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Improving the old instead of implementing the new : a study to investigate which terms of employment make an organisation attractive as en employer

Wolbers, Lotte Elisabeth (2012) Improving the old instead of implementing the new : a study to investigate which terms of employment make an organisation attractive as en employer.

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Abstract:In cooperation with PwC and in order to graduate for the master Business Administration at the University of Twente a study to investigate the needs in terms of employment of the generation screenagers is conducted. Based on the study some managerial recommendations to employers regarding the attraction and retaining of this generation by terms of employment are drawn up. Because of the aging and initiating of the population it becomes more and more difficult for employers to attract and retain employees, or to obtain a new (talented) workforce. This results in the so called war for talent. Because of this PwC wants to find out new and innovative terms of employment. Therefore, and because 1) terms of employment are relatively easy to change in comparison to the job content, 2) it is easier to distinguish yourself as an employer based on terms of employment than for example on the job position (Herremans, 2005) and 3) when terms of employment are not acceptable job seekers will not apply for the job, which results in a small pool of applicants (Osborn, 1990), this study will focus on this topic. However, first it is important to know who this potential new workforce is and to understand them. Since generational experiences have more influence on work values than age and maturation (Smola & Sutton, 2002), the target group of this study is the generation screenagers (born in or after 1985). Within this study there is a focus on the highly educated screenagers. This results in the main question of this study: What terms of employment should an organisation implement to make the organisation attractive as an employer? First the scientific literature is explored in order to obtain insight in the needs of the generation screenagers. Since there is little or no empirical information about the needs of this generation Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory, Alderfer’s E.R.G. Theory and McClelland’s Need Theory are deepened. Based on these theories, in special on Alderfer’s E.R.G. theory, Herremans (2005) composed a need pyramid for employees existing of the four needs: the job position, material factors (primary and secondary terms of employment), outer directed factors (social and relational factor, either inside or outside the organisation) and inner directed factors (individual factors like personal development, learning and self-determination). Because of the lack of knowledge about the specific needs of the generation screenagers a preliminary investigation is used in order to obtain more insight into these needs. During this preliminary investigation the needs of highly educated screenagers are explored in two steps. First 10 brainstorm conversations were performed to obtain a first impression. Afterwards a brainstorm session was organised in which 6 screenagers participated. Together the two steps resulted in a list consisting of the needs of screenagers. Based on this and some input of people from the field a questionnaire was made. This questionnaire was distributed using several channels (e.g. social media, face-to-face, e-mail). In total 373 highly educated screenagers and 177 non-screenagers completed the questionnaire. Based on the results of the present study the main conclusion of this study is that employers need to focus on the already existing terms of employment instead of implementing new terms. People seem to value these old terms of employment more than the new and innovative ones. However, offering new ones can still lead to competitive advantage, but then the old and already known terms of employment need to be well-organised as well. With regard to generations and the findings of the study it is not possible to be sure that generation differences exist, however differences between screenagers and older people do exist. Furthermore, within the generation screenagers there do exist differences as well, among others between the students and employees and between the males and females.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:85 business administration, organizational science
Programme:Business Administration MSc (60644)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/61957
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