Main

Acknowledgement
For the development of this project, I feel a deep sense of gratitude:
- To Dr. Lois Farquharson for her care, guidance, and timely advice which critically
lead to the success of my project, and for her carefulness in fulfilling the
commitment and sense of quality.
- To Dr. David White for his creative suggestion and encouragement on my
primitive project plan.
- To Dr. Felix Chan for his tremendous effort on monitoring the flow of my project
work.
- To all those friends I know and I do not know who participated in the
questionnaire and interview sections of this project, for their selfless donation of
time.
- To my wife Jusy for her constant love and support.
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Contents
1) Abstract………………………………………………………………………….…………4
2) Ch.1 - Introduction………………………………………………………………..………..5
3) Ch.2 - Literature Review………………………………………………………….……….10
4) Ch.3 - Research Methods……………………………………………………….…………34
5) Ch.4 - Data Analysis…………………………………………………….………….….….54
6) Ch.5 - Conclusion………………………………………………………….………...……91
7) Appendices…………………………………………………………………………….….98
8) References and Bibliography……………………………………………………….……101
Abstract
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This study aims at finding the correlation between overtime work and organizational
effectiveness in Hong Kong and PRC. Previous studies related to overtime work have
been cited; however, few of them would directly link with organizational
effectiveness, and they rarely made comparison between two places. In here, data
were collected from questionnaires and individual interviews. Simple statistical
analysis was performed. The results revealed that no evidence was found to prove
there’s a correlation between overtime work length and organizational effectiveness.
The drivers for staff having overtime work in both places were found significantly
different. PRC employees had overtime work only if it’s needed, whereas HK
employees would consider the peer pressure and their personal benefit potentially. It
is suggested that the cultural difference between these two places should account for
staff’s behavioral dissimilarity.
Ch.1 - Introduction
4

In our current economy, there is no doubt many companies will experience a
significant downturn. Competition is keen, the environment is turbulent. Nowadays,
many people often see overtime work as a usual practice in order to maintain survival.
Since Hong Kong’s (HK) economy has just rebounded from SARS in 2003, people in
HK are suffering more from the increment in working hours at office nowadays (Au,
2005). Similar circumstances can be found in the People’s Republic of China (PRC),
especially for those coastal provinces. There has been an influx of foreign investment
into China. Since the 1990s, the growth of PRC economy has been rapidly raised like
a rocket (Chiu et al, 2002). This enhances more the competition among companies in
the Mainland. Overtime work, which was a taboo in the past, is no longer unpopular
as it is being seen as a resort to attain business survival (John, 2005).
However, there is doubt that whether these extra overtime working hours would bring
benefit to the company. This study aims at finding the correlation between overtime
work and organizational effectiveness in two places – i) Hong Kong ii) Guangdong
(HK’s closest PRC province), and to compare the results between them. In addition,
other parameters like gender, educational background of staff etc. will be studied, and
see if there is any relation between these variables with overtime work, and eventually
the organizational effectiveness. Finally, the psychological factors of staff to accept
5

(or reject) overtime work will be studied.
‘Overtime work’ is a prevailing topic in HK; however, there is little information about
its actual merit to organizations. One of the reasons why this study is undertaken is
because of its contemporary aspect. This study should bring value for companies to
develop their own strategies, for instance, a better utilization of man power and a
better cost manipulation. This should aid companies to understand more about the
staff’s need, so that the human resources department (HR) could provide certain types
of guidance to assist individual staffs who take overtime work. Moreover, this study
could benefit entrepreneurs who want to develop their business or those who aim at
running joint venture at PRC. The Chinese work culture or organizational culture
could be different to what they are accustomed to. This study should give them a more
profound view of these aspects.
In this study, the overall aim is to challenge whether overtime work would bring
actual benefit to organizations. If there were no enhancement of organizational
effectiveness owing to the increase in overtime work hours, one of the objectives of
this study is to analyze the drivers of behaviour for those staff who sacrificed so much
personal time to the organizations they worked for. Would there be a distinctive
culture of different organizations? Would that be a matter of group pressure within the
6

office? Could that merely be a personal reason, like having monetary reward during
overtime work?
Another objective of this study is to investigate the effect of various demographic
factors on overtime work and organizational effectiveness. Personal variables like
gender, educational level, employment status, remuneration are included into the
study. Moreover, the psychological factors of staff, especially whether they accept or
reject overtime work, are analyzed to see they’re related to organizational
effectiveness.
It is believed that excess working hours would lead to health related problems
(Kawada & Ooya, 2004). The long working hours is also prone to cause staff injury
(Savery & Luks, 2000). In addition, long working hours might result in family
problem. Apart from the abovementioned outcomes, another objective of this study is
to examine the possibility of other impact on staff with overtime work, physically and
psychologically.
To put it in a nutshell, the different set of data between HK and PRC (Guangdong
province is chosen in this case) will be compared. These two places are politically,
culturally and economically different. This is to deduce whether different set of
7

samples collected in different place would show similarities. If it were not the case,
then it seems to be a sound proof that whatever the outcome of the study is, it only
represents the local situation and could not be viewed as a golden rule.
Questionnaires are given to both HK and PRC respondents. The content of the
questionnaire is all about respondents’ demographical information, the total number
of minutes they spare for overtime work per week, how they consider the overtime
work would bring change to their organizations, and whether they like having
overtime work. Convenience sampling is chosen because it is regarded as the fastest
way to gather an adequate number of feedbacks for data analysis within a tight time
frame. Since this research aims at studying organizational issues, unemployed people
are not targeted as potential respondents.
Several simple statistical analyses are then carried out. The relationship between
staff’s traits, personal variables, overtime work minutes and organizational
effectiveness is studied. Then, the results between HK & PRC are compared to prove
the difference in cultural background would end up with different conclusion.
Individual interviews are conducted afterwards. Selected candidates are invited to
discuss their views on overtime work. The focus is put on individual’s psychological
factors, organization culture, group norms and strategy for building an effective
8

organization.
Both the use of questionnaires and interviews are adopted in this study.
Questionnaires generate numerical data, which is an ease for performing quantitative
analysis. Interviews help to gather detailed and intangible information; especially one
of the tasks of this research is to analyze the psychological factors of employees
having overtime work. It is expected the combinative use of these research methods
should work most powerful (Adams, Raeside & White, 2005).
The full description of research methodology will be provided in Chapter 3. The data
interpretation and data analysis are on chapter 4 and 5 respectively. The field work of
data collection and the research findings will be discussed deeply in those parts. The
final chapter of this paper is the conclusion of this study. The next chapter is the
literature review. An academic overview about this research topic is given.
Ch.2 – Literature Review
2.1 - Introduction
In this chapter, organizational effectiveness will be broadly discussed. Since it is an
intangible term, several of its definition cited from other journals will be introduced.
Its measurement and how it is related to staff’s performance will be mentioned.
9

Overtime work is another major theme of the study. There is no surprise that many
general views of ‘overtime work’ captured from different articles will be discussed.
An outline of factors which motivates staff having overtime work will be stated. The
employees’ work-life duration and work-life conflict will also be mentioned.
There have been a lot of studies about identifying factors, and how these factors
would bring impact on staff having overtime work and the organizations they work
for. Previous works have comprised the factors, which include gender, employment
status, education background, monetary reward and staff’s voluntariness etc., and
have been very carefully researched. In addition, staff’s psychological factors will
also be cited. Staffs, who behave under the shadow of group norm, may affect the
organizational effectiveness favorably. Some previous work about organizational
culture will be introduced. Moreover and very importantly, a profound citation of
previous studies about Hong Kong and PRC people, on how their personalities have
been affected due to different cultural and historical background is included in this
chapter. A special term ‘Guanxi’ will be introduced. We will have these discussed in
more details in the following sections.
Last but not least, several journals which revealed overtime work would bring harm to
10

staff’s health are highlighted. Furthermore, a couple of previous works using
correlation analysis are mentioned. This helps to explain the flow of this study and
provides a brief understanding of what correlation analysis can do.
2.2 – Organizational Effectiveness
Organizational effectiveness is an intangible term. There is no true consensus exists
regarding the definition or measurement of organizational effectiveness (Helms,
2001); however, popular theories of Total Quality Management (TQM), Continuous
Quality Improvement (CQI) and organizational efficiency are seen as ways to increase
effectiveness. Helms (2001) further identified four models for measuring
organizational effectiveness. The general idea was to account for items like
production, commitment, leadership, permeability, flexibility, adaptability, experience,
11

communications and involvement etc. Other studies showed it could imply resource
acquisitions, efficiency, goal attainment and client satisfaction (Parhizgari & Gilbert,
2002). In Parhizgari & Gilbert’s (2002) study, they further separated the
organizational effectiveness attributes into tiny items like mission, pride, fairness,
feedback, wages, openness, attractiveness, work environment, safety and health
practices etc. Nevertheless, they agreed with Helms (2001) that there’s a lack of
consensus in prior literature that exists on the definition and measurement of
organizational effectiveness.
Ingram et al (1997) cited many definitions of organizational effectiveness in their
paper. They cited effectiveness was defined as ‘having power to effect’ and ‘how
quickly or cheaply or efficiently good progress was occurring’ (Ingram et al, 1997,
p.119). They recorded organizational effectiveness is a strategic concept, and it is a
measure of how an organization used its resources, and this involved the management.
However, they proposed that effectiveness can be assessed into three major ways:
performance, goals and criteria (i.e. described by objectives on a comparative scale –
high, medium, low). They are interrelated.
Though measuring organizational effectiveness, an intangible item, could be difficult;
Rangone proposed its measurement can be resorted to quantitative proxies or adoption
12

of adequate rating scales (Rangone, 1997). The idea was to allow manager’s expertise
and judgment of intangible factors to be translated into subjective measurement of
such factors.
Denison et al cited four different cultural traits – mission, consistency, adaptability
and involvement were related to different criteria of effectiveness (Denison et al,
2004). Their research, not surprisingly predicated that the link between company
culture and effectiveness appears to be both strong and consistent. Yukl & Lepsinger
proclaimed the improvement of efficiency would result to the degradation of human
resources and relations. Conversely, efforts to improve human resources and relations
can reduce efficiency owing to the extensive rules and procedures would adversely
affect employee motivation and job satisfaction (Yukl & Lepsinger, 2005). However,
on the other hand, human behaviour can play a vital role in maximizing organizational
effectiveness. It depends on achieving the highest degree of job involvement among
members of an organization (Elankumaran, 2004).
Gold quoted that organizations are constrained by their environments and set the
criteria for effectiveness via performance norms underpinned by essential values
(Gold, 1998). As a response to theoretical and practical pressures, the evolution of
organizational effectiveness models reflects a construct perspective, while the
13

evolution of performance measurement models mirror a process perspective (Henri,
2004). Nevertheless, Wood et al revealed that on the performance front, there were
strong links between performance monitoring and customer satisfaction, i.e.
organizational effectiveness (Wood et al, 2006).
Chiu concluded employees should be given power, information, knowledge and
rewards that are relevant to business performance in order to promote organizational
effectiveness (Chiu, 1999). However, Savery & Luks remarked overwork would often
lead to a loss in efficiency because of enhanced stress-related physical and
psychological injuries of staff, which leads them prone to make mistakes (Savery &
Luks, 2000).
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2.3 – Overtime Work
Overtime work has been defined as work at anywhere beyond office hours as stated in
employment contract (Au, 2005). Easton & Rossin suggested overtime work would
bring benefit to organizations. For instance, overtime may be used to respond to
unforeseen events such as absenteeism as or higher than expected demand. A more
prolonged basis overtime work may help to meet seasonal or cyclical demand peaks,
especially when workforce charge costs are high (Easton & Rossin, 1997). Their
research found that employees with proper overtime scheduling, would achieve
considerable savings as in some operating environments, 95% of the maximum
attainable benefit from overtime work can be achieved with employee schedules that
limit overtime work to just six hours per employee per week. In their paper, they also
provided a citation saying the US people did actually enjoy having overtime work
because of the staffing flexibility, and the staff did not want to sacrifice the
15

opportunities to increase their income (Easton & Rossin, 1997).
Nonetheless, overtime work in a month is regulated within 45 hours by law in Japan
(Kawada & Ooya, 2005). The adverse effects of longer hours of work tend to be
exacerbated by a worker’s lack of control over the volume and scheduling of work
hours (Golden & Wiens-Tuers, 2006). However, it was also reported that both
happiness and unhappiness is greater among mandatory than not mandatory overtime
workers. This suggested that the add-on effects of overtime work being mandatory are
adverse for some workers (Golden & Wiens-Tuers, 2006).
Much previous research showed people tend to reduce the working hours if they face
work-life conflict (Reynolds, 2005). Reynolds stated workers in professional or
managerial occupations are expected to want fewer hours of work. In his research
paper, he rejected the hypothesis of family responsibilities are associated with a desire
for fewer work hours. In fact, the job characteristics might.
Sanders & Hetty van Emmerik cited many workers are now having more work than
the past in their journal. Staff with different attributes like age, education background
and gender would possess different notion of having overtime work (Sanders & Hetty
van Emmerik, 2005). In addition, their research also revealed that age, family
16

structure and opportunities for advancement would affect staff’s attitude about
overtime work. Surprisingly, they proposed most people want to spend less time at
work but some just want longer hours. Moreover, employees with no childcare
responsibilities can be very content with long working hours, as they are likely to
have fewer family responsibilities. In contrast, employees with young children may
face difficulties for having excess overtime work (Sanders & Hetty van Emmerik,
2005).
Previous work revealed that staff finding overtime work is one thing, and really
wanting to do overtime work or work long hours is another (Au, 2005). Moreover,
there has been a huge difference between long hours worked because of love of work
and because of a sense of obligation or fear of losing the job (Ashman & Winstanley,
2006).
Many factors would motivate staff having overtime work. Some of them felt they are
obliged to do overtime work when needed because it was their responsibility to do
their job well (Au, 2005). Sense of achievement could be another motivator,
especially for professionals, which are based on values and cultures (Au, 2005).
Indeed, financial pressures are becoming increasingly significant although research
found children were becoming less central to negative spillover over the decade. The
17

overall impact of children or of child development values is decreasing (White et al,
2003, p.190).
Nevertheless, there is no doubt that job security can be a major factor of staff having
overtime work. Though higher wages will prompt employees to work more hours, in
fact empirical research showed that the desire for more work can dominate at lower
incomes. Workers who have low job security or who expect large fluctuations in the
supply of work may want to increase their work hours when work is available to
prepare for periods of underemployment or unemployment (Reynolds, 2005).
Ramirez’s work showed the same concept. The unemployment risk faced by workers
is a clear incentive to work more hours than they want (Ramirez, 1998). However,
with a low unemployment rate, employers may experience difficulty in finding
additional employees for their organizations, whereas employees may find it relatively
easy to find better jobs (Chiu et al, 2002).
Similar situation is found in PRC. Chinese workers are now enjoying greater job
mobility than before; however, it also implies Chinese managers are having more
right to lay off workers whose performance is poor or whose position is considered
redundant. As a result, job security has become a main concern for PRC workers
(Wong et al, 2002).
18

Gender difference could account for the difference in staff’s overtime work attitude.
Many researches (e.g. Reynolds, 2005; Savery & Luks, 2000; etc.) have been
performed based on this aspect, but no coherent conclusion can be drawn. Reynolds
argued that though men and women play different roles in family and share different
values, the desirable overtime work hours in gender differences is small (Reynolds,
2005). Savery & Luks cited men are more likely to work excessive hours than
women. They even found male managers work longer hours (Savery & Luks, 2000).
However, it was believed that women need to reserve time for dependent care and
other family responsibilities than holds for men. Men and part-timers appeared to be
more sensitive to a mismatch of wanting to work fewer hours than women and full-
timers (Sanders & Hetty van Emmerik, 2005). Similar findings are reported in
Switzerland. A greater proportion of Swiss women than men want more hours and that
the great majority of these under-employed women hold a part-time job. Among the
male workers who regularly do overtime, more than 90 per cent want fewer hours
(Ramirez, 1998).
Hong Kong is a gender-stereotypical society (Lo et al, 2003). Women are rated as
second major source of children support, and are more liable for housework. Work-
19

family conflict is a significant problem for many married professional women in HK
(Lo et al, 2003).
Part-time employees are acknowledged to differ in several aspects from full-time
employees, and frequently attitudinal and behavioral differences between part-time
and full-time employees are supposed (Sanders & Hetty van Emmerik, 2005). A high
percentage of the full-timers experienced a mismatch of working hours and most of
this group wanted to work not fewer. However, men and women who work part-time
are more likely than full-timers to want more hours of work (Reynolds, 2005). Part-
timers wanted more overtime work than full-timers in Switzerland (Ramirez, 1998).
Nevertheless, part-time employees generally receive less training and advancement
opportunities than full-time employees (Sanders & Hetty van Emmerik, 2005). J.
Weisberg found that long-term teams performed better than short-term teams
(Weisberg, 1996). Part-time labor appears to have replaced by full-time employees
working overtime (Easton & Rossin, 1997).
The staff’s education background could affect their overtime work pattern. Many
studies showed that higher education levels do make a difference, resulting in higher
performance levels, greater relevance of goal challenge in determining performance
20

levels and higher levels of goal setting. This is explained by the anticipated higher
returns for higher levels of education (Weisberg, 1996).
Money is the instrument of commerce and the measure of value. It has been suggested
by researchers that money is a motivator (Chiu et al, 2002). Previous work postulated
that happiness might be increased by the gain in status conferred upon employees
either via higher relative income or greater prestige in the workplace (Golden &
Wiens-Tuers, 2005). Reynolds suggested that economic needs, social pressures, and
the lure of job rewards can make people facing work-life conflict not want to change
the number of hours they work. His work also revealed that both men and women
who are paid for overtime are less likely to want fewer hours (Reynolds, 2005).
Chiu et al quoted from couples of previous works (e.g. Mitchell, 1983; England,
1989; etc.) that, pay is the most important aspect of a job for Hong Kong workers.
Even income is regarded as the vital item to keep HK employees at work; whereas
cash remains number one in HK among all other compensation components. Thus,
Chiu et al predicted cash-related compensation will be important in retaining and
motivating employees (Chiu et al, 2002). Their research findings supported this
assumption, where monetary reward was found critical. They also pointed out
mortgage loan was desirable to attract HK employees, but not for motivation. This
21

phenomenon was explained by HK people’s dissatisfaction over the current political
and economical situation in HK after the handover in 1997 (Chiu et al, 2002).
People are lazy to work (Reynolds, 2005). When personal or family life interferes
with work, people tend to focus less on their work. Most employees want to spend
less time at work, although there are also employees who want to increase their hours
(Sanders & Hetty van Emmerik, 2005). However, workers who work long hours per
day or per week often tend to experience added stress and fatigue, particularly if such
work is involuntary (Golden & Wiens-Tuers, 2005), and thus face an additional risk
of illness, injury, and work-family imbalance.
Moreover, it was reported that when additional work hours subtract from home time,
while high work intensity or work pressure may result in fatigue, anxiety or other
adverse psycho-physiological consequences that can affect the quality of home and
family life (White et al, 2003). In addition, employees working overtime were found
to have a disturbed ability to recover and sleep disturbances (Sanders & Hetty van
Emmerik, 2005). Workaholic people might lead to brittle family relationships, create
dysfunction within the family and contribute to marital conflict (Snir & Harpaz,
2004).
Savery & Luks cited a lot of studies (e.g. Schuster & Rhodes, 1985; Anon, 1995;
22

etc.) linking overtime work and staffs’ health issues. Overtime work would lead to
fatigue in the form of boredom, resulting in workers becoming inattentive and more
prone to accidents. The major contributing factor of accident rates in the HK
construction industry was excess overtime work. It appeared that longer hours were
significantly related to reported workplace injury or illnesses (Savery & Luks, 2000).
Moreover, night work presents particular fatigue hazards because it involves
disruption of the normal human circadian sleep-wake cycle. Researches have been
undertaken to demonstrate that night work reduces human performance efficiency and
well being (Smith & Wedderburn, 1998). Thus, to prevent or lower complaints of
workers, improvements of working conditions such as overtime work are
recommended to reduce health risk (Kawada & Ooya, 2005).
Staffs’ psychological view on overtime work is also crucial. The spiritual dimension
of employee should be considered (Elankumaran, 2004). For instance, happiness
might be the gain in status via higher income or greater prestige in the workplace
(Golden & Wiens-Tuers, 2005). Some employees consider long work hours stand for
the business success rather than failure (Gross & Adam-Smith, 2001). Some staff
would retreat from family life and bury themselves in the work if they found work
more satisfying (Reynolds, 2005).
23

Sanders & Hetty van Emmerik (2005) revealed that when employees observe their
preferences are being taken seriously, they will feel more obligation and commitment
towards the organization. They work longer hours may not necessarily mean that they
resent doing it (Sanders & Hetty van Emmerik, 2005).
However, staff finding overtime work acceptable does not mean they are eager to
have it (Au, 2005). It was noted that overtime work was associated markedly with
higher absenteeism in private companies (Kogi & Kawakami, 1997).
Reis & Pena suggested that if management was good to employees, they would work
harder out of loyalty and gratitude (Reis & Pena, 2001). Yet, it was noticed some
senior managers may expect their subordinates to be present for the hours that they
are present, i.e. extending the work hours (Savery & Luks, 2000).
Sanders & Hetty van Emmerik (2005) further revealed that family factor does bring
an impact on staff’s weekly work hours. In addition, some research findings showed
Israeli Jews worked more hours per week (Snir & Harpaz, 2004). This indicates
staffs’ religion might affect their consideration of whether having long overtime work.
24

Chiu et al (2002) suggested employees may have higher tendency to get new job
when there is a low unemployment rate. Instead, it was believed that the
unemployment rate may increase the probability of a worker being constrained to put
in more than his or her desired number of work hours (Ramirez, 1998).
To sum up, though there are no congruent thoughts among all the abovementioned
scholars; however, staffs’ traits and their psychological factors could be considered as
having linkage with their overtime work preference. In addition, overtime work has
been affecting staffs’ health physically and mentally. It also causes work-family
conflict to women, for instance, the married professional women in HK.
2.4 – Cultural Aspects
Culture is a complex phenomenon ranging from underlying beliefs and assumptions
to visible structures and practices. The link between company culture and
25

effectiveness appears to be both strong and consistent (Denison et al, 2004). It has
been suggested that Chinese workers are group-oriented. Chinese people are
concerned with enhancing in-group harmony (Wong et al, 2002) and they value social
relationships. It is thus possible that because of job insecurity many people, especially
managers, are scared to leave work at a time that could be considered early (Savery &
Luks, 2000). The imperative to stay at one’s desk may not always reflect productivity,
but may in fact negatively affect performance. Thus, being present at the job does not
automatically lead to increased productivity (Savery & Luks, 2000). However, other
studies suggested group cohesiveness had a positive relationship with group
performance, and that it was the strongest predictor of performance (Weisberg, 1996).
Since there is a cultural difference between the Westerns and the Chinese, several
journals challenged whether the ‘Western’ notions of leadership attributes might also
be explored in closer relation with the contemporary aspects of Chinese business
environment (Wood et al, 2002). It was suggested that current motivation and
management theories need to be rethought in order to incorporate new and different
notions of the motives and work values in non-western cultures, and that the
application of management techniques that are based on existing assumptions may be
highly inappropriate (Harvey, 1999).
26

Geert Hofstede suggested that cultural values differ among societies but within a
society they are remarkably stable over time. He also suggested that these national
cultures would affect mainly people’s values. Cultural differences at the country level
resided mostly in values, less in practices; whereas at the organizational level, culture
differences consisted mostly of different practices, not of the different values
(Hofstede, 1999). Besides, his work revealed that all western countries in his research
were scored individualist; Asian, African and Latin American countries were scored
collectivist. Moreover, all western countries showed a short-term orientation. Asian
countries like China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea were long-term
oriented (Hofstede, 1999).
Our study comprises the comparison of results between Hong Kong and PRC. HK
have been known to be a high-stress, fast-pace and ruthlessly business-driven society
where people often work long hours (Lo et al, 2003). HK employees view pay as the
most important aspect of a job. The same as PRC employees, they do have a cash
mentality (Chiu et al, 2002). Furthermore, level of income appears to be extremely
important to HK wives (Lo et al, 2003). According to the HK Government’s census
and statistics, in 2002, women’s labor participation rate was 50.7 per cent while for
27

men it was 72.9 per cent (Lo et al, 2003). In a research performed by Chinese
University of Hong Kong in 2005 about current HK employee’s overtime work
pattern, over a half of respondents alleged they had had overtime work in the previous
7 days. The median of weekly work hours was 50 hrs. 18 per cent of them had 10 to
20 hrs of weekly overtime work, 6 per cent had over 20 hrs overtime work per week.
62 per cent of respondents did not get paid for overtime work. 73 per cent of people
accepted overtime work cos of responsibility. 34 per cent did not mind having
overtime work without paid or any allowance. However, another 37 per cent of
respondents dissatisfied with the overtime work. Nonetheless, most of the respondents
agreed taking overtime work was a sign of positive work attitude (Au, 2005).
PRC is another theme of this study. From a cultural perspective, the Chinese culture
has been characterized by collectivism, Confucianism with an emphasis on harmony,
reciprocity and loyalty (Wong et al, 2002). In the 1950s, PRC was covered by the
shadow of widespread chaos. The social fabric was staggered. This scenario did not
come to an end until the early 1980s. Led by Deng Xiaoping, China was started to
reform. However, China does not have a strong private sector or the values of hard
work, individuals getting ahead through their own incentive, quality production for a
market or delivery of goods according to a schedule or contract (Schak, 1997). In
28

some outside or coastal provinces, workers in factories are from poorer area. Most
workers have just graduated from junior middle school. Operators are mostly females.
Males do technical work and work requiring strength or height (Schak, 1997).
It was found that overtime work was common. Workers wanted to work longer hours
so that they could earn more money, and in a few years, they could return home to
establish a family (Schak, 1997). However, PRC workers feel that they can stop
working once they have finished their job. It was alleged that PRC workers do not
work hard or quickly, have to be watched constantly, do not follow instructions and
are sometimes uncooperative. Trained workers would not impart their knowledge to
others. Workers are generally being lazy and uninterested in learning or teaching
(Schak, 1997). Worker turnover is high, and labor supply is still plentiful; so teaching
a variety of skills is not worthwhile. HRM was not regarded as important (Schak,
1997).
Groups form in the factory. Usually there is an unofficial leader (Schak, 1997).
Workers do value social relationships and in-group harmony (Wong et al, 2002). By
the same token, the concept of ‘Guanxi’ was introduced. In some studies, Guanxi was
defined as friendship with implications of a continual exchange of favor. It was also
defined as ‘who you know not what you know’ (Wood et al, 2002). This idea has been
29

widely seen in PRC companies, making those top leaders do not have a gap with
workers at lower level. Leaders do apply ‘Guanxi’ on staff to lure them to work
overtime (Wood et al, 2002).
In the 1990s, due to the massive influx of foreign investment from HK as well as
other countries, Western management philosophy and practices have been brought
into China. Fixed wages are replaced by reward systems. The complete wage package
consists of the basic wage, bonuses and subsidies (Chiu et al, 2002). Research
revealed that cash-based compensation components are now the most important
factors in retaining and motivating the local PRC employees. According to traditional
Chinese culture, money represents one’s success and achievement in life. It would be
shameful if one could not provide the material needs for one’s family. Thus, this
supports PRC workers to accept paid overtime work (Chiu et al, 2002).
2.5 – Summary
To sum up, previous researches which stated issues related to organizational
effectiveness have been discussed. Reasons for employees to take overtime work have
been mentioned. Staffs’ traits and their psychological factors, which considered being
having linkage with overtime work are also introduced. Moreover, some journals (e.g.
30

Kawada & Ooya, 2005; Smith & Wedderburn, 1998; etc.) suggested overtime work
would result to staff’s health deterioration are presented. It is believed that overtime
work would end up with poorer staff performance, and result to the downgrade of
organizational effectiveness.
Cultural aspects have been mentioned. Not just the organizational cultures, many
previous studies about Hong Kong and PRC have been cited (e.g. Savery & Luks,
2000; Au, 2005; etc.). These include the two places’ historical background,
employees’ traits and what the people in these two places would value. Some simple
statistical findings of a previous research about overtime work in HK are quoted for
reference.
However, it is noticed that though many researches about overtime work have been
done, few of them would link the findings with organizational effectiveness directly.
Besides, there is no solid proof that staffs having overtime were a sign of group norm.
Moreover, previous research work often selected merely one location to study. Those
studies rarely made comparison between two places, i.e. the cultural difference
analysis could have been neglected. Nevertheless, it was noted that the analysis of
employees’ psychological factors for many former researches could have been far too
superficial. They have never provided solutions for the problems they identified.
31

In this paper, the research objectives are set to fill up the gap of previous works. Since
the literature suggested staffs’ personal traits and psychological factors would affect
their overtime work preference, we attempt to investigate this pattern further whether
those staffs’ overtime work would end up with an enhanced organizational
effectiveness (or vice versa). Correlation analysis is widely used in this research. It is
a measure of the degree of association between two variables which vary
simultaneously. It helps to identify the strength of relationship between these two
variables. However, it is possible that a third variable could have affected both of the
variables. It is suggested that correlation analysis should be used, but that the results
are interpreted with caution (Whitaker & Hirst, 2002). We will have the research
method discussed in more details in the next chapter.
Ch.3 – Research Methods
3.1 - Introduction
The flow of this research will be fully discussed in this chapter. The aim of the study
is to investigate the relation between overtime work and organizational effectiveness,
and to deduce whether the findings between Hong Kong and PRC are different. A
positivist methodology has been adopted as the overall approach of the study.
32

Positivism is a philosophy which declares empirical sciences to be the sole source of
true knowledge and rejects the cognitive value of philosophical study (Dictionary of
Philosophy, n.d.). It also stated the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge,
and that such knowledge can only come from positive affirmation of theories through
strict scientific method (Wikipedia, n.d.). In fact, positivism seeks empirical
regularities which are correlations between two variables (Philosophies of Social
Research, n.d.). This leads to the application of deductive approach. It is to postulate
the hypothesis and then gather proofs to support them. Theories are constructed from
fundamental axioms, before data are collected (Bruce, 2003). The field work was
started by collecting questionnaire data from HK and PRC, followed by performing
three sets of statistical analysis in order to verify the acceptance of postulated
hypothesis. Selected respondents were invited for individual interviews. The focus
was put on respondents’ psychological factors – their views of having overtime work.
Finally, the results between HK and PRC were compared.
33

3.2 - Questionnaire
The questionnaire is divided into three sections. The first section is questions based on
respondents’ overtime work experience; for instance, whether they like to have
overtime work, and whether they are suffered from health problem after having
overtime work. In addition, the overtime work duration within a normal week of the
respondents is recorded. Their colleagues’ overtime work pattern is also noted.
The second section consists of twelve questions, asking the respondents to rate their
company’s organization effectiveness through a rating scale. These questions are set at
34

a 5-point Likert Scale (1 = strongly disagree, 3 = neutral, 5 = strongly agree). This
scale is used because a too wide scale would confuse the respondents and generate
less reliable answer in return. The twelve items to describe organizational
effectiveness were derived from previous studies (Parhizgari & Gilbert, 2002). As the
respondents chose answers that favored ‘agree’ more, the score became high. Then,
the points for these items were summed. The total points for each record were saved
for statistical analysis later on.
The final section of the questionnaire is personal questions. Variables include
respondents’ gender, employment status (part-time / full-time and permanent /
contract based / self-employed), highest education level are asked. Moreover,
respondents’ field of industry and whether they are at management or supervisory
level are inquired. Finally, questions of whether the respondents are paid for their
overtime work and whether they are required to pay tax in the previous year are
included. Asking the ‘tax’ question was to divide the respondents into two groups –
rich and poor. Chinese are conservative. It could be too bold by asking them about
their salary directly. This could lead to untrue answer and it is hard to set suitable
benchmark on defining ‘high salary level’ for HK and PRC employees, as the
standard of living is different. However, no matter where it is, people paying tax
35

imply prosperity. The idea is to let both Governments to decide whether each
respondent shall be grouped into rich or poor category. Applying both Governments’
indexes into the case enhances data validity.
The questionnaires were fundamentally written in English. However, there are reasons
to believe most PRC people may not be capable to understand the true meaning of the
questionnaires owing to the language barrier problem, especially for some potential
PRC respondents could have just graduated from junior middle school (Schak, 1997).
It was implausible to conclude they were all English literate. In order to eliminate the
risk of misunderstanding the questions and to equivalence of the measures in the
English and the Chinese versions, we adopted Wong et al’s research method where
translation of questionnaire from English into Chinese was performed (Wong et al,
2002). Two local research assistants, one with university degree in English and one
with university degree in Education from Guangdong province were invited to review
all Chinese translated items to see if they would be meaningful to PRC respondents.
The approval of Chinese version questionnaires was granted. (Both English and
Chinese versions of questionnaire blank sheets are attached in the appendix section.)
Both convenience sampling and snowball sampling were applied in this study.
Though convenience sampling is the least reliable way of sampling, it is regarded as
36

the easiest and cheapest way to collect data as merely anyone could be invited to ask
for information (Cooper & Schindler, 2006). The use of snowball sampling technique
even further amplified the sampling power by speeding up the pace of questionnaire
delivery through referral networks. The combination use of these two techniques was
best fit for this research as the time allowance was limited.
Since the data collection was aimed at both HK and PRC, it was necessary to choose
the same way of sampling method at both places to make it coherent. The valid
response rate for HK and PRC were targeted at 200 and 100 respectively, as it was
estimated these numbers would possibly be the maximum number of feedback within
this short sampling period. The sampling duration was set for three weeks.
Questionnaires were sent to 36 Hong Kong respondents and 18 PRC respondents
through email at the beginning. They were invited to complete the questionnaires and
to distribute them to their families, friends, colleagues, neighbors… A ‘quota’ was
assigned to each respondent. This was to notify and guide the respondents roughly
how many data they were needed to obtain. This act greatly provided an ease for
monitoring the data collection progress. Different respondent had different number of
‘quota’. Each respondent’s personality (e.g. sociable, dependable), job nature, time
allowance etc. were considered. Most of them were having a ‘quota’ of 5. Some of
37

them had more than 10. The highest ‘quota’ was set at 20 for HK and 30 for PRC
respectively.
Indeed, and most importantly, these 36 HK and 18 PRC respondents were all agreed
to provide assistance in this research, willingly. None of them was imposed upon
participation and they were guided not to coerce their respondents to answer the
questionnaire. However, as long as the time allowed for questionnaire collection was
just three weeks, it was found that the response rate was ridiculously low in one week
after the questionnaires were sent out. Therefore, friendly reminder was sent to some
respondents through email, especially to those having high ‘quota’ number.
Meanwhile, the received questionnaire number climbed up steadily, and it went up
dramatically in the last few days before the deadline. Eventually, 176 copies from HK
and 130 copies from PRC were collected. No follow up surveys and reminders were
used due to the relative large sample. A study showed at HK has the lowest response
rate among 22 countries (Harzing, 1997); however, this research was based on non-
probability sampling. Thus, the response rate was ignored.
It was noticed that the respondents in PRC appeared much enthusiastic than the HK
respondents. Time needed to reach the PRC’s target (n = 100) was far shorter than
HK’s (n = 200) (almost a week shorter). It was verbally informed by PRC respondents
38

that the research topic was novel, and this caught their interests to participate in this
research.
The field of industry of respondents was not within the main scope of the research.
Thus, the respondents were allowed to allocate the questionnaire copies to their
colleagues; however, in order to achieve a more balanced view, i.e. to avoid having
feedback solely from one or few industries, the questionnaires delivery task was
monitored in the latter period by targeting new respondents who worked in different
industries. The same tactics was applied in both HK and PRC.
39

3.3 - Hypotheses
As mentioned in Ch.2 – Literature Review, some previous studies favored for staffs
having specific personal traits, their overtime work would enhance organizational
effectiveness, whereas some other studies drew the reverse conclusion. In order to
derive a proven clause, the data collected through questionnaire will all be utilized for
statistical analysis.
The statistical analysis section consists of three parts. Three hypotheses are
postulated. Firstly, each set of personal variables (inc. gender, employment status,
managerial level, education level, overtime work allowance, tax payable) is tested
with “Like / Dislike OT” by Chi Square test to see whether they have association.
H1: Each personal variables is associated with “Like / Dislike overtime work”
40

Six sets of test are generated in this part. ‘Tax payable’ is selected as a variable to
separate respondents into rich and poor group (refer to Ch.3.2). ‘Education level’ is
chosen for separating respondents into two groups – ‘Has an undergraduate degree or
above’ and ‘without an undergraduate degree’.
For this analysis, the questionnaire records with respondents who alleged they are
self-employed are excluded. It is believed that the self-employed people do not face
the same workplace constraints as wage and salary workers (Reynolds, 2005). In
addition, it was found one of those self-employed did not provide information about
several topics in this analysis including managerial level and employment status.
Secondly, correlation analysis between OT work (mins) & Organizational
Effectiveness (rating) of each personal variables (e.g. Gender = M) is performed. This
is to investigate whether certain ‘specific traits’ of employees’ overtime work would
enhance organizational effectiveness.
H2: Number of overtime work minutes for ‘specific traits’ of staff is correlated with
organizational effectiveness
41

In this section, the questionnaire records with self-employed status are excluded
again, as in part one, owing to the same reason. In addition, the records with
respondents who claimed they have had zero minute of overtime work in a normal
week are neglected. Since this part accounts for the organizational effectiveness
owing to overtime work, comments from respondents having no overtime work
should not be reliable.
‘Organizational effectiveness rating’ for each record is obtained by adding up the
points of the twelve questions about organizational effectiveness for each
questionnaire copy. This organizational effectiveness rating for each valid respondent
is then examined with the overtime work minutes through correlation analysis. S.
Whitaker & D. Hirst have demonstrated how correlation analysis could be used. This
involved looking for significant correlations between environmental events and
behaviors. In a case example at hospital, they illustrated how information recorded by
staff in a client’s case records can be correlated to produce clinically used information
with regard to the influences on the client’s challenging behavior (Whitaker & Hirst,
2002). Because of the abovementioned reason, correlation analysis is adopted for this
study.
Thirdly, correlation analysis between OT work (mins) & Organizational Effectiveness
42

(rating) of “Like / Dislike OT” employees group is performed to see if employees’
psychological factor would affect organizational effectiveness.
H3: Number of overtime work minutes for staff who ‘Like / Dislike overtime work’
is correlated with organizational effectiveness
The same as the previous section, both self-employed and having no overtime work
respondents’ records are not included.
Elankumaran’s work suggested the management should consider employees’ spiritual
dimension (Elankumaran, 2004). However, there is little previous work to support
employees’ desire would have matter on organizational effectiveness. Some
employees are happy with long work hours as they view it is the embodiment of
business success (Gross & Adam-Smith, 2001). Setting this hypothesis is to verify
whether the above statement is valid.
Finally, by applying the above three sets of statistical analyses, both HK and PRC data
are analyzed. The results between HK and PRC are compared to verify whether the
difference in cultural background would end up with different conclusion.
43

3.4 - Interview
Individual interviews were conducted after the feedbacks of questionnaire were
received. Selected candidates were invited to discuss their views on overtime work.
The focus was put on individual’s psychological factors (i.e. why did they take
overtime work), organizational culture, group theory and strategy for building an
effective organization. Moreover, the employees’ overtime work pattern owing to
group norm or peer pressure was revealed. Both Hong Kong and PRC candidates
were invited. The number of interviewees for either place was set at ten originally. It
was assumed that the results obtained from both places were to be compared and
contrasted.
Focus group and case study were not used in this research. The scale of this study was
small, and the time was limited; a survey followed by individual interviews was
regarded as the most comely way to achieve this goal (Cooper & Schindler, 2006). In
addition, individual interviews provided larger amount of qualitative data, which
could cover the weaknesses of questionnaire – difficulty in exploring more complex
issues. Interviews were conducted in Cantonese.
44

The time duration for conducting interview was presumed to be 5 weeks. A total of 12
face to face interviews were conducted for Hong Kong respondents. 8 one on one
interviews, 2 of which were phone interviews, were conducted for PRC respondents.
It was difficult to invite PRC interviewees owing to the geographical problem and
time constraint. Among the 5 weeks interview period, merely two weekends were
spent on visiting PRC. Thus, 2 PRC interviews were conducted through phone
conversation, in order to save time and cost. The target of successful PRC interview
number (n = 10) was not achieved.
The job nature of interviewees was not the main theme of the study. However, over a
half of the interviewees were line managers, supervisors or Personnel staff. They were
intentionally chosen for the interview. It was believed that they should have spent
more time on their organizations, where they should understand more about the
culture of organization they worked for, and their expertise should be respectable. For
instance, a section of interview questions was targeted for manager or supervisor only
(ref. to appendix – a blank form of interview schedule is attached). A large section
was inquiring about organizational culture. It was reasonably believed that higher
rank of staff should provide more reliable and valid feedback.
45

Each face to face interview was taken for roughly 30 minutes long. A pleasure
atmosphere was developed throughout the interview. The questions were asked
roughly based on the flow of an early prepared interview schedule. No question was
asked coercively. The feedback was marked on a blank sheet at once. As for the phone
interview, the flow was almost the same as abovementioned; however, the time taken
was remarkably shorter. It appeared the content of answer was less solid. Selected
interview dialogues would be quoted in this paper. All names involved were
pseudonyms. This was informed to all interviewees with no rejection.
3.5 – Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR)
46

Hong Kong, described as a 'barren rock' over 150 years ago, has become a world-class
financial, trading and business centre and, indeed, a great world city.
Hong Kong has no natural resources, except one of the finest deep-water ports in the
world. A hardworking, adaptable and well-educated workforce of about 3.56 million,
coupled with entrepreneurial flair, is the bedrock of Hong Kong's productivity and
creativity.
Manpower is Hong Kong’s most treasured asset. The Government aims to ensure that
there is a dynamic, well-motivated, adaptable and continuously upgraded workforce
contributing to the HKSAR’s economic competitiveness.
At present, Hong Kong’s labour force stands at some 3.56 million, of which 55.1 per
cent are male and 44.9 per cent are female. The majority (85.6 per cent) of employed
persons are engaged in the service sectors: 31.7 per cent in wholesale, retail and
import/export trades, restaurants and hotels; 11.4 per cent in transport, storage and
communications; 15.2 per cent in financing, insurance, real estate and business
47

services; and 27.3 per cent in community, social and personal services. Only 5.1 per
cent work in the manufacturing sector (HKSAR – Labour Department).
In 2004, the average monthly wage rate for supervisory, technical, clerical and
miscellaneous non-production workers in the wholesale, retail and import/export
trades, restaurants and hotels sectors was $11,549 (US$1,481). The average daily
wage was $327 (US$42) for craftsmen and operatives in the manufacturing sector
(HKSAR – Home Affairs Bureau).
3.6 – Guangdong Province
48

Finally, Guangdong – Hong Kong’s closest province of PRC, was chosen as the
‘representative’ of PRC in this study. Guangdong province is a southern province in
the People’s Republic of China that has witnessed considerable economic growth in
the past two decades (Wong et al, 2002). Four major cities of Guangdong were
highlighted to study in this research. They were Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Zhongshan
and Dongguan. For these four cities, their average staff annual salaries in 2005 are as
follows: Shenzhen (RMB 31928), Guangzhou (RMB 30807), Zhongshan (RMB
22350) and Dongguan (RMB 25326) (People’s Republic of China - Census and
Statistics Bureau, 2006). These four cities are regarded as the most modernized
places within Guangdong province, and should be the most competitive and
comparable to Hong Kong. The PRC respondents of questionnaires and interviews
were all from these four cities. The reasons for choosing Guangdong province to
study are: i) the time frame of this research was not capable for studying the entire
PRC; ii) theoretically it embraces most similarities to HK in several aspects owing to
its location, but politically different; iii) many HK entrepreneurs aim at starting
business at Guangdong. Studying this province does have research value.
3.7 – Summary
To sum up, this chapter has described the flow of the whole research: - The field work
49

was started by collecting questionnaire data from Hong Kong and PRC, whereas
Guangdong province has been chosen to represent PRC. Convenience sampling and
snowball sampling were adopted owing to their advantages on giving fast feedback
and maintaining a minimized cost. Three hypotheses were postulated. Data were
analyzed statistically to verify the acceptance of hypotheses. Individual interviews
were conducted afterwards. Last but not least, the results of HK and PRC were
compared and contrasted.
It has to be stressed that ethical issues had been thoroughly considered. All
interviewees were friendly treated. No coercive order was given to them. In addition,
all the collected information was regarded as private data. They have been kept safely
to guarantee the leak of information was out of risk. It was also assured that the data
were being kept for this research use only. This was notified to all respondents before
sampling and they were all well acknowledged.
Two major drawbacks are noted in this study, owing to the extreme tight time frame
and the limited scale of research. Firstly, only Guangdong province was chosen as the
representative of PRC. Secondly, excess reliance was put on the respondents to assess
their own organization’s effectiveness, which could be subjective. We will have this
discussed in more details after the next chapter – Data Analysis.
50

Ch.4 – Data Analysis
4.1 - Introduction
The data obtained from questionnaire and interviews are discussed in this chapter.
51

Comparisons of factors which potentially affect organizational effectiveness (i.e. the
difference in staff’s personal characteristics) between Hong Kong and PRC are made.
Chi square test and correlation analysis are performed, which calculations are clearly
shown in details, to verify the acceptance of the three postulated hypotheses. A short
intermediate summary about the questionnaire findings is inserted before reviewing
the interview results. The purpose is to clarify whether there’s any stunning discovery
so far, and to ensure if there is necessity to take extra effort and consideration on
specific item in the latter part of the analysis. The discussion of interview result is
scheduled next. The focus is put on individual staff’s points of view on overtime work
and organizational effectiveness, psychologically. This is to provide adequate
qualitative information as a backup of the previous questionnaire analysis so as to
consolidate the theories developed in these sections. A discussion is set at the end to
round off this chapter.
4.2 – Questionnaire Data Analysis
176 copies of questionnaire from HK and 130 copies from PRC were collected
through convenience sampling and snowball sampling. Since it is believed that the
52

self-employed people do not share the same work environment and constraints as
wage and salary workers (Reynolds, 2005), 10 records of HK and 10 records of PRC
which marked with ‘self-employed’ were extracted out of the analysis.
Among the 166 HK records, 92 (55%) of them were from male respondents. 74 (45%)
were female respondents. 27 (16%) respondents liked having overtime work. 41
(25%) respondents were having overtime work pay. There were 106 (64%)
respondents having bachelor degree or above. 114 (69%) were permanent staff.
Merely 11 (7%) of the entire sample population were part-time workers. 119 (72%) of
respondents required to pay tax in the previous year. 47 (28%) were managers or at
supervisory level.
Half of the respondents (i.e. 83) were depressed after having overtime work. In
addition, 108 (65%) respondents suggested overtime work might cause health
problem to them. 94 (57%) of the sample population felt their colleagues tended to
have overtime work. 82 (49%) respondents would comply with how their colleagues
behave.
In terms of difference in field of industry, the three largest sample groups were
coming from shipping industry (21 respondents, 13%), financial sectors (20
53

respondents, 12%) and medical & pharmaceutical sectors (18 respondents, 11%). The
person who suffered from the longest weekly overtime work was found having 1200
minutes extra work. The mean value was calculated as 258 minutes per week.
Nevertheless, HK workers would only accept 193 minutes of weekly overtime work
in average.
In PRC’s group, 120 valid records were left. 50 (42%) of them were from male
respondents, 70 (58%) were female respondents. Only 9 (8%) respondents liked
having overtime work. 91 (76%) respondents were not paid for their overtime work
effort. There were 48 (40%) respondents having at least tertiary level of education.
111 (93%) respondents, which were surprisingly in dominant, were contract based
workers. All of them were full-time workers though. 38 (32%) of them were managers
or supervisors. 99 (83%) respondents were tax payers last year.
43 (36%) respondents alleged they were depressed after having overtime work. 75
(63%) respondents even linked overtime work with the sufferings of health problem.
69 (58%) of the sample population found their colleagues were keen to take overtime
work, whereas only 31 (26%) of the respondents would consider switching their mind
if they noticed there’s a change in their colleagues’ overtime work pattern.
54

Among this group of samples, 29 (24%) respondents were working in the shipping
industry. 19 (16%) respondents were working in travel agencies. 12 (10%)
respondents were from logistics companies. The longest weekly overtime work
minute recorded was 1440 minutes. The average weekly overtime work minute in this
PRC group was 237 minutes. These PRC workers could endure no more than 225
minutes of weekly overtime work in average.
Shipping industry has played a critical role to maintain the economy of HK and
Guangdong province. It is no surprise that many people have been employed in this
field, which made respondents with shipping industry background become the
majority of the sample. It was noticed that there were many similarities between these
HK and PRC groups. For example, both places found most staff did not like having
overtime work. Only a quarter of them were having overtime work pay. The average
weekly overtime work time and the average ‘acceptable’ weekly overtime work time
were almost the same.
However, it was found that 93% within the PRC sample respondents were contract
based workers. Informed by one of PRC interviewees, this is a common social
phenomenon in PRC. A permanent job warranty would not be offered to nearly all the
employees apart from the civil servants and teachers. The major cause of this could be
55

the poor development and execution of Chinese labor law. The enhanced mobility of
workers causing high staff turnover rate also discourages firms to retain loyal
employees.
Besides, 64% of HK respondents were at least having a bachelor degree, whereas
PRC was just 40%. This appeared that HK’s tertiary education was more prevalent,
which indicated the cultural difference between these two places did exist.
4.3 – Hypothesis I
The collected questionnaire data are gathered to verify the acceptance of three
hypotheses through statistical analysis. The first hypothesis is to define the association
between each personal variables and “Like / Dislike” having overtime work through
Chi square test.
H1: Each personal variables is associated with “Like / Dislike overtime work”
56

Six parameters are being studied:- a) employment status, b) managerial level, c)
overtime work allowance, d) tax payable, e) education level, and f) gender. Both HK
and PRC data are studied and analyzed. The results are as follows:-
a) Employment status
i) HK
The HK respondents (n = 166) are separated into 4 groups (contract part-time,
contract full-time, permanent part-time & permanent full-time). Number of
respondents are counted and tabulated in the correct box here below. Chi square test is
performed afterwards to justify their association with “Like / Dislike OT”.
HK Like OT Dislike OT Row Total
Contract Part-time 7 3 10
Contract Full-time 8 34 42
Permanent Part-time 0 1 1
Permanent Full-time 12 101 113
Column Total 27 139 166
H0: there is no association
H1: there is an association
57

Expected value = (Row Total x Column Total) / Grand Total
(Adams, Raeside & White, 2005)
HK Like OT Dislike OT Row Total
Contract Part-time 7 (1.63) 3 (8.37) 10
Contract Full-time 8 (6.83) 34 (35.17) 42
Permanent Part-time 0 (0.16) 1 (0.84) 1
Permanent Full-time 12 (18.38) 101 (94.62) 113
Column Total 27 139 166
χ2
= Σ(Observed – Expected)2
/ Expected
(Adams, Raeside & White, 2005)
χ2
= (7 – 1.63)2
/1.63 + (3 – 8.37)2
/8.37 + … + (101 – 94.62)2
/94.62
= 24.211
Using 0.05 acceptance of significance,
Degree of freedom ν = (r – 1)*(c – 1)
= (4 – 1)*(2 – 1) = 3,
the tabular value is: 7.815
(Murdoch & Barnes, 1986)
58

Since calculated χ2
> the tabular value, the alternative hypothesis is accepted (Adams,
Raeside & White, 2005).
Accept H1
ii) PRC
By the same token, PRC respondents’ data (n = 120) are separated, analyzed and
calculated by Chi square test.
PRC Like OT Dislike OT
Contract Part-time 0 0
Contract Full-time 7 104
59

Permanent Part-time 0 0
Permanent Full-time 2 7
Since the calculation steps are the same, the mathematical work is not shown here, but
to list the calculated values.
χ2
= 3.004
Tabular value = 7.815 (0.05 acceptance of significance)
Accept H0 (Since χ2
< the tabular value)
iii) Summary
It is found that the employment status does have association with “Like / Dislike OT”
in HK, whereas no association between these two is noted in PRC.
b) Managerial level
i) HK
166 respondents are divided into managers / supervisors and non managers /
supervisors. The same calculation method used in the previous section is applied.
HK Like OT Dislike OT
Manager / Supervisor 5 42
60

Non Manager /
Supervisor
22 97
χ2
= 1.519
ii) PRC
The data of 120 respondents are treated in the same way.
Manager / Supervisor 4 34
Non Manager /
Supervisor
5 77
χ2
= 0.734
iii) Summary
No association is found between “Like / Dislike OT” and whether staff were at
61

managerial / supervisory level in both HK and PRC.
c) Overtime work allowance
i) HK
Overtime work with
pay
11 30
Overtime work without
pay
16 109
χ2
= 4.458
62

> the tabular value)
ii) PRC
Overtime work with
pay
3 35
Overtime work without
pay
6 76
χ2
= 0.012
iii) Summary
It is found that there’s association between “Like / Dislike OT” and overtime work
allowance in HK, whereas the PRC group does not reveal the same result.
d) Tax payable
i) HK
Employee paid tax 17 102
Employee paid no tax 10 37
χ2
= 1.241
63

ii) PRC
Employee paid tax 3 96
Employee paid no tax 6 15
χ2
= 16.229
> the tabular value)
iii) Summary
It is found that there’s association between tax payable and “Like / Dislike OT” in
PRC, whereas it does not show the same outcome in HK.
e) Education level
i) HK
The gist of this part is to decide whether the respondent has attained at least tertiary
education.
Tertiary educated 15 91
64

Not tertiary educated 12 48
χ2
= 0.962
ii) PRC
Tertiary educated 5 43
Not tertiary educated 4 68
χ2
= 0.981
iii) Summary
It is found that neither HK nor PRC has shown association between “Like / Dislike
OT” and staff’s education level.
f) Gender
i) HK
Male 15 77
Female 12 62
65

χ2
= 0.0003
ii) PRC
Male 6 44
Female 3 67
χ2
= 2.502
iii) Summary
It is found that neither HK nor PRC has shown association between “Like / Dislike
OT” and staff’s gender.
Summary of Hypothesis I:
It is noticed that only the employment status in HK, overtime work allowance in HK,
and tax payable in PRC do associate with “Like / Dislike OT”. The majority are
66

suggesting there is little association between “Like / Dislike OT” and staff’s personal
variables.
4.4 – Hypothesis II
The second hypothesis is to deduce whether the overtime work of employees which
possess certain ‘specific traits’ would affect organizational effectiveness.
H2: Number of overtime work minutes for ‘specific traits’ of staff is correlated with
organizational effectiveness
67

In addition to ‘self-employed’ respondents, records which marked ‘OT min = zero’ are
excluded. Under a fair judgment basis, it is believed that those respondents could not
impartially rate the change in organizational effectiveness owing to the work in extra
period; especially they experienced no overtime work.
The six parameters used in Ch. 4.3 are being studied again. Instead, correlation
analysis is performed in this section. Both HK and PRC data are studied and analyzed.
a) Employment status
Similar to Ch. 4.3, the HK respondents are separated into 4 groups (contract part-time,
contract full-time, permanent part-time & permanent full-time). Correlation analysis
is performed for each of these categories.
i) HK contract based part-time employees
According to the questionnaire data, 9 records fall into this category. The weekly
overtime work minutes of each of these 9 respondents and how they rated their
organizations’ effectiveness are tabulated as follows:-
Respondent (n) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
OT mins 1080 100 250 240 360 120 200 1200 150
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Org. Eff. Rating 40 42 44 38 39 38 41 40 48
Applying correlation analysis, the OT mins is tested with the Org. Eff. Rating.
H0: the correlation in the population is zero
H1: the correlation in the population is not zero
The Coefficient of Correlation: r = n(ΣXY) – (ΣX)(ΣY)/√[n(ΣX2
)-(ΣX)2
][n(ΣY2
)-
(ΣY)2
]
(Retrieved from http://helios.bto.ed.ac.uk/bto/statistics/tress11.html)
r = 9(149520) – (3700)(370)/√[9(2943000)-(3700)2
][9(15294)-(370)2
]
= -0.24
The test statistics (t value): t = r√(n-2) / √(1-r2
)
= -0.24√(9-2) / √1-(-0.24)2
= -0.654
Using 0.05 acceptance of significance,
Degree of freedom ν = (n – 2)
= 9 – 2 = 7
the tabular value is: 2.365
(Murdoch & Barnes, 1986)
Since H0 is rejected if t > 2.365 or t < -2.365, H0 is accepted.
69

Accept H0
ii) HK contract based full-time employees
Applying the same method, the key calculated values are listed as follows:-
n r t Tabular value
36 0.24 1.442 2.042
Accept H0 (Since │t│ < │the tabular value│)
iii) HK permanent based part-time employees
Correlation analysis can’t be performed here as only one record falls into this
category.
Not applicable (Since n = 1)
iv) HK permanent based full-time employees
n r t Tabular value
106 0.21 2.190 1.980
Accept H1 (Since │t│ > │the tabular value│)
v) PRC contract based part-time employees
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PRC respondents’ data are treated in the same way. However, correlation analysis
can’t be performed here as no record has been obtained under this category.
vi) PRC contract based full-time employees
n r t Tabular value
97 -0.15 -1.479 1.980
vii) PRC permanent based part-time employees
viii) PRC permanent based full-time employees
n r t Tabular value
6 0.04 0.080 2.776
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ix) Summary
Correlation of overtime work minutes and organizational effectiveness is found only
in HK permanent full-time employees. Analysis are failed to perform for some groups
as insufficient data have been obtained.
b) Managerial level
By the same token, the key values are calculated for correlation analysis and are listed
as here below:-
Category n r t Tabular value Outcome
HK Mgr / Sp 43 -0.01 -0.064 2.021 Accept H0
HK non Mgr / Sp 109 0.29 3.134 1.980 Accept H1
PRC Mgr / Sp 34 0.20 1.155 2.042 Accept H0
PRC non Mgr / Sp 69 -0.30 -2.574 2.000 Accept H1
c) Overtime work allowance
HK OT with pay 39 0.19 1.177 2.021 Accept H0
HK OT with no pay 113 0.19 2.039 1.980 Accept H1
PRC OT with pay 27 -0.01 -0050 2.060 Accept H0
PRC OT with no pay 76 -0.17 -1.484 2.000 Accept H0
d) Tax payable
72

HK employee paid tax 109 0.20 2.111 1.980 Accept H1
HK employee paid no tax 43 0.23 1.513 2.021 Accept H0
PRC employee paid tax 87 -0.23 -2.179 2.000 Accept H1
PRC employee paid no tax 16 0.18 0.685 2.145 Accept H0
e) Education level
HK tertiary educated 100 0.17 1.708 1.980 Accept H0
HK not tertiary educated 52 0.23 1.671 2.021 Accept H0
PRC tertiary educated 41 0.05 0.313 2.021 Accept H0
PRC not tertiary educated 62 -0.23 -1.831 2.000 Accept H0
f) Gender
HK Male 85 0.26 2.453 2.000 Accept H1
HK Female 67 0.13 1.057 2.000 Accept H0
PRC Male 41 0.04 0.250 2.021 Accept H0
PRC Female 62 -0.24 -1.915 2.000 Accept H0
Summary of Hypothesis II
It is noticed that over half of these tests do not show there’s correlation between
overtime work minutes and organizational effectiveness. However, it appears that non
73

managerial staffs and tax payers are having stronger impact on organizational
effectiveness if they were having overtime work, as both HK and PRC results are in
coherence. Last but not least, staff with different education level seems to have little
influence on organizational effectiveness. Neither HK nor PRC results of this
category suggest overtime work minutes and organizational effectiveness are
correlated.
4.5 – Hypothesis III
The third hypothesis takes the same approach as Ch. 4.4; however, instead of using
the six employee’s ‘personal variables’ as parameter, staff’s preference for “Like /
Dislike OT” is being studied.
H3: Number of overtime work minutes for staff who ‘Like / Dislike overtime work’
is correlated with organizational effectiveness
Both HK and PRC data are analyzed. Their overtime work minutes are tested with the
organizational effectiveness ratings through correlation analysis. The findings are
tabulated as follows:-
H0: the correlation in the population is zero
H1: the correlation in the population is not zero
HK employee Like OT 27 0.36 1.929 2.060 Accept H0
HK employee Dislike OT 125 0.16 1.798 1.980 Accept H0
74

PRC employee Like OT 8 0.58 1.744 2.447 Accept H0
PRC employee Dislike OT 103 -0.14 -1.421 1.980 Accept H0
Summary of Hypothesis III
It is found that none of the above category shows correlation between overtime work
minutes and organizational effectiveness. The results suggest staff, whether they do
“Like / Dislike OT”, have no impact on organizational effectiveness if they take
overtime work.
4.6 – Discussion based on Questionnaire data and 3 Hypotheses
There is no clear cut evidence to support staff’s preference for ‘like’ or ‘dislike’
having overtime work do relate to their personal traits in general. Moreover, it is
suggested that no matter the staff liked or disliked overtime work, it brought no
impact on organizational effectiveness. Under such circumstances, it is implausible to
conclude whether staff possesses certain ‘personal traits’ would specifically affect
organizational effectiveness during extra work period.
In fact, overtime work for non managers and tax payers seems to have association
with organizational effectiveness. However, it has to be emphasized that a direct
linear relationship is found for HK employees, whereas an inverse linear relationship
is found for PRC employees.
75

It is also noticed from questionnaire data that, among 27 HK overtime work ‘lovers’,
only 11 of them were paid for overtime work. Just 3 of 9 PRC overtime work ‘lovers’
were having overtime work paid. This implies ‘pay’ didn’t really attract staff for
having OT.
In HK, 94 respondents which alleged their colleagues tended to have overtime work,
52 of them would follow their colleagues’ practice. 106 undergraduates were in the
sample, 52 of them would follow others’ deed. Among 60 non undergraduates, 28
were followers.
In PRC, 69 respondents proclaimed their colleagues tended to have overtime work, 21
of them would follow such practice. 13 out of 48 undergraduates would follow others’
act. Among 72 non undergraduates, only 18 were followers.
This suggests over a half of HK staff to have overtime work could be owing to peer
pressure. Instead, PRC was just one third. Education level difference didn’t affect
whether employees would fall into the group norm trap; however, it appears that more
PRC people were individualistic.
According to the findings in hypothesis II, there is no solid evidence to support more
76

the overtime minutes would enhance organizational effectiveness. In fact, it is
recorded that employees in both places were still spending a lot of time on OT work,
even though the respondents did agree there wouldn’t be much help on improving
organizational effectiveness (Questionnaire data showed low organizational
effectiveness rating). The drivers of staff having OT work will be focused through
analyzing the interview data.
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4.7 – In-depth Interviews
In this section, qualitative information of individual’s understanding about overtime
work is furnished to reinforce the theories built up previously. For finding reasons of
staff having overtime work, some HK respondents suggested they were obligated to
do so though overtime work could not be compulsory, but most suggested they were
feared of being seen as lazy by their colleagues, especially when the boss was visible.
Comments made by Angel (all names are pseudonyms), who works as a senior
salesperson in a sizable shipping company, may explain how job security did matter.
Interviewer: You hate OT work. But you leave office no earlier than 7 pm everyday.
Why does your pattern of work like that?
Angel: I want to ensure everything is well managed. This is a half; the other half is
owing to my crazy boss. He is an emotional man and he always gets nervous. He
scolds at anyone irrationally when he is having bad mood. We dare not to irritate him
by leaving office earlier than him.
Besides, those who followed their colleagues to have overtime work regarded this was
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an act of team work, which enhanced group cohesiveness. However, a few exceptions
do exist. One respondent regarded family life was more important, as she just gave
birth to her child half a year ago. Another extreme despised the act of ‘pretending
hardworking’ by leaving office one minute sharp after the entitled sign-off time
everyday.
As for PRC, the findings are quite different. Most PRC respondents suggested they
would have overtime work only if there’s necessity, owing to responsibility. An
interview with Rose, a salesperson who works for a shipping firm at PRC, expressed a
different view from HK employees.
Interviewer: But you are not having much OT work than your colleagues, don’t you?
Rose: I embrace a strong sense of responsibility. I don’t share as much OT work as
others because of our duties are different. I’m confident to finish my job by five
everyday. I don’t care for how my colleagues would think about me. As long as I’ve
fulfilled my responsibility, why do I still need to take OT work?
It appears that their mindsets tended not to be affected by colleagues, as no one would
consider the consequence of anyone working till 11pm or leaving at half five. The
only exception was from a sales manager, in which she sometimes took overtime
79

work at office intentionally in order to evade from other matters, like socializing with
customers.
The findings reveal 10~20 employees in average would require overtime work per
organization in HK. None of the HK respondents reckoned the manpower was in
short, though. Half of them alleged the ‘work’ being taken in non office hour was job
related. One respondent argued the cause of his colleagues having OT was due to their
poor work efficiency. The other half suggested those ‘work’ was merely chatting,
playing on-line games etc. so as to please the management when their OT minutes
boosted up. In fact, most respondents suggested their organizations had advocated the
overtime work culture. For instance, managers were keen to stay at office till late
evening. It was also generally agreed that number of overtime minutes would directly
affect the chance of promotion. The ‘image’ of the staff was important.
Most PRC respondents suggested their overtime work was job related. No
respondents regarded the manpower was in short. Most of them felt their
organizations was not advocating the overtime work culture, apart from one suggested
his director did send letters to each staff, begging for sacrificing their private time to
the organization. It ended up in failure as no one supported the call and the
management was poor. Nevertheless, all PRC respondents agreed number of overtime
80

minutes would not have impact on promotion; instead, the actual staff’s performance
was the only consideration. Ironically, staff having excess overtime work might be
challenged by others for being poor work efficient. Levin is an IT engineer who works
in a medium sized software development firm in PRC. His experience gave us some
idea about PRC organizational culture.
Interviewer: What is the consequence for staff having lots of OT work, and vice
versa?
Levin: Our boss just concerns about catching project deadline. The act of taking
much OT work can not please our boss. In most cases, time for running a project is
affluent. I feel that to some extent, we have at least 25% redundant staff. Therefore,
staff should by no means need to take OT work, unless that staff’s capability was in
doubt.
It was also found that HK managers wouldn’t mind staying with staff having overtime
work as kind of support and care. They would by no means coerce the staff to take
overtime work. However, a PRC supervisor swore that she would not stay with her
subordinate for overtime work as she claimed, “He’s not my husband!”
It was reported that both HK and PRC were lacking in support with respect to
81

overtime work issue. Most respondents wanted a reduced workload, travel allowance
and meal provision. Finally, almost all respondents agreed a simplified work-flow
would greatly improve organizational effectiveness; the next best was to train up the
staff to become more efficient. None of the respondents recommended overtime work
would enhance organizational effectiveness.
4.8 – Discussion and Summary
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It is discovered that staff’s preference for ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ having overtime work has
limited association with their personal traits, and there’s no correlation with
organizational effectiveness at all. It is lacking in evidence to support number of
staff’s OT mins would correlate with organizational effectiveness in most
circumstances; however, HK and PRC employees were still having considerable OT
mins.
It is found that most employees disliked overtime work in both places, which is in
coherence with the idea that people are lazy to work (Reynolds, 2005). Several past
literatures concluded money is a critical motivator for work (Chiu et al, 2002 &
Reynolds, 2005); however, this paper revealed ‘pay’ didn’t grab many employees’
attention.
Small portion of HK employees had overtime work because of their responsibility and
liability; some were being suspected that the accumulation of OT mins was due to
their poor work efficiency; however, most HK employees having overtime work were
owing to peer pressure and insincerity. Instead, PRC employees had overtime work
only when there’s a necessity. Though they could not be willing to, but they would
pick up the job as they generally felt it was their onus. It was suggested that the
concept of ‘Guanxi’ was generally applied in PRC (Wood et al, 2002). The employees
83

wouldn’t shirk the duty if the ‘Guanxi’ relation was well established between staff and
boss in PRC.
HK has got more ‘followers’, whereas PRC is found having more ‘individualists’.
This can be explained by the difference in national culture. To some extent, HK
possesses a hypocritical culture. Things go from bad to worse when people view
promotion is proportional to OT mins. The findings can also be explained by the
presence of strong group cohesiveness in HK companies. Cohesive groups do not
necessarily produce a higher level of output. The level of production is likely to
confirm to a standard acceptable as a norm by the group and may result in
maintaining either a high or a restricted level of output (Torrington et al, 2002).
Besides, supported by the interview results, HK employees do suffer a lot from peer
pressure. Lee et al quoted the act of bias and internal motion is caused by xenophobia
(Lee et al, 1999). Thus, when the overtime work culture has been well developed in a
company, any staff that challenges this norm will be seen as a ‘pagan’ inevitably. In
addition, rectifying a rooted culture of an organization takes years. Past research
confirms that supervisors and middle management may resist change (Ingram et al,
1997).
In PRC, people are far less materialistic and less sophisticated. The idea of
84

collectivism has firmly rooted in many people’s mind. As long as the economy growth
in PRC continues, people’s mindset may alter. This may end up with a change in
culture eventually. Perhaps this could be seen in the next generation; however, not at
the present. This result is found different from Hofstede’s traits concept. PRC has
been regarded as low individualism; in fact, the collected data show relative high
degree of individualism for most PRC respondents.
It is found that in majority, the tested variables do not show linkage. We opine that
several reasons can account for the outcome of the findings. As mentioned in
interview section, the motivation to have overtime work for each staff would be
different. Staff’s work capability could not be the same. Some of them could endure
long hours of work, physically, without the pattern of work quality deterioration;
however, some couldn’t. Thus, we postulate that the length of overtime work and
organizational effectiveness should be varied case by case, depends on the individual
staff’s various conditions.
From Hypothesis II, it is noticed that the link of overtime work and organizational
effectiveness for non managerial staff and tax payers in HK and PRC was associated,
but the impact was different. This implies a possibly cultural difference between HK
and PRC, causing a mismatched staff psychological behaviour. By verifying with the
85

interview results, it is reported that the staff in these two places were having different
mindsets. PRC staff preferred to minimize the OT work time to have their job
completed, as they regarded taking overtime work only if necessary. Thus, this ends
up with an effective production level within a concentrated period of OT work time,
and a possibly of decrease in work quality if staff were enforced to have OT work.
Nevertheless, the intention of HK staff taking overtime work could be varied. It was a
general belief in HK that longer the overtime work period would give a better
symbolic image to the staff. With this in mind, that might allure some HK employees,
especially to those low rank staff and tax liable staff to devote themselves more to
their companies. Perhaps these two particular classes of staff hope to prove
themselves through an intense investment to the companies they work for, in order to
attain a potential reward, like promotion, in the future. However, we argue that this
could merely be the minor group. It can not reflect the situation for the entire
population.
In addition to the presence of ‘Guanxi’ and hypocrisy, it is believed that Chinese
would have different interpretation on integrity and honesty from the West (Wood et
al, 2002). For instance, Chinese traditional believes and values emphasize “Male for
external work; Female for internal work” (Lee et al, 1999). Besides, PRC is governed
86

by one single political party. People are obliged to pay loyalty to the government.
Western notions of leadership may not be applicable in HK and PRC.
Ch.5 – Conclusion
In this paper, new empirical data and analysis on issues about employees having
overtime work in Hong Kong and PRC, and how they are related to organizational
effectiveness are offered. Staff’s preference for ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ having overtime
87

work and their personal traits have limited correlation. Moreover, there is no strong
proof whether organizational effectiveness is related to the length of staff’s OT mins.
The research findings in this paper can not conclude number of overtime work
minutes and organizational effectiveness are correlated.
HK and PRC employees uphold different reasons for having overtime work. PRC
employees would take overtime work only if it is needed, owing to their high calling
of responsibility. Nevertheless, HK employees would link number of overtime work
minutes to reputation or even promotion. We opine that the national cultural
difference should account for their behavioral dissimilarity. PRC people are less
sophisticated; HK people are more hypocritical.
According to the data collected from individual interviews, both HK and PRC
respondents believed the simplification of work-flow should greatly enhance the
organizational effectiveness. We suggest a redeployment of staff’s role within the
organization could help. Bringing in a change agent from outside may provide
unbiased solution. However, changing the organizational culture can never be easy.
Breaking the status quo could be painful to some parties which enjoy vested interests,
especially supervisors and middle managements are resistant to change (Ingram et al,
1997).
88

Besides, we recommend an improved quality of information systems should be
utilized. Information systems can perform calculations or process paperwork much
faster than people. It helps the distribution of information instantly to colleagues and
people across the world. It also provides new efficiencies through wide range of
services like advanced telephone systems (Laudon & Laudon, 2004). Information
management; however, guides the use of information to aid strategic planning. It
greatly enhances organizational effectiveness by providing better quality of decision
making, and directing a better use of scarce resources. It ultimately helps to attain
competitive advantage in the marketplace (McLeod & Schell, 2001).
Some HK respondents challenged their colleagues having overtime work was owing
to their failure of completing certain task in given period, i.e. inadequate work ability.
We could not prove the correctness of such statement; however, assume that is the
case, then we recommend the organization should put some effort on human resources
strategy. Human resource practices lead to high performance (Ashman & Winstanley,
2006). The processes of development, training and education are recognized as
fundamental to employee’s performance. Employees are valued assets and expensive
resources of an organization. They have to be trained in order to perform their best
89

and develop their potential to the fullest. The world is changing and the business
environment is turbulent. Competition is keen, and so the employees have to be
adaptable to cope with change. Otherwise, the organization’s performance will be
inefficient and ineffective.
Training should be viewed as a long term investment rather than just a cost. The
ultimate benefits of staff to improve their productivity should not be underestimated.
It has to ensure staffs are being utilized, and they are in line with organization’s goal.
This can be done in house, for instance on the job training, attending school lectures
etc. (Torrington, 2002).
To some extent, we recommend line managers and Personnel Department should
aware of staff’s abnormal overtime work hours, especially for those having pay for
overtime work. In terms of facility management, the elongated office hours end up
with the increase of fixed cost, e.g. lighting and air-conditioning. Moreover, staff
having perverted overtime work could just be the tip of the ice-berg. As seen in the
interview section, staff could choose having overtime work as a way to evade from
their personal problem. In addition, many articles (e.g. Savery & Luks, 2000;
Kawada & Ooya, 2005; etc.) suggested overtime work would lead staff to sickness,
accident prone and being pressurized. The same theme is reported in our questionnaire
90

findings. We opine that overtime work minutes should be reduced by all means.
The work culture in HK is seen corrupted. Having long overtime work period has
been regarded as diligent, in which an impressive image can be built on staff for
having more overtime minutes. This can be an essential element for having
promotion. Contrariously, staffs having no or less overtime work are coined as lazy.
They are prone to have less promotion chance, which is inequitable.
This culture should be rectified. In fact, HK government should actively take a
leading role. For instance, we recommend the government could advocate the idea of
‘lesser overtime work’ to public through strong advertisement. Private companies can
be awarded if they participate some sorts of ‘No OT’ campaign. To the last resort,
legislation on limiting the maximum hours of overtime work can be considered. HK
government started phasing in a five-day week from July 1, 2006. This is an initiative
to reduce the pressure of the working population and to improve the quality of their
family life, without impairing operational efficiency. The government believes the
scheme will bolster civil service morale, promote social harmony and bring about
positive impact on the community (HKSAR – Civil Service Bureau, 2006). We praise
this scheme pretty highly.
91

Due to the research method we used, maybe there are other factors that we have not
been able to capture; for instance, the relationship between performance and tenure,
though it was reported that no evidence was found between these two items
(Weisberg, 1996). Owing to the limited time allowance, the difference in
organizational effectiveness for staff having overtime work in public and private
sectors was not studied. In addition, the difference in staff’s field of industry and
whether the staff had a religion were not taken into consideration of assessing the
effects of their OT mins on organizational effectiveness.
Chi square test with cell number less than five could be less reliable (Adams, Raeside
& White, 2005). The calculated statistical figures could have been subjected to
relative error. This should be addressed in the future work. In addition, using tax
liability to define a person’s prosperity was not flawless. A high paid employee
without tax liability could be subjected to tax deductions. However, under the
constraint of the tight time frame, these minor factors were ignored.
Furthermore, the data were collected using self-report measures. We can never
challenge the respondents’ answers, though they could be subjective, and there could
have no criterion to unify each respondent’s feedback as different respondent has
different scale of judgment. Moreover, merely Guangdong province was chosen to
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