Millennial Workforce: Motivation, Job Satisfaction, and Contracts

This report delves into the organizational behavior of millennial employees, exploring key concepts such as job satisfaction, motivation theories, and psychological contracts. It begins by defining millennials and their characteristics, emphasizing their preferences for work environments and career paths. The report then examines job satisfaction, highlighting the factors that contribute to it, such as engagement, respect, and appreciation. It discusses various motivation theories, including Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory and Adams' Equity Theory, explaining how they can be applied to motivate millennial workers. Furthermore, the report explores the concept of the psychological contract, which defines the unwritten expectations between employers and employees, and how it influences the workplace dynamics. Finally, it provides recommendations for motivating millennials, including creating a positive work environment, supporting employee goals, and recognizing achievements, while also considering the potential negative outcomes of these methods. The report aims to provide valuable insights for leaders and managers seeking to understand and effectively manage the millennial workforce.

Organisational Behavior
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Table of Contents
Section 01........................................................................................................................................3
Who are millennials?...................................................................................................................3
What is job satisfaction?..............................................................................................................3
How is job satisfaction obtained?................................................................................................3
Job satisfaction and performance.................................................................................................4
Section 02........................................................................................................................................5
What is motivation?.....................................................................................................................5
Types of Motivation Theories......................................................................................................5
Content and process theories....................................................................................................5
Herzberg’s two factor theory....................................................................................................6
Adams Expectancy theory........................................................................................................6
Section 3: Psychological contract...................................................................................................7
Simple Definition of Psychological contract...............................................................................7
How Psychological contract applied in a workplace...................................................................7
How Psychological contract represents in an employee and Employer......................................7
How it contributes to organizations’ Vision and Mission............................................................7
Section 4: Recommendation............................................................................................................9
What is Extrinsic Motivation.......................................................................................................9
How Effective is Extrinsic Motivation........................................................................................9
Recommended motivation methods.............................................................................................9
Possible Negative outcomes of the recommended motivation method.....................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11
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Section 01
Who are millennials?
Millennial is the term mainly used to the individuals who reached their adulthood around the turn
of 21st century; also termed as generation Y. It is the demographic cohort following the
generation X. The generation that follows the generation X, with the birth years ranging from the
early 1980s to the early 1990s (Ball, 2012). This generation is mainly liberal towards their
political ideology, practice religion less than the previous generations and grew in the age of
technology and thus is very versed in technology. It is estimated that the Millennials make up to
21% of consumer discretionary purchases.
What is job satisfaction?
Job satisfaction can be termed as the degree of happiness workers feel about their work, which
can affect performance. Job satisfaction can be influenced by an individual’s ability to finish the
required tasks, the level of communication in an organization and the way administration treats
the employees. The Millennial generation is expected to grab the 75% of the total workforce by
2035. Thus, it is crucial to understand the indicators of the millennial job satisfaction (Bisht,
Chaubey & Thapliyal, 2016). These young workers are more prone to job satisfaction than their
predecessors. The change of career path is enabled for the Millennials and even encouraged by
LinkedIn and other social networking platforms.
How is job satisfaction obtained?
A job satisfaction is a feeling of fulfillment of enjoyment that an individual or a worker derives
from their job. The most important factor that is requiring obtaining the job satisfaction is the
engagement. It is important that individuals engages in their work and are focused and
productive. If a worker is completely engaged in his or her work, it is likely that he or she will be
able to find their individual strengths. Other factors that assist in obtaining job satisfaction are
the respect, praise and appreciation. Millennials in the current business context wants fulfillment
at work along with fulfillment at home. It is important that organizations gives respect to the
millennials at the workplace and also appreciates their work as they work for purpose and not for
paychecks (Kwong, 2016). According to the survey conducted by Society for Human Resource
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Management 2016, half of the surveyed employees rated the respect from the seniors as the most
important aspect to obtain the job satisfaction.
Job satisfaction and performance
The workers job satisfaction plays an important role in terms of their health and wellbeing and
also plays an important role for the organizations in terms of its productivity, employee relations,
absenteeism and turnover. The factor of job satisfaction is very complicated and is influenced by
many situational factors of the job and the dispositional characters of the individuals. The degree
of the job characteristics on the job satisfaction of an employee could be identified with the
assistance of two-factor theory and job characteristics model. It has been argued by many authors
that job satisfaction influence the workers job performance. Job performance is a contributing
element in an individual job satisfaction. In the current business context, it is evident that
managers generally want to have satisfied workers who feel happy at the workplace. Managers
want to have employees at the workplace who feel that their jobs gives them positive
characteristics such as challenge, security, pleasant co-workers and good pay.
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Section 02
What is motivation?
Motivation is the term derived from word ‘motive’ that means needs, wants or desires within an
individual. It is the process of encouraging people to reach their goals and objectives. Motivation
in management demarcates the ways in which managers promote the productivity of the
employees. Motivation is actually a level of desire that an individual feels in order to perform his
or her respective work. People who are motivated to perform deliver more productive works,
more engaged and feels more invested at the workplace.
Millennials who are the most educated and culturally diverse than any generation before
also needs motivation to perform their respective works. If a company wants to motivate its
millennials workers, it is important to convey the company’s vision to them ("Millennials at
work Reshaping the workplace", 2017). According to Forbes, millennnials mainly work for some
meaning and impact on their work and are not satisfied only with the heavy paychecks.
Types of Motivation Theories
Motivational theories are considered as the studies that derive individuals to work towards a
specific goal or outcome. Every business enterprise is interested in motivational theories as
motivated workforce is more productive which leads to more sustainable use of resources. Most
of the motivational theories differentiate between the intrinsic and extrinsic factors. It is believed
that workforce with higher self-confidence level have more ability to gets success ("Motivation
& its Theories", 2017). There are many motivational theories such as Herzberg’s two factor
theory, Adams Expectancy theory, Three-dimensional theory of attribution, Maslow’s hierarchy
of needs and many more.
Content and process theories
Motivational theories can be distinguished between content and process motivation theories.
Content theories focus on ‘what’, while process theories focus on ‘how’ human behavior could
be motivated. Content theories are the oldest theories of motivation and in the work
environment; they have had the greatest impact on the management practice and policy. Content
theories are also known as needs theories. On the other hand, process theories are concerned on
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how motivation occurs and what kinds of factors could influence the motivation in the human
behavior.
Herzberg’s two factor theory
Herzberg’s two factor theory, which is also known as Motivation-Hygiene theory states that
there are certain factors at the workplace that cause job satisfaction and a separate set of factors
that can cause dissatisfaction. According to Herzberg, the opposite of satisfaction is not
dissatisfaction, but is no satisfaction. As per him, the job satisfiers deal with the factors which
are involved in doing a job. According to theory, there are five factors that deliver job
satisfaction to the workers, namely, achievement, recognition, work, responsibility and
advancement (Tolbize, 2017). There are also some factors that lead to job dissatisfaction such as
company policy and management, supervision, salary and working conditions.
Adams Expectancy theory
Adam’s equity theory demarcates that people are encouraged if they are treated equally and
receive what they consider good for their efforts and costs. According to Adams’ equity theory,
workers compare their contribution to work and the benefits that result in the contribution of the
company. The stated theory calls for the fair balance to be collide with employees’ inputs such as
hard work, skill level, and acceptance with employee’s outputs such as salary, benefits and
recognition (Podmoroff, 2016). The stated theory is developed with a belief that employees
become de-motivated both in terms of their job and employer, if they feel their inputs are greater
than the outputs.
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Section 3: Psychological contract
Simple Definition of Psychological contract
The psychological contract is referred to the unwritten point of expectations of the employment
relationship which is dissimilar from the formal, codified employment contract. The
psychological contract and the employment contract deliver the employer-employee
relationships. According to organizational researcher Denise Rosseau, the psychological contract
involves the mutual beliefs, common ground, informal arrangements and the perception between
the two parties (Li & Dai, 2015). It gets developed and evolved completely on the basis of
communication between the employer and the employee.
How Psychological contract applied in a workplace.
The violation of the perceived psychological contract is the leading cause of the dis-satisfied
employees and the destructive behavior of the workplace. The contract is built between the
employees and the employer when they enter into a working relationship. The psychological
contract is the fairness or the balance between how an employee is treated by the employer at the
workplace and what the employees have to put into the job.
How Psychological contract represents in an employee and Employer.
The psychological contract represents the obligations, rights, rewards and many more that an
employee believes he or she is owed by his or her employer in return for their work and loyalty.
The psychological contract is the relationship between the employer and the employee and
mainly concern on the mutual expectations of inputs and the outcomes (Long, 2012). It is usually
seen from the feelings or standpoints of the workers though a full appreciation is required in
order to understand both the sides. When an individual holds their own view regarding what a
psychological contract holds at a personal level, in organizational terms, the collective view and
whole workforce are far more significant.
How it contributes to organizations’ Vision and Mission.
It is evident that psychological contract is the expectations of an employee or the workforce
towards the employer. It usually represents the basic senses that are obligations, rights and the
rewards. A healthy psychological contract helps an organization to meet its organizational
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mission and visions. The contract is very useful in evaluating the people’s response to the
changing context of the careers and it is very consistent with times (O'Neil, Drillings & O'Neil,
2012). The healthy workplace relationship between the employer and the employee helps in
enhancing the company’s production and also in maintain the workplace environment. The
practices that enhance the employee satisfaction, productivity, employee turnover directly assist
a business establishment in achieving their mission and vision.
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Section 4: Recommendation
What is Extrinsic Motivation
Extrinsic motivation is basically referred as our inclination to participate in activities for gaining
few external rewards. It is significant to note that the rewards can be psychological or tangible in
nature. Trophies and money are two basic types of tangible rewards. People participate in
activities that they may be usually not find terribly rewarding for earning a salary (Gorman,
2007). Psychological nature of extrinsic motivation can contain public acclaim and praise. In this
type of extrinsic reward, the reward is not physical; it is a type of motivating reward which is
external to the real process of taking part in the activities.
How Effective is Extrinsic Motivation
Extrinsic motivation can be highly effective type of motivation. Extrinsic motivation itself forces
to measure outputs like goal achievements as well as pay less attention to the input such as
collaboration and hard work (Davidson, 2012). This type of motivation forms a dynamic where
the higher levels of performers are motivated and the lower level of performers like employees
get motivation. It also forms a lone-wolf mentality where each and every one are in it themselves
without collaborating with others.
Recommended motivation methods
Increasing the motivation at the workplace is the aim of every organization as enhancing the
motivation of the employees helps the firm to boost the productivity. One of the best methods in
motivating the employees is by creating a positive work environment for the workers.
Organizations must encourage their employees by giving them positive work environment. The
second method would be providing the assistance in achieving the goals of the employees.
Managers must help the employees to become self-motivated (Björnsson, Björklund, Strandberg,
Eriksson & Olinder, 2015). The third method would be recognizing the achievement of the
workforce. It is crucial that seniors or the supervisors celebrate the achievement of the
employees by giving some rewards to them. Providing incentives to the workers for their hard
work could also be a method of motivation.
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Possible Negative outcomes of the recommended motivation method
Motivation of the employees could also have negative effects on the organization. If an
organization motivates its employees by threatening them to reduce the hours of the
underperforming workers, then workers may have negative consequence of the motivation
(Davidson, 2012). Providing incentives to the workers affect the budget of the company and also
increases its overall costs. Sometimes, employees get jealous from the good performing
employees and that creates a division among the workers at the workplace.
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References
Ball, B. (2012). A summary of motivation theories. Retrieved from
http://www.yourcoach.be/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/A-summary-of-motivation-
theories1.pdf
Bisht, S., Chaubey, D., & Thapliyal, S. (2016). Analytical Study of Psychological Contract and
its Impact on Employees Retention. Pacific Business Review International, 8(11).
Retrieved from http://www.pbr.co.in/May2016/5.pdf
Björnsson, G., Björklund, F., Strandberg, C., Eriksson, J., & Olinder, R. (2015). Motivational
internalism. New York: Oxford University Press.
Davidson, J. (2012). Motivation. [Place of publication not identified]: F+W Media.
Gorman, T. (2007). Motivation. Avon, Mass.: Adams Media.
Kwong, T. (2016). How Does Millennials’ Perception on Their Employers Affect Their Work
Ethic? A Study in Hong Kong. University Of Management And Technology, 11(4), 289-
308. Retrieved from http://www.fm-kp.si/zalozba/ISSN/1854-4231/11_289-308.pdf
Li, J., & Dai, L. (2015). A Review of Psychological Contract. Psychology, 1539-1544. Retrieved
from http://file.scirp.org/pdf/PSYCH_2015092216182508.pdf
Long, R. (2012). Motivation. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.
Millennials at work Reshaping the workplace. (2017). Retrieved from
https://www.pwc.com/m1/en/services/consulting/documents/millennials-at-work.pdf
Motivation & its Theories. (2017). Retrieved from
http://managementconsultingcourses.com/Lesson20Motivation&ItsTheories.pdf
O'Neil, J., Drillings, M., & O'Neil, H. (2012). Motivation. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.
Podmoroff, D. (2016). 365 Ways to Motivate and Reward Your Employees Every Day. Ocala:
Atlantic Publishing Group.
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