Study on the Relationship Between Employee Satisfaction and Corporate Performance in Japan via Text Mining

Abstract

For the past 30 years, under the stagnant Japanese economy, companies have adopted various management strategies, and employees’ sense of values has become more diverse. In this study, we conduct research on the relationship between employee satisfaction and corporate performance.Although survey-based methods are used as a common approach to assessing employee satisfaction, we determined employee satisfaction by performing sentiment analysis based on online reviews of employees. In addition, we developed two performance indicators based on financial cash flow figures, which include the growth rate of operating cash flow and the ratio of investing cash flow to operating cash flow. These figures demonstrate corporate operating cash flow performance, as well as management’s attitude toward investment. By analyzing Japanese companies in the information and communication, electric appliance, and transportation equipment industries, we obtained three findings: 1) the companies with high operating cash flow growth affects or are positively affected by employee satisfaction with “Accomplishment” and “Promotion,” 2) the companies with low operating cash flow growth and aggressive investment over operating cash flow affect or are affected by variations in employee satisfaction with “Accomplishment,” 3) the companies in information and communication industry with high operating cash flow growth and aggressive investment over operating cash flow negatively affect or are affected by employee satisfaction with “corporate atmosphere.”