Data collection and analysis

Two most common methods to approach the collection and analysis of qualitative data is primary and secondary data. Secondary data refers to data that is collected by someone else rather than the primary user such as information collected by government, organizational records or data collected from other research purposes (Saunders et al, 2007). In most cases, secondary data can be used to benchmark theoretical framework because the information can help to solve or explain the research problem. Secondary data is collected through books, articles, or online sources which are guided by the research questions and objectives. On the contrary, primary data is data originally collected by researchers from main sources through interviews, surveys, experiments and so on (Hox & Boeije, 2005). The main advantages of using primary data is that methodology construct, research design and approach can also be tailored to the

research questions to ensure the coherent and helpful to solve the problem (Hox &

Boeije, 2005).

The criteria guiding the interviewee selection is set prior to the interview stage. As the research studies the concept of job satisfaction and turnover intention in a startup environment, a single case study is employed with a focus on a specific group of people.

Data was collected in a total of nine interviews with employees who are currently working from different startups companies. These startups should have been established for more than 2 years and are in their scaling stage. The participants come from various backgrounds, work in different industries and hold different positions in their current company. Due to the fact that the interview includes sensitive information about their job, and in order to assure that the participants can speak openly, the personal information of interviewees is kept confidential. The table below presents an overview of the participants.

Table 1: Overview of the interviewees

Anonym Industry Expertise Gender Position

Interviewee 1 Technology Marketing Female Line manager Interviewee 2 Retail Marketing and

Customer Service

Female Employee

Interviewee 3 Retail Marketing Female Line

manager

Interviewee 4 Retail Marketing Female Employee

Interviewee 5 Technology Marketing Male Line

manager Interviewee 6 Retail Marketing and

Communication

Female Line manager

Interviewee 7 Retail Marketing Female Employee

Interviewee 8 Retail Customer Service Male Line Manager

Interviewee 9 Retail Marketing Female Employee

Prior to the interview, the participants received the preliminary interview questions as well as information about the research. A small introduction to the thesis including the purpose of this study, how the result will be presented and confidential conditions are described in advance. By doing this, the participants will have time to prepare for the answer. Hence increasing the validity and reliability of the research as the participants know what is expected and what kind of information that the researcher wants to acquire (Saunders et al, 2007). Because the participants are from different cultures, prior knowledge regarding that culture was obtained to avoid bias. Thus creating an environment that allows them to willingly share information. At the beginning of each interview, the thesis purpose and topic were also addressed, and interviewees were encouraged to ask further questions if there were any. The interview was held in English and the duration varied between 30 to 50 minutes. All the interviews were recorded under permission of the participants for the analysis purpose and notes were taken for each interview. The interviews were conducted through video conferencing platforms such as Zoom and Google meet due to the current situation of covid-19.

As mentioned in the previous part, the interviews were conducted with semi-structured questions. This method was chosen because it provides better insight to the key themes and concepts of the research besides the standardized set of questions. Not only it allows clarification of answers, but also helps to explore more in-depth information through follow up questions. Moreover, as the questions are modified and open-ended according to the situation of conversation, the participants are enabled to open up and share their perception. The interview questions consist of three sections including (1) introduction of personal information, (2) motives of job satisfaction and (3) the link between job satisfaction and turnover intention. Section one aims to gain a brief description about their background, current work and their perspective about the

startup context. The second section is designed to explore the critical nature of the study which is the factors that influence their job satisfaction at work. A short guideline was given in advance to the section in order to show how the questions should be considered and answered. Subsequently, 11 factors were presented including hygiene factors (compensation, interpersonal relationship, working condition, policy and administration, supervision and job security) and motivator factors (work itself, responsibility, achievement, recognition, and advancement). Also, the questions were answered on the scale of very important, somewhat important and not important.

Because the study aims to explore the influence of these factors on employee’s job satisfaction within the startup context, it is critical to question all of the determinants included in the theoretical framework. Lastly, the third section investigates in detail why and how job satisfaction affects their turnover intentions. Hence which factor is considered to have the strongest impact on the employee’s intention to leave.

To ensure the understandable and well-coherent of the questions, a pilot testing was conducted. The pilot study helps to test the consistency between the interview questions and the research problems. Thus refining whether or not the questions are well designed to easily answer and acquire the required data (Saunders et al, 2007). One person was invited to answer the interview questions and gave feedback on their understanding of the questions. This also helps the researchers to know how long the interview takes to inform the participant in advance. In addition, the interview questions were checked by the supervisor to ensure the congruence with the problem statement.

The record interviews were partially transcripted with the aim to better summarize the interviewee’s perspective. For some questions, quotes were fully transcripted to present the point. Depending on how deep within the analysis the research attempts to review the interviewees’ statement about the subject, a certain analysis method is chosen. For this thesis, content analysis is chosen to present the data. In the content analysis method, data is presented in words and themes that help to draw more interpretation of the results, thus supporting further analysis. (Saunders et al, 2007). The collected data

was analyzed in accordance with the theoretical framework starting with the factors that influence employee’s job satisfaction, then continuing with the impact on turnover intention. The aim of the discussion part is to explore new knowledge and compare it with existing studies.