databases and Web sites.

The questionnaires are provided in this study and that the respondents were given such response choices. The results have been tabulated in every question in the survey. ( 2001) The study required an organized data gathering in order to pinpoint the research philosophies and theories that will be included in the research, the methodology of the research and the instruments of data interpretation. The descriptive research method uses observation as in this method; it is possible that the study would be inexpensive and time-efficient. Thus, this study will use the descriptive approach. Descriptive method of research is to gather information about the present existing condition.

The purpose of employing this method is to describe the nature of a situation, as it exists at the time of the study and to explore the cause/s of particular phenomena. The researcher opted to use this kind of research considering the desire of the researcher to obtain first hand data from the respondents so as to formulate rational and sound conclusions and recommendations for the study. Moreover, the research requires an organized data gathering in order to pinpoint theories included in the research, the methodology of the research and the instruments of data interpretation. ( 2000)

There also incorporates a direct respondent observation as it is possible that the study would be inexpensive and time efficient as the chosen method to gather information about the causes and effects of long working hours, in employing the method is to describe the nature of a situation, as it exists at the time of the study and to explore the reasons and causes for the arising issues involved and being investigated by the researcher within a specific structure and context. (1995) The researcher opted to use this design considering the desire of the researcher to obtain first hand information data from the respondents so as to formulate simple and direct conclusion and recommendations for the research study. ( 1995)

The research study will employ a matter of qualitative research design as the study intends to find substantial real evidence in the process for the software industry as it can have standard measures needed to be executed in accomplishing the tasks for conducting researches as needed for the completion of the empirical research.

The study uses a qualitative research approach and it is interpretive according to Klein and Myers’ (1999 p.69) terms. This study started with initial definitions of research questions in broad terms. It is important to make the research domain as focused as possible, as otherwise the researcher can be overwhelmed with impertinent data and needless work. The questions and constructs only help in the research work and they should be defined in a way to allow for modifications and enhancements as appropriate. ( 1995) Moreover, designing, organizing and conducting a questionnaire survey is like establishing and running a business as it requires good knowledge and skill and specific training although some people assume that starting a business requires no special skills beyond a willingness to try as contrary to common assumptions, a questionnaire is more than a list of questions.

Rather, it is a scientific instrument for measuring and collecting particular kinds of data and must be designed in accordance with particular specifications and tailored to the specific aims of the reviewer. Once the problem has been defined and the decision to conduct a survey finalized, the surveyor should next decide what survey method should be used to obtain the desired information from the respondents. Although it is sometimes possible to survey an entire population, generally this technique would result in an unwieldy amount of data. To limit the population surveyed, a sample is drawn to reflect the characteristics of the total population. By using a carefully drawn sample, the surveyor is assured that potential respondents have been selected in a standard, scientific manner. Successful questionnaire development includes identifying the specific problem, understanding the subject matter and knowing the respondents, as appropriate survey method, sample size, type of sampling and type of questions have to be given adequate consideration.

Finally, researchers must limit how many questions a questionnaire asks because most people will allocate only a limited amount of time for filling out questionnaires. In the survey research, sampling is unnecessary because the researcher surveys the entire population. If the researcher is interested in the attitudes of only specific employees at one company using one computer program, he or she can survey the entire population and not worry about sampling procedures. In most cases, though, researchers are interested in generalizing the findings from a given sample to a larger population. Depending on the type of information solicited, the researcher may want to quantitatively measure reliability and validity. Reliability refers to the extent that the questionnaire elicits the same answers from the same people at different times. One way to measure reliability is to ask respondents a few questions twice in the questionnaire.

After the questionnaire data have been analyzed, a post mortem should be held in which the researcher evaluates the success of the methods used. No survey is perfect, and taking stock of what did and did not work will improve the quality of future research. Part of the evaluation is determining reliability and validity, as discussed earlier; however, other evaluation activities should also be conducted. The follow-up procedure should be evaluated to determine whether it improved response rates and whether it was worth its expense. The questionnaire itself also needs to be evaluated. Even with pilot testing, problems can arise with question ambiguity, questionnaire length, unanswered questions, and misread instructions.

The purpose of employing such research method is to describe the nature of a situation, as it exists at the time of the study and to explore the causes and effects of the take over situation. Thus, the researcher will use this research process in order to obtain first hand data from useful resources so as to create better and sound conclusion and recommendations for the study. This study will employ a quantitative research method with intention to find valid case evidences useful in emphasizing crucial issues and areas of concern regarding behavior, attitudes, opinions and beliefs.

Moreover, designing, organizing and conducting a questionnaire survey is like establishing a good business as it requires good knowledge and skill and specific training although some people assume that starting a business requires no special skills beyond a willingness to try. (1995 ) Therefore, the survey should not pose questions whose answers are interesting but unessential to the main thrust of the investigation. In making these determinations, the surveyor should keep in mind the survey's end user – the individuals who will use the survey findings to determine questions that will be most meaningful and useful.

 

 

 

 

The data to be utilized in the research will be both primary data and secondary data. While the primary data are collected straight from the sources and are gathered through the survey which will be the key research tool, the secondary data are collected from current related literatures as generated by large organizations. The secondary data will also assist the researcher in the development of the questionnaire such that will be used to retrieve primary data.  The secondary data thus comes as a support for the acquisition of primary data.  The research will utilize a Qualitative approach in gathering information which will be sufficient enough to provide a medium for interaction and opinion tabulation that will be correspond to the opinions closely to the precise opinions of the users themselves.

The primary source of data will come from a researcher-made survey questionnaire, which will be given to the respondents. The questionnaire method is administered by having the respondents answer a form of questions.  The items of the questionnaire will tackle on firm developments since the application of corporate governance. Specific details will focus on questions regarding operational performance and firm value.

 

 

 

 

2.1Secondary Research:

 

The usage of the secondary data for the researcher will be “answering research questions or solving some or all of the research problems, helping in problem formulation and/or devising more concrete and focused research questions, deciding about the appropriateness of a certain research method or even suggesting better research methods for a particular problem, providing benchmarking measures and other findings that can be compared later on with the results of the study at hand” (2005). The secondary data for the research will be collect from variable sources like websites, government statistics bureau, Business organizations, Chamber of Commerce, Trade centers and Consulates, census reports, books, magazines, journals, periodicals, television and radio. There are large numbers of theories, articles and ideas have been used for the secondary research. Data have collected from Magazines, Television, Radio, Websites, Books, and Journals, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.2 Primary Research:

 

“Qualitative data collection methods can be expensive and time consuming, although it can be argued that qualitative data in business research provides a more ‘real’ basis for analysis and interpretation” (2003)

 

There are various methods to collect the primary data for the research. Some of them are listed below and discussed in detail.

Ø      Critical Incident Technique

Ø      Diaries

Ø      Focus Groups

Ø      Interviews

Ø      Observation

Ø      Questionnaires

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.2.1 Critical Incident Technique:

 

Critical incident technique will be used in-depth interviews and it has flexible principles in it and can be changed according to the researcher based upon the situations. “Adopting a positivistic approach,  recommends that only simple types of judgments should be required of observers, who should be qualified. All observations should be evaluated by the observer in terms of an agreed statement of the activity. By following these principles, it is possible to gather facts ‘in a rather objective fashion with only a minimum of inferences and interpretation of a more subjective nature’. By , 1954, from ( 2003). The main disadvantage of this method is there is a chance for the participant to loose the memory of the event which the researcher talking about and there is chance to give wrong information and it makes the analysis in to very complex stage. (2003)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.2.2 Diaries:

 

In this data collection method the researcher request the participant to records some information or events in the diary for a specified time period. After the time period the researcher use the data from the diary for the research. The method helps researcher to collect sensitive and valuable data. The disadvantages in this method are the participant has to enter the exact information as required by the researcher, lot of time consumed to collect the data, writing styles of the participant may affect the data collection process also.

 

2.2.3 Focus Groups:

 

In this method the researcher will make a group of people to discuss about the given topic and gather the data for the research. The people who are participating in the discussion should have a good knowledge and experience in the field, which is related to the topic. The main disadvantage in this method is gathering of people to a same place and it will consume lot of time and effort.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.2.4 Interviews:

 

Telephone interviews have some disadvantages. The interviewer could not able to collect the reliable data and the time. If the person we want to interviewed might be busy and couldn’t able to get the appointment for the interview and it will delay the research. Personal interviews have lot of advantages. We can get reliable information and detailed information. To have successful interview the researcher need to know almost all the details of the interviewed person and it will help the researcher to get the more inputs. ( 2005). If the interviewer has any doubts, he may have the chance to clarify with the person at the same time. But to get the appointment from the person for the interview will be an up hill task and it might delay the research.

 

2.2.5 Observation:

 

In the Observation method, the research has to observe the participant very carefully. The researcher will get the real and actual inputs from the participant. “The main disadvantage is that most observations are made by individuals who systematically observe and record a phenomenon, and it is difficult to translate the events or happenings in to scientifically useful information”. ( 2005)

 

 

2.2.6 Questionnaires:

 

Questionnaires are used in this research to collect the data. Because it will more easily for the researcher to send the questionnaires and the participants will respond the questionnaires whenever they have time. This will save more time and easy to collect and analyze the data.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Statistical Treatment

 

PERCENTAGE – it was used in determining the percentage of frequency distribution of

                              the responses.

MEAN – it helped establish the measure of central tendency of the combined responses to each of the statements in the survey instrument

PEARSON COEFFICIENT OF CORRELATION (r_p) – used for testing the null hypothesis

 

FORMULA FOR THE COMPUTATION:

A.              PERCENTAGE (p) = (f/n) 100

                  where:

                                    p = percentage

                                    f = frequency

                                    n = total number of respondents

                                100 = constant

 

 

 

 

 

 

B.        TEST THE HYPOTHESIS USING CORRELATION

            r_p =      ∑ d(x₁)d(x₂)

                        ∑d²(x₁) ∑d²(x₂)          

            where:

                        r_p = Pearson coefficient of correlation

                        d = deviation

                        x₁ = stands for the users of birth control methods

                        x₂ = stands for the non-users of birth control methods

C.        TESTING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF rp

                        t_c =  r_p          _   N - 2____

                                                 1 – (r_p)²

                where:

                        t_c = computed value

                        r_p = Pearson coefficient of correlation

                        N = total number of classes of statements (definition, advantages/

                               disadvantages, indications/contraindications, effectiveness,

                               side-effects)

D.        TESTING THE DEGREE OF FREEDOM

                        d_f = N – 2

            where:

                        d_f = degree of freedom

                        N =  total number of classes of statements

                        2 = constant

Limitations of the Research:

 

The research will be based on a multiple companies around the city. The research will be applicable only to these companies. For other companies the research may not be applicable. This research has done only for a company and it may not be applicable for other companies; the same may go true for the country. The data collected for the research will be used only for the research and not for any other purposes. The data collected for the research might not be 100% real data. Because The Questionnaires might be filled up by some other persons like the targeted participants secretary or someone might fill up the questionnaires upon the request of the participants or someone else from the participant’s company.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appendix: Questionnaire

 

Gender:

Age:

Company:

Occupation:

 

Instructions: Please encircle the letter of your choice.

 

1.      How many hours a day do you work?

a.      8-9 hours

b.      9-12 hours

c.      12-15 hours

d.      more than 15 hours

 

2.      Where do you work?

a.      home

b.      office

 

3.      Why do you work for long hours?

a.      it is part of my company’s culture

b.      it is expected by my employer

c.      it is the only way to deal with workload

d.      being seen working for long hours is vital

 

4.      Do you like working for long hours?

a.      Yes

b.      No

 

5.      Which of the following do you consider the effects of working long hours on your personal life:

a. Less time spent with family

b. Less time to socialize with friends

c. No effect at all

 

6.      Which of the following do you consider the effects of working long hours on your job:

a. Excellent quality of work

b. Less work done

c. Low quality of work

d. More work done

e. No effect at all

 

7.      Which of the following do you consider the effects of working long hours on your health:

a. Anxiety

b. Depression

c. Drinking too much

d. Exhaustion

e. Headaches

f. Insomnia

g. Irritability/bad temper

h. Lack of exercise

i. Lack of sleep

j. Loss of appetite

k. Loss of libido

l. Overeating

m. Smoking

m. No impact on health

 

8.      Do you think your pay is sufficient for the number of hours that you work?

a.      Yes

b.      No

 

9.      Of the many effects of working long hours, which do you think is the worse? ____________________________________________________

 

10.  How do you think your company could help you your grievances against long working hours?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

End of Questionnaire