QXGX6103 Research Methods and Data Analysis for Social Scientists

RESEARCH PROPOSAL: GENDER DIFFERENCES IN SPENDING BEHAVIOR AND FINANCIAL STRESS AMONG EMPLOYEES IN MALAYSIA

By SITI MAHERA BT AHMAT AMIN CHRISTINA KRYBUS LEE WENG KEN Asia-Europe Institute

September 2011

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter Title
Abstract Acknowledgment

Page
i ii

INTRODUCTION
1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Background of the Study Problem Statement Purpose of the Study Research Objectives Research Questions Theoretical Framework Significance of the Study Scope of the Study Limitation of Study References 1 2 3 5 5 5 6 6 6 7

LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Introduction Credit Card Spending in Malaysia Saving behavior Interrelationship between credit card spending and level of financial stress among employees in workplace Interrelationship between saving habit and level of financial stress among employees in workplace Interrelationship between gender differences in spending behavior Summary References 9 9 10 11 12 12 13 14

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Introduction Measurement Questionnaire Design Sampling Procedure and Data Collection Methods Independent and Dependent Variables Hypothesis Testing Data Analysis References 16 16 16 16 17 18 18 19

ABSTRACT

Financial stress has become the major stressor among employees in Malaysia. This type of stress will give many bad effects not only to the employees but also to the employers. The employees productivity will be affected and at the same time their employers will be facing with loss too. Understanding gender differences in the spending habit, particularly among the employees in the workplace has important implications. A good employer must be able to provide financial education programmes for the staffs so that they can manage their own financial matters. To study the gender differences in spending behavior among employees in Malaysia, is not an only an easy task but also this topic is not researched enough, .therefore this study is being conducted. Keywords: financial stress, financial education, spending habit, spending behavior,

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

First of all, we would like to be thankful to The Mighty God for giving us the patience and feeling to be committed in completing this research proposal. Without this courage, we would not be able to accomplish this research on time. We also would like to say a great expression to our beloved lecturer, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hjh. Sabitha Marican for guiding and assisting us in order to complete this research proposal smoothly without any severe problems. The guidance from her helped us to arrange everything according to the standard procedure. During her research class, she had supplied us with many examples to make sure we understand. Throughout that, we were able to come out with a complete chapter 1, 2 and 3 as the complete research proposal at the end. Her kindness will always be memorable. Special thanks to all of our friends that helped us to find any related information to our research and gave us hands when we were really in need. Lastly, we offer our regards and blessings to all of those who supported us in any respect during the completion of this research proposal paper.

Chapter 1

1.1 Background of Study At the moment, human being and stress cannot be separated. However people rarely know what kind of stress they are facing with. Stressfocus (2011) divides stress into two kinds ; eustress is the good one meanwhile distress is the bad one. Acute stress and chronic stress falls under distress type. Positive stress may lead to positive acts, however negative stress surely will give bad implications as a new study from Couriermail (2011) states that most women that become violence victims usually facing with financial strain and other related stress. For students, homework and going to morning class can become their major stress but for the working people, money is the main reason why they work hard so that they can get all the necessity goods (Socyberty, 2006). Scott (2011) points out from the study she conducted, 70% of the respondents highly rates finance as the most stress factors in their life. Marine Corps Community Services (2011) explains person that facing with financial stress is the one that facing with too much debt in hands and were given warning letter of returned checks due to the deficiency understanding in financial education.

Raghubir and Srivastava (2008) reported various form of payments such as by using credit card rather than cash and put aside cash for savings and to spend can reflect the differences in spending behavior. According to Leila and Laily (2011), the behavior of men and women are dissimilar whereby they socialized in a different way due to the gender theories, moreover individuals attitude and behavior will be shaped through the social structural variables. Hence, there must be differences in their spending behavior too, that is why this study need to be conducted. Armour (2007) in USA Today asserts workers that facing with the increasing of defaults on credit card and home foreclosures will affect their work productivity and at the same time they also facing with high level of emotional stress within the working area. In another study from Virginia Tech (n.d) estimates 10 to 15% of the personnel who are infected with this silent epidemic will perform lower level of job productivity. 1.2 Problem Statement There is no denying that financial strain has become one of the major stressors for employees within workplace. Delafrooz and Laily (2011) also agree that financial stress is the main stressor compare to others. With the challenges posed by globalization, there is a significant need for identifying the relationship between gender and their spending behavior toward the financial stress in the place of work. Numerous studies have been conducted on the spending behavior of men and women are being published in various scientific journals and in the form of other literature review too. According to the Counseling and Credit Management Agency or known as AKPK (2010), men is the one who spend more and most of the cases that being carried out shows the young who just turn 30 already in debt to tune of thousands and nowadays it has become a worrisome trend. Through the common observation, most will answer women will spend more than men. However, some of the studies from AKPK (2010) has investigated that men used to spend without thinking, they will just take the thing

they need and just straight away go to the pay counter. Different from the women, women tend to list out all the thing she need in a paper then bring it along while do the shop, and it is believed working wives and mothers will put on much concern on the households welfare more than anything else. Master card Worldwide Index of Womens Advancement (2010: 140) contends that 48.5% women see themselves as the financial decision maker in the household. As if more women tend to control all the financial management in the house, so women might be facing with many stressful condition rather than men. Another study from Prawitz and Garman (2009) claim that people that facing with financial stress at house will carry it to the workplace and the employer will facing with loss of employees job productivity. Meanwhile Bernama (2011) has reported about 53 000 individuals with debts amounted nearly RM 5 billion have asked AKPKs guidance due to the financial problem. As Mohd Yusoff Abd Rahman, FOMCA Communication Director reports in Harian Metro (2011) the debt from credit card holder in Malaysia has nearly reach RM 28.8 billion overall. From study being mentioned above, it is believed the excessiveness spending with credit card has become the main problem and for sure the credit card holders usually are the working people. The Association of Banks in Malaysia (2003) points out that the approval credit card holders are among the person who 21 years or above and their minimum income per year must be RM 18 000. Is it true every working people spend much on the credit card? And is it true spending much on credit card can become one of the stressors that lead to financial stress in the working place? Other than spending on credit card, what are the other spending behaviors among the working people? The employer should educate their employees with proper financial education to ensure the employees can monitor their own spending behavior in a right way. Findings from Delafrooz and Paim (2011) clearly indicate too many debts are one of the unmanageable stressors and it can become a challenging issue nowadays. On a more serious note, 6.43 percent of the outstanding debts had to be converted to non-performing loans. An alarming increase in the number of credit card holders

seeking bankruptcy proceedings over the years was also reported according to Zafar and his other friends (2010). Given the situation, it is high time that our local government takes serious effort in helping public to manage their financial stress by establishing the Counseling and Credit Management Agency (AKPK) which been set up by Bank Negara Malaysia in April 2006 to assist individuals take control of their financial situation and gain peace of mind that comes from the wise use of credit. What is required now is to identify what is the relation between financial stress and the spending behavior. Furthermore, we can see that issue of credit card debt has become a hot topic in magazines and newspapers. Therefore it is relevant to observe about employees spending behavior and additionally, there is no holistic in-depth research study that has been conducted in Malaysia to identify how the gender differences contribute to level of financial stress in the workplace. Apart from the studies conducted on the issue of credit card debt that been mushrooming seriously and become a trend for working people, there is a growing need to determine whether the gender differences in spending behavior can affect their level of financial stress in place of work. This is because women is said to be emotional rather than men and their level of financial stress in workplace must be much higher. 1.3 Purpose of Study The purpose of this study is to examine the gender differences in the spending behavior which lead to financial constrain. To determine this purpose of study, thorough analysis of study need to be done in order to make this research study a success. Henceforth, the objectives of this study have been stated in the following paragraph.

1.4 Research Objectives The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between gender differences in spending behavior and the level of financial stress among employees in Malaysia. Specifically, this study is conducted to fulfill the following objectives: 1. To determine the most type of spending behaviors which lead to the financial stress among the employees in the workplace. 2. To assess if there is any relationship between gender differences and financial stress in workplace. 1.5 Research Questions This study sets forth the following research questions: 1. What are gender differences in the spending behavior that leads to financial stress? 2. Is there any relationship between gender and financial stress in workplace? 1.6 Theoretical Framework

Spending Behavior -Credit Card spending -Saving behavior Financial Stress in workplace

Gender

Figure 1 : Research Model

This section includes a discussion of the components in the theoretical framework developed for this study which is presented in Figure 1. It was assumed that there is a relationship between gender differences in spending behavior and financial stress among individuals especially within the workplace. One of the ways to measure spending behavior is to operationalize spending behavior and have a look on the peoples Credit Card debts. Credit card spending can lead to financial stress since the more a person spend on their credit card, the higher the amount of debt they will be facing, and the higher level of financial stress they will have. Another element in financial behavior is the saving behavior. The saving habit among employees will reflect how they manage their own financial matters. The higher concern of people to save more can reduce the stress level in the future. 1.7 Significance of the Study This study is apparently one of the first few attempts to help employers to identify the need of financial education for their employees in the workplace. Hence, it will give implication to the employees in their financial management practices. The findings of this study could provide some form of empirical data for future research in this area and become an additional research study to help other researchers in doing the study in this area in depth. Furthermore this study will help managers to have a better understanding of cardholders in Malaysia and their attitude and behavior toward usage of credit cards. 1.8 Scope of the Study This study investigated the gender differences in spending behavior that lead to financial stress which based on the questionnaires. They will be distributed to the list of names and addresses which will be obtained by Malaysian Trade Union Congress. 1.9 Limitations of the Study This study is based on a case study within Malaysia only. There is not enough statistical support for conclusive results or for generalizing the findings of this study.

References AKPK (2010). Who said women spend more?. Retrieved September 16, 2011, from http://www.akpk.org.my/my/peristiwa/berita/siaran-akhbar/id/196/bisik-bisik Armour, S. (2007) Workers' financial stress may hurt productivity. USA Today, Retrieved September 25, 2011, from http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2007-09-04foreclosure-stress_N.htm Bernama (2011). AKPK Assists 53,000 Individuals With Debts Totalling RM5 Billion Since 2006. Retrieved September 17, 2011, from http://www.akpk.org.my/my/peristiwa/berita/siaran-akhbar/id/192/akpk-assists53000-individuals-with-debts-totalling-rm5-billion-since-2006 Couriermail (2011). Financial stress linked to violence. Retrieved September 23, 2011, from http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/breaking-news/financial-stress-linkedto-violence/story-e6freonf-1226143480316 Delafrooz, N., and Laily,H. P. (2011). Determinants of Saving Behavior and Financial Problem among Employees in Malaysia. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Science, Volume number 5, Issue number 7, Page number 222 228. Retrieved September 17, 2011, from http://www.insipub.com/ajbas/2011/July-2011/222228.pdf Harian Metro. Hutang kad kredit rakyat kita RM 28.8 bilion, (2011, September 2). p. Metroplus 5. Leila, F. And Laily, H. P. (2011). Gender Differences in Financial Well-being, Financial Socialization and Financial Knowledge among College Students. Life Science Journal. Volume number 8. Issue number 3, Page number 173 178. Retrieved September 20, 2011, from http://www.lifesciencesite.com/lsj/life0803/033_6168life0803_173_178.pdf Marine Corps Community Services (2011). Financial Problems. Retrieved September 15,2011, from http://www.usmcmccs.org/LeadersGuide/Personal/Financial/findistress Master card Worldwide Index of Womens Advancement (2010). Money matters. Herworld. Page number 140 141. Prawitz, A.D., and Garman, E.T. (2009). Its time to create a financially literate workforce to improve the bottom line. Benefits Compensation Digest, Volume number 46, Issue number 4, Page number 1 6. Retrieved September 15, 2011, from http://pfeef.org/research/vte/Benefits-Compensation-Feb-09-Article.pdf

Raghubir, P., and Srivastava,J. (2008). Monopoly Money: The Effect of Payment Coupling and Form on Spending Behavior. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Volume number 14, Issue number 3, Page number 213 225. Retrieved September 20, 2011, from http://blogs.southtownstar.com/money/xap143213.pdf Scott, E. (2011). Financial Stress - How It Affects You and What You Can Do Break Free From Financial Stress. Retrieved September 25, 2011, from http://stress.about.com/od/financialstress/a/financialstress.htm Socyberty (2006). Why do People Think Work is so Important?. Retrieved September 15, 2011, from http://socyberty.com/work/why-do-people-think-work-is-soimportant/ Stressfocus (2011). Types of Stress - Some Good, Some Bad. Retrieved September 25, 2011, from http://www.stressfocus.com/stress_focus_article/types-of-stress.htm The Association of Banks in Malaysia (2003). Card Transactions and you. Retrieved September 17, 2011, from http://www.bankinginfo.com.my/_system/media/downloadables/bnm_eng.pdf Virginia Tech (n.d). Chapter 1 and Chapter 2. Retrieved September 24, 2011, from http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-1008200023210012/unrestricted/chapter1and2.pdf Worell, J. (2002). Gender and Coping With Stress. Encyclopedia of Women and Gender: Sex Similarities and Differences and the Impact of Society on Gender, Band 2. ACADEMIC PRESS, Elsevier. L Z Volume 2. Pages 1106 1111. Retrieved September 24, 2011 from http://books.google.de/books?id=3wxAgGUsaYC&pg=PA1107&lpg=PA1107&dq=spending+stress+gender&source= bl&ots=3f5cVPyyDn&sig=Xz23f_cB4mywJwExw7Pwk1cJf3I&hl=de&ei=tE95 Tv26Ds_nrAePxJjYDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&sqi=2&v ed=0CDsQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=spending%20stress%20gender&f=false Zafar U. Ahmed, Ishak Ismail, M. Sadiq Sohail, Ibrahim Tabsh, & Hasbalaila Alias. (2010). Malaysian consumers credit card usage behavior. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics Vol. 22 No. 4, 2010 pp. 528-544. from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1889590&show=abstract

Chapter 2

2.0 Introduction Researchers found out that the most popular problem regarding to financial matters is credit card debts. From the problem statement, it is believed many credit card holders are not aware of the consequences of credit. They only made the minimum payment and that makes them involved with serious financial problem (1klassifieds : C11). Spending behavior as credit card spending and saving habit will influence the level of financial stress among the employees in the work place whereby it will also give impact toward their work performance as well. However, in this study, researchers decide to focus on the spending part only. 2.1 Credit Card Spending in Malaysia Green (2011) finds out the history of credit card whereby is can be defined as a card that permit the circling of credit from month to month, which means the cardholder do the debt repayment over more than a few months. Speaking of credit card, working people is the first group of people that will come into our mind. Findings from Cheu and Loke (2008) indicates that Bank Negara Malaysia only

offers a minimum of RM 18 000 annually for the credit card applicants after the Asian crisis in 1997 rather than RM 24 000 before the crisis started. As Zafar, Ishak, M.Sadiq, Ibrahim and Hasbalaila (2010) reports that during the early stage of the credit card introduction in the middle of 1970s, only being used by the successful businesspersons and also to the professionals. However, at the end of that year, about 20 000 cards were being issued. Currently, C K (2010) claims there is an uprising number of Malaysian credit card holders. This situation shows Malaysian tend to use credit rather than cash. Another study from Financial Planning Malaysia (2005) founds credit card is the gadget that can either lead to positive or negative way of living. Malaysia Credit Card (2008) contends that the credit card utilization can actually save more if being used appropriately. Table 1 : Credit Card Operations in Malaysia

Source:

Bhattacharjee, R. B.(2010). Tame the demon of credit card debt. The Edge. Retrieved September 22, 2011, from http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/commentary/178725-tame-the-demonof-credit-card-debt.html

The table above shows the credit card operations in Malaysia and there is increasing in the amount of balances overdue, though the gap is quite small but it has given many negative impacts. 2.2 Saving behavior Delafrooz and Laily (2011: V2-361) clearly indicates that consumers are very concerned about their financial savings sufficiency even the personal saving rate is declining over time. The study also discovers the saving rate is quite low among 68% of the respondents that involve working people. Saving behavior is said to become part of the financial management practices, hence it is one of the most important

factors for increase the people intention to save more or less (Delafrooz and Laily, 2011). Saidatulakmal (2004: 59) suggested other than income growth, labour force involvement of elderly, inflation, social security retirement, saving rate is also part of important determinants in ones economic development. 2.3 Interrelationship between credit card spending and level of financial stress among employees in workplace EAP (n.d) challenges the view of Malaysia Credit whereby credit card debts are not easy to be removed. It leads to financial stress among employees for sure. Excessive spending behavior and the failure to pay back are the consequences from the credit card holders unawareness toward the agreements that being made with the credit card issuers (Cheu and Loke, 2008). Contradictly, one of the study by Hafalir and Loewenstein (2009) disagree that usage of credit card can increase spending. However, there are not many articles or journals can be found to support this statement. Irby (2011) maintains that three of bad spending habits that involve with credit card usage are : use credit card for daily goods, use credit card when have cash in hands, and pay off debt using credit card. These three kinds of credit card spending behavior will lead an individual to carry out thousands up to millions of debts. Another article from the same author explained on the dos and donts when using credit card. One of the donts has already been mentioned in the previous article, another three donts are; making minimum credit card payment, purchase things you cant afford, and another bad credit card spending habit is by closing credit card without knowing the impact. Uncontrolled credit card spending can affect employers profitability since Financial Literacy Partners (n.d) indicates employees personal finance matters will give direct influence toward it. 10 % of working adults who have been identified are facing financial difficulties frequently in their daily life as reported during 1979, up

till now it has increased to 25%. Based on the foregoing review of literature, the following hypothesis is postulated: H1: The level of credit card spending can affect the level of financial stress among employees in workplace 2.4 Interrelationship between saving habit and level of financial stress among employees in workplace Today the economically life is tougher and the workers have o face higher prices in food, energy costs and health care services. The care about those necessary goods leads the individuals to think about savings. (Delafrooz and Laily, 2011) The knowledge about money is important because it can affect the attitude towards it in either a positive or negative way. Financial literacy, income, and marital status were found to be the most influential predictors of saving behavior. Financial illiteracy and lack of information affect the ability to save and to secure a comfortable retirement. Financial literacy will enhance the ability to handle day to day financial matters and will reduce the negative consequences of poor financial decisions that otherwise might take years to overcome. Low financial knowledge leads to a lack of financial planning which causes financial stress. thus the following directional hypothesis is created: H2 : Saving habit can affect the level of financial stress among employees in workplace 2.5 Interrelationship between gender differences in spending behavior and financial stress Based on the findings made by Cheu and Loke (2008), men are found to become the main holders of planned debts which refers to house and car loans, meanwhile the unplanned debt holders goes to women. Credit card debts had fallen down under the category of unplanned debts for sure. In addition, both of the researchers said women tend to be facing with difficulties in doing the credit card payment after the bills getting higher without realized.

Borneo Post Online (2011) points out nearly 10% of women are having financial stress rather than small percentage of men which is only 3%. It is believed that women tend to have the sense that they must fulfill their childrens needs and also the household as reported by California based Financial Finesse, the research analyst that conduct this survey in New York. Tahira and Mugenda (2000) mentioned that twice as many women as men reported buying without need, buying things they wouldnt need and making unplanned purchases. A significantly higher number of women compared with men reported buying as often as they could, shopping as a method of celebrating, demonstrated an inability to resist sales, and agreed that spending habits created chaos in their lives. But women are more likely than men to be satisfied with their level of savings. Not many findings can be found on the relationship between gender and the spending behavior but generally, researchers can say that women tend to have high level of financial stress rather than men. Hence this directional hypothesis being forwarded: H3 : There is no gender differences in spending behavior which lead to financial stress 2.6 Summary Based on the above literature, it can be seen that there are contradictory views as to identify whether gender differences is an important element in deciding the spending way. Each elements will be analyzed carefully by assistance of all the secondary sources and the primary sources which will collected. As for the employers, this research paper surely can help to identify the importance in creating financial well being program in assisting all of their employees in workplace to generate more profit for the sake of the company.

References Bhattacharjee, R. B.(2010). Tame the demon of credit card debt. The Edge. Retrieved September 22, 2011, from http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/commentary/178725-tame-the-demon-of-creditcard-debt.html Borneo Post Online (2011). More women report financial stress. Retrieved September 23,2011, from http://www.theborneopost.com/2011/06/29/more-women-report%e2%80%98financial-stress%e2%80%99-survey-finds/ Cheu, S. P., and Loke. Y. J. (2008). Credit Card Holders: Distinguishing the good apples from the bad apples. 11th International Convention of the East Asian Economic Asso. Retrieved September, 22, 2011, from http://eprints.usm.my/11456/1/Credit_Cardholders.pdf C K, C. C. (2009). Credit Cards and the Malaysian Budget 2010. Retrieved September 18, 2011, from http://www.creditcardlighthouse.com/2009/10/credit-cards-andmalaysian-budget-2010.html Delafrooz, N. and Laily, P. (2011). Personal Saving Behavior among Malaysian Employees: Socio Demographic Comparison. 2011 International Conference on Social Science and Humanity IPEDR. Volume number 5. Page number V2:361 V2:363. Retrieved September 22, 2011, from http://www.ipedr.net/vol5/no2/79-H10207.pdf Delafrooz, N., and Laily,H. P. (2011). Determinants of Saving Behavior and Financial Problem among Employees in Malaysia. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Science, Volume number 5, Issue number 7, Page number 222 228. Retrieved September 17, 2011, from http://www.insipub.com/ajbas/2011/July-2011/222228.pdf EAP (n.d). Emotions, Money, and Financial Stress. Retrieved September 22, 2011, from http://www.bnl.gov/eap/linkable_files/pdf/Emotions_Money_Financial_Stress.pdf Financial Literacy Partners (2005). Employee Financial Stress is Costing Your Company a Bundle-And How You Can Stop It Now! Retrieved September 20, 2011, from https://www.takefinancialaction.com/upload/Is_Employee_Financial_Stress_Cost ing_Your_Company_A_Bundle.pdf

Green, A. (2011). History of Credit Cards. Credit Donkey. Retrieved September 16, 2011, from http://www.creditdonkey.com/history-of-credit.html Hafalir, E. I., and Loewenstein, G. (2009). The Impact of Credit Cards on Spending: A Field Experiment. Retrieved September 15, 2011, from http://server1.tepper.cmu.edu/Seminars/docs/CreditCardStudy%2009.10.01.pdf Harian Metro. Profil Hutang AKPK, (2011, September 2). p.1klassifieds C11 Irby, L. (2011). Dos and Don'ts Of Using Credit Cards Responsibly. About.com Guide. retrieved September 17, 2011, from http://credit.about.com/od/creditcardbasics/a/dosandonts.htm Irby, L. (2011). Five Spending Habits That Lead To Debt. About.com Guide. retrieved September 17, 2011, from http://credit.about.com/od/avoidingdebt/tp/debtspending.htm Malaysia Credit Card (2008). Using Credit Card. Retrieved September 22, 2011, from http://www.creditcardmalaysia.com/using-credit-card/ Saidatulakmal, M. (2004). A Co-integration Analysis on the Saving Rate Determinants in Malaysia. Kajian Malaysia, Jld. XXII, No.1. Retrieved September 15, 2011, from http://eprints.usm.my/17376/1/A_COINTEGRATION_ANALYSIS_ON_THE_SAVING_RATE_DETERMINANTS_ IN_MALAYSIA.pdf Tahira K. Hira, & Mugenda, O. (2000). Gender Differences in Financial Perceptions, Behaviors and Satisfaction. FPA Journal. Issues/jfp0200 Zafar, U. A., Ishak, I., M. Sadiq, S., Ibrahim, T. and Hasbalaila, A. (2010). Malaysian consumers credit card usage behavior. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics. Volume number 22. Issue Number 4, Page number 528 544. Retrieved September 22, 2011, from www.emeraldinsight.com/1355-5855.htm

Chapter 3

3.0 Introduction This chapter reviews the methodology for this research proposal as overall. As researchers stated in chapter 1, the aim of this study is to identify the gender differences in spending behavior which lead to financial stress among employees in Malaysia. Data for this research will be collected through questionnaires as the instrument which has been adapted from others questionnaires and being adapted from the theoretical framework model as well(Figure 1) in chapter 1. 3.1 Measurement Construct measurements in this study are the level of Credit Cards Debts, Saving Habit (e.g. monthly saving) and The Level of Stress. This study will be able to identify the correlation between these 3 measurements. 3.2 Questionnaire Design

As being discussed above, a questionnaire was developed to obtain appropriate amount of data to be analyzed. This questionnaire contains 4 sections to explore (i) basic demographic information, (ii) the level of credit cards debts among respondents, (iii) the saving habit of respondents and (iv) the psychological stress level of the respondents. In order to record respondents opinion and test the relevancy of the questionnaire, the questionnaire will be distributed through mail to the selected respondent from the Committee Members of Malaysian Trade Union Congress. 3.3 Sampling Procedure and Data Collection Methods Researchers decided to apply multistage sampling to obtain unbiased samples. First of all, to get the right population, researchers went through Malaysian Trade Union Congress website to identify the whole population of employees in Malaysia. After went through the website, researchers apply the cluster sampling which refers to randomly selected group to ensure the selected population will have an equal and independent chance to be selected for the sample. Researchers decide to cluster it according to the sector such as government sector, private sector, local authorities and also the employer. Researchers sampling frame will be obtained from Malaysian Trade Union Congress which consists of 662 workers union and more than 800,000 of members in Malaysia. From the sampling frame, researchers will pick up the sample size according to Sekaran (2010). To complete the research design process, questionnaires will be distributed at the end of October if this proposal is being approved and researchers assume the data can be analyzed in the early of December. Follow ups will be used to ensure the number of respondents could be reached at the given time. 3.4 Independent and Dependent Variables

According to the theoretical framework in Chapter 1, one independent variable has been identified which is spending behavior. The mediating variable is gender, and the dependent variable refers to financial stress level within the workplace.

3.5 Hypothesis Testing Based on the literature review on chapter 2, several research hypotheses were developed: H1: The level of credit card spending can affect the level of financial stress among employees in workplace H2 : Saving habit can affect the level of financial stress among employees in workplace H3 : There is no gender differences in spending behavior which lead to financial stress 3.6 Data Analysis Due to our quantitative research by using a questionnaire the best way to analyse the data will be the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) version 19.0 will be applied as two means had been picked up as the most preferable in the researchers study to analyze all the data that been collected from the questionnaires. Several analyses will be performed: i. Regression coefficient Most of the moderator variables measure casual relationship using regression coefficient. Deciding which variable is the moderator depends in large part on the researchers interest. Researchers pick gender which will give effect to the relationship of independent variable and dependent variable. iii. Correlation

To examine the natural relationship between independent and the dependent variables, this test analysis is the most suitable mean which been called as Pearson correlation test. Hence, a reliable result will be achieved because the data will be measure using the continuous scales of measurement. Positive correlation coefficient means that as the particular independent variable increases, the dependent variable will also increases and vice versa for determining the negative relationship. References Sekaran, U and Bougie, R (2010). Research Methods for Business: A Skill Building Approach, 5th Edition, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd Yu, C. H. (n.d). Statistics, Data Analysis, and Data Mining, Page number 1 6. Retrieved July 19, 2010 http://www2.sas.com/proceedings/sugi26/p246-26.pdf