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Generational Differences in Motivation Drivers: A Case Study at Telecom Namibia

MBA Research Report December 2009

1


A Research Report

presented to

In partial fulfilment

of the requirements for the

Masters of Business Administration Degree

Prepared by

Hiwilepo Laban Hiwilepo (MOD 737)

December 2009

Supervisor: Dr Linda Ronnie

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MBA Research Report December 2009 2

Acknowledgements

I express my gratitude and sincere thanks to Dr Linda Ronnie for accepting to be my

supervisor. I am very thankful for her support and guidance during the entire process of

my research. I thank her for guiding and giving me helpful suggestions that shaped my

thesis.

I would also like to thank fellow MBA students for the fun and experiences on the MBA

studies.

I thank my family for having faith in me and for all the support they gave me during the

studies.

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Declaration

I certify that I have prepared this report on my own without any inadmissible outside help.

All references used are reported in the report.

Signed: Hiwilepo Laban Hiwilepo

2009/12/10

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Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore whether motivational drivers differences exist

across the three generations (Baby Boomers, Generation-X and Generation-Y) of

workers at Telecom Namibia.

What is fundamentally paramount in an organisation today is that employees are not only

able to work but must also be willing to work. The ability to work is characterised by

having the necessary skills and knowledge to function in one’s work. The employee

willingness to work is influenced by the individual but equally dependent upon how that

person is managed in the work environment. Motivation is about what makes people act

or behave in the way they do.

It is often said that the key to success in an organisation is its people. Motivating and

retaining knowledge workers have become important in a knowledge-based and tight

labour market, where changing knowledge management practices and global

convergence of technology has redefined the nature of work. Horwitz (2003)

KEY WORDS: age groups, Generation-Y, Generation-X, Baby Boomers, employee motivation, talent management,

employee engagement

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Table of Contents

1. OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................ 12

1.1 Research area .................................................................................................... 12

1.2 Background ......................................................................................................... 12

1.3 Relevance of the research .................................................................................. 14

1.4 Research questions and scope ........................................................................... 15

1.5 Research assumptions........................................................................................ 15

1.6 Expected research outcomes .............................................................................. 16

2. LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................... 17

2.1 The challenge ..................................................................................................... 17

2.1.1 Leadership role in motivating employees ......................................................... 18

2.1.2 The employee perspective on value of a salary ............................................... 19

2.2 Generational differences ..................................................................................... 20

2.2.1 The importance of generations ........................................................................ 21

2.2.2 The Baby Boomer generation .......................................................................... 21

2.2.3 The Generation-X ............................................................................................ 22

2.2.4 The Generation-Y ............................................................................................ 23

2.2.5 Motivational drivers .......................................................................................... 26

2.2.6 Motivation drivers and work values .................................................................. 26

2.2.7 Generational differences in personality and motivation ................................... 27

2.2.8 Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory ............................................... 29

2.2.9 Frederick Herzberg Two Factor Theory ........................................................... 30

2.3 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 32

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .............................................................................. 34

3.1 Research approach and strategy ........................................................................ 34

3.2 Research design ................................................................................................. 34

3.3 Data collection methods ...................................................................................... 35

3.3.1 Data collection process .................................................................................... 35

3.4 Sampling methodology........................................................................................ 37

3.5 Data analysis methods ........................................................................................ 37

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3.6 Issues of validity .................................................................................................. 38

3.6.1 Triangulation .................................................................................................... 38

3.7 Research ethics .................................................................................................. 38

3.8 Limitation of the research .................................................................................... 39

4. RESEARCH FINDINGS ......................................................................................... 40

4.1 Demographics ..................................................................................................... 41

4.1.a Age and gender profile .................................................................................... 41

4.1.b Uninterrupted years of service ......................................................................... 42

4.1.c Employment status .......................................................................................... 43

4.2 Ranking of motivation factors .............................................................................. 44

4.2.a The top five motivation factors per generation group ....................................... 44

4.2.b Statistical analysis ........................................................................................... 47

4.3 Number of years willing to work for Telecom Namibia ........................................ 49

4.4 Satisfaction level of employees ........................................................................... 50

4.4.a Satisfaction with current work and with overall job situation ............................ 51

4.4.b Overall satisfaction with current job vs. Length of time in employment ............ 53

4.4.c Satisfaction with relationship with line manager and with peers ...................... 54

4.4.d Satisfaction with Financial Compensation ....................................................... 56

4.4.e Satisfaction with Opportunities for Advancement ............................................. 57

4.5 Employee perceptions on their own employability .............................................. 58

4.6 Employee job hunting status and intention to stay at the company ..................... 59

4.6.a Employee job hunting status ............................................................................ 59

4.6.b Employees’ intention to stay at the company vs. satisfaction levels ................ 60

5 DISCUSSIONS ...................................................................................................... 62

6 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...................................................... 66

7 FUTURE RESEARCH ............................................................................................ 68

REFERENCES ................................................................................................................ 69

APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE ..................................................................... 73

APPENDIX 2: MOTIVATION FACTORS RANKING PER AGE GROUP ......................... 80

APPENDIX 3: RANKED RESPONSE TO OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS ......................... 83

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APPENDIX 4: GENERIC FACTORS FOR DECISIONS TO LEAVE THE COMPANY ..... 86

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Synopsis of the four generations ........................................................................ 25

Table 2: Uninterrupted years in employment for all participants ...................................... 43

Table 3: Employment status of participants ..................................................................... 43

Table 4: Summary of motivation factors results ............................................................... 45

Table 5: Correlation analysis of motivation factors across generations ............................ 47

Table 6: F-Test for motivation factor: highly competitive pay ........................................... 48

Table 7: T-Test for motivation factor: access to leading edge technology ........................ 49

Table 8: Number of years planned to continue working at the company .......................... 50

Table 9: Years employed vs Overall satisfaction with current job .................................... 54

Table 10: Years employed vs Satisfaction with peers and line managers ........................ 55

Table 11: Years employed vs Satisfaction with peers and line managers ........................ 56

Table 12: Years planned to stay vs Overall satisfaction with current job .......................... 61

Table 13: Motivation factors: Generation-Y ranking ......................................................... 80

Table 14: Motivation factors: Generation-X ranking ......................................................... 80

Table 15: Motivation factors: Baby Boomers ranking ....................................................... 81

Table 16: Motivation factors: Overall ranking ................................................................... 81

Table 17: F-Test and T-Test analysis for the motivation factors ...................................... 82

Table 18: Open-ended question 17: additional motivation factors ................................... 83

Table 19: Open-ended question 18: positive aspects of working at the company ............ 83

Table 20: Open-ended question 19: suggestions to improve motivation .......................... 84

Table 21: Open-ended question 20: factors that might cause employees to leave .......... 84

Table 22: Open-ended question 21: factors that will make employees stay ..................... 85

Table 23: Overall “Crucial” ranking by all age groups ...................................................... 86

Table 24: Overall “Quite Important” ranking by all age groups ......................................... 87

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Table 25: Factors per age group ranked in terms of number of selections ...................... 88

Table 26: Spearman Rank Correlation: All Generation Groups ....................................... 89

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List of Figures

Figure 1 : Model of Business Strategy Alignment............................................................. 18

Figure 2 : Representation of what companies pay employees for .................................... 20

Figure 3 : Maslow Hierarchy of Needs Theory Representation ........................................ 29

Figure 4 : Sources of Dissatisfaction and Satisfaction in Herzberg’s Two factor Theory .. 31

Figure 5 : Age and gender profiles of all participants ....................................................... 41

Figure 6 : Generation groupings for all participants.......................................................... 41

Figure 7 : Uninterrupted years in employment grouped in years ...................................... 42

Figure 8 : Uninterrupted years in employment per generation group ............................... 42

Figure 9 : Employment status of all participants ............................................................... 43

Figure 10 : Years planned to work at the company per generation group ........................ 49

Figure 11 : Years planned to work at the company grouped per time .............................. 50

Figure 12 : Satisfaction level with the current work .......................................................... 51

Figure 13 : Satisfaction level with the current work per generation group ........................ 51

Figure 14 : Overall satisfaction level with your work ......................................................... 52

Figure 15 : Overall satisfaction level with work per generation group .............................. 52

Figure 16 : Years employed vs Overall satisfaction with current job grouped by time ..... 53

Figure 17 : Years employed vs Overall satisfaction with current job ................................ 53

Figure 18 : Satisfaction level with line managers and peers ............................................ 54

Figure 19 : Satisfaction with line managers ...................................................................... 55

Figure 20 : Satisfaction with peers ................................................................................... 55

Figure 21 : Pay competitiveness in the market ................................................................ 56

Figure 22 : Satisfaction with pay package ........................................................................ 57

Figure 23 : Satisfaction with advancement opportunities ................................................. 57

Figure 24 : Satisfaction with advancement opportunities ................................................. 58

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Figure 25 : Easiness to find a new job in the next six months .......................................... 58

Figure 26 : Easiness to find a new job in the next six months per generation group ........ 59

Figure 27 : Job hunting status of all participants .............................................................. 59

Figure 28 : Job hunting status vs Satisfaction with current job ......................................... 60

Figure 29 : Plan to stay at company vs Overall satisfaction with the job - 1 ..................... 60

Figure 30 : Plan to stay at company vs Overall satisfaction with the job - 2 ..................... 61

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"Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude

determines how well you do it." Raymond Chandler (Chandler, R, n.d.).

1. Overview

The study focuses on the factors that motivate employees of different age groups in a

telecommunication company. The study is exploratory in approach and studies the cross-

sectional differences in motivation drivers across the three generational groups. This

section sets the scene to this study and contains the research question, the scope and its

contextual background. The relevance of the study to practitioners within the organisation

being studied and to the academia, although to a lesser extent because of the visible lack

of literature of similar studies in Namibia, is highlighted. The research assumptions that

cover the things that might impact on the success of the research and have a potential to

influence the outcomes are also described in this section.

1.1 Research area

The research question central to this paper is “What are the factors that motivate various

generational groups at Telecom Namibia?” The purpose of the study is to explore and

explain the factors that motivate employees of different age groups also referred to as

generational groups (Baby Boomers, Generation-X and Generation-Y) in a single

organisation. To define and examine the overall cross-sectional differences in motivation

drivers across the three generations, the author focussed on three of the four commonly

measured workplace indicators of motivation: engagement, satisfaction and intention to

quit (Nohria et al, 2008, p.80), excluding and with less focus on commitment . The author

will not formulate hypothesis to be tested but would rather seek to explain his findings

with the available theory, to understand the research situation and to discover the theory

implicit in the data (Glaser, 1992). This has many advantages, it will create possibilities

for flexibility to challenge the existing theory, provide a source for possible new

interpretation and the possibility for the author to shift the focus as the data is collected.

1.2 Background

Our societies are made up of individuals of different age groups. Organisations are

inextricably linked to the societies in which they operate and their workforce should reflect

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that society’s dimensions of diversities including age. The current workforce at Telecom

Namibia is composed of individuals of various age groups (Baby Boomers, Generation-X

and Generation-Y) that may not be motivated by the same factors to work well as a team.

To a large extent, our value system and belief are linked to the era in which we are born

as Codrington & Grant-Marshall (2008) claim that nearly everyone has an attitude, values

and expectations that are based on what life was like when they grew up.

The fast changing telecommunication sector, driven by the ever changing customer

needs and increasing competition, requires frequent adaptation and adoption of new

technologies to enable organisations to attract and satisfy the diverse customer needs

(Telecom Namibia 2013 Strategic Blueprint, 2006). The sustained competitive capability

of any organisation is not only linked to the attraction and retention of key employees but

to the motivation and commitment levels of the workers to execute the tasks with a

sustained efficiency (Grobler & Wärnich, 2006). The organisation’s ability to effectively

motivate and manage its diverse workforce effectively will therefore play a key role in

determining its competitive advantage and sustainability in the global market.

Telecom Namibia, like many telecommunication operators around the globe, is at the

cross road of redefining its business model to provide a range of converged services and

exciting products that can satisfy the ever changing demands of their customers. It is

going through a technological transformation phase to build resilient next generation

networks and align their organisations to develop, operate and provision next generation

networks and services. This transition has created disruptive imbalances in the

organisation’s practices with regard to attraction, retention and motivation of the required

skill mix. The current drive in the organisation, fuelled by the global economic crisis, to

make the organisation leaner and meaner, exposed the challenges related to age

diversity in the workplace. This has highlighted the need for an intervention that should be

based on a better understanding of the factors that motivate employees.

At individual levels, the workforce at Telecom Namibia has a wealth of experience and

skills that if put to good use can serve as a competitive advantage for the organisation in

the long term. In the past, generational mixing within the organisation was relatively rare

even though multiple generations have always existed and worked in the same

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organisation. The generations, as pointed out by Filipczak et al (1999), were usually

separated from each other by their job descriptions and a system of hierarchy that was

significantly structured by formality and protocol. Today, social and physical separations

are minimized and barriers to generational mixing have gone down. This is accelerated

by the nature of the industry in which we operate and the company being an integrated

ICT services provider.

Multiple generations have complementary skills, younger people understand and

consume ICT services, older generations have a wealth of experience that the company

needs. Grobler & Wärnich (2006) suggested that today’s organisations’ human resource

programmes to attract, retain and motivate today’s diverse employees can be regarded

as appropriate and relevant if the organisation first seeks to understand and become

aware of the dimension of diversity of its existing and potential employees. The purpose

of this study is to identify factors that motivate age diverse employees within the

environment described.

1.3 Relevance of the research

Diversity is transforming day-to-day activities in the workplace. However, too much of

diversity talks and attention tends to focus on race, religion and gender, while it appears

that the most powerful dimension of diversity is age. The organisation being studied has

employees from predominantly three generational groups with presumed differences in

experiences, values and expectations.

The author wishes to develop a deeper understanding regarding the factors that motivate

different generational groups in the company and the factors that need to be managed to

ensure the success of individuals and that of the organisation. The author is keen to

become aware of how best to motivate and manage each generation group. This

understanding can assist in developing strategies to motivate and manage all workers

efficiently. It can also aid in the creation of the desired culture that not only focuses on

what needs to get done but also accommodates the various ways in which people

approach work. The study will also contribute to the subject knowledge and it will both be

useful to academics and practitioners.

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1.4 Research questions and scope

The current situation at Telecom Namibia is briefly outlined under the background section

and one of the emergent problems from this context forms the research question of this

paper. The research question central to this paper is “what are the factors that

motivate various generational groups at Telecom Namibia?”

The research explores and explains the factors that motivate workers of different age

groups (Baby Boomers, Generation-X and Generation-Y) in a single organisation,

Telecom Namibia. To form a logical basis for constructing the answer to the central

question a number of sub-questions will be answered:

a. What factors will make employees of different age groups provide discretionary

efforts at the work place?

b. What are the levels of motivation and job satisfaction in the organisation across the

various age groups and do these correlate with

i. Intention to stay or leave the organisation in the next 6 months

ii. Implications for the workplace culture

1.5 Research assumptions

The following assumptions are considered important to the overall success of the study:

Accessibility of participants. The researcher, being employed by this organisation

is well aware of the busy schedules of many people in the company and the

process of completing the structured interviews session of approximately 20 senior

managers might be prolonged. This will be mitigated by starting earlier and

explaining the benefit to top management to get the necessary buy in and support

right from the beginning. The rationale and benefit of the survey will also be

explained to employees and the people will be given sufficient time to complete the

survey.

Honesty of participants. In general, completing survey is often the last thing

employees are interested to do and some might rush through the questionnaire

just to get them done.

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Response rate. There is a possibility that a significant number of employee might

not participate in the survey. The author wishes to get a response rate that is

representative of the whole organisation.

Researcher’s own bias. This is always present and will be acknowledged as such.

1.6 Expected research outcomes

a. Understanding the key factors that motivate employees of different age groups at

Telecom Namibia.

b. Understanding the current motivation and job satisfaction levels for various

generational groups and how it correlates to the various generational groups’

intention to leave or stay in the organisation and the impact on the workplace

culture

c. Understanding the themes from literature and drawing conclusions with the

research findings.

d. Formulating a framework to explain the motivation factors across various

generational groups in the organisation.

e. Making recommendations to the organisation regarding the possible strategies that

can be developed to motivate all employees

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2. Literature Review

The aim of this research is to explore, describe and understand the different variables

that motivate various generational groups at Telecom Namibia. It will be done using

empirical data evaluation and build on previous research into generational differences.

The study will examine whether the cross-sectional differences in motivational drivers

truly exist in the workplace across generations, what their dimensions are and how best

to manage this dimension of diversity in the workplace.

2.1 The challenge

The study done by Cennamo and Gardner (2008) suggests that increasingly, human

resource specialists, managers and researchers are becoming keen in how to manage,

motivate and work with people from different generations in the workplace. Much of this

interest is based on the assumption that generations differ significantly in their goals,

motivation drivers, expectations and work values and while this assumption is widely

reflected in most available literature, Cennamo and Gardner (2008) argued that it has

been subjected to relatively little empirical evaluation in general.

From the available literature to date, most research into generational differences is

conducted and focussed on the United States of America (USA), United Kingdom (UK)

and Canada as well as on Australia and New Zealand on a smaller scale. However,

Southern Africa and South Africa in particular has historically followed and has been

subjected to similar demographic patterns as in those countries, including participation in

World War II and the social and economic changes of this era, and increasing levels of

technological change especially the continuing rapid growth of information and

communications technology. Kupperschmidt (2000) suggested that employees from

different generations are believed to have different value systems and react differently to

common life events

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2.1.1 Leadership role in motivating employees

Kaliprasad (2006) points out that motivation is about what makes people behave or act in

the way they do and suggests further that, just as an employee has certain wants that he

requires the organisation to supply or fulfil, the company has certain types of behaviour

and expectations of that employee. The managerial responsibility for getting that

behaviour from staff is usually called directing or motivating and this study aims at

identifying and explaining the key factors that motivate employees.

Every business strives to be profitable and competitive through optimum use of all its

resources. Most businesses want to create a reputation that they can sustain over a long

time and this requires a well crafted strategy that is timely implemented in the best

optimum way. However, a strategy alone is not enough and will not save the business

unless it is backed and supported by a motivated workforce. In the proposed model of

business strategy alignment, Kim and Mauborgne (2005) as shown in Figure 1, suggest

three value propositions that are a prerequisite to strategy implementation success.

Figure 1 : Model of Business Strategy Alignment

Source: adapted from Blue Ocean Strategy by Kim and Mauborgne (2005)

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John Kotter in his article “what leaders really do”, points out the distinction of

complimentary roles of management and leadership. Kotter (2001) posited that

management is about coping with complexity and it brings order and predictability to a

situation. However, that is no longer enough and to succeed, companies must be able to

adapt to change. The roles of leadership is then about learning how to cope with rapid

change. Kotter (2001) draws the distinction between management and leadership in the

following ways:

Management involves planning and budgeting. Leadership involves setting

direction

Management involves organising and staffing. Leadership involves aligning

people.

Management provides control and solves problems. Leadership provides

motivation.

2.1.2 The employee perspective on value of a salary

The people proposition mentioned in the previous section encompasses the motivation of

the people to give discretional efforts. To get the most out of the workforce, we need to

build engagement. “Engagement is not simply a question of working longer or harder;

rather, an engaged employee is one who demonstrates commitment, initiative and a

holistic understanding of the company’s needs” (Johnson, 2006, p.3).

Figure 2 is adapted from Gary Hamel’s book “The Future of Management” and

summarises the notion that an employer is able to pay an employees for diligence,

obedience and intelligence. However, to get a job well done, an employee need to have

passion and come up with appropriate initiatives through a creative process to get the

work done. These three attributes, the employer is not able to pay for and they have to be

accessed differently through a careful assessment and match of an employee’s ability,

motivation and attitude towards the job that need to be performed.

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Figure 2 : Representation of what companies pay employees for

2.2 Generational differences

Do generational differences exist? According to DiRomualdo, “some authors suggest that

it is rather a popular misconception that the workplace is populated by a bunch of

generational tribes engaged in rivalries and conflict with each other” DiRomualdo (2006,

p.18). Several authors argue that the differences exist in the work values and beliefs of

employees from different generations, and that failure to address these differences can

lead to conflict in the workplace, misunderstanding and miscommunication, lower

employee productivity, poor employee well being and reduced organisational citizenship

behaviour (Kupperschmidt, 2000; Smola and Sutton 2002; Wong, et al, 2008). However,

in contrast to this literature, Jorgensen (2003), as cited in Wong, et al, (2008) questions

whether the combination of Baby Boomers, Generation-Xs’ and Generation-Ys’ values,

likes and dislikes actually have the capacity to disturb common workforce strategies,

consume resources and contribute to the wearing of “generational cohesion” in the

workplace.

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2.2.1 The importance of generations

A generation’s identity is a state of mind shaped by family life, gender roles, politics, and

view of the future, religion, culture, lifestyle and experiences (Zemke, Raines & Filipczak,

2000). A generation can be defined as an “identifiable group (cohorts) that shares birth

years, age location, and significant life events at critical developmental stages (times)”

(Kupperschmidt, 2000, p. 66). A generational group includes those who share historical

or social life experiences, the effects of which are relatively stable over their lives. These

experiences as suggested by Jurkiewicz and Brown (1998) can influence a person’s

feelings toward authority and organizations, what a person values from work.

Furthermore, “differences between generations are theorised to occur because of major

influences in the environment within which early human socialization occurs; influences

that impact on the development of personality, values, beliefs and expectations that,

once formed, are stable into adulthood” (Macky, Gardner & Forsyth, 2008, p. 858).

It is cited in Westerman and Yamamura (2006) that the existence of generational

differences was illustrated by Smola and Sutton in their research on the subject in 2002

examining differences in value sets between generations. In their research Smola and

Sutton (2002) concluded that work values are more influenced by generational

experiences than by age and maturation. Generational characteristics refer to “world-

view, values and attitudes commonly shared by or descriptive of cohorts (often referred to

as peer or generational personality)” (Kupperschmidt, 2000, p. 66). Generational

perspective is defined by Kupperschmidt (2000), to refer to knowledge, recognition and

appreciation of each other’s times and generational characteristics (values, attitudes and

behaviours).

2.2.2 The Baby Boomer generation

A review of existing literature (e.g. Kupperschmidt, 2000; Smola and Sutton, 2002; Hart,

2006; Westerman and Yamamura, 2006; Cennamo and Gardner, 2008 and Wong et al,

2008), suggest that employee in this group value:

Optimism

On-job security

Loyalty

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Respect the organisational hierarchy

Generally wait for their turn for advancement

Stable working environment

Work as a self-actualisation

Personal growth and self improvement

Health and wellness

Involvement

Most likely to remain loyal and attached to an organisation

Are idealistic

Diligence on the job

High degree of power within an organisation

More likely to focus on consensus building and are excellent mentors

They are driven

They work ethics is driven and are regarded as diligent and optimistic (Zemke, Raines &

Filipczak, 2000). This is a generation that for most part grew up in a two-parent

households, safe schools, and post world war prosperity (Zemke, Raines & Filipczak,

2000). They are best motivated by recognition for their contributions, feeling needed,

being a member of a team, reward for work ethic and long hours and participative

management (Zemke, Raines & Filipczak, 2000). Jurkiewicz (2000) points out that in a

recent study performed in New Zealand, Baby Boomers have been found to rate chance

to learn new skills, personal improvements and creativity at work as important. A strong

focus on hard work and achievement may mean that this group values status and

extrinsic rewards as recognition for loyalty and commitment and may have difficulty in

balancing work and family (Smola and Sutton, 2002).

2.2.3 The Generation-X

People in this age group are stereotyped by a number of authors (e.g. Howe et al, 2000;

Kupperschmidt, 2000; Smola and Sutton, 2002; Hart, 2006). The highlighted

characteristics of this generation include:

Value strong work-life-balance

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Techno literate

Think globally

Cynical

Pessimistic and individualist

Comfortable with change

Comfortable with diversity

Not likely to display loyalty to a particular company

More independent and self-sufficient

Sceptical and unimpressed with authority

Like to be in control

Require immediate and continuous feedback

Want work to be fun

Prefer informality

This generation grew up in two-career families with rising divorce rates, downsizing, the

dawning of the high tech age and the information revolution (Zemke, Raines & Filipczak,

2000). They grew up during rapid technological and social change representing financial,

family and social insecurity and has entered workforce without expecting job security.

They are best motivated by few rules and minimum structures, leading edge technology,

multiple assignments with little supervision, training and self development opportunities,

freedom and flexibility and constructive feedback from a supervisor they respect (Zemke,

Raines & Filipczak, 2000). This generation may have more commitment to their own

careers than to their organisations (Miller and Yu, 2003) and may prefer companies that

value skill development, productivity and work life balance rather than status and tenure

(Smola and Sutton, 2002).

2.2.4 The Generation-Y

The most defining experience of this age group is the growth of the internet and

technology. People in this age group are stereotyped by a number of authors (e.g. Howe

et al, 2000; Kupperschmidt, 2000; Smola and Sutton, 2002; Hart, 2006). The highlighted

characteristics of this generation include:

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Dedicated to the job

Comfortable with change

Don’t regard job security as an important factor in the work place

Value skill development

Enjoy the challenge of new opportunities

They are driven

Optimistic

Display a high level of confidence

Enjoy collective action and are highly social

Value having responsibilities

Value having input into decision making and actions

Are fast learners

Tend to be impatient

They are motivated by working in high energy teams, working with bright creative people,

believing they can make a difference, continuous training and self development,

supervision and structure (Zemke, Raines & Filipczak, 2000). They value work-life

balance, lifestyles, career development and overseas travel more than other generations

(Zemke, Raines & Filipczak, 2000). It is suggested by Smola and Sutton (2002) that this

generation may be the most adaptable yet in terms of technological skills and is regarded

to value intrinsic aspects of work such as mentoring and training in order to remain

marketable.

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25

Table 1: Synopsis of the four generations

Generation Equivalent Labels Birth Years Salient Event General Values Work-related Values Credo

Silent generation Traditional generation Conservatives Matures

1925 -1945 Great depression World war II

Conformism Maturity Consciousness Thrift

Obedience Loyalty Obligation Security (stability)

“we must pay our dues and work hard”

Baby Boomers Boom(er) Generation Me Generation

1946 - 1964 Kennedy King Assassinations Moon Landing Vietnam War 1960s social revolution

Idealism Creativity Tolerance Freedom Self-fulfilment

Challenge Workaholism Criticism Innovativeness Advancement Materialism

“If you have it, flash it”

Generation-X X-ers 13th Generation

1965 - 1980 AIDS First oral contraceptive pills 1973 oil crisis Cold war

Individualism Scepticism Flexibility Control Fun

Free agency Learning Entrepreneurship Materialism Balance

“whatever”

Generation-Y Millennium Generation Generation Next

1981 - 2001 Fall of the Berlin Wall MTV Internet 9/11- War on Terror

Collectivism Positivity Moralism Confidence Civic Mindedness

Balance Passion Learning Security (not stability) Willingness to work

“Let’s make this world a better place”

Source: Dries, Pepermans, & De Kerpel, 2008, p. 910.

A definition of generation boundaries as well as labelling appears to be problematic. There is a general acceptance that society

has labelled the generations of the twentieth century; however, these labels and the years they represent are not always

consistent among authors (Smola and Sutton, 2002; Westerman and Yamamura, 2006, p. 152). For this study, Generation-Y

includes people born between 1982 and 2000 and Generation-X is those born between 1965 and 1981 and the Baby Boomers

would be those born between 1964 and 1946 (Smola and Sutton, 2002 and Dries, Pepermans, & De Kerpel, 2008)

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26

2.2.5 Motivational drivers

What is primarily vital in organisations today is that employees are not only able to work,

but must be willing to work. Kaliprasad (2006) suggested that the ability to work is

characterised by having the necessary skills and knowledge to function in one’s work.

Kaliprasad (2006) argues that the employee’s willingness to work is influenced by the

individual but equally dependent upon how that person is managed in the work

environment.

Motivation is about what makes people act or behave in the way they do. Goleman

(1998) defines motivation as “passion to work for reasons that go beyond money or

status, a propensity to pursue goals with energy and persistence.” He suggest that its

hallmarks includes a “strong drive to achieve; optimism, even in the face of failure and

organisational commitment”.

2.2.6 Motivation drivers and work values

Motivational drivers refer to the factors that energise, direct and sustain behaviour in the

individual. While very closely linked to values (Brown, 1976; as cited in Wong et al.,

2008), motivation is more specific to the factors that drive actual performance. Amar

suggests that motivation is a term associated with the forces acting on a person causing

him to act in a certain way. It is inferred in terms of behavioural changes brought in by

internal or external stimuli.

Additionally, an individual’s motivation may change based upon certain factors. These

factors are identified as the drivers of motivation and can be used to understand what

drives motivation among workers in the knowledge-based work environment (Amar,

2004). Therefore, understanding dynamics of motivation is a requisite for identifying what

drives people to act in certain ways and Amar (2004) refers to five category of motivation

drivers: sociological, psychological, generational, work, and cultural. Referring to

knowledge workers, Amar notes that typically, motivating behaviour drivers of knowledge

workers are the work itself, the assignments or projects they get: “In their perception, how

important is the work that they would be doing? Is it exciting? Is it challenging? Would

they succeed at it? This assignment will result in working with whom? For example, would

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it result in being surrounded by the best of the best? Would the assignment be in an

organization where there is respect, trust, fairness, and good management? And, what

would the experience bring as outcomes, such as rewards, recognition, career

advancement, learning, and satisfaction?” (Amar, 2004, p. 91).

Work values refer to an employee’s attitudes regarding what are “right”, as well as

attitudes about what an individual should expect in the workplace (Brown, 1976; George

and Jones, 1999; as cited in Wong et al., 2008). Wong et al (2008) highlighted that while

an individual’s personality preferences and motivational drivers are likely to be related to

and influenced by the work values, it is important to maintain a distinction between these

concepts.

Cennamo & Gardner (2008) posited that generational differences in work values have

been linked to changes in the meaning of work, to increasing numbers of dual-career and

single parent families’ expectations for work/life balance and to the increased use of

electronic media and continuous learning of new skills.

Clearly, understanding what motivates us as human beings is a centuries-old puzzle

(Nohria et al, 2008) and cannot be explained by inference. The purpose of this study is to

identify factors that motivate employees of different age groups in a single organisation.

2.2.7 Generational differences in personality and motivation

As noted earlier, a review of the existing literature suggests that while previous research

has examined differences in work values across generations (Smola and Sutton, 2002;

Wong et al., 2008), research examining generational differences in personality and

motivational drivers in the workplace have been limited. Instead, the research on

generational differences at work has tended to focus on work values. Work values as

described by Wong et al (2008), refer to an employee’s attitudes regarding what is “right”,

as well as attitudes about what an individual should expect in the workplace. While an

individual’s personality preferences and motivational drivers are by Wong et al (2008) to

likely to be related to and influenced by his/her work values, it is important to maintain a

distinction between these concepts.

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Yu and Miller (2005) points out that one significant difference between individuals in their

20s and individuals in their 40s is their value system. Numerous approaches to classifying

work values exist. One of the most widely used distinguishes between work values that

are:

Extrinsic, or a consequence of work (e.g. job security, salary) or

Intrinsic, occurring through the process of work (e.g. intellectual simulation,

challenge) (Elizur, 1984; as cited in Cennamo & Gardner, 2008).

Altruistic values (e.g. making a contribution to society) was added by subsequent

research (Borg, 1990; as cited in Cennamo & Gardner, 2008, p. 892),

Status-related values (e.g. influence, recognition, advancement) (Ros et al., as

cited in Cennamo & Gardner, 2008),

Freedom-related values (e.g. work-life balance, working hours) and

Social values (e.g. good relationships with supervisors or peers) (Lyons, 2004; as

cited in Cennamo & Gardner, 2008).

Bandura, as cited in Jones and Lloyd (2005) posited that employee needs are a function

of personality: “Behaviour emerges as a result of the operation of cognitive processes in

interaction with the environment. The environment generates external social stimuli to

which individuals respond. People are goal-seeking, and search for positive

reinforcement. Thus, if the organisation provides such reinforcement through the crafting

of appropriate rewards, a good match is achieved and high motivation results” (Jones and

Lloyd, 2005, p. 931). Personality is defined as an individual’s preferred or typical way of

behaving, thinking and feeling (Saville et al., 1984; as cited in Wong et al., 2008). Hence,

while an individual’s values are likely to influence behaviour in the workplace, personality

is likely to be more direct measure of actual behaviour.

The importance of understanding personality differences across generations in the

workplace is highlighted by research indicating that individual differences in personality

affect job performance (Barrick et al., 2002; Tett and Burnett, 2003; as cited in Wong et

al., 2008) and job satisfaction (Avery et al., 1989; as cited in Wong et al., 2008). This

suggests that, to maintain a high-performing and satisfied workforce across all three

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generations of employees, organisations need to understand the key generational

differences across the personality preferences.

2.2.8 Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory

Maslow’s theory that was published in 1954 is regarded to be the first major motivational

theory with a wide application within the work context over a number of years. Central to

this theory is the idea of a needs hierarchy, where a need is considered to be a motivator

of behaviour. This theory identifies five distinct levels of individual needs: from self-

actualization and esteem, at the top, to social, safety, and physiological at the bottom. He

postulated, based on his observations as a humanistic psychologist, that there is a

general pattern of needs recognition and satisfaction that people follow in generally the

same sequence.

Figure 3 : Maslow Hierarchy of Needs Theory Representation

Source: http://stanleybronstein.com/maslows-hierarchy-physiological-needs/.

His theory suggest that a person could not recognize or pursue the next higher need in

the hierarchy until her or his currently recognized need was substantially or completely

satisfied, a concept called prepotency (Gawel, 1997). This concept assumes that some

http://stanleybronstein.com/maslows-hierarchy-physiological-needs/

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needs are more important than others and must be satisfied before the other needs can

serve as motivators. For example, physiological needs must be satisfied before safety

needs are activated, safety needs must be satisfied before social needs are activated,

and so on (Schermerhorn, et al., 2002). In essence, this model serves to highlight that

human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs and not by those that have been

achieved or fulfilled. Furthermore, people are never completely satisfied on any given

need level, (Kaliprasad, 2006)

As depicted in Figure 3, Maslow’s theory is often illustrated as a pyramid with the survival

need at the broad-based bottom and the self-actualization need at the narrow top. The

top two needs are termed the higher order needs and the bottoms three needs are

termed the lower order needs, (Kaliprasad, 2006).

2.2.9 Frederick Herzberg Two Factor Theory

Frederick Herzberg took a different approach to examining motivation. He simply asked

workers to report the times they felt exceptionally good about their jobs and the times

they felt exceptionally bad about them. Herzberg constructed a two-dimensional

paradigm of factors affecting people's attitudes about work as pointed out by Kaliprasad

(2006) that this theory portrays different factors as primary causes of job satisfaction and

job dissatisfaction. Hygiene factors are sources of job dissatisfaction while motivator

factors are sources of job satisfaction. Satisfaction reflects the extent to which employee

feel that the company meets their expectations at work and satisfies its implicit and

explicit contracts with them (Kaliprasad, 2006, p.22)

Sources of satisfaction (motivator factors) included a sense of achievement, recognition,

the work itself, the opportunity to take responsibility and prospects for advancement.

These factors are related to the job content and enriched a person’s job, i.e., what people

actually do in their work. These motivators (satisfiers) were associated with long-term

positive effects in job performance while the hygiene factors (dissatisfiers) consistently

produced only short-term changes in job attitudes and performance, which quickly fell

back to its previous level.

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Herzberg found out that employees indicated “strong dissatisfaction if they were unhappy

with company policy and administration, technical and interpersonal supervision, financial

reward and working conditions” (Jones & Lloyd, 2005, p. 932). These factors are

associated with the job context or work setting i.e. they relate more to the environment in

which people work than to the nature of the work itself Kaliprasad (2006). According to

the theory, the absence of hygiene factors can create job dissatisfaction, but their

presence does not motivate or create satisfaction.

As an example, among the Hygiene factors shown in Figure 4, it was found by Herzberg

that low salary makes people dissatisfied, but that paying them more does not necessarily

satisfy or motivate them. In the two factor theory job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction

are totally separate dimensions and therefore improving a Hygiene factor, such as

security, will not make people satisfied with their work but only prevent them from being

dissatisfied, Kaliprasad (2006). The satisfiers relate to what a person does while the

dissatisfiers relate to the situation in which the person does what he or she does

Figure 4 : Sources of Dissatisfaction and Satisfaction in Herzberg’s Two factor Theory

Source: The Human Factor I: Attracting, Retaining and Motivating Capable People by Kaliprasad (2006)

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2.3 Conclusion

The search for a better understanding of what motivates us as human beings is a

centuries-old puzzle. A number of earlier studies suggest that differences in generations

exist and also that these generations are not motivated by the same factors. Motivation is

defined by Goleman as a passion to work for reasons that go beyond money or status,

pursuing goals with energy and persistence.

The changing nature of the economy and the evolution of the workforce has become a

significant source of interest especially in South Africa and Namibia in recent years. In

particular, the addition of Generation-Y employees into the workforce and the changing

focus of the career path towards unpredictable and boundary-less career orientations

(Briscoe, Hall & DeMuth, 2006) has called for organisations to adapt to the “era-shaped

needs” of their employees..

It can be concluded from the reviewed literature that employees from different

generations have different value systems and react differently to common life events. The

number of factors that motivate people cited by a number of authors are consistent and

comparable to Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs Theory” and Frederick Herzberg’s “Two

Factor Theory”. However, in contrast to most reviewed literature, Smola and Sutton

concluded that work values are more influenced by generational experiences than by age

and maturation.

The three generation groups studied in this research are Baby Boomers, Generation-X

and Generation-Y. A number of similarities and contrasts between generations have been

pointed out. The younger workforce, which is Generation-X and Generation-Y are for

instance more technologically literate than any previous generation. They are more group

oriented than Boomers, have short attention span and are adept to multitasking.

The Baby Boomers are so called because of the boom in their births between the years

of 1946 and 1964. This generation are said to have grown up embracing the psychology

of entitlement and expecting the best from life. They witnessed the shortcomings of

political, religious and business leaders and this is said to have resulted in a lack of

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respect for and loyalty to authority and social institutions. Kupperschmidt (2000)

highlighted that they also feel the pressure of caring for ageing parents and their own

children. Boomers strengths are said to include consensus building, mentoring, and

effecting change.

In contrast, Smola & Sutton (2000) points out that Generation-X, who were born between

the years of 1965 and 1981, are said to have grown up with financial and societal

insecurity, rapid change, great diversity, and a lack of solid traditions. Jurkiewicz & Brown

(1998) posited that this led to a sense of individualism over collectivism. The values most

important for Generation-X are a sense of belonging/teamwork, ability to learn new

things, autonomy and entrepreneurship, security, flexibility, feedback and short-term

rewards. They are said to crave mentors (Jurkievicz & Brown, 1998) and value a stable

family. Influenced greatly by seeing their parents being laid off, Kupperschmidt (2000)

suggests that they are cynical and untrusting They bring to the workplace well-honed,

practical approaches to problem solving, and they are said to be technically competent

and very comfortable with diversity, change and competition.

Generation-Y represents the youngest cohort of employees to finish their education, and

enter the workforce. As a recent addition to the workforce, they represent a currently

under researched group of workers and there is a need to investigate the work-related

characteristics, work needs, requirements and individual attitudes which motivate them in

their work.

From an employer perspective, generational differences operate to classify the overall

trend and values of employees, while offering insights into the most appropriate and

significant methods to understand and manage these differences. In determining how

different generations perceive the workplace and their motivation factors, different

strategies can be developed and implemented to improve the quality of life for all

workers. Furthermore, identifying generational differences will reduce

“misunderstandings, miscommunications and mixed signals” (Smola & Sutton, 2002, p.

363).

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3. Research Methodology

This section explains the type of research that was conducted and describes the research

approach, strategy and design that was followed. It also describes the data collection

methods and data analysis methods used and highlight the limitations of this study.

3.1 Research approach and strategy

This study aims to identify the main factors of motivating employees of different age

groups in a single organisation through an exploratory study of the cross-sectional

differences in motivation drivers across the three generational groups. The study was

conducted following an exploratory, case study approach focusing on a single

organisation. The set of assumptions for this study are more subjective and interpretative

in nature and therefore, the research methodology has to be inductive and exploratory.

Exploratory research is a method of “finding out what is happening and to seek new

insights” (Lewis et al, 2003, p. 96). The case study method is one of many exploratory

research techniques that can be used to obtain information and knowledge from one

particular situation. This approach is beneficial as pointed out by Zikmund (1997) and can

be of assistance in avoiding dangerous generalizations. The basic case study entails the

detailed and intensive analysis of a single case where a case as explained by Bryman

and Bell (2007) can be a single organisation, a single location, a person or a single event.

A case study is described by Yin (2002) as a strategy for doing research which involves

an empirical investigation of a particular contemporary phenomenon within its real life

context using multiple sources of evidence.

3.2 Research design

Bryman & Bell (2007) explain the concept of a research design as providing a framework

for the collection and analysis of data. The nature of the research question determines

the research methodology that would be appropriate. A case study is an empirical inquiry

that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context, especially when

the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident (Yin, 2003 p.

7). This means that one would use a case study method because one wants to cover a

contextual condition which is the case in this study. A case study research design is

appropriate because it is focussed on one company and survey data collection technique

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is preferred to enumerate the “what” questions central to this study because it is suited for

the “what” question (Yin, 2003, p. 6).

3.3 Data collection methods

3.3.1 Data collection process

The research made use of a self-administered survey as the primary method to collect

data from employees. The data was quantitatively analysed to arrive at the findings that

are summarised under section 4 of this report. The main steps of the data collection

process are summarised below:

Step 1: Identify key motivational drivers across generational groups from the

relevant literature.

Step 2: Design the questionnaire based on motivation drivers

Step 3: Pilot the questionnaire

Step 4: Administer the survey to get quantitative data

Step 5: Analyse the data and finalise the report

Step 1: Literature review

This process happened at the early phase of the study and involved researching various

sources for relevant academic references that relates to the research topic. Emphasis

was put on literature that covered cross-sectional studies on generational differences in

motivation drivers to identify the relevant themes that was used to draft the

questionnaires.

Step 2: Design of questionnaires

A standard questionnaire designed by Sutherland & Jordaan (2004) was used and

adapted with input from the work of Horwitz, Teng Heng, and Quazi (2003); Kaliprasad

(2006); Cennamo and Gardner (2008); Wong, Lang; Coulon (2008), and Montana & Petit

(2008).

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The questionnaire contained a set of structured questions and five open-ended

questions. The questionnaire was designed using the GSB online questionnaire tool

available to MBA students and it covered four main areas:

Structured questions on demographics, satisfaction, employee perception on

employability, planned stay at the company

A table of ten generic motivation factors that are drawn and adapted from the

mentioned literature sources. These factors are ranked in the perceived

importance from 1 to 10.

A table of 47 non company-specific variables that are rated in terms of importance

when deciding to leave or stay at the company

A number of open-ended questions that focussed specifically on Telecom Namibia,

the company being studied.

The self-administered questionnaire was used to collect responses from individuals. The

survey was forwarded to 540 employees made up of approximately 70% of each

generational group within the company’s workforce, i.e. 134 Baby Boomers, 334

Generation-X and 72 Generation-Y with a grade of C1 and upwards on the Patterson

grading system. These represent the entire population of all skilled workforces meeting

the criteria to participate in the survey. The survey was specifically targeted at this group

of workforce and it was only forwarded to those employees because they have achieved

a certain level of education and can thus understand the rationale and contextual

background of the study when completing the questionnaire. In terms of generational

grouping, the company’s workforce is made up of 25% Boomers, 62% Generation X and

13% Generation Y. The company has a total of 1260 staff compliments of which 1102 are

permanently appointed, 78 are on fixed term contracts and 80 are trainees. The full

Questionnaire used is attached as Appendix 1.

Step 3: Piloting the questionnaire

The study approach was presented to the CEO and a team of 10 Top Management of the

company on the 23rd September 2009 and some recommendations were received from

the General Manager of Human Resources and Strategic Training. The question on the

length of stay at the company with intervals of 5 years was specifically requested by him

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to be incorporated and was done. The questions where subsequently submitted to the

supervisor and slightly shortened, reduced by two questions before they were finalised.

This process assisted to identify short comings and get them addressed before the actual

survey was carried out.

Step 4: Administer the survey to get quantitative data

The questionnaire was online and self-administered and the participants were given up to

30 days to complete the survey.

3.4 Sampling methodology

The sample consisted of approximately 70% of all employees with a grade of C1 and

upwards on the Patterson grading system. It is assumed that these employees can

understand the rationale and contextual background of the study when completing the

questionnaire because of the level of education they have achieved. This group of

employees was first filtered from all employees, sorted in terms of age groups and the

70% from each group was randomly selected using excel before the survey was send out

to them. In this case, stratified random sampling was used because the approach

entailed breaking down the sample to a precise proportional of each age group (Bryman

& Bell, 2007). This group of 540 people has employees in various sections and

departments of the organisation and includes the whole top management team.

3.5 Data analysis methods

This study aims to understand and gain insight into the main motivation drivers across

various generations in a single Telecommunication / ICT organisation. Exploratory studies

are generally informal and qualitative in nature; however this study uses both the

quantitative and qualitative data analysis approach. The structured results from the

survey was quantitatively analysed and the focus group interview was planned to be

qualitatively analysed in line with Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2003) suggestion. This

appraoch is beneficial as it helps to clarify the author’s understanding and interpretation

of the survey findings

Microsoft Excel 2007 and its statistical tools and formula were used to produce

descriptive statistics from the structured data and present the findings using familiar

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methods. The analysis of the qualitative data focused on the interpretation of the findings

and compares it to the themes from literature.

The following statistical methods were used for the analysis of the quantitative data:

Descriptive statistics and Spearman’s Rank Correlation were used to determine the

interrelatedness between variables. As pointed out by Zar (1972), Spearman's rank

correlation coefficient method is one of the oldest and well known non-parametric

measure of correlation that could be used to describe the relationship between two

variables, without making any other assumptions about the particular nature of the

relationship between the variables.

The formula used is as follows:

3.6 Issues of validity

3.6.1 Triangulation

Yin (2003) suggests that the major strength of case study research design lies in the

opportunity to use many different sources of data. Triangulation refers to the use of

different data collection methods within one study in order to ensure that the data are

telling what you think they are telling. It is a useful attempt to cancel out the limitations of

one method by the use of the other in order to cross-check the findings (Bryman & Bell,

2007, p. 59). This has both epistemological and ontological importance on the research

outcome.

The study used two different data collection techniques, a self-administered online survey

and a focus group interview.

3.7 Research ethics

The specific and relevant ethical considerations suggested Bryman & Bell (2007) was

considered throughout the research. These included taking care to prevent any harm to

participants, privacy invasion and the use of appropriate technique to protect anonymity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_%28mathematics%29#Applied_statistics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_%28mathematics%29#Applied_statistics

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of participants. The participants will also be properly briefed about the background of the

study and their confidentiality ensured.

3.8 Limitation of the research

The research is a case study and it will focus only on one company and not on the entire

telecommunication sector in Namibia, region or the world. The sample is limited to one

company in Namibia. Due to the research taking place in a single organisation, the result

will specifically be more useful to this particular organisation. Case studies, like

experiments, are generalisable to theoretical propositions and not to populations or

universes (Yin, 2003, p. 10). The study was cross-sectional and based on cross-sectional

data. It is recommended to undertake a longitudinal study to asses’ motivational drivers of

different generations, when the participants are at the same age or the same point in their

career (Cennamo and Gardner, 2008).

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"Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else does and thinking

something different." Albert Szent-Gyorgyi (Szen-Gyorgyi, A, n.d)

4. Research Findings

This section summarises the main findings from both the survey and the focus group

research sessions.

The self-administered questionnaire that was used to collect responses from individuals

was forwarded to 540 employees and a total of 102 (19%) employees responded. The

respondents consist of 11 (11%) Generation-Y, 69 (68%) Generation-X and 22 (21%)

Baby Boomers. The 11% of the Generation-Y that participated in the survey represent

15% of the skilled Generation-Y population and the 68% of the Generation-X that

participated in the survey represent 20% of the skilled Generation-X population. Similarly,

the 21% Boomers that participated in the survey represent 16% of the skilled Baby

Boomers population of the workforce.

The proportions responses for Generation-Y and Baby Boomers are relatively low

although, as pointed out by Bryman & Bell (2007), that the absolute sample size is more

important than the relative size due to the way it can influence the precision of the sample

and sampling error. The author preferred a minimum of 30 responses per age group to

make statistical sense (Utts & Heckard, 2007) and be comfortable to generalise the

findings. The basic idea of confidence interval and sample error will be observed to see if

the data can be considered to be representative with regard to the question of interest

before it can be used to make inferences and generalisation about the population (Utts &

Heckard, 2007, p.404). This approach as suggested by Bryman & Bell (2007) is

necessary to fulfil replication, validity and reliability criteria of the research evaluation. The

analysis of the results in the following sections will take this into account because the low

response rate can lead to systematically overestimating or underestimating the truth

about the population of these age groups. This is despite the fact that the overall

percentage per age group of the respondents is consistent with the percentage age group

breakdown of the entire workforce.

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4.1 Demographics

4.1.a Age and gender profile

As shown in Figure 5 and Figure 6, out of the 102 employees that participated in the

survey, 25 (24.5%) are female and 77 (75.5%) are male.

Figure 5 : Age and gender profiles of all participants

In terms of age classification, the

participants are composed of 11%

Generation-Y (10% male and 1%

female) aged 27 years old or

younger; 68% Generation-X (48%

male and 21% female) aged

between 28 and 44 years and

21% Baby Boomers (19% male

and 3% female) aged 45 years or

older.

Figure 6 : Generation groupings for all participants

These age group distributions are

consistent with the actual and

overall composition of the

company’s workforce of

approximately 13% Generation-

Y, 62% Generation-X and 25%

Baby Boomers.

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4.1.b Uninterrupted years of service

The employees were asked to “select the number of uninterrupted years they have

worked at Telecom Namibia” and were provided with five choices to choose from.

Figure 7 : Uninterrupted years in employment grouped in years

Of all the 102 employees that

participated in the survey, 34%

have been employed by the

company for less than 5 years,

25% are between 5 to 10 years in

employment, 13% are between 10

to 15 years in employment, 15%

are between 15 to 20 years in

employment and 13% are

employed for over 20 years. Please refer to Figures 7 and 8 and Table 2 for this break

down.

Figure 8 : Uninterrupted years in employment per generation group

As expected, all Generation-Y are

employed for less than 5 years

and the majority of Boomers are

employed for over 15 years with

41% of them being employed for

over 20 years.

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Table 2: Uninterrupted years in employment for all participants

4.1.c Employment status

The participants were requested to indicate their employment status with the company.

Figure 9 : Employment status of all participants As Figure 9 and Table 3 shows,

19% of the 102 participants are on

fixed term contracts and 81% are

employed permanently. The 19%

of employees on fixed term

contract is composed of 6%

Generation-Y, 9% Generation-X

and 4% Baby Boomers.

Table 3: Employment status of participants

The 81% of employees that are

permanently employed is

composed of 5% Generation-Y,

59% Generation-X and 18% Baby

Boomers. This suggests that the

workforce of the company is

relatively young which is good for

an ICT service providers company.

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4.2 Ranking of motivation factors

4.2.a The top five motivation factors per generation group

One of the survey questions requested participants to rank the ten motivation factors that

were used in a number of recent studies not only to study the motivation levels but also

the retention of knowledge workers (Horwitz et al, 2003). The participants were asked to

rank these ten factors in order of importance in terms of what motivates them in their

current jobs. The results from the survey is summarised in Table 4 and it reveals that

there is a difference in how employees of different age groups ranked the factors that

motivate them.

The Generation-Y ranked the five most ranked important motivation factors as follows:

“career development and learning opportunities”,

“highly competitive pay package”

“performance incentives, performance based pay, bonuses”

“fun work environment, collaboration, openness, friendship and team work”

”access to leading technology”

Among the Generation-X, the five most important motivation factors are:

“career development & learning opportunities”,

“challenging, meaningful, interesting, fulfilling work” and

“access to leading edge technology”

“freedom to plan work and work independently”


The Baby Boomers ranked the five most important motivation factors as follows:

“challenging, meaningful, interesting, fulfilling work”,

“freedom to plan work and work independently” and



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“Performance incentives, performance based pay, bonuses”

Table 4: Summary of motivation factors results

Generation-X and Generation-Y have both ranked “career development and learning

opportunities” as their number one motivation factor. At most only three out of five

factors are featuring on any of the top five motivation factors between any two

generation groups. The Generation-Y and Generation-X are the less experienced age

groups, consists of younger workers who are technology savvy and the motivation

factors common to these groups, suggest so:

“career development & learning opportunities”,

“access to leading edge technology”


The three common motivation factors between Generation-X and Baby Boomers are

more aligned towards work enrichment, work fulfilment and freedom to plan your own

work which could also suggest that these groups are experienced, have developed

expertise in their specific disciplines:

“challenging, meaningful, interesting, fulfilling work”,

“freedom to plan work and work independently” and


The three common motivation factors between Generation-Y and Baby Boomers, two of

them emphasise the importance of a competitive pay and bonuses.

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“performance incentives, performance based pay, bonuses”


There are also some similarities in the ranking of the bottom two factors (nine and ten)

which are “top management support” and “regular contact with top management”.

When compared to the suggestions from the open ended questions, when employees

were requested to list additional aspects that they regard important with regard to

motivation, one notice common themes and similarities in meaning on a number of top

ranked factors:

The company is in an exciting industry

Exposure to new and different technologies

I am learning and gaining good experience

I am working on my own and I know what I am doing

Good salary and benefits

Team work and cooperation among all employees

Overall, Boomers and Generation-Y ranked social work values (“fun work environment,

collaboration, openness, friendship and team work”; “top management support” and

“regular contact with top management”) higher than Generation-X. Boomers and

Generation-Y also ranked intrinsic values (“challenging, meaningful, interesting, fulfilling

work”; “career development and learning opportunities”) and extrinsic values (“highly

competitive pay package” and “performance incentives, performance based pay and

bonuses”) higher than the Generation-X. However, Generation-Y and Generation-X

ranked status values (“opportunity for promotion” and access to leading technology)

higher than the Boomers. The Boomers and Generation-X ranked the freedom values

(“freedom to plan work and work independently”) higher than the Generation-Y.

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4.2.b Statistical analysis

Table 5 shows the correlation results of the Boomers, Generation-X Generation-Y, and

overall ranking results of the motivation factors. Each motivation factor ranking was first

converted to a percentage based on the respective age group results that participated

and then perform a correlation using Microsoft Excel statistical tools.

Table 5: Correlation analysis of motivation factors across generations

The results shows that there is a

“very low” (ρ = 0.35) correlation

between the ranking of motivation

factors by Boomers and

Generation-Y compared to “low” (ρ = 0.68 and ρ = 0.71) rankings between Generation-X

and Generation-Y and between Generation-X and Boomers respectively. This indicates

that Generation-X and Generation-Y ranked the motivation factors slightly in a similar

order compared to how Boomers and Generation-Y ranked them and there is even a

stronger similarity in ranking between Generation-X and Boomers. This is despite the

fact that there is a minimum of 3 common factors in the top five between any of the three

generations but there is a clear difference in how each age group viewed order of

significance of these factors with regard to their respective motivation drive at the work

place. The overall results are important although it is strongly influenced, as observed

from the “very high” correlation, by the Generation-X that represents the majority

participants in this survey.

Table 25 under Appendix 4, summarises the Spearman rank correlation, of the 47

generic factors selected as “critical” to cause employees of different age groups to leave

the company. These results are different among age groups and the strongest

correlation is between Generation-X and Generation-Y (ρ = 0.718), followed by

Generation-X and Boomers (ρ = 0.704) and then Generation-Y and Boomers (ρ =

0.617), just like it is the case with the way these age groups ranked the motivation

factors.

A further statistical analysis on how the three age groups ranked the ten motivation

factors was performed to test whether we can infer that the observed relationships

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represent a real relationship. For each factor, an F-Test was performed to determine the

appropriate T-Test that had to be performed. The F-Test was performed with a Null

Hypothesis, Ho: variances are the same and the Alternative Hypothesis, Ha: variances are

different. The T-Test was performed with a Null Hypothesis, Ho: the means are the same

and the Alternative Hypothesis, Ha: the means are not the same. For motivation factor,

“highly competitive pay”, the F-Test and T-Test statistics results, summarised in Table 6

and Table 7, indicate that:

F-Test: Between Generation-X and Generation-Y, we reject Ho at 5% level of

significance and decide on performing a T-Test with unequal variance.

T-Test: Between Generation-X and Generation-Y, using the two tail results, we

note that t-Stat > t Critical two tail, i.e. 3.69574 > 2.068658 and P (T<=) two tail =

0.001194 < 0.05. We reject Ho and accept Ha at 5% level of significance and

conclude that there is sufficient evidence to infer that the means for this specific

motivation factor are not the same for the two generation groups. This supports our

conclusion from Table 4 that Generation-X ranked this factor as number 2 whereas

Generation-Y ranked it as number 6.

Table 6: F-Test for motivation factor: highly competitive pay

A table containing a summary of the F-Tests and T-Tests interpretation for the motivation

factors is contained in Table 17 under Appendix 3.

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Table 7: T-Test for motivation factor: access to leading edge technology

4.3 Number of years willing to work for Telecom Namibia

The employees were asked “how long do you envisage working for Telecom Namibia?” to

give an indication on the willingness to continue working for the company and their

intentions to quit and had to choose between “less than six months”, six months to one

year”, “one to two years”, “more than five years” and “until I retire”.

Figure 10 : Years planned to work at the company per generation group

Figure 10 indicates that 13.7%

Boomers, which is 64% of the total

Boomers that participated in the

survey, are willing to work until

they retire and 2% which is 9% of

all the Boomers are willing to work

for less than 6 months.

These two figures could both point to the number of the Boomers that are close to their

retirement age.

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Figure 11 : Years planned to work at the company grouped per time

The results summarised in

Figure 11 indicates that, among

the 102 participants who

responded to this question, 26%

(11.8% Generation-X and 13.7%

Baby Boomers) have indicated

that they are willing to work for

Telecom Namibia until they retire

and only 6% (4% Generation-X

and 2% Baby Boomers) have intention to leave in the next six months. It is interesting to

note that 36% of the Generation-Y is not willing to stay with the company for more than

two years and the rest of the 64% are not willing to stay for more than five years. This is

consistent with the themes from literature that suggest that this age group is more likely to

change jobs over their careers than the other two generation groups. The 9% of the Baby

Boomers that plan to leave in six months could possibly be people nearing retirement but

the 15% Generation-X that plan to leave the company in less than a year is a point of

concern.

Table 8: Number of years planned to continue working at the company

4.4 Satisfaction level of employees

A number of questions aimed at establishing the satisfaction level of employees, with

regards to motivation, on a number of aspects were asked and the results are

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summarised under this section. These questions serve to provide a reflection of the

extent to which employees feel that the company meets their expectations at work and

satisfies its implicit and explicit contracts with them. This is the basis of the psychological

contract (PC), defined by Kotter (1973) as the implicit relationship between an employee

and their organisation which outlines what each should expect to give and receives in the

relationship. The results covered in this section will assist to provide answers to a range

of questions like: Why are employees dissatisfied? What makes employees very

dissatisfied at Telecom Namibia? Which employees are dissatisfied?

4.4.a Satisfaction with current work and with overall job situation

The survey asked the question “how satisfied are you with the nature of work you

currently perform?”

Figure 12 : Satisfaction level with the current work

Figure 12 shows that 65% of the

employees are “satisfied” or “very

satisfied” and 35% are

“somewhat dissatisfied” or “very

dissatisfied” with the nature of

their current work.

Figure 13 : Satisfaction level with the current work per generation group

Figure 13 shows that a total of

38% of all Generation-X are


dissatisfied” compared to 32%

Baby Boomers and 27%

Generation-Y who feel the same.

The Baby Boomers has the

greatest percentage proposition

of, 32%, “very satisfied” people

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compared to 14% Generation-X and none among the Generation-Y. This can suggest

that these elder employees are in management and are happy with their careers within

the organisation. However, Generation-Y has the biggest proportion, 73% of “satisfied”

employees.

The survey also asked the question, “overall, how satisfied are you with your current job

situation?” This question was aimed at capturing employee perception on all aspects of

the job including job fit, team fit and culture fit.

Figure 14 : Overall satisfaction level with your work

The survey results, as

summarised in Figures 14

reveals that 57% of the

employees are “satisfied” or

“very satisfied” and 43% are


dissatisfied”. Even though both

Figure 12 and 14 show that

employees are generally

“satisfied” with their current job only a mere 4% are on overall “very satisfied” with their

employment. The number of “somewhat dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” employees has

increased across all age groups but more so across the Generation-Y, 63% (15)

compared to 27% (Figure 13).

Figure 15 : Overall satisfaction level with work per generation group Figure 15 shows that 63% of the

Generation-Y are either


dissatisfied”. This suggests that

there are other things that make

these employees dissatisfied

because they are relatively

happy with the current work as

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shown in Figure 13. This could be explained by the strong feeling expressed in the open

ended questions that the training program followed by trainees is not implemented and

followed as documented and most of them do not consider their salary competitive.

4.4.b Overall satisfaction with current job vs. Length of time in employment

In an attempt to find possible explanation to the questions mentioned at the beginning of

this section, an analysis of the overall satisfaction against a number of scenarios where

done to see if they are correlated and to see if there is a cause and effect relationship.

Figure 16 : Years employed vs Overall satisfaction with current job grouped by time

Figure 16 and Figure 17 show

the overall satisfaction level of

employees against their length of

stay in employment. The Figure

16 shows that 18% of the

employees that are employed for

less than five years are “very

dissatisfied” or “somewhat

dissatisfied” compared to the

17% of “satisfied” or “very satisfied” of employees that in employment for the same

amount of time. The general clear trend is that the satisfaction levels declines with

number of years in employment.

Figure 17 : Years employed vs Overall satisfaction with current job However, Figure 17 shows that

in each “years in employment”

bracket, a large proportion of

employees are satisfied with the

exception of those in for “less

than 5 years” and “more than 20

years” brackets. Open

communication, fairness in

remuneration and appreciation

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from management are possible explanations raised in the open ended questions to cause

dissatisfaction especially to the new recruits of the workforce.

Table 9: Years employed vs Overall satisfaction with current job

4.4.c Satisfaction with relationship with line manager and with peers

The employees were asked to indicate their level of satisfaction with their line managers

and with their respective peers.

Figure 18 : Satisfaction level with line managers and peers The result reveals that there is

not much difference between

these levels of satisfaction as

Figure 18 shows. However, there

is a general downward trend in

the level of satisfaction with line

managers over the number of

years in employment as shown in

Figure 19.

Figure 19 also shows that a relatively large proportion of employees that are dissatisfied

are in the “less than 5 years” and “between 15 and 10 years” length of employment

brackets.

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Figure 19 : Satisfaction with line managers

The satisfaction level with peers

also shows a downward trend with

number of years in employment

but not with the same consistency

and intensity as with line

managers. The people who have

been in employment for “between

10 and 15 years” recorded the

highest satisfaction level with their

line, 9% of all employees representing 69% of all employees that are with the company

for that long.

Figure 20 : Satisfaction with peers

The survey results represented

in Figure 20 reveals that 80% of

the employees are “satisfied” or

“very satisfied” with the

relationship with their peers as

compared 73% with line

managers.

Table 10: Years employed vs Satisfaction with peers and line managers

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Table 11: Years employed vs Satisfaction with peers and line managers

The responses from open ended questions reveals that recognising employee’s ability,

experience and contribution by management as well listening to employees are among

the highlighted things that employees wish to see being done for them to stay motivated

and longer at the company.

4.4.d Satisfaction with Financial Compensation

With regard to establishing the level of satisfaction of employees with the current

compensation level, the survey asked the following two questions, “How satisfied are you

with your financial compensation / payment package?” and “Do you consider your pay

package competitive in the market place?”

Figure 21 : Pay competitiveness in the market

The first question provided four

choices ranging from “very

satisfied” to “very dissatisfied”

and the second question required

participants to either say “yes” or

“no”. The result reveals that

across all generational groups, a

split of half of the employees is

satisfied with their salary and the other half agrees that their salary is market related.

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Figure 22 : Satisfaction with pay package

This trend is maintained if one

compares employee’s satisfaction

level with current compensation

with overall satisfaction level of

employees as depicted in Figure

21 and Figure 22. For instance

12% of satisfied Boomers

represent 55% of all Boomers that

participated and 29% of satisfied Generation-X represents 43% of all Generation-X.

Generation-Y has the highest dissatisfied employees group with 43% of all Generation-Y

who participated being “somewhat dissatisfied” with their salary.

In the open ended questions, employees highlighted the performance based pay

structure as an area that is causing strong dissatisfaction. They also highlighted that idle

and none performing employees are sometimes paid more than those putting in a lot of

efforts.

4.4.e Satisfaction with Opportunities for Advancement

The survey asked employees to indicate their satisfaction level with regards to career

advancement opportunities within the organisation.

Figure 23 : Satisfaction with advancement opportunities

The results depicted in the

Figure 23 and Figure 24, shows

that 13% of participants are

Boomers, representing 59% of

all Boomers that participated in

the survey, are dissatisfied, of

which 10% or 45% are “very

dissatisfied” with career

advancement opportunities at

the company at the moment. Among the Generation-X that participated in the survey,

none of them is “very satisfied” with career advancement opportunities.

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Figure 24 : Satisfaction with advancement opportunities The Generation-X age group

has the largest proportion of

people that are dissatisfied

(61%) with the career

advancement opportunities

followed by the Baby Boomers

with 59% and then Generation-

Y with 45%. Generation-Y age

group has the biggest proportion of satisfied people with career advancement (54%)

followed by Baby Boomers with 41% and then Generation-X with 39%. This pattern can

be explained in terms of the career aspirations of the participants, people who are

relatively new in the company are positive of career advancement as they are typically in

the early stages of their careers.

4.5 Employee perceptions on their own employability

Employees were requested to give an indication on how easy or difficult they would find it

to find a new job in the next six months.

Figure 25 : Easiness to find a new job in the next six months

Figure 25 shows that 46% of

the employees that

participated in the survey

considers it to be relatively

“easy” or “very easy” to find a

new job.

As shown in Figure 26, of all

the Baby Boomers that

participated in the survey, 72% says that it is “difficult” or “extremely difficult” to find an

equivalent or better job in the next six months, followed by Generation-X with 49% and

then Generation-Y with 45%

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Figure 26 : Easiness to find a new job in the next six months per generation group The Baby Boomers are the older

group of the workforce, have

been employed the longest,

have mostly climbed the

corporate ladder over the years

and some of them have become

loyal to the organisation and

some of them are not

necessarily interested in

changing jobs and learn new skills. These can serve as possible explanation for this

outcome.

The age group with a highest perception on its employability is the Generation-Y where

55% say it will be easy to find an equivalent or better job followed by Generation-X with

51% of which 12% says it will be very easy. A number of literature have pointed out that

these two generations are the ones likely to change jobs and this agrees with these

findings.

4.6 Employee job hunting status and intention to stay at the company

4.6.a Employee job hunting status

Figure 27 : Job hunting status of all participants The survey asked employees to

select one of the three options

that best describe their job

hunting situation. This question

was possibly not clear and well

phrased because of the error

made when the question was

created on the online tool.

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However, the response received indicates that 14% of the employees that participated in

the survey (12% Generation-X and 2% Baby Boomers) are looking for a job right now

which is quite high because this could translate in these levels of turnover. None of the

Generation-Y is looking for a job right now but 80% do occasionally look into

opportunities to change jobs.

Figure 28 : Job hunting status vs Satisfaction with current job

It is also interesting to note of all

the people that are looking for a

job right now, 71% of them are

dissatisfied with their current job,

see Figure 27 and Figure 28 for

details.

4.6.b Employees’ intention to stay at the company vs. satisfaction levels Figure 29 : Plan to stay at company vs Overall satisfaction with the job - 1

The survey asked employees to

indicate their planned duration

to stay in the employment of the

company and as shown in

Figure 29 and Figure 30 as well

as Table 8, all the people that

plan to stay in the employment

for less than 6 months, 84% are

dissatisfied of which 67% are

“very dissatisfied”.

A total of 18% of the employee are “very dissatisfied” and this is a significant number if it

suggests the levels of turnover that can be expected.

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Figure 30 : Plan to stay at company vs Overall satisfaction with the job - 2

From the open-ended questions,

employees mentioned corporate

politics, indecisiveness of

management, ongoing blame

culture, unreasonable work load

and burn out, interference from

everyone in their respective

work, and lack of recognition as

some of the issues that will

cause them to leave the company.

Table 12: Years planned to stay vs Overall satisfaction with current job

Employees also suggested and listed the following as possible things that the company

could do to make them stay:

Do away with red tapes and improve speed of decision making

Improve management support to the employees that are doing the work

Learn to listen more to employees

Recognise employees experience and not only academic qualifications

Recognise employees ability and get the best out of employees

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5 Discussions

The survey asked participants to rank ten factors in their order of preference and

importance with regard to their motivation at the work place. The ten factors selected for

the survey questions were found from the reviewed literature and found by previous

research to be among the most important factors in motivating employees, including work

from (Sutherland & Jordaan, 2000; Horwitz, et al, 2001; Horwitz, et al, 2003; Birt, et al,

2004; Gaylard, et al, 2005; Weterman and Yamamura, 2006; Cennamo & Gardner, 2008;

Wong, et al, 2008 and Montana & Petit, 2008) with emphasis on cross-sectional studies

of generational differences and motivation.

Overall, Boomers and Generation-Y ranked social work values (“fun work environment,

collaboration, openness, friendship and team work”; “top management support” and

“regular contact with top management”) higher than Generation-X. Boomers and

Generation-Y also ranked intrinsic values (“challenging, meaningful, interesting, fulfilling

work”; “career development and learning opportunities”) and extrinsic values (“highly

competitive pay package” and “performance incentives, performance based pay and

bonuses”) higher than the Generation-X. However, The Boomers and Generation-X

ranked the freedom values (“freedom to plan work and work independently”) higher than

the Generation Y.

The Survey results revealed that the five overall most important factors in motivating

Telecom Namibia employees are “challenging, meaningful, interesting, fulfilling

work”; “career development and learning opportunities”; “access to leading edge

technologies”; “freedom to plan work and work independently” and “fun work

environment, collaboration, openness, friendship and team work”. These findings

are consistent with Horwitz et al (2003) findings that workers in the IT and

Telecommunication industry are best motivated through strategies that ensure “people

have fulfilling work”; “have access to leading technology”; “have challenging projects and

work assignments”; “have freedom to plan and work independently and have top

management leadership and support”. It is also consistent with Horwitz’s (2001) earlier

findings based on correlation analysis of motivation practices (p > .05) where “challenging

work”; “access to technology”; “freedom to plan work”; “fun place to work” and “foster

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collaboration and team” emerged as the top motivation strategies. The only factor that is

different between Horwitz and this report’s findings is the top management leadership

and support which is ranked ninth overall on the findings of this study.

The findings also showed that there is a difference in the way the three generations

ranked the motivation factors. The Baby Boomers showed lower levels ranking (ranked

6th) of “career development & learning opportunities” than the younger generation who

both ranked this as their number one motivator. This is consistent with Herzberg theory

and findings that people are motivated by intrinsic factors that answer people’s deep-

seated need for growth and achievement. It is also possible, as Cennamo and Gardner

(2008) points out that, employees who are longer years in employment, the Boomers in

this case, may be in a position whereby the requirement of career development has been

met and is no longer the most important need to them. Overall, one can conclude that the

younger employees appears to focus on career security and older employees tend to

focus on job security as revealed through the survey including the number years each

age group is willing to continue working for the organisation.

The results also revealed that younger generations placed more importance on status

values as revealed by the survey results, Generation-Y and Generation-X ranked

“opportunity for promotion” and “access to leading technology” higher than the Boomers

which is consistent with Cennamo and Gardner’s results that suggest that younger

respondents are still striving for status and freedom.

Boomers and Generation-X showed lower values for freedom than Generation-Y. It is

possible that higher status and longer tenure mean that these requirements have been

met and these work values are no longer as salient for older groups, whereas younger

respondents are still striving for status and autonomy at work.

Proportionally, Boomers are the most satisfied with their current jobs and current pay

package, 60% and 69% respectively as compared to 59% and 53% for the Generation-X

and 36% and 54% for the Generation-Y. This could be explained by the fact that,

currently the generation holding the majority of senior positions are the older groups,

introducing the potential younger employees to experience less fit and unhappiness in

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their job if they hold different values. This information was confirmed through the

discussion with a selection of colleagues in the organisation.

Given their career stage and number of years in employment, the older generation could

be receiving higher salaries and enjoying higher status already compared to young

employees. They have thus a better fit with extrinsic work values and status values which

is also consistent with Cennamo and Gardner’s results.

The analysis of the 47 generic factors that may cause an employee to leave the

organisation indicates that the “lack of communication” and “feedback”, “recognition”,

“good pay and fair treatment”, “self development and improvement”, “freedom”, “new

opportunities and challenges”, “opportunity to do interesting and quality work” are among

the top reasons why Generation-X might leave the organisation. Many of the highly

ranked factors can be grouped under achievement, recognition, advancement and growth

that according to Herzberg’s theory are motivator factors that can lead to job satisfaction.

A Spearman Rank correlation was performed on these factors across all three

generations and although slightly different, it showed positive correlation that suggests

that in general, the people across all age groups are likely to leave the organisation due

to a range of common factors. The strongest correlation is between Generation-X and

Generation-Y (rho = 0.718), followed by Generation-X and Boomers (ρ = 0.704) and

then Generation-Y and Boomers (ρ = 0.617), and this order is consistent with the way

these age groups ranked the motivation factors. The Spearman Rank correlation table is

attached under Annex 4, Table 22. The overall ranking of the factors produced results

that match the suggestions of the open ended questions on why employees would want

to leave the organisation. However, due to the low response for the Generation-Y and

Baby Boomer, these results are observed bearing in mind the sampling error and non-

response error and further generalisation on these two age groups cannot be

emphasised.

Generations-X recorded the lowest dissatisfaction with “salary”, “career advancement”

(61% dissatisfied); “plan to leave the company in one year” (15%) and “dissatisfaction

with the current job” (38%). They have also listed and suggested that “rewards and

competitive pay” are consideration that can make them want to stay longer with the

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company. Competitive compensation should however not be the only focus because it

buys temporary compliance and does not create a lasting commitment. This is explained

by Kohn who (1993) wrote about the redemptive power of rewards and that the

connection between incentive program and problem with workplace productivity and

morale is not linear. In his analysis, punishment and rewards are actually two sides of the

same coin and both have punitive effect because they are manipulative. The focus of

program to motivate employees should therefore focus on job enrichment in line with

Herzberg theory.

A discussion with the General Manager for Human Resources and Strategic Training on

the study findings highlighted that the morale of employees is unsurprisingly at its lowest

this year due to a number of reasons most of which were mentioned by employees in the

survey. He mentioned the structural re-alignment that is taking too long, perceived salary

inequality in some sections of the company and the company decision not to pay

performance bonuses this year due to financial performance targets that are not met. All

these issues can be addressed in the short to medium term and require a consistent and

clear communication plan. Their impact on overall staff motivation can therefore be

managed.

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6 Conclusions and Recommendations

The findings of the study on the motivation factors that are widely and generally

considered to motivate workers showed similarities with reviewed literature. The

similarities were observed on both overall ranking, by all employees, of these factors and

also for the cross-sectional analysis across the three generational groups. Similarities

were further observed with literature that analysed motivation in the specific industry. The

analysis of the survey outcome showed that younger generation are more concerned with

career security while older employees are more concerned with job security. These

suggest that employees at Telecom Namibia are motivated and driven by the same

factors as those identified by earlier research in other parts of the world. The author

would recommend that future studies could include additional diversity characteristics that

were not included in this research like ethnicity and race given these dimensions of

diversity exist in the company studied.

The company is going through a structural re-alignment to better manage its NGN

network but currently there are less focussed initiatives and concerted efforts across the

organisation to motivate employees and manage talent within the organisation. This is

one of the recommendations that will be made to the organisation, to better manage their

talented employees through the implementation of an appropriate motivation strategy.

The study revealed a number of areas that employees are currently not satisfied with.

Some of the listed issues can be handled and solved as projects, with a start and end

date and some would require the introduction or amendment of existing policies,

strategies and a new approach to manage people. For instance, to finish the structural re-

alignment can be handled as a project and get it done in a specified time frame that is

well communicated. To introduce a way of embracing ideas from employees and giving

employees timely appreciation and recognition requires a change in how and what is

communicated with regard to work and a change in management approach and

communication with employees when discussing achievements and difficulties related to

work. The author recommends and is interested to be part of a team to write a booklet,

that could be called “The Telecom Namibia Way” that will be available to all employees,

as a hard copy and online, as a quick reference and a guide to new recruits.

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The Generations-X, which responded well to the survey, has recorded the highest

dissatisfaction with salary, with career advancement; plan to leave the company in one

year and dissatisfaction with the current job. They have also listed and suggested

rewards and competitive pay as possible reasons that can make them stay with the

company and this suggest that the introduction of a meaningful incentive scheme would

contribute to the improvement of motivation together with a performance bonuses.

The study also revealed a number of motivation enhancing initiatives that can be

implemented including service pride awards for milestones achieved, awarded to

employees that are caught in the act of providing exceptional service, recognising people

and making them feel special is the best way to boost morale and quality at the same

time. Also personally thanking employees for doing a good job, one on one, verbally, in

writing or both in a timely manner, often and sincerely will go a long way in improving and

maintaining a high motivation level among employees. Recognition, rewarding and

promoting people based on their performance should be the only way and management

has to deal with low and marginal performers so that they either improve or leave. The

combination of these, addressed in a transparent and equitable way will motivate

employees on a sustained basis.

The design of work should be such that it provides employees with a sense of ownership

in their work and work environment and management should strive to create a work

environment that is open, trusting and fun and encourage new ideas and initiatives. The

focus on job enrichment that gives people a chance to grow and learn new skills is critical

in motivating employees.

Strong suggestions from employees themselves indicated that management need to be

willing to take time to meet and listen to employees and provide specific feedback about

performance of the person, the department and the organisation. Employees also

preferred that they be provided with information on how the company makes and loses

money, upcoming products and strategies for competing in the market place and were

possible; get them involved in decisions making, especially when these decisions affect

them. Overall HR programs should be tailored to needs of employees taking into account

the generational diversity, needs of its workforce and the era in which we find ourselves.

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7 Future Research The cross-sectional design did not make it possible to determine whether differences

between groups were linked to career stage, life stage or genuine generational

differences. Those born earlier not only belong to a different generation to those born

later, but have been living (and working) for longer, with all the associated changes that

may results from experience. It is recommended to do further studies with a focus on

work needs for each generational group and a focus on longitudinal research to separate

the effect of generation, age and other variables. It is believed also from available

literature and pointed out by Cennamo and Gardner (2008) that true generational

differences can only be identified by studying groups over time.

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Appendix 1: Survey Questionnaire

Questionnaire Dear Participants,

Thank you for completing the survey below. All responses are anonymous and will remain

completely confidential. Your honesty is appreciated.

1. Gender

2. Select your age range

3. Select your job grading range

4. Select your employment status with Telecom Namibia

5. Select the range of uninterrupted years you have worked at Telecom Namibia

Male Female

27 years old and below Between 28 and 44 years 45 years old and above

A and B band C-band D-band E or higher band

Permanently employed On contract

Less than 5

years

Between 5 and

10 years

Between 10 and

15 years

Between 15 and

20 years

More than 20

years

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6. How long do you envisage working for Telecom Namibia?

7. How satisfied are you with the nature of work you currently perform?

8. How satisfied are you with your relationship with your direct line manager / supervisor?

9. How satisfied are you with relationship with your team / your co-workers or peers?

10. How satisfied are you with your financial compensation / payment package?

11. Do you consider your pay package competitive in the market place?

12. How satisfied are you with opportunities for advancement at Telecom Namibia?

Less than 6

months

6 months to a

year

1 to 2 years More than 5

years

Until I retire

Very dissatisfied Somewhat

dissatisfied

Satisfied Very satisfied

Very dissatisfied

Somewhat

dissatisfied

Satisfied

Very satisfied


dissatisfied



dissatisfied


Yes No

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13. Overall, how satisfied are you with your current job situation?

14. How easy do you think it would be for you to find an equivalent or better job in the next

six months?

15. Which one of the following statements best describe your current situation:

Very dissatisfied

Somewhat

dissatisfied

Satisfied

Very satisfied

Very dissatisfied

Somewhat

dissatisfied

Satisfied

Very satisfied

Extremely

difficult

Difficult

Easy

Very Easy

I am looking for another job 1

I occasionally look into opportunities for changing jobs 2

I am not looking for another job 3

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16. Motivation factors: Please RANK in order of importance to you the factors that motivate

you in your job with 1 being most important and 10 being least important,.

NB. PLEASE USE EACH NUMBER ONLY ONCE.

RANK (1 – 10) MOTIVATION VARIABLE list alphabetically

Access to leading edge technology

Career development & learning opportunities

Challenging, meaningful, interesting, fulfilling work

Freedom to plan work and work independently

Fun work environment, collaboration, openness, friendship & team work

Highly competitive pay package

Opportunities for promotion

Performance incentives, performance based pay, bonuses

Regular contact with top management

Top management support

Please list any other factor(s) that you consider more important than those listed above.

17. Please list four positive aspects of working at Telecom Namibia that contribute to your

motivation currently:

a. _________________________________________________________

b. _________________________________________________________

c. _________________________________________________________

d. _________________________________________________________

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18. Please list four actions that Telecom Namibia could take to increase your motivation and

commitment:

a. _________________________________________________________

b. _________________________________________________________

c. _________________________________________________________

d. _________________________________________________________

19. Please list the three top reasons that would make you leave Telecom Namibia:

a. _________________________________________________________

b. _________________________________________________________

c. _________________________________________________________

20. Please list the three things that Telecom Namibia could do differently that would encourage

you to stay with the company for a longer period than you indicated above:

a. _________________________________________________________

b. _________________________________________________________

c. _________________________________________________________

21. How important do you consider each of the following factors to be in deciding whether to

leave or stay with Telecom Namibia? Please try to spread out your responses across the

scale to reflect the relative importance of the items. Please answer every item.

## Factors description Crucial

Quite

important

Not important at

all

1 2 3

1 Being complimented by my boss when I do a good job

2 Career planning by the organisation

3 Chance for promotion

4 Chance to turn out quality work

5 Communication problems (internally)

6 Company reputation

7 Company strategy problems

8 Company structure problems

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9 Diversity / BEE / Affirmative action issues

10 Do it your way

11

Feedback that you are important to the company’s

success

12 Flexibility with regard to working hours

13 Getting along well with others on the job

14

Getting involved in decision making especially those

that affect me

15 Getting performance rating

16 Good pay

17 Good physical working conditions

18 Internal equity / fairness

19 Issues you have raised being unattended

20 Knowing that I will be disciplined if I do a bad job

21

Knowing that you and your co-workers can help turn this

company around

22 Knowing that you are valued here

23 Knowing what is going on in the organisation

24 Large amount of freedom on the job

25 New opportunities / challenges

26 Opportunity for self-development and improvement

27 Opportunity to do interesting work

28 Pensions and other security benefits

29 Personal fit with the organisational culture

30 Relationship with your immediate boss

31 Respect for me as a person

32 Steady employment

33 The feeling that my experience is respected here

34 The feeling that my job is important

35 The organisation’s general culture

36 There aren’t a lot of rules here

37 To change your field of work

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38 To hear what has and hasn’t worked in the past

39 To start your own business

40 Work versus personal life balance

41 Working under close supervision

42 Working with other bright, creative people

43 You can be a hero here

44 Your contribution is unique and important

45 Your ideas being ignored

46 Your level of trust in top management

47 Your perseverance will be awarded

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Appendix 2: Motivation factors ranking per age group

Table 13: Motivation factors: Generation-Y ranking

Table 14: Motivation factors: Generation-X ranking

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Table 15: Motivation factors: Baby Boomers ranking

Table 16: Motivation factors: Overall ranking

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Table 17: F-Test and T-Test analysis for the motivation factors

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Appendix 3: Ranked Response to Open-Ended Questions

Across all generations, more than 10 employees suggested these factors as being

important with regard to their motivation.

Table 18: Open-ended question 17: additional motivation factors

Across all generations, more than 10 employees listed these factors as being the positive

aspects observed while working at the company.

Table 19: Open-ended question 18: positive aspects of working at the company

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Across all generations, more than 10 employees listed these aspects that the company

could do to improve the motivation and commitment levels of employees.

Table 20: Open-ended question 19: suggestions to improve motivation

Across all generations, more than 10 employees listed these factors to be the ones that

might cause them to leave the company.

Table 21: Open-ended question 20: factors that might cause employees to leave

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More than 10 employees across all generations, listed these factors that the company

could do to ensure that the employee stay with the company.

Table 22: Open-ended question 21: factors that will make employees stay

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Appendix 4: Generic Factors for Decisions to Leave the Company

Table 23: Overall “Crucial” ranking by all age groups

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Table 24: Overall “Quite Important” ranking by all age groups

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Table 25: Factors per age group ranked in terms of number of selections

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Table 26: Spearman Rank Correlation: All Generation Groups

Documents

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