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The Relationships between Workforce Flexibility and Organizational Performance of the Cooperative Subcontractors in the Steel Industry --¡§S¡¨and China Steel Corporation as examples

This research focuses on the relationship between workforce flexibility and organizational performance of the cooperative subcontractors in the Steel Industry, and compares the differences between ¡§S¡¨ and China Steel Corporations. The questionnaires were mailed to 161 of the ¡§S¡¨ Steel Co.¡¦s subcontractors and 77 were returned; so the response rate is 48 %. Other 108 data were from survey data of the China Steel Co.¡¦s cooperative subcontractor, which are from my advisor. I deleted the overlapping cooperative subcontractors between the two steel corporations. Total survey size is 181. The results are shown as follows:
1. Deployment of workforce flexibility
Characteristics of the functional flexibility of the Cooperative Subcontractors include development of multi-skill, horizontal and vertical mobility. The numerical flexibility is represented by the fact that average 80 percents of temporary workers among all the full time jobs, but there exists substantial difference. 16 percent of the subcontractors contracted out at least part of their jobs. The design of wage structure had flexibility. The ratio of variable wage is about 20 %.
The subjective organizational performance was above average. As to the objective organizational performance, the contracting ratio of steel sales was nearly 50 %. The main reason for obtaining the deal were quality, customer satisfaction, delivery speed, and price. The turnover rate on average was not low (nearly 10 %). The reasons for the high turnover rate were the high proportion of temporary workers, and rapid change in demand, but the turnover rate was negatively related to the amount of capital and the number of regular workers.
2. The relationship between the organizational characteristic, the use of workforce flexibility and the performance of organization
The different characteristics of organization including the number of divisions, the types of subcontractors, the number of regular workers, and the amount of capital have caused significant differences on the proportion of temporary workers and subcontractors. The smaller the size of regular worker of cooperative subcontractors is, the more likely the use of temporary workers will be. The labor subcontractors were more likely to use temporary workers, but the engineering subcontractors were more likely to outsource.
The amount of capital and the dependence of subcontractors upon the steel company caused significant differences on the design of wage flexibility and the proportion of variable wage. The amount of capital of subcontractors has significant impact on the organizational performance, and the turnover rate. The number of regular worker caused significant differences on the operational performance and the turnover rate. The proportion of subcontracting from the steel company caused minor difference on operational performance. These show that the larger the amount of capital, the size of employees, the better the subjective organizational performance; whereas the smaller the organization, the higher the turnover rate.
3. The relationship between the use of workforce flexibility, other influential factors and the performance of organization
The functional flexibility and the wage flexibility had positive association with the subjective organizational performance. The horizontal and vertical mobility had positive association with the turnover rate. The numerical flexibility was not associated with the organizational performance, but the proportion of temporary workers has significant positive impact on the turnover rate.
The influential factors such as horizontal and vertical mobility, the dependence of subcontractors on the steel corporation, and the flexible wage design would influence the organizational operational performance.
The influential factors such as wage flexibility, the amount of capital, and the length of time of cooperation with the steel company will influence the organizational production performance. But the proportion of temporary workers would directly influence the turnover rate.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0826103-171044
Date26 August 2003
CreatorsHuang, Jane-Hsing
ContributorsYing-Jung Yeh, Jyh-Jer Ko, Chin-Ming Ho
PublisherNSYSU
Source SetsNSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive
LanguageCholon
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0826103-171044
Rightsunrestricted, Copyright information available at source archive

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