Spring S U P E R V I S O R : F R A N C E S J Ø R G E N S E N 11 M O T I V A T I O N O F B L U E -­ A N D W H I T E -­ C O L L A R E M P L O Y E E S LINE KIRKEGAARD (286429) AND KRISTINA LARSEN (286295) U17BSCIM Aarhus School of Business and Social Sciences Abstract Increasing competition in today’s globalized world makes it important for companies to focus on employee motivation. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to investigate how factors of work affect blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar employees’ motivation, as theorists infer that motivational needs of employees vary with the nature of their work and skill levels. In order to investigate how these factors of work affect the two employee groups, four motivational theories are used as a theoretical framework. It consists of McClelland’s achievement needs theory, Herzberg’s two-­‐factor theory, Latham and Locke’s goal theory, and Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics model. All of these four theories contribute with different, yet complementary, aspects of how to motivate employees. The empirical results are gathered by the use of a questionnaire. The questionnaire is given to employees in two different companies, Orskov Yard and Systematic. Orskov Yard employs both blue-­‐ and white-­‐
collar workers and Systematic only employs white-­‐collar workers. In order to analyze the responses of the questionnaire, the statistical tool, SPSS, is used. Based on the analysis, we discovered that blue-­‐collar workers find McClelland’s need for affiliation to be most important factor of their work, whereas the white-­‐collar workers prefer the need for achievement. Goal theory was not rated considerably high by any of the two groups; this might be because goals are already implicitly a part of their work. In addition, it was found that the blue-­‐collar employees generally value all the characteristics of Hackman and Oldham’s model higher than the white-­‐collar employees, except questions relating to task identity and task significance. Finally, regarding Herzberg’s two-­‐factor theory, it was found that the blue-­‐collar workers generally prefer the hygiene factors of salary and company policy, whereas the white-­‐collar workers value the motivators of sense of achievement, work itself, and recognition. In summary, it can be concluded that companies need to be aware of the different attitudes of white-­‐ and blue-­‐collar employees’ perceptions of motivational factors of work. Table of Contents 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Definitions ................................................................................................................................................... 2 1.1.1 Motivation................................................................................................................................................................. 2 1.1.2 Blue-­‐ and White-­‐Collar Employees................................................................................................................ 3 1.2 Theoretical Framework .......................................................................................................................... 4 1.3 Delimitation ................................................................................................................................................ 7 1.4 Structure ...................................................................................................................................................... 7 2 Motivation............................................................................................................................................. 9 2.1 McClelland’s Achievement Needs Theory ......................................................................................... 9 2.1.1 Relation to Analysis ............................................................................................................................................10 2.1.2 Criticism ..................................................................................................................................................................11 2.2 Herzberg’s Two-­Factor Theory...........................................................................................................11 2.2.1 Relation to Analysis ............................................................................................................................................13 2.2.2 Criticism ..................................................................................................................................................................13 2.3 Goal Theory ...............................................................................................................................................14 2.3.1 Relation to Analysis ............................................................................................................................................17 2.3.2 Criticism ..................................................................................................................................................................17 2.4 Job Characteristics Model.....................................................................................................................18 2.4.1 Relation to Analysis ............................................................................................................................................22 2.4.2 Criticism ..................................................................................................................................................................22 3 Methodology...................................................................................................................................... 23 3.1 Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research ..............................................................................................23 3.2 Development of Questionnaire...........................................................................................................25 3.3 Pilot Study..................................................................................................................................................26 3.4 Empirical Background ...........................................................................................................................27 3.5 Data Collection .........................................................................................................................................29 3.6 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................................................29 4 Empirical Results............................................................................................................................. 30 4.1 Presentation of Respondent Sample.................................................................................................31 4.2 Summary of Results................................................................................................................................32 4.2.1 The Blue-­‐Collar Sample.....................................................................................................................................32 4.2.2 The White-­‐Collar Sample .................................................................................................................................35 4.3 Analysis.......................................................................................................................................................36 4.4 Critical Reflections..................................................................................................................................40 4.4.1 Internal Validity ...................................................................................................................................................40 4.4.2 External Validity ..................................................................................................................................................41 4.4.3 Reliability ................................................................................................................................................................41 4.4.4 Sum up of Critical Reflections ........................................................................................................................41 5 Discussion and Reflection............................................................................................................. 42 5.1 Discussion of Analysis............................................................................................................................42 5.2 Inconsistencies in Respondent Answers .........................................................................................52 5.3 Impact of Age on Motivation................................................................................................................53 5.4 Differences within the White-­Collar Group....................................................................................57 5.5 Implications for Companies and Managers ....................................................................................62 5.6 Future Perspectives................................................................................................................................63 6 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................... 65 7 Bibliography...................................................................................................................................... 68 8 Appendices ........................................................................................................................................ 73 8.1 Appendix 8.1: Questionnaire in English ..........................................................................................73 8.2 Appendix 8.2: Questionnaire in Danish ..........................................................................................77 8.3 Appendix 8.3: Statistical Framework for Analysis of Blue-­ and White-­Collar Workers..80 8.4 Appendix 8.4: Statistical Framework for Analysis of Generations.........................................84 8.5 Appendix 8.5: Statistical Framework for Analysis within the White-­Collar Group ..........91 1 Introduction The Danish welfare society will face a number of new challenges in the future that largely are caused by increasing globalization and demographic change. The growing globalization causes the international economy to become increasingly integrated, which means that everybody has access to the same technologies, and therefore compete against each other despite national boundaries. The demographic challenge is found through a shrinking work force caused by more older people leaving the labor market, while there are fewer younger people to take over (Andersen 2010). Furthermore, the core workforce, people between 35 and 54, will also decrease. Since the core workforce, is normally the group that works more hours, the problem of a change in demography is reinforced by a decrease in people working the most hours (Andersen 2010)
Due to changes in demography and increasing globalization, greater demands for productivity and quality are placed on the companies. This is especially true for Danish companies as wages are higher in Denmark than in many other parts of the world (Hansen 2010). Therefore, it is very important for Danish workers to be increasingly productive and deliver work of a high quality. The question then is how a company can ensure better performance by their employees? One possible answer to the question above could be to make sure the employees are motivated to perform their best at their job. According to Pinder (2008), work motivation is the most important topic in organizational science as no other issue in the discipline has more significance for the general economic well being. Moreover, because many of the key determinants of productivity are hard to point out, we can expect work motivation to be at least as important in organizational science and management in the future as it has been in the past (Pinder 2008). Since motivation is important for ensuring economic well-­‐being companies need to motivate their employees, however the question is whether all employees are motivated by the same factors? Many theorists argue that the motivational needs of employees vary with the nature of their work and their skill levels (Locke 1973, Friedlander 1965, Hunt 1986, Kovach 1995). Two groups that have different nature of work and thereby job types are blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar 1 employees. Both job types are present in Danish companies and therefore, it is important for companies to acknowledge that these two job types might be motivated by different factors of work. In order to motivate employees companies can rely on a wide selection of motivational theories that all provide a framework for how to motivate employees. However, as just mentioned not all employees have the same motivational needs, which leads to the following problem formulation: How does factors of work affect blue-­ and white-­collar employees’ motivation? Our main motivation for writing this paper can be illustrated by what Henry Ford said almost a century ago: “You can destroy my factories and offices, but give me my people and I will build the business right up again” (Whiteley 2000). The quote clearly indicates the importance of employees and how they can affect the company’s competitive situation. Furthermore, motivated employees make it easier for the companies to reach the best possible result as compared to having demotivated employees (Hein 2009). Thus, if employees are motivated, it helps the company perform better and strive for high quality. However, we recognize that all people are different which might also have something to do with the nature of the work they perform. Therefore, we find it very interesting to investigate how to motivate both blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar employees and what factors of work they find motivating. 1.1 Definitions Before moving on, we find it necessary to define some of the concepts used in the problem formulation. The problem formulation consists of two concepts, which need to be clarified, motivation and blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar employees. 1.1.1 Motivation The word “motivation” has its roots from the Latin words motio, moveo, movere, movus, and motivus, which in English can be translated into motion, to move, set into movement, or a motive power (Pinder 2008). The concept of motivation refers to internal factors that drive an action, and to external factors that can act as inducements to action. Motivation can influence three aspects of action, which are direction (choice), intensity (effort), and duration (persistence) (Locke, Latham 2004). This paper focuses on employee motivation and the 2 forces that lead to a better performance and well being in the job. Therefore, we will use Dwight D. Eisenhower’s definition of motivation: “Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it” (Brooks 2009). People in a workplace, no matter what position, decide not only the amount of new abilities and skills they are willing to acquire, but also how and to what extent they utilize their skills and abilities. Therefore, it is hard to find out what different people perceive as motivational factors and also, how can we be sure that people react to the motivational factors, the way we expect? This is the problem that makes Pinder (2008) stress that motivation is a hypothetical construction, due to the fact that motivation is an invisible process, which is pretty hard-­‐ if not impossible-­‐ to measure and evaluate. Nevertheless, motivation is based on an assumption of a variety of psychological principles, which can lead to a movement in the sense of performing organizational activities. Motivation can be divided into internal and external factors. The internal motivational factors are created from within the human itself and can be affected by the wish to perform or self-­‐
development. Internally controlled behavior occurs because the execution of that behavior is satisfying in itself (Hein 2009). Many also refer to internal motivation as intrinsic motivation. The external motivational factors are created from the outside and are outside the control of the individual. The individual can react to external motivational factors, but does not control whether they are available or not. These could include working conditions and company policy. Externally controlled motivation occurs because it leads to a reward that can alleviate a need or prevent discomfort (Hein 2009). External motivation is also referred to as extrinsic motivation. 1.1.2 Blue-­ and White-­Collar Employees According to Oxford American Dictionaries and MacMillan English Dictionary a blue-­‐collar worker is a person who is a member of the working class and performs manual labor typically at an hourly wage. The name ”blue-­‐collar” originally derives from the overalls worn by shop-­‐
floor workers in some US factories (Bessant, Lamming 1988). A blue-­‐collar worker can be skilled or unskilled and can perform e.g. mechanical work, work in manufacturing, or in construction. 3 White-­‐collar workers are people working in an office or in a professional environment and traditionally, they were wearing “white collars” in contrast to the “blue-­‐collar” workers (McKean 2005, Rundell, Fox 2007). In the 1960s, white-­‐collar personnel for the first time outnumbered blue-­‐collar workers (Rosenberg 1993). A special part of the white-­‐collar employees’ work force is the knowledge workers, they are also known as “gold collar” workers and are predicted to be the “crème de la crème” of white collar workers (Brown 1999). Knowledge workers are specialists and can be identified by their skills and abilities, namely that they are highly educated, computer literate, creative, and have transferable skills that allow them to move anywhere where their service is needed (Brown 1999). Examples of knowledge workers include lawyers, programmers, information systems designers, doctors, and scientists (Brown 1999). 1.2 Theoretical Framework Motivational theories have their root in behaviorism that was founded in 1913 by psychologist John B. Watson (Hein 2009). Behaviorists believed that behavior was to be explained by objective and direct observable data instead of theories; they therefore made a range of experiments to explain responses to stimuli. Behaviorists saw motivation as the learning of a certain behavior, typically through reward and punishment (Hein 2009). Even though the strength of behaviorism rested in a clear and well-­‐defined set of concepts, methods and scientific principles, some behaviorists became skeptical. Cognitivism replaced behaviorism as the most popular paradigm for understanding the mental function. Cognitivists tried to find the outer circumstances that affect the individuals behavioral and reaction patterns (Hein 2009). Out of these different approaches to human behavior came many motivational theories all having different assumptions of human nature. In the 1930s, psychologist Henry Murray was the first behavioral theorist who proposed a list of needs that were to foster a goal-­‐directed behavior (Buelens, Sinding & Waldstrøm 2011). Murray’s work inspired a variety of needs theories, today also called content theories. Content theories try to explain the inner needs that actually motivate or energize people in their jobs. Consequently, content theories want to identify people’s needs and the goals they want to achieve in order to satisfy these needs. Because they stem from behaviorist tradition they 4 consider human behavior to be reflexive and instinctive, thus act as response to certain environmental positive or negative stimuli. The content theories include theories made by Maslow, Alderfer, McClelland, and Herzberg. The theories of Maslow, Alderfer, and McClelland have some resemblance in that they describe people’s needs whereas Herzberg’s theory distinguishes between internal and external motivational factors. The other category of motivational theories is called process theories. Whereas content theories focus on what motivate people, process theories seek to explain the actual process of motivation. The process theories derive from the cognitive tradition where it is assumed that people are aware of their goals and their behavior and they act rationally and with purpose (Brooks 2009). People who have developed theories in this category are Adams, who is renowned for his equity theory, Vroom and Porter and Lawler for their expectancy theories, and finally Latham and Locke for their goal theory. Hackman and Oldham has also contributed to motivation theory with their job characteristics model. Hackman and Oldham’s focus is not on the specific factors that lead to motivation, but how to design a job that maximizes motivation among employees. According to Hackman and Oldham there are certain factors a job must contain for it to be motivating. Several of the motivational theories build upon and supplement each other. Therefore, we have chosen to use four different motivational theories to analyze the problem in this paper. The first two are content theories that will try to give an answer to what factors motivate people’s actions. The first theory we will use is McClelland’s achievement needs theory. This theory has been chosen due to the fact that McClelland argues that each individual has a unique combination of needs, which will direct his behavior towards power, affiliation or achievement. This is important in our paper as we are analyzing motivational factors for two different groups, blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar workers, who might have different preferences towards one of the needs. McClelland has been chosen over Maslow and Alderfer because McClelland acknowledges that people have different needs that can be satisfied at the same time and that these needs can be combined in various ways depending on the situation. Thus, McClelland places his needs on a continuum rather than in a hierarchy. 5 The second content theory in this paper is Herzberg’s two-­‐factor theory. This theory is chosen because it specifically focuses on the factors that are necessary for a person to be motivated, in addition to the fact that it is highly recognized (Latham 2006). Furthermore, Herzberg’s theory distinguishes between intrinsic and extrinsic factors, which might be evaluated differently depending on the type of work performed. The third theory in this paper is Latham and Locke’s goal theory. This is a process theory, which will help us understand how and why a behavior will lead to a certain choice or action. Goal theory in general is very relevant as it is already used largely in companies for instance by setting goals relating to a level of job performance, a work norm, a deadline, a budget, or a quota (Locke et al. 1981). Therefore, goal theory has been chosen to learn whether having a goal in their job motivates blue-­‐and white-­‐collar workers, and whether there are any differences between the two groups. Further, goal theory is known as the most dominant and useful theory of work motivation. Since, the idea behind goal theory is that people are more motivated if they have a specific goal to work towards, the theory generally seems compelling and reasonable to use in our analysis (Pinder 2008). Finally, we will use Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics model. This model will complement the other theories well, because it gives insight into how to design a motivating job. Hackman and Oldham are inspired by McClelland and Herzberg’s theories; therefore, the theory complements the other theories well in giving a full picture of motivating employees. One of the criticisms of the job characteristics model is that it does not take social needs into account (Morgeson, Humphrey 2006). However, by using McClelland’s achievement needs theory the social needs of the employees will be addressed. In relation to blue and white-­‐
collar employees, Hackman and Oldham do not distinguish between different types of jobs; however, they include moderators to their model, which might influence, which job characteristics that motivates. Another important aspect of the job characteristics model is that it focuses on internal motivators, which can be argued to have a long-­‐term effect for employee motivation, compared to external motivators (Buelens, Sinding & Waldstrøm 2011). Also, it might be interesting to investigate whether these characteristics are found of greater importance to one of the two groups we are studying. 6 1.3 Delimitation Motivation is not only reserved for the work place. Motivation is also a central element outside the working life. People can be motivated by engaging in planning a party or exercising a hobby because it gives a sense of well being and having a good time with friends and family. We will, in this paper, however, only focus on employee motivation, which is the kind of motivation that occurs at the work place, and has an influence on the effort provided by the employee, and thereby the effectiveness of the company. A person can easily be motivated at the work place without it necessarily having positive consequences for the company. This could for instance be if a person decides to make a long distance call to a relative while at work, and thereby using the company’s resources to satisfy a personal need, to talk to the relative. This behavior is not what the company wishes to achieve by promoting employee motivation -­‐ this is, on the other hand, something the company wishes to avoid. The difference between motivation and employee motivation is, thus that the motivation is not only limited to the behavior in relation to the company, employee motivation wishes to promote the behavior that corresponds with the company’s expectations and goals (Christensen 2007). This paper is about employee motivation, but for the sake of legibility, we will hereafter refer to the term simply as motivation. Furthermore, we will not evaluate leadership, as we will focus on the factors of work that motivate employees, and not how specific leadership styles affect motivation. This has been chosen because we wish to find out which internal factors and processes that lead to motivation within the employee, in addition to designing a job that maximizes motivation. Motivation and job satisfaction are two concepts that are sometimes hard to separate because motivation often will lead to job satisfaction. However, in this paper we will only focus on how employees are motivated, and not whether they are satisfied with their job which means that we will not ask questions concerning whether they are currently satisfied. 1.4 Structure The paper consists of seven sections. The first section is what we have just been through and contains the introduction to the paper. 7 The second section deals with the topic of motivation and addresses the theoretical framework of this paper. The four different theories, McClelland’s achievement needs theory, Herzberg’s two-­‐factor theory, Latham and Locke’s goal theory and Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics model, will all be explained as well as related to this research. Finally, a critique will be given on each theory. The third section deals with the methodological framework and begins with some general reflections upon the methodological reasoning used in this paper. After that a discussion of quantitative and qualitative research design will be made, followed by the development of the questionnaire. We will also address weaknesses found in the questionnaire from making our pilot study and after that present our empirical background. Finally, we will address the data collection process and the data analysis. The fourth section consists of our analysis and will begin by a presentation of the respondent population. Moving on, a summary of the results will be given for the blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar group respectively after which we will address possible differences in what factors of work that motivates the two groups. Lastly, we will focus on some critical reflections relating both the methodology and the research. The critical reflections will comprise of the extent of internal validity, external validity, and reliability. The critical reflections are important as they address the general strength of the research. The fifth section deals with our discussion and reflection. Firstly, we intend to address what was found to be important for the blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar employees and also whether there were any differences between the two groups. Furthermore, we will address inconsistencies in the respondents’ answers concerning some of the factors of work. We will also include a minor discussion concerning how age and education influences which factors of work one finds motivating. Furthermore, we will address what implications our findings have for companies and managers and finally, we will try to come up with future perspectives relating this research area. The sixth section will comprise of the conclusion and here we will summarize our main findings. The seventh and final section consists of appendices. 8 2 Motivation This chapter includes the motivational theories chosen as our theoretical framework. The theories chosen are McClelland’s achievement needs theory, Herzberg’s two-­‐factor theory, Latham and Locke’s goal theory, and Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics model, as argued for in section 1.2. In this section, we will begin by explaining each theory in detail, followed by a paragraph clarifying the relation of the theory to the analysis and finally, criticism will be given on the different theories. 2.1 McClelland’s Achievement Needs Theory McClelland’s achievement needs theory claims that people have different needs, and because of these needs different things motivate us. The theory is built on the three needs of: achievement, affiliation, and power. McClelland claims that people develop an emphasis toward one of the three needs (Brooks 2009). The desire and strength for the different needs is created and affected by upbringing, cultural background, and changes in life conditions (McClelland 1967). The primary method used by McClelland to measure the strength of the three different needs in individuals, is called Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), and was originally developed by Henry Murray. In completing the TAT, people are first given a test and told that the test measures their intelligence and leadership potential. They are told this in order to awake their sense of achievement. Thereafter they are asked to write stories about ambiguous pictures. Finally, it is counted how many times it is possible to trace each of the three needs in the stories (Hein 2009). People who have a high need for power have a desire to influence, coach, teach or encourage others to achieve. They are motivated by competition and attracted by status and prestige, therefore they look for positions with power and authority (McClelland 1967). McClelland distinguishes between two types of people with a high power motivation score. People, who are balanced by high inhibition, tend to tell stories about power that is altruistic, which is the socialized face of power. These people are in control, and are more institution minded, meaning that they are able to stimulate a greater sense of responsibility in their division and create a greater team spirit. On the other hand, there are people with high power motivation, who have a high concern for personal power and show signs of exercising their power impulsively and are often rude to others. Moreover, they collect symbols of personal prestige 9 such as fancy cars or big offices (Burnham, McClelland 2003). McClelland and his colleagues found that a leader who exercises socialized power is more effective in managing than leaders high in personal power. The most optimal pattern of need for a leader in a large organization a strongly socialized power, a moderate achievement motivation, and a low need for affiliation (Burnham, McClelland 2003). People with a high need for affiliation search for social interaction with friends and colleagues, and are interested in establishing, maintaining, or reestablishing a positive, warm and close relation to others (Hein 2009). They need harmonistic relationships and try to avoid conflict. According to McClelland, they are therefore not the most effective employers or leaders as they seek approval and have a hard time making difficult decisions (Burnham, McClelland 2003). People with a high need for achievement focus on how they can improve themselves so that they are more efficient and they are very result oriented. The high achievers prefer moderately difficult tasks due to the reduced frequency of failure and increased satisfaction associated with successfully completing challenging tasks (Buelens, Sinding & Waldstrøm 2011). Another characteristic of achievement-­‐motivated people is that they desire more feedback. The feedback desired needs to be job related rather than social or attitudinal, thus the feedback needs to be relevant for the job and performance so that they know how they are doing in relation to achieving the goal. Social or attitudinal feedback, on the other hand, like acceptance, approval, and appreciation does not work as a motivator; therefore, high achievers can neither be motivated by material or economic rewards nor by status or security (Hein 2009). 2.1.1 Relation to Analysis The strength of McClelland’s achievement needs theory is that he makes good observations of how a need is developed and how it can be affected. Another important contribution from McClelland is that he characterizes different types of employees who each have widely different sources of motivation. This postulation by McClelland is important to our paper, as we look at two different types of jobs with many different types of people. Even though no other theories have claimed that people are motivated by the same factors, McClelland segments different motivation profiles and points out the importance of these. Another 10 interesting point raised by McClelland that is useful for our paper is that his theory suggests that motivation is changeable, even in adulthood, which can be done by training (Hein 2009). Therefore, if a company needs some of their employees to increase motivation to achieve, this can be done by training initiatives, modifying and enhancing self-­‐images, and encouraging individuals to seek new job challenges and responsibilities (Bowditch, Buono 2005). 2.1.2 Criticism McClelland’s need for achievement has a North American bias because it assumes two cultural value dimensions. The first is the willingness to accept moderate risks, which excludes countries with strong uncertainty avoidance. The second dimension is the concern with performance, which almost only applies for countries with strong quality-­‐of-­‐life characteristics (Buelens, Sinding & Waldstrøm 2011). Both dimensions are valid in Anglo-­‐ American countries, which makes the theory more applicable in these countries. Another criticism pertaining to McClelland’s research is that it is important to recognize that most of his evidence relates to boys and men; thus, like most behavioral science in the early years, the theory fails to address gender differences (Pinder 2008). 2.2 Herzberg’s Two-­Factor Theory Frederick Herzberg’s two-­‐factor theory of motivators and hygiene factors is one of the most well known and maybe also most discussed theories of employee motivation. Herzberg developed the two-­‐factor theory in 1959 together with Bernard Mausner and Barbara Bloch Snyderman (Herzberg, Snyderman & Mausner 2004). Originally, the theory was not developed as a motivation theory but as a theory which focuses on the working conditions necessary for people to be satisfied and motivated (Brooks 2009), and therefore it is also known as a job enrichment theory (Herzberg, Snyderman & Mausner 2004). The reasoning behind this theory is that Herzberg wants employees to be motivated, as motivated employees do the job willingly and therefore saves money and time compared to employees who are not motivated, who needs to be told what to do constantly (Herzberg 2003). Herzberg was greatly inspired by Maslow and the distinction between the higher order needs and the deficiency needs, which is similar to respectively the motivators and the hygiene 11 factors. The basic idea behind this theory is that job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction do not stand on opposite ends of a continuum. So, presence of the motivators leads to job satisfaction, whereas the absence of the same motivators just leads to no job satisfaction and not job dissatisfaction. The same principle accounts for hygiene factors where the presence of hygiene factors leads to no job satisfaction, and the absence of the hygiene factors leads to job dissatisfaction (Herzberg 2003). The reasoning behind the theory is that these two different types of factors, motivators and hygiene factors, corresponds to two different human needs. The hygiene factors concentrate on fulfilling the basic human needs, such as avoiding pain and eating, corresponding to Maslow’s lower needs, whereas the motivators focus more on the higher level needs such as psychological growth and the need for achievement (Herzberg 2003). Similarly, the motivators are located at the same level as McClelland’s need for power and need for achievement, whereas the hygiene factors are located at the same level as McClelland’s need for affiliation (Buelens, Sinding & Waldstrøm 2011). The theory was developed and tested by use of the critical incident method, which is a qualitative study where focus is on incidents in which the respondent felt particularly strongly about the job either in a negative or positive sense. So, after having asked questions about the incident, the respondent was asked to describe which factors contributed to that either very high job satisfaction or very high job dissatisfaction. Finally, the respondent was asked how the high or low job satisfaction affected his or her work performance. These interviews was developed on the basis of the F-­‐A-­‐E model (Factors-­‐Attitudes-­‐Effects), which indicates that a certain factor leads to a psychological reaction (an attitude), and that attitude then has an effect on the employee’s work output. So, by making these interviews, Herzberg found 14 different factors each affecting the attitude towards work in a positive or negative way and these 14 different factors are all part of Herzberg’s two-­‐factor theory (Hein 2009, Herzberg, Snyderman & Mausner 2004). The study was first conducted from interviews of engineers and accountants (Herzberg 2003), so this actually has its origin from white-­‐collar workers. However, later studies confirmed the theory among blue-­‐collar workers as well (Hein 2009). 12 According to the two-­‐factor theory, the 14 factors work in different ways; some of the factors were more frequently related to job satisfaction and some were more frequently related to job dissatisfaction. The factors relating to job satisfaction Herzberg named motivators and these factors all concern intrinsic aspects of work. The motivators are achievement, responsibility, recognition, the work itself, personal growth or advancement. The factors causing dissatisfaction were named hygiene factors and these factors all involve extrinsic aspects of the work. The hygiene factors are company policy and administration, relationship with superior, relationship with peers, working conditions, salary, status, work-­‐life balance and job security (Herzberg 2003). Herzberg argued that the hygiene factors of good working conditions and friendly interactions, for example, might only serve to move people in the short run because people increasingly want more. However, the motivators have a longer-­‐
lasting effect on the employees, which results in motivation rather than simple movement (Pinder 2008) 2.2.1 Relation to Analysis Herzberg’s two-­‐factor theory is an analysis, which distinguishes between intrinsic factors and extrinsic factors, and therefore it is very relevant for this analysis to evaluate whether the blue-­‐ and the white-­‐collar workers find the intrinsic and extrinsic factors important. Moreover, some of the critique relating to this theory is that it only applies to professionals and higher level employees as people in unskilled jobs or with repetitive work often are not interested in job growth-­‐related opportunities (Buelens, Sinding & Waldstrøm 2011). Therefore, it will be interesting to find out whether the theory only applies to white-­‐collar employees, meaning whether it is only the white-­‐collar employees who find motivator events motivating. Another important aspect in relation to this analysis is the fact that Herzberg’s theory complements McClelland’s needs achievement theory very well because McClelland argues that people have different preferences whereas Herzberg gives some specific factors that motivates. The combination of the two theories can therefore provide and interesting perspective on how Herzberg’s factors motivate people differently based on their needs. 2.2.2 Criticism The theory of Herzberg has received a lot of criticism and a great deal of it relates to the methodology used to develop the theory. The drawbacks of the critical incident method are first of all that there can be a problem with biases in the interview. This is due to the fact that 13 it would typically be easier to mention a specific incident for instance about increased responsibility in a positive situation than increased responsibility relating to a negative situation. Also, good and bad feelings arise when people refer to the incidents, and these feelings also affect the interviewers analysis after the interview which therefore questions the validity of the theory (Buelens, Sinding & Waldstrøm 2011). Another drawback is the possibility of the respondents of linking job-­‐satisfying incidents with their own performance and job dissatisfying incidents with factors extrinsic to them (Hein 2009). Another important critique relates to the sample size of the original research, as it was a relatively small sample size of 210 professional people. So, whether the theory can be used on other groups has been questioned (Brooks 2009). One could also question the fact that what motivates cannot de-­‐motivate (Hein 2009). Some of Herzberg’s basic satisfiers actually appeared to have some frequency in the stories of dissatisfaction, including recognition (18%), work itself (14%) and advancement (11%) (Herzberg, Snyderman & Mausner 2004). Nevertheless, these three satisfiers do not show a clear picture in their effect on job attitudes as the factors that cause job dissatisfaction. Therefore, based on Herzberg’s results, a better statement of hypothesis would be that the satisfier factors are much more likely to increase job satisfaction than they would be to decrease job satisfaction, but that the factors related to job dissatisfaction very rarely work to increase job satisfaction (Pinder 2008). A further criticism of the theory relates to the fact that this theory suggests that human needs are universal, and that the motivators would increase motivation of employees disregarding individual preferences (Hackman, Oldham 1976). This is a very interesting consideration, as this theory therefore does not explain why certain people react more positively to job enrichment than others. 2.3 Goal Theory Goal theory is one of the well-­‐known process theories and according to Pinder it is “the most dominant, valid, and useful modern theory of work motivation” (Pinder 2008, p.405) In its raw form, goal theory is quite simple as the essence is that people perform better if they have a goal to reach. Many different theorists have used goal theory, but the goal theory, which will 14 be the focus in this paper, is Latham and Locke’s goal setting theory from 1979 (Latham, Locke 1979). This is considered the most dominant model in the goal setting literature (Pinder 2008). In order to understand goal theory, one needs to understand what a goal is. According to Latham and Locke “A goal is a level of performance proficiency that we wish to attain, usually within a specified time period.” (Latham, Locke 2006, p.332). So, a goal can be seen as a target one wishes to accomplish, and can be used in many different regards, both in relation to one’s professional work life but also one’s personal life where an example could be that somebody has a goal to loose 20 pounds of weight. This paper will look upon goal theory as seen from a work perspective, and explain how to use goal setting in a professional work environment to make employees feel motivated and thereby perform better. Latham and Locke’s goal setting theory was developed in 1979 where they tested goal setting in various environments (Latham, Locke 1979). They found that goals increased the performance of the employees. Overall, one can divide the goal setting process into three distinct phases: setting the goal, obtaining goal commitment, and providing support elements (Latham, Locke 1979). Setting the goal contains the following two characteristics: it should be both challenging yet obtainable and specific rather than vague. Challenging and obtainable goals lead to better performance than easy goals as the employee is then forced to make a better effort in reaching the goal (Latham, Locke 1979). Specific goals also lead to better performance than “do your best” goals as do your best goals are not specific and therefore allow people to make use of their own benefit of doubt in estimating their own talent and performance (Latham, Locke 2006). Obtaining goal commitment is about making sure that the employee accepts and remains committed to the goals. One way to secure that commitment is by giving a simple instruction to the goal and also by supporting the employee. Further, the employee should not feel threatened to reach to goal; it should be regarded as a positive thing (Latham, Locke 1979). According to Latham and Locke, there are in general only two reasons why employees resist 15 assigned goals. First of all, the employees might feel that the goal is unrealistic maybe because the employees feel they do not have the competences and knowledge to reach the goal, or secondly, if the employees cannot see any personal gain in achieving the goal. So, in order to overcome these two obstacles to obtain goal commitment, one can provide more training to the employee so he/she feels they can solve the task and reach the goal. Another method would be to allow the employee to take part in the goal setting and finally, the employee could also be offered a monetary bonus or rewards such as recognition and time off work for reaching the goal (Hein 2009, Latham, Locke 1979). The last part of the goal setting method is supportive elements. By supportive elements is meant that the employee have the necessary resources such as money, equipment, time and help to reach the goal. Further, the employee should also have freedom over the above resources to decide when and how to use them so the employee does not feel that company policies are blocking the employee’s road to reaching the goal (Latham, Locke 1979). Also, the employee needs feedback, and help to develop a plan of action on how to reach the goal (Hein 2009). The benefits of high specific goals are first of all that individuals get a feeling of achievement and accomplishment when reaching the goal and this feeling of success is important for everyone as they get a higher self-­‐confidence. This could also lead to the individual’s coming to like the task even more as they have just experienced success. Another important characteristic of goal setting is that it directs attention and makes people search for strategies to reach that particular goal. Also, it can provide a simple task a purpose of meaning (Latham, Locke 2006). Another important aspect of goal setting is the one of feedback. Feedback is necessary when using goal setting as a motivator, because people needs feedback in order to know the progress in reaching their goal. If they do not know how they are doing, it is impossible for them to adjust their effort in order to reach the goal. So, the combination of feedback and goal setting is more effective than just using goal setting alone (Locke, Latham 2002). 16 There are parallels between McClelland’s need for achievement and goal theory. Goal theory also states that goals need to be challenging, but realistic, and that people with high need for achievement needs task feedback (Hein 2009). 2.3.1 Relation to Analysis Goal theory is useful in this paper as there are indications that goal theory applies especially for white-­‐collar employees, as setting a goal requires a need for achievement and scope for autonomy, which can be argued more often is present in white-­‐collar jobs and especially among knowledge workers (Newell 2002). Therefore, it will be quite interesting to investigate whether this is actually the case. Furthermore, goal theory will also be used to address whether employees in general actually considers goal setting as an important motivator, as many companies already make use of goal setting one way or the order, which might result in employees not considering goal setting important in relation to their individual work. 2.3.2 Criticism Even though there is lot of empirical evidence supporting goal theory (Locke et al. 1981), the theory still has some pitfalls. First of all, the employee can experience dissatisfaction and demotivation if the goal is not reached (Hein 2009). Also, if the employees do not have the necessary knowledge and skills to perform the task and reach the goal, a difficult goal might lead to even poorer performance than if no goal was set (Latham, Locke 2006). Maybe the biggest problem with goal setting is the fact that the employee gets a narrow outlook on the job, as they will only focus on reaching the specific goal so that everything else is ignored. This corresponds well to the old saying: ‘what gets measured, gets done’. An example could be a production line having to produce X number of units per day, but then forgets to focus on the quality of what is produced and also some short cuts could be taken in order to reach the goal (Hein 2009). This could result in larger costs and delays in the production schedule. Also, having a goal could prove to have a negative effect on creativity, as employees then only focus on reaching the goal and forget to think outside the box as they choose the one ‘safe’ method, which will make them reach the goal. So, this will result in less learning, as the 17 employees do not learn from failures and experiments because they do not make any as they only focus on reaching the goal (Hein 2009). It should also be taken into consideration that people are different. What if not all people find that goals work for them, and that goals do not control their behavior? Thus, this model does not encounter that people are different (Hein 2009). McClelland argues that people are different; that people are controlled by the same needs but that those needs have different weight in each individual. So according to McClelland, goal setting might work for individuals with a high need for achievement, whereas people with high need for affiliation might be uncomfortable competing to reach a goal (Burnham, McClelland 2003). Goal setting might also limit cooperation, as people who are highly committed to reaching their goal, might be less likely to help others (Wright et al. 1993). 2.4 Job Characteristics Model Hackman and Oldham are considered among the most significant contributors to job design theory (Brooks 2009, Morgeson, Humphrey 2006). Before Hackman and Oldham made their contribution to job design theory, the early concern to increase motivation was on job rotation, job enrichment and job enlargement. Job enlargement seeks to increase motivation by including more variety and complexity in the tasks performed (Brooks 2009). Job enrichment, on the other hand, is about designing jobs, which will increase the individual’s responsibility and involvement and thereby increase the intrinsic motivation. Herzberg’s two-­‐
factor theory is an example of a job enrichment theory (Herzberg, Snyderman & Mausner 2004). Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics approach was actually developed with inspiration from other theories such as Herzberg’s two-­‐factor theory and McClelland’s achievement needs theory (Brooks 2009). It should be mentioned though, that Hackman and Oldham themselves claim that their theory has not been inspired by Herzberg but by expectancy theory developed by Lawler (Hein 2009). The job characteristics model was developed in 1980, and was created as a reaction against the scientific management view in which task specialization was considered the best job design in order to earn the largest profit (Buelens, Sinding & Waldstrøm 2011). The basic 18 assumption behind the model is that a well-­‐designed job raises intrinsic employee motivation and thereby also create increasing growth and effectiveness in the organization (Hackman, Oldham 1980). The study was conducted using data from 658 employees who work in 62 different jobs and in 7 different organizations in the USA (Hackman, Oldham 1976). The primary data collection instrument was the Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS), which was developed by Hackman and Oldham in 1975. The JDS is basically a survey developed to test whether the job characteristics model holds and also to determine whether existing jobs are motivating or if they need to be redesigned in order to become motivating (Hackman, Oldham 1975). In order for a job to be motivating it should contain certain core job characteristics and these characteristics will then lead to three psychological states, which in turn lead to internal motivation. The three psychological states, that should be experienced to generate the internal motivation, are experienced meaningfulness of the work, experienced responsibility for outcomes of the work and finally, knowledge of the actual results of the work activities (Hackman, Oldham 1980). The experienced meaningfulness of the work is based on whether the individual finds the job valuable, worthwhile and meaningful (Hackman, Oldham 1976). According to Hackman and Oldham’s model, experienced meaningfulness can be achieved by the use of three different job characteristics namely skill variety, task identity, and task significance. Skill variety should be understood as the extent to which the job demands several different skills and abilities used by the individual carrying out the work. This characteristic is based on the assumption that a job is perceived as more meaningful when one is challenged by the use of different skills when doing the job. Task identity is considered high when an individual works on the job from the beginning to the end, and therefore get to see the finished result. This should lead to identification with the specific job. So, task identity is basically the extent to which the job requires an individual to complete the whole or completely identifiable piece of work. Task significance should be understood as the extent to which the work has an effect for other people inside or outside the organization. This is based on the assumption, that you will find your work more meaningful if what you do have relevance for other people. Hackman and Oldham gives the example that people tightening nuts on aircraft engines are more likely to 19 experience meaningfulness of their work than people who tighten nuts on decorative mirrors because lives is at stake for those people working with the airplanes (Hackman, Oldham 1980). Another example of a highly task significant work could be doctors and nurses who saves lives and helps people every day. It should be noted that a job does not have to score high on each of the three above-­‐mentioned job characteristics, as a job can be perceived as meaningful even though a low score is obtained on one or two of the job characteristics (Hein 2009). The experienced responsibility of work outcomes can be achieved through autonomy. Autonomy should be understood as the extent to which the job provides the individual with freedom and independence to carry out the work, and whether the individual have disposal over his or her own time to schedule and determine the procedures to complete the job. So, the assumption is that if autonomy is high, the employee will experience a high responsibility of outcomes because the employee feels that he or she was the main person responsible for the work carried out (Hackman, Oldham 1980). Knowledge of the actual results of the work activities can be obtained through the use of feedback. Feedback can be classified as two distinct types, namely feedback from the job itself and feedback from other people. An example of feedback coming from the work itself could be computer engineer solving a specific problem in a program he developed, causing the program to function, or a doctor operating a patient and afterwards looking at the results of the operations and sees that the patient gets better. Hackman and Oldham does acknowledge that both types of feedback can play a role in experiencing knowledge of results, however, they stress the fact that feedback from the job itself is seen as more important than feedback form others. This is due to the fact that feedback from the job itself usually comes right a after a specific task is completed, and also that feedback coming from the individual’s own observations heightens the credibility of the feedback (Pinder 2008, Hackman, Oldham 1980). The five different job characteristics; skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback can all be used to calculate the ‘Motivating Potential Score’ (MPS) which is a summary index to evaluate whether a job provides the individual with internal work motivation. So, a low score means that the individual will not experience a high internal work 20 motivation, whereas a high score indicates that the individual should stimulate a high internal work motivation (Hackman, Oldham 1980). The MPS is calculated as follows: The job should be rated on a scale from 1 to 7, where 1 is considered low and 7 is considered high, on each of the five core job characteristics. The highest possible score is 343, and the lowest is 1. When a job has a score above 200, it is considered highly motivating, and jobs scoring below 120 are considered low in motivating potential (Buelens, Sinding & Waldstrøm 2011). Based on the above equation, one can conclude that the two most important single factors for a motivating job is autonomy and feedback, whereas the factors leading to experienced meaningfulness (skill variety, task identity, and task significance) are not individually as important for the overall internal motivation (Hackman, Oldham 1980). Hackman and Oldham incorporated some moderators in their model acknowledging that people are different and that they have different wants and needs. Some people might not want a job with a high MPS score, and therefore Hackman and Oldham identified three characteristics of people, called ‘moderators’ in their model, which should be considered when designing jobs. These are knowledge and skill, growth need strength, and context satisfactions. The basic idea is that individuals will respond positively to jobs with a high MPS if they have the knowledge and skills necessary to actually do the job, high growth needs, and an overall satisfaction with the work content (Buelens, Sinding & Waldstrøm 2011). The outcomes from a well-­‐designed job are high internal work motivation, high growth satisfaction, high general job satisfaction, and high work effectiveness. So, according to Hackman and Oldham one can both enrich the individual by satisfying him or her internally, but also ensure a higher effectiveness, which is beneficial for the company (Hackman, Oldham 1980). The theory does have some similarity to Herzberg’s F-­‐A-­‐E model as this model also deals with factors in the sense of job characteristics, attitudes in the sense of the psychological states and finally effects in terms of outcomes. 21 2.4.1 Relation to Analysis The strength of Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristic model is that it gives specific examples of how to increase motivation, and therefore this theoretical framework will be used to examine whether white-­‐collar employees and blue-­‐collar employees are motivated by the same job characteristics and whether their jobs should be composed of the same elements. Furthermore, Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics model only focuses on internal motivation, which has the advantage that the employee acts on his or her own incentives rather than on someone else’s initiatives, which provides more value for the company as employees, who do their job willingly, saves money and time for the company (Herzberg 2003). 2.4.2 Criticism As with every other motivational theory, the job characteristics model has also received several critique points. Even though Hackman and Oldham have supported their findings relating to the motivation potential of the work and the critical psychological states, there have been no empirical evidence for the moderators (Hein 2009). Another important critique, which is also mentioned by Hackman and Oldham themselves, is that the five job characteristics are not always easy to separate from each other. An example could be that skill variety typically is closely linked to autonomy as one could argue that the higher need for different skills, the higher possibility you have for planning you own work day hence autonomy (Hackman, Oldham 1980). In addition, it can be difficult to determine what is actually job feedback and what is not. Further, some would argue that feedback from supervisors and co-­‐workers should be considered equally important as feedback from the job itself (Morgeson, Humphrey 2006). A question has also been raised whether job design in fact increases output, as the redesign of jobs also sometimes reduces the output (Buelens, Sinding & Waldstrøm 2011). Further, the theory does not take the social needs of individuals into account, and therefore, it could be discussed whether interaction with other people should be included a “job characteristic” (Morgeson, Humphrey 2006). 22 3 Methodology This chapter includes all methodological considerations and will therefore comprise of aspects relating the chosen methodological framework, the relationship between quantitative and qualitative research, the development of our questionnaire, a pilot study, the empirical background for this study, the data collection process and finally, how the data is analyzed. Generally there are two different methods of reasoning namely the inductive and deductive approach. The difference between deduction and induction is that when using deduction, departure is taken in existing theory, then research questions and hypotheses are derived from theory, which afterwards can be empirically tested (Flick 2009). Induction, on the other hand, takes its departure in assumptions or concepts that suggest directions in which to look and reliance on a general sense of what is relevant. The social contexts are then studied and used as empirical evidence to generate theories or hypotheses (Flick 2009). The chosen theoretical approach to this problem is based both on deduction and induction. The deductive approach is used when we take departure in theory to form some general ideas on the subject in addition to constructing our questionnaire. The inductive approach is used when we create new knowledge based on our empirical study. 3.1 Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research Both quantitative and qualitative research methods can be used to study many different research problems. As the name implies, focus in a quantitative study is on quantitative information meaning numbers and figures, whereas focus in the qualitative study is on qualitative information such as words, sentences and narratives. Examples of a quantitative study could be a questionnaire or a structured interview whereas an unstructured interview or a narrative are considered a qualitative study, as there is an opportunity to focus on the words of the respondent and not only a series of numbers on a piece of paper. Another important difference between qualitative and quantitative research is their main goals. The main goal of qualitative research is to expose opinions and feelings in a specific context, whereas the main aim of a quantitative research is to establish some general rules and correlations between dependent and independent variables. Also, it is important to note that in a quantitative study, the researcher is seen as independent from the respondents and the 23 situation, whereas the researcher is actually taking part in the research in a qualitative study (Heldbjerg 2006). One of the advantages of making quantitative research is that it is not as time-­‐consuming as qualitative research. Therefore, it is possible to reach a larger sample when using quantitative research. It also allows for a comparison of respondents, as they all will be answering the same questions. However, quantitative research is not as flexible as qualitative research, as it is a one-­‐way communication form whereas qualitative research acts more as a dialog between interviewer and respondent. In addition, qualitative research gives the researcher the possibility of going into depth with a certain topic and the respondent will have the possibility to ask questions if the questions posed are not clear (Arbnor, Bjerke 2009). In this thesis, a quantitative research will be used. This is chosen due to the research problem, which is to analyze how factors of work affect blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar employees’ motivation and quantitative research allows for comparisons between the two respondent groups. So, our main aim with this study is to establish some general knowledge within the motivation field and not expose opinions and feelings as the purpose is in the qualitative study. As it is now decided to use a quantitative approach, the question then is what type of instrument to use. First of all, one could use a structured interview to perform the analysis. The advantage of using this type of instrument is, among others, that the respondent can ask questions during the interview if the questions are not formulated clearly. Also, an interview could give a good and constructive cooperation between the interviewer and the respondent, and thereby assure that the respondent answer in an honest matter. The disadvantage of a personal structured interview is that the interviewer should be well trained and that it is more time-­‐consuming compared to a questionnaire. A questionnaire would allow respondents to answer the questions in their own pace, whereas an interview might put pressure on the respondent to answer the questions quickly. Further, a questionnaire requires the minimum amount of staff and the questionnaire is often perceived as more anonymous than an interview (Blumberg, Cooper & Schindler 2008). Based on the above consideration, we have decided to use a questionnaire, as this allows us to reach a bigger sample by being less time-­‐consuming both seen from our perspective but most 24 importantly seen from the companies’ perspective. Also, we find it important that a questionnaire is seen as more anonymous. First of all, when answering anonymously a higher response rate can be expected, as people do not have to be held responsible for their answers. Also, some of the questions and statements relating motivation might be perceived as very personal, which means that an interview might make the respondent uncomfortable. 3.2 Development of Questionnaire The chosen theoretical framework inspires the different items in the questionnaire and the structure of the questionnaire will follow the basic advises given by Blumberg et al. (2008). We intend to begin our questionnaire with some administrative questions and these questions constitute of question 1 to 3. The entire questionnaire can be found in appendix 8.1 in English and 8.2 in Danish. These questions serve to warm up the respondent with some easy questions; furthermore, the responses to the questions might be useful when interpreting the data, if gender, age, or education has an influence on the responses. Question 1 classifies gender and a simple category scale is used, which gives us nominal data. Question 2 and 3 refer to age and education and a multiple choice single response scale is used, which again gives us nominal data (Blumberg, Cooper & Schindler 2008). The educational levels are based on the Danish education system and consist of: primary school (folkeskole), secondary school (gymnasial uddannelse), professional training (erhvervsmæssig uddannelse), KVU (kort videregående uddannelse) -­‐ a Danish abbreviation for an education with a typical duration of two years, MVU (mellemlang videregående uddannelse)-­‐ a Danish abbreviation for various bachelor’s degrees, and lastly LVU (lang videregående uddanelse)-­‐ a Danish abbreviation for a university degree at master-­‐ or PhD level. Finally, a box was included for the respondents without any completed education. Hereafter, a classification question will follow, where the participants will be grouped into white-­‐ and blue-­‐collar workers respectively (Blumberg, Cooper & Schindler 2008). We have included three different response categories. The first relates to blue-­‐collar workers, which are referred to as hourly paid employees in our empirical study as there is no equivalent term for blue-­‐collar workers in Danish. However, as the blue-­‐collar workers in our sample all are hourly paid, we can classify them by using this term. The second response category relates to the white-­‐collar workers and is called “funktionær” in Danish (Kjærulff Nielsen 2010). The 25 last response category is labeled “other”, where the respondent can specify how he/she is employed. Based on the respondent’s specification, we can determine if the person belongs to the blue-­‐ or white-­‐collar group, if the response specification is unclear or ambiguous it is excluded from the sample. Finally, we will use target questions to address the theoretical framework. The target questions will be structured questions, also known as closed questions. We chose the closed questions because experience has shown that closed questions make the participants feel less threatened, and also closed questions typically require less motivation to answer than open questions (Blumberg, Cooper & Schindler 2008). Questions 5 to 21 are developed as a likert scale summated rating, where respondents are asked to rate the importance of a number of statements (Blumberg, Cooper & Schindler 2008). Questions 5 to 11 related to McClelland’s achievement needs theory, questions 12 and 13 related to Latham and Locke’s goal theory, and questions 14 to 21 relate to Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics model. Question 22 is a multiple choice single response question, where respondents have to choose between three statements relating to McClelland’s achievement needs theory (Blumberg, Cooper & Schindler 2008). In this question, respondents are forced to compare the statements and only choose one. Question 23 relates to Herzberg’s two-­‐factor theory where respondents are asked to choose the three factors, which give them most motivation to make an extra effort in their job. This is a multiple choice multiple response question, which gives us nominal data. Even though Blumberg et al. (2008) advise not to use more than ten answer alternatives, we have included fourteen, as we want to include all factors in Herzberg’s model. 3.3 Pilot Study In order to improve the quality and efficiency of our study, we have chosen to carry out a pilot study. A pilot study is a small-­‐sample quantitative study conducted to prelude a larger study. The aim of the pilot study is to guide the future larger study and to prevent problems that might obstruct the larger study (Connelly 2008). In our research, the pilot study can reveal deficiencies in the design of the questionnaire, in the wording of the questions, or in the directions of how to answer the questionnaire. Furthermore, the pilot study will help us estimate how much time is needed to fill out the questionnaire. In the pilot study, the questionnaire was given to five people, who all had different full-­‐time jobs. 26 When the five respondents had filled out the questionnaire, they gave feedback on aspects they found problematic. Three out of the five respondents thought the division of educational levels in question 3 were unclear. Therefore, we added some examples of the different educational levels to the question (see appendix 8.1 and 8.2). In questions 5 to 21, each question started with “it is important for me…”, some respondents found the questions too long and the “it is important for me” redundant, thus it was taken out. Also, questions 5 to 21 had to be rated on a five-­‐point scale from “highly disagree” to “highly agree”. None of the respondents has ticked the “highly disagree” box and some indicated that it is hard to disagree, rather it would then be easier to choose “neutral” if the respondent did not agree. On that background, we changed the scale so that it went from one to five, where one is not important and five is very important. In this way, we found that it will be easier for respondents to find the claims unimportant rather than disagreeing. In the last question, number 23, the respondents had to prioritize fourteen claims. Four of the five respondents found this task very hard, and some even gave up. Blumberg et al. (2008) supports this behavior, as they state that if respondent motivation should remain strong, no more than seven items should be ranked. We, therefore, changed the question so that respondents now have to choose the three expressions they find most important. Finally, some respondents found the layout confusing, this was then changed so that the order of the questions became more suitable, in addition, some questions were more clearly defined with boxes and borders. The responses from the pilot study made us realize that it might be hard for us to find the respondents’ preference towards one of McClelland’s three needs, as the questions related to McClelland has to be rated on a scale. Therefore, we added a question (question 22) asking what the respondent find most important, out of three claims, to make them choose between McClelland’s three needs and not just rate the importance of a claim. 3.4 Empirical Background In order for us to investigate how factors of work affect blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar employees’ motivation, we have found two companies that were willing to help us. Our empirical background comprises of Orskov Yard, a shipyard in Frederikshavn in the Northern part of 27 Jutland, and Systematic, an international IT company. The reason for choosing Orskov Yard is because they employ both blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar employees and they were open for handing out our questionnaire to their employees, as opposed to other companies we contacted. Systematic was chosen because they employ knowledge workers, which brought more diversity to our relatively small white-­‐collar sample. Orskov Yard converts and repairs all types of ships and employs 213 people as of 30 September 2010, including both white and blue collar employees (Orskov Yard A/S 2011a, Orskov Yard A/S 2011b). Orskov Yard was founded in 2003 when the original shipyard, Ørskov Christensens Stålskibsværft, had to close due to problems with missing payments. Ørskov Christensens Stålskibsværft was both involved in repairs and the constructions of new ships, however, only the repair department was transferred to the new ship yard, Orskov Yard (Østergaard 2003). The closing of the old company cost 700 employees their job (Madsen 2003). Orskov Yard now has a special way of keeping the employees motivated, as they make high use of profit sharing. This resulted in record high bonuses for the hourly paid blue-­‐collar workers, who were paid a minimum of DKK 75,000 in profit sharing in 2008 (Albæk 2008). Systematic is an IT company that supplies IT solutions to companies and governments mostly within defense, health care, integration services, and intelligence and national security. The company is present in USA, Finland, UK and Denmark with headquarters in Aarhus, Denmark. The company employs approximately 450 people where 61% of their software developers have a PhD or master’s degree (Systematic 2011). Systematic is a financially solid company with the highest credit rating and no bank debts. It has not been unaffected by the financial crisis; however, according to it’s own web site, Systematic is more influential and dynamic now than before the crisis hit. Systematic has values that emphasize: the best way for people and organizations to grow is by empowerment; their employees have freedom with responsibility and an obligation to take responsibility; they expect and appreciate initiative and ambition; and lastly “better train people and risk they leave-­‐ than do nothing and they stay” (Systematic 2011). Furthermore, Systematic is certified at CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) level 5, which means that all processes are continually improved and optimized. As previously stated, knowledge workers are highly educated, computer literate, and creative, therefore Systematic’s employees are characterized as knowledge workers, and 28 are thus a part of the white-­‐collar group. The sample that received our questionnaire in Systematic, all works within health care and the development of electronic patient records for hospitals. 3.5 Data Collection In order for us to gain the most possible responses, we have chosen both to make use of a printed copy of our questionnaire and an online version. The sample from Orskov Yard received the questionnaire in a printed-­‐paper form and the person responsible for collecting the questionnaire was the production manager. A printed-­‐paper form was chosen for Orskov Yard because it allowed easier access to the sample, as they were allowed to fill out the questionnaire during working hours and almost all of the blue-­‐collar employees have no access to computers during the workday. Furthermore, the questionnaires were sent to the production manager who then could control who received the questionnaire and make sure it was filled out. The sample collected from Systematic was done online by using StudSurvey, a facility provided by Aarhus School of Business. The online questionnaire form was chosen as all of the employees from Systematic already work from a computer, so this would be the easiest and most convenient way for them to answer the questions. We established contact to one employee from Systematic, who received a link to the questionnaire in an e-­‐mail, which he then send to the other employees in the health care department. The advantage of the online questionnaire is that respondents are not able to finish the questionnaire unless they have provided the correct amount of information. In addition, filling out the questionnaire online is more anonymous, than handing in a paper form as no one can link the responses to the person. An example of incorrectly filled out questionnaires, which would not be possible online, was two printed-­‐paper questionnaires where the respondents ticked off thirteen of fourteen factors instead of only the three factors asked for in question 23. 3.6 Data Analysis In order to analyze whether there is difference in what motivates the blue-­‐collar and the white-­‐collar group, the statistical framework of hypothesis testing is applied. The concept of hypothesis testing is familiar to most people, an example could be when a person is accused of a crime and he or she then goes to trial; two hypotheses are tested, a null hypothesis (H0) stating that the defendant is innocent, and an alternative hypothesis (H1) stating the 29 defendant is guilty. Evidence is presented, and the jury must then make a decision based on the evidence and decide to reject or maintain the null hypothesis (Keller 2004). The same general framework is applied for this analysis, and our null hypotheses generally states that there is not a difference in the perceptions of blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar workers, whereas the alternative hypothesis states that there is a difference in what motivates blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar employees. In order to find if there is any statistical difference between blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar employees, we have performed statistical tests in SPSS, which is a computer program used for statistical analysis. Therefore, all the data obtained from the questionnaires have been recoded into numbers and put into SPSS allowing us to perform statistical tests on the data. As the data generated from questions 5-­‐21 is interval data, a t-­‐test will be used to identify possible differences between the white-­‐collar and blue-­‐collar group. In question 22 and 23, we cannot perform a t-­‐test as in question 5-­‐21 because the data generated from these questions is nominally scaled and not interval data as needed to perform a t-­‐test. Therefore, we will in question 22 and 23 use the chi-­‐squared test for homogeneity in order to test whether the proportions who chose a specific factor is the same for both the blue-­‐ and white-­‐
collar sample (see appendix 8.3). Normally, when applying hypothesis testing, it is necessary to go through seven steps consisting of hypothesis, significance level, test statistic, calculations, critical values, p-­‐value and finally a conclusion. However, as we only intend to show the general framework applied, we will only present the first four steps, which can be seen in appendix 8.3. The conclusion of the statistics will be presented and discussed in the discussion section. In order to decide upon whether the difference is statistically significant, we have chosen a significance level of both 0.1 and 0.05. The lower the significance level, the more the data must deviate from the null hypothesis to be significant (Keller 2004). Therefore, the 0.05 level is more conservative than the 0.1 level. This means that it is harder to reject the null hypothesis with a significance level of 0.05 compared to one at 0.1 level. 4 Empirical Results In order to analyze what factors motivate blue-­‐collar and white-­‐collar employees, the statistical tool, SPSS, has been applied to perform the hypotheses testing and the results of 30 this analysis will be presented in this chapter. Firstly, the chapter consists of a presentation of the respondent population. Followed this presentation, a summary of the results of respectively, the blue-­‐collar and the white-­‐collar group, will be given. The summary will address the responses of the blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar groups’ answers expressed in percentages. Thirdly, an SPSS analysis will be made which will focus on statistical evidence and whether there is a difference in what motivates the blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar group. Finally, some critical reflections relating the methodological framework will be addressed. 4.1 Presentation of Respondent Sample The respondent sample consists of 16 blue-­‐collar workers from the shipyard, Orskov and 33 white-­‐collar workers from Orskov and the IT company, Systematic. The fact that the white-­‐
collar sample is collected at two different companies can affect the results in that the organizational culture at a company can affect how the respondents assess motivational factors. However, having a sample from two different companies can also make the results more reliable and transferable to other companies because the bias of a company hiring a similar type of people, who then assess the motivational factors pretty equally, has been removed. Another bias in the respondent population is that it primarily consists of men. This could be related to the fact that the two companies, providing the empirical background for the study, perform work within ship repairing and IT and therefore employ fewer women than men. Thus, there are only 5 women in our sample. It can be argued that if there had been more women in the sample, the results would have been different. The blue-­‐collar workers in the sample are all men equally spread between the age groups, as seen in the chart below. About two thirds of the blue-­‐collar workers have an education with professional training, while a quarter only have primary schooling. The white-­‐collar sample consists of 33 people, where 28 are male and 5 are female. About half of the white-­‐collar sample is between 31 and 40 years old and have a university degree at master-­‐ or PhD level. Almost the whole sample from Systematic fall into the second and third age groups from 20-­‐
40 years old, while the sample from Orskov is evenly spread from 31 to above 60. The full distribution of age and educational levels of both blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar workers can be seen below. 31 4.2 Summary of Results 4.2.1 The Blue-­Collar Sample When assessing the results of questions 5 to 21, where the respondents were asked to rank how important some expressions were to them, they found it most important “to have a good relationship with my colleagues at the workplace”, which corresponds to McClelland’s need for affiliation. The second and third most important factors for the blue-­‐collar workers are “to be able to see measurable results in what I do”, and “to be able to see the overall purpose in what I do”. These questions should correspond with McClelland’s need for achievement and Hackman and Oldham’s task identity factor. 32 The questions that were rated to have the least importance were “to be able to affect others to perform better” and “to be able to advice others within my work area”, which both corresponds to McClelland’s need for power. What can generally be said about questions 5 to 21 is that they are rated high, and the standard deviations for most questions are high, which indicates different attitudes among the blue-­‐collar workers. In question 22 the respondents had to choose between three expressions, each representing one of McClelland’s three needs. In this question 57.1% of the blue-­‐collar workers found the social connection between colleagues and superiors to be most important, while none choose “to influence other people and events”. These answers correspond to the earlier answered questions and to the assumption that blue-­‐collar workers have a higher need for affiliation, while they in this sample have no need for power. 33 In the last question, respondents were to choose the three most important expressions of Herzberg’s fourteen factors. The answers made it very clear that the most important factor for the blue-­‐collar workers was salary, a total of 71.4% found this factor to be among their three most important factors. According to Herzberg, salary should only serve a dissatisfier if workers do not feel they get the salary they deserve based on what others get performing the same type of work, it should not be able to motivate workers as the respondent’s claim in this sample. The three next most important factors all received 35.7% of the respondents’ marks. They were relationship with peers, company policy, and responsibility. The first factor is similar to McClelland’s need for affiliation, which was chosen to be most important in the previous question, however it is a hygiene factor, therefore it should not serve as a motivator according to Herzberg. The second factor, company policy, is also a hygiene factor, while the only factor that, according to Herzberg, was supposed to serve as a motivator, is responsibility. The question that served as Herzberg’s responsibility factor was phrased as the possibility to determine how tasks at work should be performed. The factors that were least important to the blue-­‐collar workers and were not rated by any workers were job security, status, sense of achievement, and advancement. 34 4.2.2 The White-­Collar Sample The most important statement, from questions 5 to 21 for the white-­‐collar workers, was that the work performed “has significance for my company and our customers”, which corresponds with Hackman and Oldham’s task significance factor. The two second most important factors, which were rated equally high, were “to be able to see measurable results in what I do” and “to have the possibility to see the overall purpose in what I do”. These two statements should correspond to McClelland’s need for achievement and Hackman and Oldham’s task identity factor. The questions that had least importance to the white-­‐collar sample were “to have a specific plan of action for what to achieve in my work”, which corresponds to Latham and Locke’s goal theory; to get clear information about the effectiveness of my own work, which corresponds to Hackman and Oldham’s feedback factor; and lastly that they do something socially together in the workplace, which indicates the need for affiliation in McClelland’s theory. Question 22, where respondents had to choose between McClelland’s three factors (see table 4.2), it was very clear, with 88%, that the white-­‐collar sample preferred “to have a challenging job and a personal responsibility for the work”, which corresponds to the need for 35 achievement. No respondents chose “to be able to influence other people and events”, corresponding with McClelland’s need for power. In question 23, the white-­‐collar sample clearly indicated the most important of Herzberg’s factors to be work itself, in that about two thirds ticked off that “the work itself should be exciting and interesting”. According to Herzberg, this factor is an intrinsic factor and should also serve as a motivator according to his theory. The second and third most important factors were both chosen 36% of the time and were to have “a good relationship with peers” and “recognition for the work performed”. The first of the two factors is, according to Herzberg, a hygiene-­‐ and extrinsic factor and it should therefore not be possible to be motivated to perform an extra effort based on this factor. The second factor, recognition, is an intrinsic and thus motivational factor, according to Herzberg, and it should therefore be able to serve as a motivator. The three factors that were least likely to motivate the white-­‐collar sample to perform an extra effort were the possibility for advancement, company policy, and status. The first factor, advancement, is according to Herzberg a motivational factor whereas the two last factors, company policy and status, are hygiene factors and should therefore not, as the sample also indicated, be able to serve as a motivator. 4.3 Analysis This section will analyze the statistical outputs of SPSS. Each question will be evaluated individually to interpret whether there is a difference in which factors of work that affects blue and white-­‐collar employees’ motivation. Questions 5 to 21 deal with questions regarding McClelland’s needs achievement theory, Latham and Locke’s goal theory, and Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics model. 36 Questions 5 and 6 both deal with McClelland’s need for achievement and based on our statistical analysis there is no evidence to prove that there is a difference between the groups. This is caused by the fact that both groups find question 5, “to be able to see measurable results in what they do”, to be one of the most important factors. In question 6, “to feel that my manager acknowledges my work”, the mean rating of the blue-­‐collar group is higher than that of the white-­‐collar. However, there is no statistical evidence to prove the difference. Thus, the difference might as well be due to a general higher rating of the questions in the blue-­‐
collar group. Questions 7 and 8 related to McClelland’s need for power. No statistical difference was found between the two groups. None of the two groups rated the questions particularly high. Questions 9, 10, and 11 all regards McClelland’s need for affiliation. Based on the p-­‐value, there is strong evidence to infer that there is a difference between the groups in question 9, “to have a good relationship with my superior”. Based on the mean ratings, the blue-­‐collar group values this factor more than the white-­‐collar group. Question 10, “that we do something socially together at the workplace”, and question 11, “to have a good relationship with my 37 colleagues at the workplace”, did not infer any statistical difference. Question 10 was, by both groups, rated among one of the lowest work factors, while question 11 was the work factor rated highest for the blue-­‐collar group, however without any statistical difference between the groups. Questions 12 and 13 served to represent aspects of Latham and Locke’s goal theory. Both questions were rated with the same mean among the blue-­‐collar group, while the white-­‐collar workers rated question 12, “to work towards clearly defined goals in my work”, higher than question 13, “to have a specific plan of action for what to achieve in my work”. Between the groups, there is statistical evidence to support a difference between the groups in question 13, where the mean rating of the blue-­‐collar workers was higher than that of the white-­‐collar workers. Thus, blue-­‐collar workers value to have a specific plan of action for what to achieve in their work higher than white-­‐collar workers. Questions 14 to 21 represent factors of Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics model. The only question that infers statistical difference between the groups is question 21, “that I get specific information about the effectiveness of my own work”. This factor is valued higher by the blue-­‐collar groups and corresponds to Hackman and Oldham’s feedback factor. Question 20, “to get direct and clear feedback on the work I perform”, also corresponds to the feedback factor; however, this question has only been rated slightly higher by the blue-­‐collar group but without any statistical evidence. For both the white-­‐collar and blue-­‐collar group question 15, “to be able see measurable results in what I do”, is among the three most important factors and corresponds to the task identity factor; however, it is, again, rated slightly higher by the blue-­‐collar sample. Two questions that have been rated higher by the white-­‐collar sample are question 16, “to have a feeling that what I do becomes part of the final result”, and 17, “that the work I perform has significance for my company and our customers”, which both address Hackman and Oldham’s task significance factor. Even though the difference between the blue and white-­‐collar sample is not statistically significant in these questions, the fact that the white-­‐collar sample has rated these questions higher is worth noticing, as almost all other questions have been rated higher by the blue-­‐collar sample. 38 Based on the experience gained from conducting the pilot study, an extra question relating McClelland’s achievement needs theory was added. Thus, question 22 asks the respondent to choose one of McClelland’s three needs. In answering this question, there was a clear tendency that blue-­‐collar employees valued need for affiliation the highest and white-­‐collar employees valued the need for achievement highest. This difference between the two groups was also confirmed by the statistical analysis showing the difference between the two groups was highly significant. Nevertheless, the result that blue-­‐collar employees value need for affiliation and white-­‐collar employees value need for achievement was not strongly supported in results from questions 5 to 11, as it was only in question 9 relating the need for affiliation a statistical difference was found. This inconsistency in answers will be addressed in the discussion section. Question 23 relates to Herzberg’s two-­‐factor theory and the aim was to find the three factors which blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar employees value in order to make an extra effort at work. The question comprised of Herzberg’s fourteen different factors, and based on the analysis there was a significant difference in the opinions of the blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar employees relating five of the fourteen factors. The five factors are salary, company policy, sense of achievement, recognition and work itself. The hygiene factors, salary and company policy, was found to be 39 much more important for the blue-­‐collar group than the white-­‐collar group and the motivators, sense of achievement, recognition, and work itself, was found to be much more important for the white-­‐collar group. No statistical difference between the two groups was found relating job security, relationship with peers, status, relationship with superior, working conditions, work-­‐life balance, personal growth, responsibility and advancement. The fact that there is no statistical difference between the two groups relating relationship with superior is a bit contradictory to what was found in question 9, as it was concluded that the blue-­‐collar employees actually valued this factor more than the white-­‐collar employees. These contradictory answers will be discussed later in the thesis. 4.4 Critical Reflections In order to get some critical reflections upon the chosen methodology, we will address the concepts of internal validity, external validity, and reliability, as these are relevant when performing a quantitative study (Heldbjerg 2006). 4.4.1 Internal Validity Internal validity concerns the relationship between the chosen theory and the study. It deals with the fact that the study should be formulated in a way where it actually corresponds to the theory (Arbnor, Bjerke 2009). In our questionnaire all the factors of the theories have been represented by few questions compared to how many aspects the theorists encompass in the factors. Due to the length of the questionnaire it is not possible to include all aspects of a factor, however we feel that the factors have been represented in a sufficient manner. One could, nevertheless, question whether Latham and Locke’s goal theory is sufficiently represented as we have only included two questions representing the theory. In hindsight, internal validity might have been higher if more elaborate questions were asked. An example would be that goals not only need to be clearly defined, as mentioned in question 12 (see appendix 8.1 and 8.2), but also challenging. Regarding Hackman and Oldham’s feedback factor in our questionnaire, the questions phrased for this factor might no be provided with enough explanation as to who gives the feedback. In our questions regarding feedback there is only focus on feedback from the job itself, which is Hackman and Oldham’s main objective with this factor, but no questions related to general feedback from co-­‐workers and managers, which Hackman and Oldham also recognize as important. This lack might affect how high the 40 question is rated by both the blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar respondents. It could also be discussed whether the moderators of Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics model should also have been included in the questionnaire. This would have given the possibility to estimate whether the employees actually where interested in the various characteristics. However, as the moderators were not empirically confirmed and based on the fact that we are not interested in what motivates each single individual but rather the entire blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar groups, we chose not to include the moderators. Finally, one could also discuss the fact that every person has selective perception, which means that people only read or hear what they want and interpret that in different ways. Thus, no matter what our intentions were with each question and how it was phrased, people can always understand it differently. 4.4.2 External Validity External validity relates to whether the results made can be generalized beyond the actual study area (Arbnor, Bjerke 2009). This means that if the sample is representative for the entire population, we would be able to generalize the results and there would then be external validity. Generally, our sample of 49 respondents is a small sample if we wish to generalize to all blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar employees in Denmark. A way to improve external validity, we could have included more respondents by cooperating with more companies; this would insure that the specific company culture would not affect the results. 4.4.3 Reliability Reliability addresses the certainty of the measuring instruments. Thus, validity is about what we are measuring, whereas reliability is about what we are measuring with (Heldbjerg 2006). So, if a study is seen as reliable, the results of the study could be repeated over and over again, producing the same results. Because we, as researchers, have not in any way been responsible for collecting or even presenting the questionnaire for the respondents, the reliability is high in this study. 4.4.4 Sum up of Critical Reflections Summing up on the critical reflections, one could question the internal validity as in particular Latham and Locke’s goal theory could have been addressed even more directly in the questionnaire along with Hackman and Oldham’s feedback factor. This off course will reflect the results of the analysis and also make it harder to come up with general conclusions 41 relating the usefulness of this theory in relation to blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar employees. Furthermore, the generalizability of this sample to the entire population might be questionable based on the small number of respondents in our sample. Concerning reliability, the measurement instruments are considered satisfactory. 5 Discussion and Reflection This section will discuss the findings from the analysis. We will try to explain some of the findings and differences discovered in the analysis and also try to link these with relevant sources. We will also comment on the fact that we found some inconsistencies in the answers of the respondents, and try to explain why these differences might occur. After having discussed and reflected upon our analysis from section 4, we will try to move on with an analysis of age to see whether age has impact on how employees are motivated. We will also try to address whether differences in preferred motivational factors can be found within the white-­‐collar group meaning that we will try to discover if there is any differences between the general white-­‐collar workers and the knowledge workers from our sample. Thereafter we will move into a discussion of which implications are important for managers and companies when they want to motivate blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar workers. Finally, we will focus on future perspectives on this topic of research. 5.1 Discussion of Analysis In this section the significant differences found in the analysis will be discussed and these differences will then be linked to what factors of work that serves as motivators for blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar employees. The discussion will to a certain degree include our own thoughts, however, it will also be discussed whether the findings are similar to any previous studies performed within the area. The first difference found between the two groups relates to question 9 “to have a good relationship with my manager”. As the p-­‐value is 0.015 (see table 4.4) there is strong evidence to infer that the alternative hypothesis is true meaning that there is a difference in the mean ratings between the blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar groups. Based on the calculated means (see table 4.1 and 4.3) it can be concluded that the blue-­‐collar workers valued the relationship with their manager higher than the white-­‐collar employees. This question relates McClelland’s 42 need for affiliation, though there is no statistical difference between the two groups relating the other questions concerning McClelland’s needs in this part of the questionnaire (questions 5-­‐8 and 10-­‐11). However, based on the analysis of question 22 and the corresponding p-­‐value, it was concluded that there is overwhelming evidence to infer that the alternative hypothesis is true, and that the difference between the blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar groups is highly significant. The fact the blue-­‐collar workers has a higher need for affiliation than the white-­‐collar workers can also be supported by a study made in 1965 by Friedlander. Friedlander made his analysis based in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and discovered that the predominant value within the blue-­‐collar group sample was environmental characteristics, which would fulfill the basic security needs and desires for interpersonal interaction with one’s co-­‐workers, work group, and supervisor. Therefore, the blue-­‐collar group had a more general focus on the lower order needs (Friedlander 1965), corresponding to McClelland’s need for affiliation. The white-­‐collar workers, on the other hand, was found to value Maslow’s higher order needs such as sense of achievement, challenge, freedom, and the use of one’s best abilities (Friedlander 1965), which would correspond to McClelland’s need for achievement. Even though, the blue-­‐collar sample valued the social connection with their colleagues higher than other aspects of their job in question 22 relating McClelland’s needs, they still rated question 10, “that we do something social together at the workplace” among the three lowest factors in questions 5 to 21. Also the white-­‐collar workers rated question 10 among their three lowest factors, even though “to have a good relationship with colleagues” was important to 37% of the sample when choosing between Herzberg’s factors. The reason question 10 has been rated so low could be due to Danish cultural reasons as the official Danish website for international recruitment states that most Danes wish to keep work life and their social life separated. Most Danes have friends whom they have known a long time and most places it is not the norm to associate with colleagues outside working hours (Work in Denmark 2011). The social connection with colleagues and the fact that one can laugh and joke with them is very important, however, it is still a community around the workplace and not much more (Larsen, Munkgård Pedersen & Aagaard 2005, Paarup, Liboriussen 2002). When white-­‐collar workers have to choose between the challenging job and the social connection with colleagues, they choose the challenging job, however, when choosing among Herzberg’s factors, and when it was possible to choose more factors that would motivate to perform an 43 extra effort, the white-­‐collar workers found the relationship with peers just as important as the blue-­‐collar sample. According to the classical division of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation the social aspect is an extrinsic factor. This is due to the fact that it is other people who affect us, and thus affect the way we think and our behavior. However, Larsen (2005) might have a point when he raises the question of whether this frame of mind is not rather narrow as there is an “intrinsic” cause why other people affect us. Being a social creature is a highly common “intrinsic” characteristic in humans or as one leading scholar in the area of affiliation motivation wrote: “The motivation for social contact can be considered a central influence on human behavior” (Hill 1987, p.1008). Thus, we have a need to seek towards the understanding, purpose, and comfort a community gives us. Larsen (2005) therefore asks whether the classical intrinsic/extrinsic division makes any sense in the discussion of the social aspect. One could then think about all the criticism of Herzberg’s methodology for his two-­‐factor theory and wonder whether is makes sense to include relationship with peers as a hygiene factor that can act as a dissatisfier but not as a satisfier, nevertheless it seems that both for the blue-­‐and white-­‐collar sample the relationship with their colleagues can act as a motivator to perform an extra effort. Moving on in the analysis, a difference was also found relating question 13 “to have a specific plan of action for what to achieve in my work” as the blue-­‐collar workers rated this question to be of bigger importance than the white-­‐collar workers. Questions 12 and 13 are based on Latham and Locke’s goal theory and question 12 “to work towards clearly defined goals in my work” was rated of almost equal importance for the two groups (see table 4.1 and 4.3). Therefore, it is only in one of the two questions relating goal theory that the blue-­‐collar workers found goal theory to be more important than white-­‐collar workers. However, this difference is quite interesting, as we actually expected that it would be the white-­‐collar workers who would have preference for goal theory. Though, this was not the case with our sample. The fact that white-­‐collar workers rated this question very low, might be due to the specific formulation of the sentence as having a specific plan of action might not be desirable for some white-­‐collar workers, as their jobs seem to be defined less clearly than the type of job performed by blue-­‐collar workers. Furthermore, a big part of our white-­‐collar workers can also be classified as knowledge workers, which also affects the ratings of the respondents as 44 some theorists actually characterize knowledge workers by the large amount of autonomy in their work (Christensen 2007, Newell 2002). Therefore, a specific plan of action might sound unattractive for them as this could sound like they would loose influence on their own work. Referring to section 4.4.1 about internal validity, we discussed the fact that there could have been included extra questions relating goal theory, and by doing that we might have received different responses concerning this theory. In a study done in Israel, goal setting was actually proved to work among white-­‐collar workers as it was found that ”the motivational factor of involvement in goal setting significantly affected both performance quantity and quality, and work attitudes” (Erez, Arad 1986). However, it should be noted that the national culture of Israel is different from that of Denmark. Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions could, among others, be used to elaborate on differences between the Danish and the Israeli culture. According to Hofstede, Israel has a more masculine culture than Denmark indicating that they are more competitive and not focusing so much on the soft values as in Denmark. Further, the Israeli culture has higher uncertainty avoidance than the Danish culture, which means that they generally would try to minimize situations with uncertainty, whereas Danes in general would be more willing to accept uncertainty (Hofstede 2009). Relating these national differences to goal theory, it might explain why goal theory proved successful in Israel as they focus more on competition and has a tendency to try to decrease uncertainty, and having a goal to reach could trigger the competition value and also deal with the uncertainty by having a specific plan of action. Lastly, it should be notified that putting national culture into boxes of course is making generalizations. Addressing the concepts of McClelland’s achievement needs theory; one might also link achievement-­‐oriented people with goal setting as achievement oriented people are very result oriented. Further, high achievers also desire feedback, which goal setting would also offer them as they will get feedback on whether a goal is reached or not. Even though we found our white-­‐collar workers to be achievement oriented, this did not result in them preferring goal theory. 45 Generally, both the blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar group did not value goal setting very high compared to other factors of work (see tables 4.1 and 4.3). However, one might argue that most companies today make use of the general concepts of goal theory in one way or the other. Examples of this could for instance be a work norm, a deadline, a certain level of job performance, a budget or a quota (Locke et al. 1981). As many companies also use some sort of goal setting in describing values and strategies, this might explain why the individual employee does not seem to value goal setting so much, as it is already incorporated in the company cultures. Concerning Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristic model, the only difference found between the blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar employees was relating question 21. This result was only significant with a significance level of 0.10 however, there is strong evidence to infer that the alternative hypothesis is true meaning that there was a difference between the groups (Keller 2004). Question 21, “to get specific information about the effectiveness of my own work” relates to Hackman and Oldham’s concept of feedback. Based on the mean ratings, this factor seems more important for the blue-­‐collar employees than the white-­‐collar employees (see table 4.1 and 4.3). One aspect of why blue-­‐collar workers rated this as of greater importance than white-­‐collar employees could be found in the nature of their jobs as white-­‐collar jobs and in particular knowledge workers job maybe not so suitable for a measure of effectiveness. Further, the whole concept of effectiveness might make the employees feel measured and controlled upon, which could result in some employees having negative associations concerning the word effectiveness. Relating question 20, “to get direct and clear feedback on the work I perform”, which also concerns the feedback aspect of Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristic model, the two mean ratings of the two groups was more similar, and generally this factor was valued higher by both groups (see table 41. and 4.3). This indicates that getting a direct and clear feedback was valued as more important than information on the effectiveness of one’s work. Our questions aimed at addressing the feedback factor did not clarify whether the feedback was provided by the job itself or by others, as the questions do not mention from who or how the particular feedback is coming. Therefore, it is unfortunately not possible for us to analyze which type of feedback the employees would want, whether it is from the work itself or 46 others. This information could have been quite interesting, as McClelland suggests people with a high need for achievement have a strong desire for task-­‐related feedback meaning feedback from the job itself (Hein 2009). Since we found that the white-­‐collar workers are achievement motivated, it would have been interesting to discover whether they actually desire feedback from the job itself as McClelland claims. In the questions from 5 to 21, where respondents had to rate the importance of the statements, the highest rating among white-­‐collar employees was given to Hackman and Oldham’s task significance factor. According to Hackman and Oldham, task significance should be understood as the extent to which the work has an effect for other people inside or outside the organization. The reason the respondents rated this question so high might be due to the majority of our respondents are from Systematic where they are working within health care and the development of electronic patient records for hospitals. Thus, the employees at Systematic might find their work more meaningful because they develop a system that might make it possible for health personnel to spend more time curing the sick than on administrative tasks. Looking at questions 18 and 19 relating autonomy, no difference between the two groups was found, however, the blue-­‐collar workers generally rated autonomy higher than the white-­‐
collar workers. One possible reason for the lower rating by the white-­‐collar workers could be the fact that a large part of these workers, in our sample, also are characterized as knowledge workers, and knowledge workers are, among other things, often characterized by their large amount of autonomy in their work (Newell 2002). So, the fact that they might take the autonomy factor for granted could explain why autonomy is not as important for white-­‐collar employees as blue-­‐collar employees. Thus, the blue-­‐collar workers might value autonomy more, due to the fact that it is not as implicit in their job descriptions. When only looking at Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics, the question is whether all, as well as the same, factors should be included in a motivating job for both blue-­‐collar and white-­‐collar employees. Generally, most factors have been rated about equally between the two employee groups. Therefore, it can be argued, as Hackman and Oldham also claims, that both job types should include all factors. However, they need to be addressed in different ways as e.g. autonomy largely is included in many white-­‐collar jobs, whereas management 47 might need to hand over some of the planning or specifications to the blue-­‐collar employees. A factor that, unlike all other factors, have been rated higher by the white-­‐collar sample is question 16 “to have a feeling that what I do becomes part of the final result”, which corresponds to the task identity factor. This might indicate that it is slightly more important for white-­‐collar employees to constantly feel that what they are working on becomes a part of a final element. Thus, white-­‐collar people might need more information about the overall product or goal of the work whereas the blue-­‐collar employees rather want to know the effectiveness of the work on their current assignment, as seen in question 21 regarding task feedback. In relation to Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristic model, it is also important to consider individual differences among people as evidence supports the fact that some people are more attracted and motivated by enriched jobs than others (Pinder 2008). This is also what Hackman and Oldham acknowledged by including the moderator of growth need strength to the model. So, when addressing the preferences towards these job characteristics, it should be remembered that each individual would have different perceptions towards these characteristics. As mentioned previously in this section, there is overwhelming evidence to infer a significant difference among the blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar sample in question 22 regarding McClelland’s needs. In this question a little more than half of the blue-­‐collar sample chose the statement implying a need for affiliation, while this statement was only chosen by 12% of the white-­‐
collar sample. According to the research done by Paarup (2002) unskilled workers are generally satisfied with having a job with a relatively good income and good relations to the other workers and with management, while people with longer educations have requirements about the job fulfilling personal ambitions. Even though all the blue-­‐collar workers in our sample are not unskilled, the research by Paarup corresponds to the findings from our empirical research. A majority of the people in our white-­‐collar sample has longer educations than the blue-­‐collar sample. Thus, the reason almost 90% of the white-­‐collar employees have chosen the statement implying a need for achievement might be due to the fact that they have personal ambitions they want to carry out. Other studies have also found blue-­‐collar workers to put a high emphasis on their co-­‐workers and the interpersonal relationship at the workplace (Locke 1973). The fact that our blue-­‐collar sample has a higher need for affiliation 48 might be that the respondents in this sample repair ships and therefore highly rely on each other for the ship to be done. Furthermore, if the teamwork at the yard does not work it might lead to safety hazards. These two aspects in the blue-­‐collar work might increase the importance of good relationships to coworkers and superiors. What needs to be mentioned for McClelland’s needs achievement theory is that even though it seems that the white-­‐collar group has a higher need for achievement and the blue-­‐collar group for affiliation, it does not mean that these two employee groups only possess these needs. In other situations than their work they might have a higher need for one of the other factors, it is simply not as prevalent in their job. It is also quite interesting that none of the respondents in our sample choose McClelland’s need for power. One possible explanation to this could be that there, as far as we know, are no managers in our sample, and McClelland states that it is typically managers who have a high need for power. Furthermore, one might also consider the Danish concept of the Jante Law, where the main thought is “don't think you are better than us” (Den Store Danske 2011). This could maybe unconsciously affect the Danish employees not to choose the questions relating to McClelland’s need for power. Moving on with the discussion concerning question 23 and Herzberg’s two-­‐factor theory we found that there is a statistical significant difference in five of the fourteen factors. The first factor we will discuss is the factor of salary. About 50% more blue-­‐collar than white-­‐collar workers chose the salary factor. It is common in many studies that the most important factor for blue-­‐collar workers is salary (Locke 1973, Kovach 1995, Paarup, Liboriussen 2002). According to Herzberg, salary is a hygiene factor and should therefore not serve as a motivator as it is seen from our study. However, as Paarup (2002) discovered in his research, some workers simply go to work in order to provide for their family, thus salary serve as a motivator for this group. Therefore, when problems arise in work situations and overtime is needed, the best incentive to get the skilled and unskilled workers in production industries to work is by giving them a high overtime salary (Paarup, Liboriussen 2002). In relation to the importance of salary for the blue-­‐collar workers, it is also important to keep in mind that Orskov, where all our blue-­‐collar employees work, has paid out large amounts in 49 profit sharing to all their employees (Albæk 2008). The importance of this large bonus might be what the employees have in mind when choosing the salary factor. The next significant difference between the two groups concerns company policy. Also this factor is by Herzberg seen as a hygiene factor, however, in our research this factor could serve to motivate the blue-­‐collar sample. The reason company policy is more important for the blue-­‐collar sample might be that this group does not have as high autonomy as the white-­‐
collar sample and therefore rely on the policies established by their company to a greater extend than do white-­‐collar workers. Also, the importance of company policies among the blue-­‐collar sample could be linked to the importance of safety regulations on a shipyard. The third significant difference is in the “sense of achievement” factor that by Herzberg is said to be a “motivator”. This factor was not chosen by any blue-­‐collar workers but by one out of three white-­‐collar employees. This factor can be linked to McClelland’s need for achievement, which was also chosen by significantly more white-­‐collar employees. The question regarding this factor was phrased: “That there is opportunity to use my skills and abilities fully”. The fact that there are more white-­‐collar employees putting a high emphasis on this statement also corresponds to the finding by Paarup (2002) that higher educated people require the job to fulfill personal ambitions and to findings by Friedlander (1965) who found that the use of one’s best abilities is of highly significant value to white-­‐collar employees. The “recognition” factor also shows a significant difference between the blue-­‐ and white-­‐
collar employees. This factor is more important to the white-­‐collar sample in our study (see table 4.2). Kovach (1995) came so a similar conclusion in his research when he compared skilled blue-­‐collar workers with skilled white-­‐collar employees, as his white-­‐collar respondents placed a higher value on “full appreciation of work done”. Kovach (1995) argues that the blue-­‐collar workers might be more intrinsically content with their jobs, because in most cases their tasks are well defined whereas the tasks of white-­‐collar workers are more open-­‐ended and the worker depends on supervisory feedback for definition and assessment of the job. In order to give employees a higher recognition they could be included in decision-­‐
making activities, which might give them the feedback needed to define the job. 50 The last significant factor of difference of Herzberg’s theory in our questionnaire is “work itself”. This factor was clearly the most important factor among the white-­‐collar group (see table 4.2). Many other studies have come to the same conclusion, namely that interesting work is of prime importance to white-­‐collar workers (Locke 1973, Friedlander 1965, Hackman, Oldham 1980). Harris (1974) also came to the conclusion that blue-­‐collar employees were more likely to derive satisfaction and dissatisfaction from hygiene factors whereas white-­‐collar employees derived satisfaction and dissatisfaction from “motivator events” (Harris, Locke 1974). A factor that, to our surprise, was not important to the blue-­‐collar workers was Herzberg’s “job security” factor. This was surprising as the employees at Orskov Yard are primarily employees that have experienced layoffs of many of their previous colleagues when Ørskov Christensens Stålskibsværft closed. In addition, many other studies found the job security factor to be one of the most important for blue-­‐collar employees (Friedlander 1965, Kovach 1995, Hackman, Oldham 1980, Slocum Jr. 1971). Moreover, increasing globalization causes more jobs to be outsourced to countries with lower wages (Hansen 2010), which is a factor that one would think increases the desire for job security. The reason the respondents in our blue-­‐collar sample have not chosen the job security factor, might be because they each year have received a bonus, which means that the company is doing well. Thus, the employees know that when the company is thriving there is a low possibility of being fired and therefore the “job security” factor cannot motivate them to perform an extra effort. In the question relating to McClelland, we discovered that the respondents in our white-­‐collar sample found a challenging job and a personal responsibility for the work to be most important at their workplace, which corresponds to the need for achievement. However, one of the factors that were least important for the same respondents among Herzberg’s factors was the responsibility factor. The statement “the possibility to decide how my work should be carried out” measured the responsibility factor. Two of Systematic’s values are that the best way for people and organizations to grow is by empowerment and that their employees have freedom with responsibility and an obligation to take responsibility. Thus, one can argue that the employees of Systematic take responsibility for granted as they are obligated to embrace responsibility as it is of great importance in the company culture, which might explain why the responsibility factor was not chosen. 51 5.2 Inconsistencies in Respondent Answers In the analysis, it was mentioned that some of the answers given by the respondents not always seemed to be consistent all the way through the questionnaire. This was the case for the questions relating to McClelland’s theory namely questions 5-­‐11 compared to question 22 and also the relationship with superior both mentioned in question 9 concerning McClelland’s need for affiliation and in question 23 relating Herzberg’s hygiene factors. Relating McClelland’s achievement needs theory in question 22, it was found that blue-­‐collar employees valued the need for affiliation whereas white-­‐collar employees valued the need for achievement. However, this discovery was not clear when considering the statistics performed on questions 5 to 11 as the only statistical difference between the two groups was found relating question 9 as the blue-­‐collar workers valued the relationship with superior much higher than the white-­‐collar workers. This raises the question why only one statistical difference was found in questions 5 to 11, even though it was clear from question 22 that there was a difference between the two groups? One possible explanation to the above question could be that by constructing the questionnaire in a way where the respondents did not have to choose between the groups, but only rate what is important, there would be a tendency to rate everything fairly high as the entire questionnaire is based on motivational theory and thereby factors, that all seem desirable. This is also very much supported by the fact that the lowest mean found in questions 5 to 21 was 3.06, which shows a clear tendency for the respondents to rate everything relating questions 5 to 21 as important. When reflecting upon the composition of the questionnaire and the fact that the needs should only be rated by importance in questions 5 to 11, it also makes sense that all three needs were found to be somewhat important for everyone, as McClelland’s achievement needs theory actually states that everyone have a basic need for all of the three factors, however with emphasis towards one of the three needs. Therefore, it also makes sense that it is not until you make the respondents choose specifically which one of the needs they have emphasis for, you get to see the difference between the two groups of employees. Relating the inconsistency in the answers of questions 9 and 23, it was found in question 9 that there was a statistical difference between the two groups as the blue-­‐collar employees 52 valued relationship with superior more than white-­‐collar employees. However, in question 23 concerning Herzberg’s two-­‐factor theory no statistical difference was found between the two groups relating relationship with superior as only 14.3% of the blue-­‐collar group had chosen it, whereas 15.2% of the white-­‐collar group had chosen it as one of the three most important of Herzberg’s factors. A possible explanation for the inconsistency in the answers could be that the expressions are not entirely equivalent in the two questions as question 9 is phrased as having relationship with my manager whereas question 23 is to have a good relationship with my superiors. So, this might indicate that blue-­‐collar workers find it important to have a good relationship with their nearest manager, however, not with the superiors in general. 5.3 Impact of Age on Motivation When assessing differences in what factors motivate employees, there might be other explanations than whether they are blue-­‐ or white-­‐collar employees. One factor that might affect motivation is age. In the labor market there are currently workers belonging to three different generations. Because values, beliefs and attitudes change over time these generations might have more in common than workers in blue-­‐ or white-­‐collar jobs. Generation Y are the people born from approximately 1980-­‐1997, and are thus people below 30 in our sample (Hein 2009). This generation is also sometimes called the “what’s in it for me” generation and are often described as extrinsically controlled employees who seek material goods, prestige, esteem, and fame (Hein 2009). Some even argues that this generation, according to Herzberg’s two-­‐factor theory, feels dissatisfied by the absence of so many factors, that almost everything functions as hygiene factors for them. However, there are also opposing sides that claim that generation Y are not only individualists, but also collectivists because they put the social environment high along with meaningful work. Generation X are people born between 1961 and 1980 (Sung-­‐Bum Yang, Guy 2006) . In our sample this generation comprises of people from 31 to 50, as our age categories are divided in years of ten intervals. Generation X is viewed to demand fast payoffs, challenging work, constant feedback about their performance, and constant opportunities for personal and professional development through their jobs (Tulgan 1995). The last generation in the workforce of our sample is generation Baby Boomers (BB) who are born between 1943 and 1960 (Sung-­‐Bum Yang, Guy 2006). They will today be between 50 53 and 68 years old and will in our sample consist of the employees above 50. According to Sung-­‐
Bum Yang (2006), Baby Boomers are often described as independent and anti-­‐authoritarian. They prefer to have a meaningful career to having a job just for economic gains. In order to find out if there are any statistical differences between the generations in our sample we have to recode our data in SPSS. We have, in our questionnaire, made six age intervals, however to compare the generations, these age groups have to be recoded so that people below 20 up to 30 years of age will become one variable called ”genY”, people from 31 to 50 will become one variable called “genX” and lastly people from 51 to above 60 years of age will become a variable called “genBB” for generation baby boomers. For question 5-­‐21 we will use a one-­‐way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test in SPSS to compare the three mean ratings in each question (appendix 8.4). The p-­‐values are then used to determine whether there is a difference between the means, which is the case in questions: 5, 9, 12-­‐14, 16, 18, and 21 (see appendix 8.4: table 8.2). In order to find out which means differ from each other the Bonferroni confidence intervals are used (see appendix 8.4: table 8.3). The statistical framework of questions 22 and 23 can be seen in appendix 8.4. In most of the questions where a statistical difference is discovered from questions 5-­‐21, generation BB have a higher mean rating, which might indicate that the older generation value motivational factor higher than the other two generations, or that they are simply just higher raters than the other two groups. What is interesting among the findings is that questions 12 and 13, regarding goal theory, were found to be statistically more important for generation BB, which might confirm the arguments of Sung-­‐Bun Yang (2006) that this generation is independent and therefore likes to have clearly stated goals that they have to achieve. Even though there is no statistically significant differences between the generations in question 22 regarding McClelland’s needs, generation BB seem to value achievement much more than generation Y, which corresponds to their higher preference for having goals (see appendix 8.4: table 8.4). In addition, the lower need for affiliation among generation BB might be due to that they have been employed the same place for many years; therefore, they might take the importance of a good relationship with co-­‐workers and superiors for granted. The only statement with a statistical difference in question 23 of Herzberg’s factors is the question regarding relationship with superior. This is a factor that is more important to 54 generation BB which can also be seen in question 9 where the importance of having a good relationship with the manager is rated significantly higher for generation BB than by generation Y. A possible explanation for this could be that because generation BB often are described as anti-­‐authoritarian and therefore seek to establish a relationship with their superior rather than seeing them as an authority. What is interesting when looking at the results for generation Y is that in question 14, “to have clear variation in the work I do”, regarding Hackman and Oldham’s skill variety, is significantly lower for generation Y than for both generation X and generation BB. This might be caused by the fact that generation Y is relatively new to the labor market, thus they still need to achieve many new skills before they feel confident having a clear variation in their work. Another interesting aspect in the findings of question 22, regarding McClelland’s needs, is that generation Y almost divided their marks between the statements relating affiliation and achievement, while the other two generations four out of five times chose the statement corresponding to McClelland’s achievement factor (see appendix 8.4: table 8.4). Even though the difference between the generations is not statistically significant it is still worth noticing, that more from generation Y, compared to the other generations, chose the affiliation factor. This corresponds to some general characteristics of generation Y, namely that they are said to highly value the social environment (Hein 2009). Another desire that generation Y is claimed to have is meaningful work, which also can be seen from question 23 of Herzberg’s factors in our questionnaire. Even though not statistically significant, generation Y found work itself to be a motivation to perform an extra effort two out of three times while only a little more than half of generation X chose the factor and one out of three from generation BB. The work itself factor is the most chosen factor for generation Y along with salary at number two, which corresponds to both views of generation Y stated previously by Hein (2009). However, in the sample we have obtained, a little more than half of the employees are from generation X. Therefore, it could be claimed that our sample is not representative of the population. Moreover, now that we have found that there are some differences between blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar employees, it would be more reliable to obtain a larger sample among employees with similar professions and then test for generational differences. Furthermore, the people in the generation Y sample are almost all from Systematic; therefore the fact that 55 they are knowledge workers might affect the results, which will be discussed in the next section. Differences in what factors motivate different age groups might not only be due to which generation an employee belongs to, but rather what phase of life the employee is going through. The sociologist Henrik Dahl argues that the sociological definition of generations, meaning that a large number of people have something in common solely due to their birth certificate, is a myth. The only reason that it makes sense to talk about a generation, he argues, is because it is interesting to see how current cultural, economical, and political conditions affect a group of individuals who experience the same phase of life at the same time (Dahl 1998). Rather than focusing on generations, Kovach (1995) has made empirical research of different age groups and his study might be a good supplement to ours. He found that the under 30 group valued good wages, job security, and promotion and growth as their first 3 priorities. In our empirical study the under 30 groups also found salary to be of prime importance. This could indicate that, because they are new workers, they have no yet fulfilled their basic needs. The age group 31-­‐40 placed job security high and as age increases, personal problems become more of a factor. The personal factor is also important to generation X in our sample, as the people between 31 and 50 have rated “work-­‐life balance” higher than the other generations. This personal emphasis might be due to the fact that employees between 31 and 50 have small children rather than they belong to generation X. The over-­‐50 workers place “good working conditions” and “personal loyalty to employees” high on their list of preferences in Kovach’s study, however in our study the over 50 worker place paramount importance to being able to see measurable results in what they do and that the work has significance for customers and the company. According to Kovach (1995) the under-­‐30 workers might work well with flexible pay incentives whereas the older age groups responds better to job enrichment and job enlargement programs, however this is not entirely supported by our study. But it is important to recognize that our sample might not be completely fit for testing whether age has an influence on motivational factors. Eskildsen (2003) further found that in the Nordic countries there is a linear relationship with age and job satisfaction, which means that the older the employee, the higher is the satisfaction with one’s job (Eskildsen, Kristensen & Westlund 2004). This could either indicate that as the employee gets older 56 he/she obtains a larger skill set, which according to Hackman and Oldham increases motivation and perhaps job satisfaction. It could also indicate that as an employee gets older he/she achieves more recognition and more responsibility, which according to Herzberg increases motivation. 5.4 Differences within the White-­Collar Group As our white-­‐collar group is a mixture of general white-­‐collar workers and knowledge workers, it could also be quite interesting to investigate whether there are any differences between these two subgroups. These two groups will therefore be analyzed based on educational level, and thereby we will discover if the level of education affects how employees are motivated. In order to perform the analysis, we had to construct a new data set by moving all our white-­‐collar employees into this new data set as the answers of the blue-­‐collar employees were without relevance in this analysis. For the sake of analyzing differences within the white-­‐collar group, we needed to be able to separate the general white-­‐collar workers from the knowledge workers. This separation was done by the use of the respondents’ educational levels as the respondents’ with a bachelor’s degree, master degree or PhD was grouped together as knowledge workers. The remaining respondents were classified as general white-­‐collar workers. The grouping was based on our definition of knowledge workers in section 1.1.2, where knowledge workers were described as highly educated. Based on the above classification, we came to a respondent sample comprising of eight general white-­‐collar workers and twenty-­‐five knowledge workers. The vast majority of the knowledge workers are from Systematic, which might affect the results of the analysis. The analysis was carried out in SPSS, and the statistical framework along with the outputs can be seen in appendix 8.5. From the analysis, it is possible to conclude that there are differences among the preferences towards motivational factors within the white-­‐collar group. Differences among the general white-­‐collar group and the knowledge workers were found relating questions 9, 18, 19, 21 and 23. Question 9 relates to McClelland’s need for affiliation and deals with relationship with manager. In this question, it was clear that it was more important for the general white-­‐collar group than that of knowledge workers. A possible explanation of this could be found in the definition relating to knowledge workers, as they are defined as specialists which might 57 indicate that they, based on their education but maybe also self-­‐confidence, might not have the same need for a relationship with their manager. Also, it seems that knowledge workers are very much independent in the work they perform, as autonomy is one of distinctive characteristics of knowledge work according to Newell et al. (2002) and therefore, this might also explain why knowledge workers do not have the same need for a good relationship with their manager as the general white-­‐collar workers. In this relation it also makes sense to discuss the next two questions, where differences were found namely questions 18 and 19 relating Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics model and the concept of autonomy. As just mentioned, autonomy is defined as a distinct characteristic of knowledge workers (Newell 2002), which might also explain why question 18 “that I can organize my own workday” and question 19 “that I decide how my tasks are carried out” were rated significantly lower by the knowledge workers than the general white-­‐collar group. So, a possible explanation of the low ratings for autonomy by knowledge workers could be that autonomy actually implicitly is a part of their job. Therefore, knowledge workers might take autonomy for granted, as they have never tried not to have autonomy in the work they perform. Still, it is very interesting why autonomy is rated significantly lower by knowledge workers, as operational autonomy was classified as one of the four key motivators for knowledge workers by Tampoe (1993). Operational autonomy should be understood as a work environment where knowledge workers have the possibility to achieve the tasks assigned to them within the constraints of self-­‐measurement indices and strategic direction (Tampoe 1993). As especially question 19 “that I can decide how my tasks are carried out” can be identified as operational autonomy, the results found by this analysis actually contradicts what Tampoe found, namely that operational autonomy was found to be second most important motivator after personal growth. In relation to the fact that personal growth should be the most important motivator for knowledge workers (Tampoe 1993), it is therefore also interesting that only 28% of the knowledge workers in our sample chose Herzberg’s motivator “personal growth” (see appendix 8.5). In our questionnaire, personal growth was defined as “the possibility to get better at what I do and acquire more skills and thereby experience a personal development”, whereas Tampoe defined it as “the opportunity for individuals to fully realize their potential” (Tampoe 1993, p.51). Even though the explanations of the two 58 concepts in both our study and Tampoe’s study seems to be somewhat similar, personal growth was only rated as the fifth most important of Herzberg’s factors in our study which is contradicting Tampoe’s analysis stating that personal growth is the most important motivator for knowledge workers (Tampoe 1993). The second most important motivator according to Tampoe was operational autonomy, as explained above, whereas task achievement was found to be the third most important factor and money the final and fourth factor (Tampoe 1993). By task achievement is meant “the achievement of producing work to a standard and quality of which the individual can be proud” (Tampoe 1993, p.51). The definition of task achievement could to a certain degree be compared to our description of Herzberg’s factor of recognition “appreciation for the work I perform” and the description of Hackman and Oldham’s task significance “that the work I perform has significance for my company and our customers”. Even though there was no statistical difference between the two groups relating Herzberg’s recognition factor, one could argue that there is a difference as 44% of the knowledge workers chose the factor compared to 12.5% of the general white-­‐collar workers, however the difference is not statistically significant. Relating Hackman and Oldham’s task significance it is very clear that there is no difference at all between the two groups as the mean rating of task significance for the knowledge workers was 4.36 compared to 4.38 of the general white-­‐collar workers. So, the Herzberg’s recognition factor might support the fact that knowledge workers value task achievement as defined by Tampoe. The final factor identified by Tampoe as key motivator for knowledge workers was money rewards. Money rewards was identified as having the least importance of the four key motivators with a percentage of only 7.07%, whereas all the other three motivators had a rating in importance from 28.8% up to 33.7% (Tampoe 1993). Money rewards should be understood as “an income which is a just reward for their contribution to corporate success and which symbolizes their contribution to that success.” (Newell 2002, p.70). In his two-­‐
factor theory, Herzberg defines salary as a hygiene factor, thus it should only be able to dissatisfy. However, there is a difference in the way respectively Herzberg defines his “salary” factor and the way money rewards are defined by Tampoe as Herzberg does not link his “salary” term directly to performance such as Tampoe does. Furthermore, Herzberg’s factor is not called reward and he does not even mention the concept of rewards when explaining 59 what salary means in his theory (Herzberg, Snyderman & Mausner 2004). However, he does mention salary increases as a part of this factor, but not whether the salary increases is related to performance (Herzberg, Snyderman & Mausner 2004). Based on our analysis, 12.5% of the general white-­‐collar group found salary to be important compared to 24% of the knowledge workers. However, our phrasing of this factor was only called “salary” without any explanation, so whether the respondents thought of salary in terms of a monthly payment or relating rewards, is unfortunately impossible for us to know. Not having personal interaction with the respondents and not getting a possibility to ask in depth questions, is unfortunately one of the disadvantages of using a questionnaire compared to a personal interview. Opening a debate about money rewards also requires consideration about extrinsic and intrinsic rewards. As explained in section 1.1.1 intrinsic and extrinsic rewards relates to whether individuals are internally or externally motivated. The external motivation and thereby extrinsic rewards are created from outside the individual (Buelens, Sinding & Waldstrøm 2011) and theorists, including Herzberg, define money as an extrinsic reward and external motivation is said to have less long term impact on motivation than does internal motivation. Therefore, it is quite interesting that extrinsic motivation in the shape of money rewards is of great importance to knowledge workers according to Tampoe. An article by McKinsey also questions the power of financial incentives by stating: “Numerous studies have concluded that for people with satisfactory salaries, some nonfinancial motivators are more effective than extra cash in building long-­‐term employee engagement” (Dewhurst, Guthridge & Mohr 2010, p.1). Whether or not Tampoe is correct in assuming that knowledge workers are motivated by money rewards cannot be confirmed on the basis of our study, however, it would be a very interesting area of future research. Continuing with the differences found between the general white-­‐collar group and the knowledge workers, a significant difference was also found relating question 21, where it was more important for the white-­‐collar group “to get specific information about the effectiveness of my own work” than it was for the knowledge workers. Again, this difference might relate to a possible higher self-­‐confidence and autonomy by the knowledge workers, resulting in that it might not be as important for the knowledge workers to know exactly how effectively they are performing. 60 When analyzing question 22, there was no difference between the general white-­‐collar group and the knowledge workers as both groups generally chose need for achievement as the highest factor. However, significant differences were found when looking at some of Herzberg’s factors in question 23 as there were differences between the two groups relating relationship with superiors, responsibility and work itself. Relationship with superior is a hygiene factor, so basically it should not even be able to motivate according to Herzberg. However, 37.5% of the general white-­‐collar group chose that factor as one of the three factors generating the greatest motivation compared to 8% of the knowledge worker group. Also worth acknowledging is that there is no inconsistency found in this analysis when comparing the answers of question 9 “to have a good relationship with my manager” and Herzberg’s factor “to have a good relationship with my superiors” as it was discovered that the general white-­‐collar group valued relationship with superiors higher than the knowledge workers in both questions. As mentioned when discussing question 9, a possible explanation for this difference between the groups might be that the knowledge workers are highly educated, and therefore they may have high confidence in the work they perform, which could mean that they do not feel it is as important as the general white-­‐collar group to have a good relationship with the superiors. The general white-­‐collar group also valued responsibility much higher than did the knowledge workers as 50% of the general white-­‐collar group found responsibility to be important compared to only 4% of the knowledge workers. The factor of responsibility was phrased as “the possibility to decide how my work should be carried out” in our questionnaire (see appendix 8.1 and 8.2), and this could in some ways be associated with the autonomy factor in Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics model. So, the explanations given for why autonomy (question 18 and19) was not found to be important for knowledge workers might also be used in relation to responsibility. Another possible explanation for why knowledge workers did not find this factor important could be that the entire training and education of knowledge workers have led them to expect a certain amount of autonomy and responsibility in their work (Newell 2002), which knowledge workers therefore might take for granted. The last significant difference found within the white-­‐collar group was relating work itself as 25% of the general white-­‐collar group had chosen this factor compared to 79,2% of the knowledge workers. So, “that the work itself is exciting and interesting” is very important for 61 the knowledge workers. A possible explanation could be found in the length of the knowledge workers’ education, as the minimum years of education of a knowledge worker, based on our classification, would be a total of 16 years (10 years of primary school, 3 years of secondary school, and 3 more years to get a bachelor’s degree). As the knowledge workers have such a long education, this might also explain why they find it so important that the work itself is exiting. 5.5 Implications for Companies and Managers We have in our discussion established that there are different factors of work that motivate blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar employees respectively. Because the two groups value some factors higher than others there are certain implications that companies, and especially managers, should be aware of in order to motivate their employees as much as possible. Blue-­‐collar workers value the relationship with their co-­‐workers and managers highly; therefore, it might be a good idea to get these employees to work in groups as this is one of the characteristics for people with a higher need for affiliation. Furthermore, Larsen (2005) suggests that because young knowledge workers in his study valued the social connection at the workplace, organizing people into project groups that change from time to time might be a good idea. This approach might also work for the blue-­‐collar employees, because knowing more people at the workplace gives a stronger sense of belonging. Moreover, both white-­‐ and blue-­‐collar employees might benefit from “team building” exercises that takes place during working hours. The blue-­‐collar workers also valued Hackman and Oldham’s feedback factor and Herzberg’s recognition factor, therefore managers should include the employees in decision making about the tasks, as argued by Kovach (1995), which gives them the feedback needed to define the job. In addition, bonuses based on the profit generated by the company might be a good idea, as this both serves as recognition that the employees have done a good job but also addresses the factor that is most important among Herzberg’s factors, namely salary, which is what Orskov already practices. For the white-­‐collar employees Herzberg’s “work itself” factor was the most important factor. In addition, the vast majority of the white-­‐collar sample had a higher need for achievement. One of the characteristics for people with a high achievement need is that they require more feedback (Hein 2009). Based on these two factors it might be a good idea for managers to 62 have conversations with white-­‐collar workers about their job content from time to time. In this way the employees both get feedback and at the same time the manager knows whether the employee is satisfied by the work he/she performs. Even though our white-­‐collar sample did not place a high value on goal setting, Erez (1986) argues that high achievers perform better when they have a goal that they have taken part in setting. Therefore managers could try, along with the employee, to set specific goals. Larsen (2005) found out in his research that among young knowledge workers it did not matter whether they received a super high salary as long as it was about the same as other people with similar work received. In our study, the white-­‐collar group did not place a high importance to salary; therefore the claim offered by Larsen (2005) might be general for white-­‐collar workers. Along with the differences in our blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar sample, we have also found some differences among age groups and within the white-­‐collar sample. Kovach (1995) argues that younger people are more motivated by salary, which is also the case for generation Y in our sample, however not statistically proven. Thus the younger people might be more motivated by salary whereas this becomes of less significance when the employees become older. There are also differences within the white-­‐collar group that managers need to be aware of. However, managers can take departure in general findings and look at the type of people they employ, but they have to remember that people are different therefore what works for one company will not always work for another. 5.6 Future Perspectives In this section future perspectives of research on motivation will be addressed. We will try to provide our suggestion for what other theories could have been included in relation to this study and address other aspects also relevant for employees’ motivation. Concerning the theories chosen in this paper, we do find that they have all been useful. However, Latham and Locke’s goal theory and Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics model could have been presented better in our questionnaire (as commented upon in section 4.4.1 Internal Validity). Still, it might have been useful to include other theories as well and an example of this could be equity theory. Equity theory could have been interesting to address as people being treated unfairly typically reacts very strongly as it is quite natural to compare one’s own input and output with that of others (Pinder 2008). Furthermore, usage of equity 63 theory would have enabled us to estimate how important fairness is for both the blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar workers. In our limitation, we chose not to take leadership theories into account. However, combining employee motivation with leadership could provide an interesting perspective of the study. A really interesting theory in this relation could be Douglas McGregor and his idea that the assumptions people make about one another becomes self-­‐fulfilling prophecies (Pinder 2008). Furthermore, the impact of “what goes around comes around” is very important to keep in mind when considering leadership and the way employees are motivated. Perspectives relating blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar workers and their future in the Danish job market might also be relevant to address as there is a tendency for outsourcing entire production sections to countries with lower wage levels (Jürgensen 2011). In this relation it might be relevant to investigate how to keep motivation high in the rest of the company if they are experiencing outsourcing or cuts. Even though we addressed motivation of the knowledge worker to a certain degree in this paper, it might be very relevant to focus even more on this type of worker as they seem to become important for the Danish companies’ competition in the future global market place. Another factor, which would also be interesting to address, could be that of stress and the concept work-­‐life balance. Herzberg does consider the concept of work-­‐life balance as a hygiene factor and it was rated as one of the three most important aspects at an importance of 21.4% for the blue-­‐collar workers and 30.3% for the white-­‐collar workers. However, in today’s technological world where e-­‐mails and mobile phones makes it possible for people to be reached all the time, the work-­‐life balance is under constant pressure and therefore it would also be interesting to address this factor even more (Hein 2009). Furthermore, the concept of teams could have been investigated as motivation of the individual compared to motivation of individuals in teams might be of great difference. It would also be interesting to know whether there are differences in how you motivate teams compared to the individual employee (Locke, Latham 2004). Also, it could have been considered to look upon newer motivational theories such as Cognitive Evaluation Theory (CET) and Self-­‐Determination Theory (SDT) as these theories 64 provides new insights to motivation especially relating the fields of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. However, the above theories are still quite new, and are maybe not yet ready to be used as stand alone theories (Pinder 2008). Still, the theories chosen in this study do show signs of relevance despite their age, as they despite hard critique have survived for many years. 6 Conclusion The aim of this paper was to investigate how factors of work affect blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar employees’ motivation as the motivational needs of the employees vary with the nature of their work and skills levels. Based on changes in demography and increasing globalization, there is a greater demand for productivity and high quality for companies to be competitive. This competitiveness can be derived from having motivated employees; thus, paying attention to the fact that motivational needs differ among various groups is therefore important. The theoretical framework used to address this problem formulation consists of McClelland’s achievement needs theory, Herzberg’s two-­‐factor theory, Latham and Locke’s goal theory, and Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics model. These theories were chosen as they complement each other well. Further, each theory gives different viewpoints of what motivates. The study was developed by use of quantitative methods in form of a questionnaire. The questionnaire was given to employees in two different companies, Orskov Yard and Systematic. Orskov Yard employs both blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar workers and Systematic only employs white-­‐collar workers. In order to analyze the responses, the statistical tool, SPSS, was used. Based on our analysis, we discovered that blue-­‐collar workers found McClelland’s need for affiliation to be most important, whereas the white-­‐collar workers preferred the need for achievement. This means that blue-­‐collar workers value the social interaction with colleagues and superiors more than a challenging job and personal responsibility, and more than the power to influence and affect other people. White-­‐collar workers, on the other hand, value a challenging job and responsibility, and thus, this is how white-­‐collar employees should be motivated. 65 Both the blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar group did not value goal theory among the factors of greatest importance, even though goal theory is considered one of the most dominant theories of work motivation. A possible explanation for why our respondents did not choose goal setting could be that it is already implicitly incorporated in their work. Also, one of the characteristics of high achievers is that they are result-­‐oriented, which also could be linked with goal theory. Still, our sample of both blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar workers did not find goal theory important. Concerning the five job characteristics mentioned by Hackman and Oldham in their job characteristics model, it was found that the blue-­‐collar employees generally valued all the characteristics higher than the white-­‐collar employees except questions relating to task identity and task significance. It was very interesting that the white-­‐collar workers valued the task significance factor highly, however, this might be due to the large proportion of our sample working for Systematic where they work with healthcare solutions, which can be concluded to have a great deal of task significance. The only characteristic in which a significant difference was found between the two groups relates to the feedback factor and the fact that blue-­‐collar employees value this factor more than white-­‐collar employees. Concerning autonomy, the blue-­‐collar employees generally rated this of greater importance than the white-­‐collar workers. A possible explanation for this might be that the white-­‐collar workers, and especially knowledge workers, have a greater degree of autonomy in their work, which might result in white-­‐collar workers taking this characteristic for granted. One the other hand, blue-­‐collar employees might not have as much influence in the planning of their work, which might explain why they consider autonomy of higher importance. The last theory used in this paper was Herzberg’s two-­‐factor theory, where it was found that the blue-­‐collar workers generally valued the hygiene factors of salary and company policy higher than the white-­‐collar group, whereas the white-­‐collar workers valued the motivators of sense of achievement, work itself, and recognition higher than the blue-­‐collar group. The fact that blue-­‐collar workers actually are motivated by salary is contradictory to Herzberg findings, and salary was chosen as one of the three most important factors by 71.4% of the blue-­‐collar employees. However, one might suppose that the reason salary was rated so high by the blue-­‐collar workers from Orskov, could be due the large amount of profit sharing they have received in the last couple of years. Also, it is very interesting that it is mostly white-­‐
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role behavior: The effects of goals and incentives on spontaneous helping", Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 78, no. 3, pp. 374-­‐381. 72 8 Appendices 8.1 Appendix 8.1: Questionnaire in English We are two students from Aarhus School of Business who currently are writing our bachelor thesis about motivation of employees. We would like to find out if there is a difference in the elements that are motivating for respectively white-­ and blue-­collar employees. It would therefore be a great help for us, if you would fill out the questionnaire below. Thank you in advance. 1. What is you gender? 2. What is your age? 3. What is your highest finished education? 73 4. How are you employed? 74 Prioritize the following statements on a scale from 1 to 5, depending on how important the statement is for you. 5 is very important and 1 is not important. 5. To be able to see measurable results in what I do 6. To feel that my manager recognizes my work 7. To be able to advice others within my work area 8. To be able to affect others to perform an extra effort 9. To have a good relationship with my manager 10. That we do something social together at the workplace 11. To have a good relationship with my colleagues at the workplace 12. To work towards clearly defined goals in my work 13. To have a specific plan of action for what to achieve in my work 14. To have clear variation in the work I do 15. To be able to see the overall purpose in what I do 16. To have a feeling that what I do becomes a part of the final result 17. That the work I perform has significance for my company and our customers 18. That I can organize my own workday 19. That I decide how my tasks are carried out 20. To get direct and clear feedback on the work I perform 21. To get specific information about the effectiveness of my own work 75 22. What is most important for you at your workplace? (Put 1 mark) The social connection with colleagues and superiors _________ To influence other people and events _________ To have a challenging job and a personal responsibility for the work _________ 23. Which 3 factors give you the greatest motivation to perform an extra effort? (Put 3 marks) Salary __________ Job security understood as e.g. stable surroundings and permanent employment __________ To have a good relationship with colleagues __________ That the job has prestige __________ That the overall company policy and administration functions well, meaning that there e.g. are clear lines of communication between managers and employees, and that the personnel policy works well ___________ To have a good relationship with my superiors ___________ That the physical working conditions and surroundings are satisfactory ___________ To have a good work-­‐life balance ___________ The possibility to get better at what I do and acquire more skills and thereby experience a personal development ___________ That there is opportunity to use my skills and abilities fully ___________ Appreciation for the work I perform ___________ That the work itself is exciting and interesting ___________ The possibility to decide how my work should be carried out ___________ Possibility of being promoted ___________ Thank you very much for your time  Line Kirkegaard and Kristina Larsen 76 8.2 Appendix 8.2: Questionnaire in Danish Spørgeskema Vi er to studerende fra Handelshøjskolen i Aarhus, som er ved at skrive vores bacheloropgave omkring motivation af medarbejdere. Vi vil undersøge om der er forskel på, hvilke elementer der virker motiverende for henholdsvis funktionærer og produktionsmedarbejdere. Derfor vil det være en stor hjælp for os, hvis du vil udfylde nedenstående spørgeskema. På forhånd tak. 1. Hvad er dit køn? 2. Hvad er din alder? 3. Hvad er din højest afsluttede uddannelse? 4. Hvordan er du ansat? 77 Prioriter de følgende udsagn på en skala fra 1 til 5 alt efter hvor vigtigt udsagnet er for dig. 5 er meget vigtigt og 1 er ikke vigtigt. 5. At kunne se målbare resultater i det jeg laver 6. At føle min leder anerkender mit arbejde 7. At kunne rådgive andre indenfor mit arbejdsområde 8. At kunne påvirke andre til at yde en bedre indsats 9. At have et godt forhold til min chef 10. At vi laver noget socialt sammen på arbejdspladsen 11. At have et godt forhold til mine kollegaer på arbejdspladsen 12. At arbejde frem mod klart definerede mål i mit arbejde 13. At have en klar handlingsplan for hvad jeg skal nå på mit arbejde 14. At have en klar variation i det arbejde jeg laver 15. At jeg har muligheden for at se det overordnede formål i det jeg laver 16. At have en fornemmelse af, at det jeg laver bliver en del af det endelige resultat 17. At det arbejde jeg laver har betydning for mit firma og vores kunder 18. At jeg selv kan strukturere min arbejdsdag 19. At jeg selv bestemmer, hvordan arbejdsopgaverne udføres 20. At få direkte og klar feedback på det arbejde jeg laver 21. At jeg får klar information om effektiviteten af mit eget arbejde 78 22. Hvad er vigtigst for dig på din arbejdsplads? (sæt 1 kryds) Det sociale sammenhold med kollegaer og overordnede _________ At have indflydelse på andre mennesker og begivenheder _________ At have et udfordrende arbejde og et personligt ansvar for arbejdet _________ 23. Hvilke 3 faktorer giver dig den største motivation til at yde en ekstra arbejdsindsats. (Sæt 3 krydser) Løn __________ Job sikkerhed forstået som fx stabile omgivelser og fastansættelse __________ At have et godt forhold til kollegaer __________ At jobbet har prestige __________ At den overordnede firmapolitik og administration fungerer godt, hvilket vil sige, at der fx er klare kommunikationsveje mellem ledere og medarbejdere, samt at personalepolitikken fungerer godt ___________ At have et godt forhold til mine overordnede ___________ At de fysiske arbejdsforhold og omgivelser er tilfredsstillende ___________ Et godt sammenspil mellem arbejdsliv og privatliv ___________ Muligheden for at dygtiggøre sig og tilegne sig flere kompetencer og derved opleve en personlig udvikling ___________ At der er mulighed for at bruge mine kompetencer og evner fuldt ud ___________ Anerkendelse for det arbejde jeg udfører ___________ ___________ At arbejdet i sig selv er spændende og interessant Muligheden for selv at bestemme hvordan mine arbejdsopgaver udføres ___________ Muligheden for at blive forfremmet ___________ Mange tak for din tid  Line Kirkegaard og Kristina Larsen 79 8.3 Appendix 8.3: Statistical Framework for Analysis of Blue-­ and White-­
Collar Workers In order to find if there is any statistical difference between blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar employees, we have performed statistical tests in SPSS. Normally, when applying hypothesis testing, one goes through seven steps consisting of hypothesis, significance level, test statistic, calculations, critical values, p-­‐value and finally a conclusion. However, as we only intend to show the general framework applied, we will only present the first four steps, and therefore not comment on the critical values, the p-­‐value, or the conclusion. The conclusion of the entire analysis will be commented on in the analysis section of the report. Statistical framework for questions 5-­21 As the data generated from questions 5-­‐21 are interval data, a t-­‐test will be used to identify possible differences between the blue-­‐ and the white-­‐collar group. 1. Hypothesis H0: (µ1-­‐µ2) = 0, the mean rating of the questions are the same between the blue-­‐and white-­‐
collar sample H1: (µ1-­‐µ2) ≠ 0, the mean ratings are not the same 2. Significance level α=0.1 α=0.05 3. Test statistic In order to find the right test statistic, we need to find out whether there are equal variances between the two groups. We are therefore applying Levene’s test of variances and performing a hypothesis testing within the actual hypothesis: 1. Hypothesis 2
2
2
2
H0: σ 1 − σ 2 = 0, the variances of the two groups are the same H1: σ 1 − σ 2 ≠ 0, the variances of the two groups are not the same €
€
80 2. Significance level α=0.05 3. Test statistic S12
~ Fn1 −1;n 2 −1 S 22
4. Calculations €
By using SPSS we found that the only three factors that did not have variance homogeneity was question 7, 10, and 12 as their p-­value was below 0.025. As we have now discovered that not all the questions had equal variances, two different test statistics will be applied: Test Statistic for questions with equal variance: ( X 1 − X 2 ) − (µ 1 − µ 2 ) 0 ~ T
⎛ 1 1 ⎞
S 2p ⎜ + ⎟
⎝ n1 n2 ⎠
n1 +n 2 −2 Test Statistic for questions with unequal variance: €
( X 1 − X 2 ) − (µ 1 − µ 2 ) 0 ~ T S12 S 22
+
n1 n2
v
€
81 4. Calculations 82 Statistical framework for questions 22 and 23 In these questions, we cannot perform a t-­‐test as in question 5-­‐21 as the data generated from these questions are nominal and to perform a t-­‐test, you need to work with interval data. Therefore, we will perform a chi-­‐squared test of homogeneity instead. 1. Hypothesis H0: the distribution of factor X is similar for the blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar employees H1: the distribution of factor X is not similar for the blue-­‐ and white-­‐collar employees 2. Significance Level α=0.1 α=0.05 3. Test Statistic r
c
∑∑
(Fij − Eij )
E ij
i =1 j =1
2
~ χ (r2 −1)(c−1) €
4. Calculations 83 8.4 Appendix 8.4: Statistical Framework for Analysis of Generations As the data generated from questions 5-­‐21 are interval data, a t-­‐test will be used to identify possible differences within the white-­‐collar group. 1. Hypothesis H0: µ1= µ2 = µ3, the mean rating of the questions are the same between generation X, Y and BB H1: At least two means differ 2. Significance level α=0.05 Even though we have used both a significance level 0.1 and 0.05 in the other calculations, we will only perform the ANOVA analysis with a significance level of 0.05. This is due to the fact that when analyzing between which of the three groups the differences are, we will construct Bonferroni’s confidence intervals by using SPSS and this will be done with a 5% significance level. Therefore, testing with a significance level of only 5% will make more sense in this particular case. 3. Test statistic As we want to compare three means, we use the one-­‐way analysis of variance (ANOVA) in SPSS and the test statistic is the following: MST
~ Fk −1;n −k MSE
€
84 4. Calculations 85 86 87 88 Statistical framework for questions 22 and 23 In these questions, we cannot perform a t-­‐test as in question 5-­‐21 as the data generated from these questions are nominal and to perform a t-­‐test, you need to work with interval data. Therefore, we will perform a chi-­‐squared test of homogeneity instead. 1. Hypothesis H0: the distribution of factor X is similar for generation Y, X, and BB H1: the distribution of factor X is not similar for generation Y, X, and BB 2. Significance Level α=0.1 α=0.05 3. Test Statistic r
c
∑∑
i =1 j =1
(Fij − Eij )
E ij
2
~ χ (r2 −1)(c−1) 4. Calculations €
89 90 8.5 Appendix 8.5: Statistical Framework for Analysis within the White-­
Collar Group Statistical framework for questions 5-­21 In order to find if there is any statistical difference within the white-­‐collar group among the general white-­‐collar workers and the knowledge workers a new dataset has been derived from the old dataset. The new dataset entails only white-­‐collar workers, and based on this dataset we will use SPSS to analyze whether there is any differences in what motivates the general white-­‐collar workers and the knowledge workers. Normally, when applying hypothesis testing, one goes through seven steps consisting of hypothesis, significance level, test statistic, calculations, critical values, p-­‐value and finally a conclusion. However, as we only intend to show the general framework applied, we will only present the first four steps, and therefore not comment on the critical values, the p-­‐value, or the conclusion. The conclusion of the entire analysis will of course be commented on in the discussion section of the report. As the data generated from questions 5-­‐21 are interval data, a t-­‐test will be used to identify possible differences within the white-­‐collar group. 1. Hypothesis H0: (µ1-­‐µ2) = 0, the mean rating of the questions are the same between the general white-­‐
collar workers and the knowledge workers H1: (µ1-­‐µ2) ≠ 0, the mean ratings are not the same 2. Significance level α=0.1 α=0.05 3. Test statistic In order to find the right test statistic, we need to find out whether there are equal variances between the two groups. We are therefore applying Levene’s test of variances and performing a hypothesis testing within the actual hypothesis: 91 1. Hypothesis 2
2
2
2
H0: σ 1 − σ 2 = 0, the variances of the two groups are the same H1: σ 1 − σ 2 ≠ 0, the variances of the two groups are not the same €
€
2. Significance level α=0.05 3. Test statistic S12
~ Fn1 −1;n 2 −1 S 22
4. Calculations €
By using SPSS we found that all of the factors had variance homogeneity. As we have now discovered that all the questions had equal variances, the following test statistic will be applied: ( X 1 − X 2 ) − (µ 1 − µ 2 ) 0 ~ T
⎛ 1 1 ⎞
S 2p ⎜ + ⎟
⎝ n1 n2 ⎠
n1 +n 2 −2 €
4. Calculations 92 93 94 Statistical framework for questions 22 and 23 In these questions, we cannot perform a t-­‐test as in question 5-­‐21 as the data generated from these questions are nominal and to perform a t-­‐test, you need to work with interval data. Therefore, we will perform a chi-­‐squared test of homogeneity instead. 1. Hypothesis H0: the distribution of factor X is similar for the general white-­‐collar workers and the knowledge workers H1: the distribution of factor X is not similar for the general white-­‐collar workers and the knowledge workers 2. Significance Level α=0.1 α=0.05 3. Test Statistic r
c
∑∑
i =1 j =1
(Fij − Eij )
E ij
2
~ χ (r2 −1)(c−1) 4. Calculations €
95 96