Impact of Work Climate and Workers' Satisfaction in COBA SA in Portugal

The Work Climate represents the perception that workers have of the way a company offers the right conditions for them to develop their work in the best way. A positive organizational climate drives and sustains employee satisfaction and high performance. This investigation, supported by a questionnaire, presents a case study to workers at a COBA company, that is a world leader in the production of wires used in the car wiring harness, intending to understand their work climate and propose improvement measures.Although the overall classification of the Work Climate and the Worker Satisfaction in COBA is quite good, still exists opportunities for improvement. Our findings suggest that from the three dimensions, namely Safety, Hygiene and Health Conditions at Work, Motivation and Work Organization, considered in the Work Climate, only the first two dimensions influence the Worker Satisfaction. Motivation is the variable that most strongly predicts the perception of worker satisfaction.This study also reveals that the sociodemographic profiles are a key factor to consider, as the relationships between work climate dimensions and worker satisfaction vary across workers segments.No differences were found in the satisfaction of the workers related to age and contract type. On the other hand, workers, male, divorced, with more children, with a lower educational level, with less tenure and the ones that work in shifts, reported lower perception of the work climate and are less satisfied.

Work satisfaction is a pleasurable emotional state that results from a sense of achievement in the workplace (Cronley, & Kim, 2017).

Methodology
This study focuses aims to understand the effect of work climate on the satisfaction of the workers in an international company -COBA, located in Portugal but operates in 13 other countries. It is a world leader in the production of wires used in the car wiring harness and has 800 workers.
As a research instrument, a questionnaire with two sections was used. The first section includes questions to determine the sociodemographic profiles: gender, age, marital status, number of children, educational level, time working in the company, work schedule, type of employment contract and work department.
The second section of the questionnaire was a 21-item scale measuring the three dimensions: Conditions of Safety, Hygiene and Health at Work, Organization of Work and Motivation. Also, was included a question about the level of Global Satisfaction in the company. In this section respondents were required to rate on a 5-point Likert scale for data collection with "1" as "strongly disagree" and "5" as "strongly agree".
The questionnaire was pilot tested by ten workers. Respondents in the pilot test did not have problems with the questionnaire, although minor changes in the wording were suggested. There were distributed at random 400 questionnaires to the COBA workers and 291 valid questionnaires were obtained, which corresponds to a response rate of 72.75%.
In determining the sample size, we had a significance level of 5% and a sampling error of 4.23%. Based on the literature on satisfaction assessment models, we designed a conceptual research model presented in Figure 1 to test the impact of the work climate on workers satisfaction.

Figure 1 -Conceptual research model
The following hypothesis provided the scope and depth of the study were formulated: H1: All three work climate dimensions have a significantly positive influence on worker satisfaction. H2: Sociodemographic profiles impact the evaluation of the workers with the dimensions of the Work Climate and Worker Satisfaction.
To improve the workers' satisfaction item responses were classified as green if its average>4, yellow if its 3≤average≤4 and red if it is average<3. Green items need to be stimulated to be maintained and improved. Yellow items need attention to improve to green. Items classified red need special action measures and immediate intervention to be improved.
To test the consistency of the sample, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test (KMO) was used. The reliability of the dimensions and the questionnaire, in general, was calculated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient.
To assess of group average differences of the sociodemographic variables related to the workers' satisfaction and the dimensions of the Work Climate, one-way ANOVA, the Mann-Whitney U test, and the Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric, followed by multiple comparisons of the order means with ANOVA Tukey, as described by Maroco (2018) were used.
All statistical work was performed on IBM SPSS software (v25 -SPSS Inc Chicago, IL) and Excel (Microsoft Office 2015, Microsoft Corporation).

Analysis and Discussion of the Results
The sociodemographic profile of the 291 respondents is described in Table   Regarding the sample surveyed by the COBA organizational units, the comparison between the surveyed sample and the population about the workplace (Table 3) shows the absence of significant differences between them, concluding that the collected sample and the population are homogeneous.  Vol.13, No.18, 2021 were deemed effective (Parsian & Dunning, 2009).  Table 6 shows the Linear Regression Model between the three independent variables of the Work Climate and the dependent variable Worker Satisfaction. The R 2 =0.691 meaning that 69.10% of the change in the dependent variable Worker Satisfaction, can be explained by the three independent variables, namely, Safety, Hygiene and Health Conditions at Work, Organization of Work, and Motivation. The F value is equal to 214.329 (p<0.001) which shows that the Multiple Linear Regression is significant and at least one of the three independent variables has a significant relationship with Worker Satisfaction.
The dimensions Safety, Hygiene and Health Conditions at Work and Motivation have a significant positive statistical effect on worker satisfaction, so hypotheses H1a and H1c are supported. However, there is no statistically significant evidence that the coefficient of the variable Organization of Work is different from zero, or otherwise that this dimension contributes to the assessment of COBA's Worker Satisfaction, so hypothesis H1b is rejected. The Motivation dimension (β = 0.601) is the variable that most strongly predicts the perception of worker satisfaction (  (2011) and Santo (2016), the relationship between the Work Organization and Worker Satisfaction was not confirmed in this study. Francisco (2018), Jusmin, Said, Bima, and Alam (2016), Zacher and Yang (2016) and Putra (2019) report that motivation is seen as an outlet to improve professional performance and employee satisfaction, contributing to higher productivity of the organization. A good work climate leads to satisfied and motivated employees.
To improve the work climate provided by the COBA and leave some recommendations, we tried to find significant differences in the sociodemographic factors related to each of the three dimensions of the Work Climate model and the Worker Satisfaction.
The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test (p<0.05) shows that all the dimensions of the Work Climate and Worker Satisfaction are not normally distributed. Then we used the nonparametric tests to assess the differences.
A Kruskal-Walls H test revealed no significant differences associated with Age and Contract Type (p>0.05). In contrast, there were found significant differences in other sociodemographic factors. Gender -The Mann-Whitney U test showed that gender has a statistically significant change in Worker Satisfaction (U=3694, p=0.000), and in the dimensions Safety, Hygiene and Health Conditions at Work (U=3566, p=0.000), Organization of Work (U=3944, p=0.004) and Motivation (U=3632, p=0.000). Indeed, all respondents have an average rating in yellow. However, female respondents have a better perception of COBA's Work Climate in all dimensions and they are also more satisfied than male respondents. It is reported European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1905(Paper) ISSN 2222-2839(Online) Vol.13, No.18, 2021 that the majority of female respondents perform administrative activities, and few women work in shifts (Table  7).  Zou (2018) in the job satisfaction literature, women, though argued to be short-changed in the work world, are more satisfied with their job than men. Ferreira (2015) suggests the possibility that women have lower expectations when compared to men and, consequently, they are easier to achieve and increasing the level of satisfaction in the work. H test (χ2=9.469, p=0.009) showed that there was a statistically significant difference only at the Worker Satisfaction. The Anova Tukey test (p≤0.05) showed that married (mean=3.55) and not married workers (mean=3.50) related higher satisfaction than divorced (mean=3.00) ones. H test (χ2=10.210, p=0.017) showed that there was a statistically significant difference only at the Worker Satisfaction. The ANOVA Tukey test (p≤0.05) showed that workers with 3 or more children (mean=2.67) related to being less satisfied, even rated satisfaction in red, than the workers with fewer children (3.47 ≤mean≤3,62). Educational Level -The Kruskal-Wallis H test (p<0.05) showed that there was a statistically significant difference in Worker Satisfaction and at all dimensions of the Work Climate. The ANOVA Tukey test (p≤0.05) shows that the workers with an educational level less than Bachelor are less satisfied than the workers with higher educational levels. The workers with the 1 st Educational level even rated in the Worker Satisfaction (mean=2.88) and the dimension Motivation (mean= 2.97) in red. These workers work in the production lines and by shifts. The workers with higher educational levels generally develop administrative work. These results agree with the findings of Ferreira (2015) that states that the higher the workers' qualifications, the higher the satisfaction levels achieved, due to the association that is established between them and the new career and promotion opportunities.

Years in Company -
The Kruskal-Wallis H test (p<0.05) showed that there was a statistically significant difference in the Worker Satisfaction and the dimensions Safety, Hygiene and Health Conditions at Work and Motivation. From the ANOVA Tukey test (p≤0.05) it can be concluded that the workers who have been with the company for sixteen or more years (more tenure) say they are more satisfied (mean=3.77).
These results converge with the results of numerous studies that have found that employee satisfaction is closely related to the length of service (Bogan & Dedeoglu, 2017). Also, Henriques (2009) finds that there is a significant relationship between the length of service and professional performance, in this case, it is the workers with more and less time of service who are more satisfied and motivated. Work Schedule -The Mann-Whitney U test showed that work schedule has a statistically significant change in Worker Satisfaction (U=5659.5, p=0.000), and in the Dimensions Safety, Hygiene and Health Conditions at Work (U=5696, p=0.000), Organization of Work (U=4577, p=0.004) and Motivation (U=3787, p=0.000).
All respondents have an average yellow rating. However, respondents with a fixed schedule, have a better perception of COBA Work Climate in all dimensions and are also more satisfied (mean=3.86) than respondents who work on a shift schedule (mean=3.28).
The number of working hours, shift work, night work, etc., are determinants for the achievement of a good work/life balance, subsequently playing a significant role in job satisfaction (Eagan et al., 2015;Roy, 2017) Martins and Martins (1999), refer that studies on the satisfaction with the social and family life of workers with shift schedules and workers with fixed schedules concluded that satisfaction decreases in five years in the case of shift workers, as opposed to fixed-time workers, who did not reveal any changes. Still, concerning family problems, it can be concluded, from the comparison of day workers with ex-shift workers, that the proportion of divorces is significantly higher in the latter. Department -The Kruskal-Wallis H test (p<0.05) showed that there was a statistically significant difference in Worker Satisfaction and all dimensions. From the ANOVA Tukey test (p≤0.05) it can be concluded that the workers of the Maintenance Department are the least satisfied in the Work Satisfaction (mean=2.75) and the Motivation (mean=2.89) dimension, being classified in red, followed by the Production and Quality departments. In general, there are the departments with activities that are not linked to the production that have a better rating in all dimensions and also at the Global Satisfaction level. For example, the Management Control Department has the best rating in all dimensions and also at the Global Satisfaction (mean= 4.50) level (Table 8).

Suggestions and Recommendations for Management
Managers can use the founded results to improve the planning of the human resource strategy and implement their leadership style more effectively to create better worker satisfaction.
In consequence of the findings, we propose the following suggestions: • Work Conditions Improvement -light and temperature conditions in warehouses and production lines will help to alleviate the stress. Rozman et al. (2020) in their research found out that stress has a strong and negative impact on employee relationships and also a negative impact on worker satisfaction. This dimension refers to environmental hazards and to factors related to posture-related risks, which become relevant factors in the health of employees, a fundamental aspect of job hygiene and satisfaction (Devonish, 2018;Koh et al., 2017). Provide workers with more personal protection equipment, and of better quality. • Empowerment -decentralization of power to allow greater participation of workers in the decision-making process. Workers are likely to stay in organizations where they believe that their capabilities, contributions and efforts are appreciated (Febrianti & Se, 2020). • Promotion Expectations -create in the workers, especially the ones with less tenure, the feeling that their effort will result in a given performance with the consequent reward that they value -for example, the possibility of career progression, recognition of the work developed in the communication channels, diplomas, medals, etc. Riyadi (2020) shows that the key factors affecting job satisfaction are career opportunities, job influence, teamwork and job challenge. According to Bogan and Dedeoglu (2017), shorter-tenure employees are more sensitive to work-related variables, such as leadership, and need closer communication with their supervisors. • Remuneration Adequacy -giving productivity prizes to production teams that at the end of the month produced more kilometres of yarn with less scrap percentage, could contribute to improving the perception that workers have about the remuneration appropriate to the function (mean=2.86). Stefurak et al. (2020) say that design an effective compensation package for employees leads to satisfaction, motivation and commitment to the improvement of the overall functioning of an organization. The importance of earnings as a motivational factor has been widely studied in the literature (Suzuki et al., 2018). • Training -give more training opportunities, especially to employees who have less education, so that they do not feel undervalued and become more motivated. Workers who know they have the opportunity to improve their skills and rise within the organisation may be more satisfied with their work (Gobal et al., 2018). • Socialization Opportunities -developing socialization activities with workers and their families. Parties, picnics, walks, quality of life campaigns, promoting lectures focused on well-being and healthy eating, which stimulate physical exercise practices and alert to the dangers of harmful habits such as smoking and alcoholism. are good ways to encourage workers and improve their satisfaction. Berberoglu (2018) states that employer behaviour is affected by a wide range of organisational characteristics and social relationships.