Investigating how motivation affects generation Y s relatedness in the workplace

Transcription

1 HROB*4100 Professor S. Lyons Investigating how motivation affects generation Y s relatedness in the workplace December 9th, 2011 Tara-Lynn Dent, Lesley James, Cam Beck, Colin Vince, Pricilla Mena, Roxanne Johnson, Jennifer Grant, Paige Caletti

2 Introduction In today s workforce, organizations face the challenge of having to meet the needs of four different generational cohorts that have grown up in different times and have various perspectives based on life experiences and fluctuations in the economy (Twenge et al., 2010). The newest generation in the workforce, generation Y, has been said to have different values and needs than previous generations. In recent years, organizations have been faced with the new issue of integrating this generation. Generation Y has been found to be more external and to have lower relatedness than previous generations, which may cause problems when integrating them into the workforce. It is important for organizations to recognize the specific values and needs of generation Y, in order to foster an efficient workforce. We will investigate how extrinsic motivation affects generation Y s relatedness in the workplace using elements of the self determination theory as expressed by Deci and Ryan. This will help managers decide which approach is best to implement into their organization, to motivate generation Y to work more effectively. Self-determination theory makes the distinction between autonomous and controlled motivation. For generation Y to work most effectively it is important that the managerial approaches enforce the self-determination theory. Specifically when looking at the self-determination theory, we are looking at whether different types of motivation affect generation Y s relatedness in the workplace. The outcome of this study will allow us to determine the most effective way of motivating generation Y. Literature Review Generations Generation Y are individuals born between the years of 1982 and This generation has grown up within the technology era, using a variety of social networking sites as a main 1

3 source of communication, which is different than previous generation s face-to-face way of socializing. To generation Y, work is a means to an end; essentially they work to live as opposed to live to work (Twenge et al., 2010). Generation Y has grown up with constant praise and recognition, which is said to have caused them to be fickle and high maintenance with a high sense of entitlement (Clement, 2008). Members of this generation are also known to have lower levels of organizational commitment and need for social approval (DeMeuse & Mlodzik, 2010). Due to generation Y growing up in a technological era, this affects their social interactions with others and contributes to their low organizational commitment. This may have implications for their relatedness in the workplace. Conflict in the workplace can be due to intergenerational misconceptions and miscommunication; this can have a negative impact on the organization (DeMeuse & Mlodzik, 2010). Managers should know the different values of each generation, as they will be able to facilitate better work environments and therefore, come up with better ways for employees to work together increasing their relatedness. Managers who possess stereotypes of generational cohorts whether accurate or not, may unknowing create factions within an organization. As with other stereotypes, manages may adopt attitude behaviors and expectations based on generalizations rather then reality (DeMeuse & Mlodzik, 2010). The needs of these different generations pose a challenge for managers. Specifically, motivating these individuals in order to meet the needs and values of different generations. Management needs to be aware that generation Y is more concerned with high monetary returns (Campbell & Twenge, 2008). This suggests that generation Y may be more extrinsically motivated. 2

4 Motivation Theory According to Latham & Pinder (2005), work motivation is a set of energetic forces that originate both within as well as beyond an individual's being, to initiate work-related behavior and to determine its form, direction, intensity, and duration. Psychologically, motivation is a process that results from the interaction between the environment and the individual. It is believed that workers have two fundamentally different orientations towards work. Some perceive work as a means to an end, and are therefore said to be extrinsically motivated. While others are said to be intrinsically motivated and satisfy their need for achievement and selfactualization through their work (Thomas, Buboltz & Winkelspetch, 2004). This suggests that management should take different approaches to motivate employees and satisfy their different needs. Self-Determination Theory A theory of motivation that has garnered a lot of attention in recent years is selfdetermination theory (SDT). This theory makes the distinction between autonomous motivation and controlled motivation, which involves acting with a sense of volition and having the experience of choice (Deci & Gagne, 2005). An important aspect of this theory is that extrinsic motivation can vary in the degree to which it is autonomous versus controlled (Deci & Gagne, 2005). Self-determination theory has three components within it, which are presented below. 1) The autonomy orientation assesses the extent to which a person is oriented toward aspects of the environment that stimulate intrinsic motivation, are optimally challenging, and provide informational feedback. A person high in autonomy orientation tends to display greater selfinitiation, seek activities that are interesting and challenging, and take greater responsibility for his or her own behavior (Deci & Ryan, 2011). High autonomy orientations in past research have 3

5 been associated with higher levels of self-esteem, ego development, and self-actualisation as well as greater integration in personality (Deci & Ryan, 2011). 2) The controlled orientation assesses the extent to which a person is oriented toward being controlled by rewards, deadlines, structures, ego-involvements, and the directives of others. A person high on the controlled orientation is likely to be dependent on rewards or other controls, and may be more attuned to what others demand than to what they want for themselves. In the U.S., at least, a person high in the controlled orientation is likely to place extreme importance on wealth, fame, and other extrinsic factors (Deci & Ryan, 2011). The controlled orientation has been related to public self-consciousness (Deci & Ryan, 2011). This shows that controlled motivation (a form of extrinsic motivation) has been proven to have an affect on generation Y in the workplace by decreasing their public self-consciousness. 3) The impersonal orientation assesses the extent to which a person believes that attaining desired outcomes is beyond his or her control and that achievement is largely a matter of luck or fate. People high on this orientation are likely to be anxious and to feel very ineffective. They have no sense of being able to affect outcomes or cope with demands or changes. They tend to be a motivated and to want things to be as they always were (Deci & Ryan, 2011). Impersonal orientation has been found to predict higher levels of social anxiety, depression, and selfderogation (Deci & Ryan, 2011). Extrinsic Motivation Society s perception on generation Y is that they are intrinsically motivated but the findings have shown that they may be just as extrinsically motivated as other generations (Twenge et al., 2010). Extrinsic elements in the workplace include things such as pay, benefits and job security. If there are major problems within the workplace, especially problems that 4

6 threaten pay and security, manager support for self-determination is not very relevant to employees (Ryan & Connell, 1989). However, when these major problems are eliminated, for instance unfreezing wages, immediate employer and employee relationships become more relevant and there is a stronger correlation to job satisfaction. Therefore, it seems that employees would rather have concrete evidence to prove that employers are concerned with employees (Ryan & Connell, 1989). Extrinsic work value orientation concerns the traditional pursuit of success by advancing up the organizational hierarchy to achieve prestige, status, and high income (Watts, 1992). Within SDT, the pursuits of financial success, power and status reflect an extrinsic orientation because the importance of these values mostly lies within the anticipated personal admiration and self-worth that can be obtained by realizing them (Vansteenkiste et., al, 2007). Intrinsic Motivation Intrinsic motivation is an important construct, which reflects the natural human propensity to learn and assimilate (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Intrinsically motivated behaviors are performed out of interest and satisfy the innate psychological needs for competence and autonomy. These intrinsically motivated behaviors are the prototype of self-determined behavior (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Intrinsic work value orientation reflects the employee s need for selfdevelopment. This includes the natural desire to actualize, develop and grow at the work place. This self-development includes affiliation, meaning the desire to build meaningful relationships with fellow colleagues, and the desire to help people in need (Vansteenkiste et al., 2007). According to the self-determination theory, putting an emphasis on intrinsic work values will lead to an increased well-being within the individual by satisfying the basic psychological need for autonomy, competence and relatedness (Vansteenkiste et al., 2007). 5

7 Relatedness Relatedness refers to the tendency to be oriented towards forming strong and stable interpersonal bonds. Stable interpersonal bonds were related to greater autonomy in relationships while avoidant and preoccupied attachment styles were negatively related to autonomy (Guardia & Patrick, 2008). Relatedness is important in the workplace because it facilitates relationships and creates a positive work environment. Relatedness will be observed in our study to see if those in generation Y who are extrinsically motivated display lower levels of relatedness in the workplace. Previous Research Findings Two studies found that holding an extrinsic relative to an intrinsic work value orientation was associated with less positive outcomes (i.e. less satisfaction and dedication to ones job and vitality on the job) and more negative outcomes (i.e. higher emotional exhaustion, short lived satisfaction after successful goal attainment and turnover intention), (Vansteenkiste et al., 2007). Another study found that holding an extrinsic relative to an intrinsic work-value orientation was detrimental to employee s job outcomes due to the fact that orientations thwarted the satisfaction of basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness at work (Vansteenkiste et al., 2007). The last finding investigated showed that social networking has changed the way generation Y values relationships (Twenge et al., 2010). This is due to the fact that generation Y lacks face-to-face interactions weakening their social skills below those of previous generations, which in turn lowers their relatedness. To embody all of the constructs listed above we have come up with the following hypotheses: H1 Generation Y will be more extrinsically motivated than intrinsically motivated. 6

8 H2 Due to generation Y being extrinsically motivated, this will have a negative affect on relatedness in the workplace. Methodology Sample The sample of this study was individuals between the ages of 18 and 25, commonly known as generation Y. Participants were recruited through social media, and word of mouth. These individuals had an education level of high school or higher and have worked within the past year full-time, part-time or seasonal. There were a total of 143 respondents who completed our survey. Of the 143, 106 fit our criteria, which were then used in our analysis. Measures Intrinsic/extrinsic motivation was measured using the COGS-12 vignette scale developed by Deci and Ryan. This scale is used to measure a person s level of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation based on their autonomy, impersonal and controlled tendencies. To analyze all of the data, we referred back to the COGS-12 vignette scale answer key which rated participants based on their responses to the question. This determined if each participant was autonomous, impersonal or controlled. Based on this information, a Pearson correlation was used to identify relationships between variables. Relatedness was measured using questions we developed that we believed were relevant to measure the participant s relationships with coworkers inside and outside of the workplace. Questions were also asked to determine their preferences of accomplishing tasks in the workplace. 7

9 Results We tested hypothesis 1, regarding generation Y s extrinsic motivation, by conducting a correlation analysis. The results of the Pearson correlation are displayed in Appendices 6-11 and the following are of significance. 1) The more close friends a person has in the work place the less extrinsically motivated they were which in turn affects relatedness (r= at the 0.05 level). This is also true with respondents who spend more time with co-workers outside of work, their extrinsic motivation decreases and they become more intrinsically motivated and related to both their work and coworkers (r= at the 0.05 level). 2) People who said that most of their friends are people that they work with were much more likely to feel comfortable discussing personal issues with their co-workers which demonstrates higher relatedness in the workplace (r=.312 at the 0.01 level). 3) Those who said most or all of their friends are from outside of work were more likely to not see developing work relationships as important (r= at the 0.01 level), spend less time with co-workers outside of work, keep work life and friends separate (r= at the 0.01 level), and not feel comfortable discussing personal issues with co-workers (r= at the 0.01 level). Based on the questions that were designed to measure relatedness, we obtained the following results. There is a significant difference between where individuals met their closest friends; the majority of participant s closest friends were from outside the workplace. As seen in Appendix 1, it is shown that 118 participants met their closest friends from school compared to 10 people who said their closest friends are from work. The participant s results also revealed that they spend less time with coworkers outside of the workplace, which is not far off from individuals who spend more than 4 times a month with coworkers outside of the workplace, 8

10 which is demonstrated in Appendix 2. Appendix 3 looks at the importance of developing relationships/friendships with co-workers. The results showed that individuals do find it important to create relationships with their co-workers. There was a significant difference between individuals who did find it important and individuals who did not find it important. If given the choice generation Y preferred to complete work related tasks alone versus working in a group, these results can be seen in Appendix 4. It was apparent from the results of the study that individuals in this generation were both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated. Discussion Based on these findings we can conclude that generation Y yields a mix of both intrinsic and extrinsically motivated individuals. While the findings were close, the sample proved to be slightly more intrinsically motivated, which refutes our first hypothesis. Due to our recruitment methods and time resources available the majority of respondents were between the ages of 21 and 22. This could have affected the findings due to the fact that this age group in general has a lack of professional work experience, which could have skewed the results of the study. Findings also confirm that there is a negative correlation between extrinsic motivation and relatedness in the workplace, which supports our second hypothesis, as it proves that extrinsic motivation has a negative effect on relatedness in the workplace. These findings are important for managers because a lack of relatedness can have a large effect on the overall productivity and efficiency of an organization. Relatedness in the workplace facilitates productive relationships among employees and embodies teamwork, which is an important goal of any management team. Within an effective and productive organization all employees work together to achieve a common goal. When relatedness is low people become distant from one another, and thus organizational objectives and the overall bottom line of a 9

11 company suffer. With this information, managers become aware that with extrinsically motivated individuals present in the workplace a lack of relatedness may also be present. Managers need to be aware of the different motivational tendencies of generation Y and promote the importance of high relatedness among a work team. Managers may be successful at this by identifying motivational tendencies of individuals and helping to build productive work groups accordingly. By knowing employees and discovering individuals that work well together organizational efficiency and relatedness can benefit. In addition, managers may want to implement new team building activities for employees to assist in the development of both communication and positive relationships between employees. Researchers can take these findings and attempt to explore new initiatives and management techniques that will help increase relatedness among employees. More specifically, ways to help generation Y connect more effectively with other generation Y employees that display different motivational techniques as well as other generations who are present in the workplace. Limitations/Conclusions A lack of time and resources limited our sample group and available respondents to mostly being year old university students. With increased time and resources we could have drawn a greater sample size, which may have been more representative of the real population. Although these respondents fit into generation Y, this sample does not include all members of generation Y of different ages and work experience. With a more diverse sample of generation Y and greater number of respondents, results may have varied slightly or even significantly. Perhaps recruiting respondents from organizations with work experience would have helped to add substance to the sample results and provided for accurate conclusions as to 10

12 the motivational tendencies of generation Y and their affects on relatedness in the work place. The recruiting process could have been aided by more resources and enabled our researchers to provide incentives to respondents and yield greater participation numbers. We noticed that a large percentage of survey respondents did not complete the entire survey and therefore did not provide sufficient data to be used in our study. Perhaps if we had made the survey more user friendly, and established better ways to keep respondents interested throughout the survey process we could have had more full responses to the survey. The length of the survey and scenario questions may have also deterred participation. During our review of past literature pertaining to generation Y, relatedness and motivational tendencies, we found that research was lacking in these area. Specifically, we were unable to find research on relatedness and its implications for workplace behaviour and motivation. With further research in this area, future studies could benefit from our research and can attempt to develop a more reliable questionnaire to pinpoint and gage workplace relatedness among respondents from generation Y. Relatedness in the workplace and among members of an organization is an important measure to study as it demonstrates a cohesive work atmosphere, fosters teamwork and demonstrates an overall efficient workforce. Managers should attempt to measure and interrupt levels of relatedness within their organization and implement plans to help build and promote the importance of relatedness. Team building exercises and other relationship building techniques adopted can help to promote and grow relatedness between co-workers. In finding that generation Y yields almost equal numbers of intrinsic and extrinsically motivated people, we can confidently conclude that generation Y should not be stereotyped as being mostly one or the other. Accepting that this generation of workers encompasses a plethora 11

13 of behavioural characteristics and can be motivated by different means, managers should be able to affectively create a work environment that allows for individuals of different motivational tendencies to work together and successfully accomplish work tasks. 12

14 Appendix 1 Where participants met the majority of their friends 6.2% 5.5% 6.9% 81.4% School Work Recreational Activities Other Appendix 2 Spending time with co-workers outside of the workplace 15.9% 4% 9.5% 15.9% 20.6% 34.1% Less than once a month Once a month Twice a month Three times a month Four times a month More than four times a month 13

15 Appendix 3 Importance of developing relationships/friendships with coworkers 24% Yes No 76% Appendix 4 Preference of completing work related tasks 37% 41% 22% Group Alone No Preference 14

16 Appendix 5 Controlled vs. Autonomous 42% 33% Controlled Impersonal 25% Autonomous 15

17 Appendix 6 16

18 Appendix 7 17

19 Appendix 8 18

20 Appendix 9 19

21 Appendix 10 20

22 Appendix 11 21

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