1
JOB CONTENT PLATEAU ON INNOVATIVE WORK BEHAVIOUR: THE MEDIATING
ROLE OF INTRINSIC MOTIVATION AND THE MODERATING ROLE OF NEED FOR
GROWTH.
Master thesis, MSc BA
Specialization Human Resource Management
University of Groningen
Faculty of Economics and Business
June 14, 2015
JANNEKE BOSCH
Student number: 2200163
Jozef Israelsstraat 40A
9718 GM Groningen
Tel.: +31 (0)639844428
E-mail: j.m.bosch.2@student.rug.nl
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JOB CONTENT PLATEAU ON INNOVATIVE WORK BEHAVIOUR: THE MEDIATING
ROLE OF INTRINSIC MOTIVATION AND THE MODERATING ROLE OF NEED FOR
GROWTH.
ABSTRACT
This study is examining a mediated moderation model in which intrinsic motivation mediates and growth need strength moderates the indirect negative relationship between job content plateau and innovative work behaviour. This model is tested using a survey questionnaire among 143 Dutch teachers. The results indeed show that teachers tend to engage in less innovative work behaviour in response to experiencing job content plateau via reduced intrinsic motivation. However, growth need strength is not found to moderate the relationship between job content plateau and intrinsic motivation. Theoretical and practical implications, research limitations and recommendations for future research are provided.
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INTRODUCTION
This study investigates whether intrinsic motivation and thereby innovative work behaviour is limited by perceiving a job content plateau. In the self-determination theory of Deci and Ryan (2000) it is argued that fulfilling of the need for competence in the conduct of work promotes intrinsic work motivation. Intrinsic motivation is important for innovative work behaviour (Amabile, 1988). Learning new things and becoming better in your job is intrinsically motivating. If you are active in the same position for years, your job might start to become less interesting. You reach a level of mastery, where growing on the job seems no longer possible. Job content plateau is the term used to describe this phenomenon. As explained by Bardwick: "The information we have says that it is difficult to have a sense of learning if your work remains essentially the same for more than three years. Most complex jobs are mastered in that time. If we expand the number of years from three to five, in order to account for the different time clocks in people's heads, then that tells us how long it usually takes for the sense of mastery to be replaced by the feeling of boredom if work is static" (Bardwick, 1986:74). Although the period for which one is considered to be job content plateaued is determined differently by different researchers, Veiga (1981) used a period of over seven years, a period of five years is widely used in literature (Carnazza et. al. 1981; Slocum et. al. 1987; Stout et. al. 1988). This study will focus on the perception of employees themselves, whether they judge their own professional situation as job content plateaued or not. In this study perceiving a job content plateau will be put forward to advocate for lower intrinsic motivation, arguing that the absence of learning possibilities undermines the need for competence. Fulfilment of the need for competence might be the reason that people are no longer intrinsically motivated, leading them to show less innovative work behaviour.
4 In education, a threat for innovative work behaviour lies in the way the careers of teachers develop, or better said the lack of career for teachers (Millstein, 1990). Schools are designed in such a way that when teachers start they obtain professional privileges and advantageous working conditions, but these are not likely to improve over time (Lortie, 1975). It is very likely that the jobs of most teachers barely change over the years. This implicates that the job becomes routine, when you have been working for a couple of years in education. Due to the design of education in The Netherlands the chance of plateauing in education is substantial. Research has not examined job content plateau as a factor that can influence employee innovative behaviour. This is unfortunate because understanding the consequences of job content plateau is not only interesting from a theoretical perspective but also highly important for practitioners. The stimulation of innovative work behaviour can be better organized if research identifies the factors and underlying mechanisms that promote or inhibit employee innovative work behaviour (Abuhamdeh & Csikszentmihalyi, 2009; Amabile, Hill, Hennessey, & Tighe, 1994).
To help identify the clarifying intervening mechanisms underlying the relationship between job content plateau and innovative work behaviour, I focus on examining intrinsic motivation as a mediating process variable. More clearly, intrinsic motivation can be defined as doing something for its own sake, because it is interesting and enjoyable (Gagné, et al., 2010). Dornyei (2001) considers intrinsic motivation the main factor in teacher motivation. Job content plateau has two sides: on the one hand, having fully mastered a job including its knowledge, skills, and abilities might provide a feeling of competence, which would promote intrinsic motivation, creativity and innovation (Amabile, 1988). On the other hand, job content plateau can be seen as having a negative effect on motivation and innovative work behaviour. The lack of challenge and routine in a job inherently associated with being plateaued makes job incumbents less likely to fulfil their need for further competence growth, which according to the self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) would inhibit intrinsic motivation and the urge to go the extra mile for innovative purposes. I argue that employees that perceive job content plateau are experiencing no challenge in their job anymore, leaving them to get stuck in their job which lowers their intrinsic motivation. Thus, I propose that job content plateau is negatively related to innovative work behaviour through the mediational mechanism of lower intrinsic motivation.
5 Weitz, 1988; McCleese, Eby, Sharlau,& Hoffmann, 2007). Growth need strength, the degree in which people wish for growth opportunities and development in their job (De Jong, Van Der Velde & Jansen, 2001), is therefore investigated as a moderator on the relation between job content plateau and intrinsic motivation. People that do not feel the need for growth are expected to be less bothered by the fact that they are not growing when being plateaued in their job than people who want to grow. People who choose to be job content plateaued are assumed to feel all right with the fact that they remain active in this professional field for a longer period. Therefore, it is expected that their feelings of being job content plateaued will have less negative effect on their intrinsic motivation and innovative work behaviour. Figure 1 shows this mediated moderation model.
This study contributes to expanding the knowledge on perceiving a job content plateau in several ways. It is a contribution to the limited amount of empirical studies in the field of job content plateau. Job content plateau has not received a lot of empirical attention (McCleese & Eby, 2006), especially not as an independent variable that might have negative consequences for work attitudes and behaviours (McCleese & Eby, 2006; Lentz & Allen, 2009). The available research that has been done in this field focused on the relation between job content plateau and job satisfaction, often finding a negative relation (Ference, Stoner & Warren, 1977; Near, 1980; Carnazza, Korman, Ference & Stoner, 1981; Storlie, Miles & Gordon, 2013). Other consequences of experiencing a job content plateau are not clearly known. This study investigates the effect of a job content plateau on a new outcome namely the innovative work behaviour, by mediation of intrinsic motivation. The importance of innovative work behaviour for firms is investigated often, but the possible undermining by job content plateau has not been examined before. In addition, this research also contributes to practice. Teaching is a profession where the chances of becoming plateaued are high due to the design of the system in which, there are little opportunities to grow. Therefore it is important to investigate whether this phenomenon of job content plateau influences the motivation of teachers and thereby their innovative work behaviour.
Growth Need Strength
6 FIGURE 1. Conceptual mediated moderation model
THEORY AND HYPOTHESES
Job Content plateau, Intrinsic Motivation, and Innovative BehaviourThe origin of the term job content plateau lies in the term career plateau. Ference, Stoner, and Warren (1977:602) introduced the construct of career plateau: “A plateau is defined as the point in a career where the likelihood of additional hierarchical promotion is very low”. This general definition of a career plateau was further specified by Bardwick (1986). Bardwick clarified three distinct types of plateaus. The first type is a so-called structural or hierarchical plateau. Companies tend to have a hierarchical shape like a pyramid, with fewer positions in the top than at the bottom. Some people will come to a hold in moving upwards in the hierarchy, since there is not enough room for everyone at the top. The second type of plateau is content plateau where people master their job. People who are job content plateaued expect to no longer be constantly challenged in their position in the future, they will not continue to learn and grow in their current job, and think that the tasks and activities will become routine in the future. The skills, knowledge and abilities to effectively perform the job are there when someone masters his job (McCleese, 2007). The third plateau is life plateau, which occurs when a person is incapable of finding fulfilment in any facet of life. Bardwick argued that the distinction in these three types of plateaus is necessary because all types have different origins and outcomes. Bardwicks definitions of plateaus have been used widely in the literature (Allen, Russell, Poteet & Dobbins, 1999; Nachbagauer & Riedl, 2002; Lee, 2003).
7 Since the grounding of the different types of plateaus, there has been a lot of attention for the hierarchical plateau. The ability to climb on the hierarchical ladder during a career has been researched extensively over the last forty years (McCleese & Eby, 2006; Wang, Hu, Hurst & Yang, 2014). The content plateau has received only little attention. Allen et. al. (1999) found an indication that educational level, the planning of career, job involvement and support from the top management are positively related to hierarchical and content plateaus. Lentz and Allen (2009) provided mixed support that mentoring others may alleviate the negative consequences associated with perceiving a career plateau. In literature, job content plateau stands in the shadow of the hierarchical plateau.
It is important to state that job content plateau is different from tenure. If you are active for a company for a long period of time and have always been active in a specific work field, you are likely to be job content plateaued. Changing jobs might help you to prevent yourself from becoming job content plateaued. However if you have been active in one professional field in different companies you can still be plateaued. Even though you have changed with regard of your work environment, you still remain active in the same professional activities. “Just changing where you work can mean doing old work in a new place” (Bardwick, 1986:169). You can be in the position where you have mastered your job totally, despite the difference in environment. These different environments might not keep you from becoming job content plateaued.
Intrinsic motivation refers to “the motivation to engage in work primarily for its own sake, because the work itself is interesting, engaging, or in some way satisfying” (Amabile, Hill, Hennessey & Tighe, 1994:950), or “doing something for its own sake, because it is interesting and enjoyable” (Gagné, et al., 2010:2).There are two persuasive arguments to propose a negative relationship between job content plateau and innovative work behaviour are the following.
8 will have a negative influence on intrinsic motivation. The higher the score on job content plateau the less intrinsically motivated.
Second, the self-determiniation theory is based on the psychological needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness (Deci & Ryan, 2000). Deci (2000:233) proposed: “intrinsically motivated behaviours are based in people’s needs to feel competent and self-determined. ... This active engagement, this involvement and commitment with interesting activities, requires the nutriments of need fulfilment, and, indeed, people will become more or less interested in activities as a function of the degree to which they experience need satisfaction while engaging in those activities”. Feeling competent is needed to become intrinsically motivated, but when people are highly plateaued in their job, they are likely to have mastered all of the job-relevant knowledge, skills, and abilities leaving no room for further satisfying their need for competence. Therefore, scoring high on job content plateau is expected to have a negative effect on intrinsic motivation. This and the above reasoning leads to the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 1: Job content plateau is negatively related to intrinsic motivation.
The second part of the mediation is the relation of intrinsic motivation towards innovative work behaviour. This relation has been researched extensively, providing positive results. The emphasis on the importance of innovative work behariour has risen over the last decade due to the fact that it is seen as an important indicator for growth and has shown to be increasingly important in the global economy we live in (Grossman & Helpman, 1991).
9 Hon (2012) examined the effect of intrinsic motivation on creativity outcomes in the hospitality industry in the light of the self-determination theory, thereby focusing on how human resource and social-contextual factors influence this relationship. She found that intrinsic motivation strongly influences employee’s creative performance. Hammond et. al. (2011) performed a meta-analysis on the predictors of individual innovation at work, including sixteen studies on the role of intrinsic motivation in innovative work behaviour. They found that intrinsic motivation is positively related to innovation.
Thus, the theoretical reasons and the available empirical evidence suggests that intrinsic motivation is positively related to inovative work behaviour. When the intrinsic motivation is lower, the innovative work behaviour will also be lower. Moreover, I expect that intrinsic motivation mediates the relation between job content plateau and innovative work behaviour. Being higher on job content plateau is expected to lead to lower intrinsic motivation, which in turn leads to lower innovative work behaviour. Accordingly, the following hypotheses are formulated:
Hypothesis 2: Intrinsic motivation is positively related to innovative work behaviour.
Hypothesis 3: The relationship between job content plateau and innovative work behaviour is mediated by intrinsic motivation.
Growth Need Strength as a Moderator
The degree to which intrinsic motivation is affected by being plateaued might differ across individual employees. As introduced earlier in this study, the individual difference of growth need strength (Oldham, 1976; Shalley, Gilson, & Blum, 2009; Tiegs, Tetrick, & Fried, 1992) will be taken into account as a moderator of the relationship between job content plateau and intrinsic motivation.
Scoring high on growth need strength means trying to do things better in your job, learning new things and stretching yourself (Shalley, Gilson, & Blum, 2009). Personal development and learning are valued more by people who score high on growth need strength. These people seem to enjoy challenging and stimulating work more (Bottger & Chew, 1986). Bottger and Chew (1986) state that, in contrast, “those with lower growth need strength are not looking for challenges and may not recognize or want to recognize the existence of such opportunities”.
10 good about oneself and what is produced, “the result is a self-perpetuating cycle of positive wok motivation powered by self-genereate rewards for good work” (Hackman & Oldham, 1980:72). They proposed and found that high need for growth strengthens the relation between job characteristics and internal motivation, whereas low growth need inhibits the relation between the job characteristics and internal motivation. In an analysis of Graen, Scandura and Graen (1986) ten studies were analysed that investigate growth need strength as a moderator between job characteristics and internal motivation. Four of these studies found a significant effect (p<0.05), most results were insignificant. Overall the research field of growth need strength is showing precarious results.
To the knowledge of the author, this is the first study to take growth need strength into account as moderator in the relation between job content plateau and intrinsic motivation. There is a theoretical and an empirical argument for this investigation. The strength of the need for growth is expected to influence the disappointment in being job content plateaued. Oldham (1976: 560) states: “individuals desirous of growth satisfactions in their work are most likely to experience positive feelings from effective performance on jobs that are sufficiently complex to satisfy those growth needs”. Perceiving neither challenge nor opportunities to grow is argued to lower your intrinsic motivation, since intrinsically motivated individuals are focused on learning new things (Utman, 1997). If you like to grow but you are job content plateaued your intrinsic motivation is expected to suffer more than when you score high on job content plateau and low in growth strength need. When the level of growth need strength is high it means that there is the wish to grow, therefore growth needs strength is expected to moderate the relationship between job content plateau and intrinsic motivation.
The empirical reason is that by taking growth need strength into account in relation with intrinsic motivation this study is contributing to a new field of research, providing a point of reference for further research. Accordingly, the following hypothesis is stated:
Hypothesis 4: The negative relationship between job content plateau and intrinsic motivation is moderated negatively by growth need strength.
Moderated Mediation Model
11 motivation. The negative relation between job content plateau and intrinsic motivation is expected to be moderated by growth need strength. In case of high (low) growth need strength, intrinsic motivation is expected to be more strongly (less strongly) affected by being job content plateaued, because there is a strong (no strong) personal desire for growth. To test this mediated moderation, the following hypothesis is formulated:
Hypothesis 5: Growth need strength moderates the indirect and negative relationship between job content plateau and innovative work behaviour through intrinsic motivation such that this indirect relationship is more pronounced when growth need strength is lower rather than higher.
METHOD Participants and Procedures
The sampling was conducted by spreading a digital questionnaire by means of a personal e-mail among four schools and twenty-four individual teachers. The study was conducted in Dutch making it accessible for potential participants of all educational backgrounds. Participants were asked to encourage colleagues and other known teachers to participate in this study, the so-called ‘snowball sampling’ (Babbie, 2007). With this method the number of participants grew exponentially, leading to 143 professionally active teachers filling out all the questions needed for the analysis.
The majority of the participants were women (62.2%), the mean age was 44 years (SD 12.1). The majority of the participants were active in education for over ten years (66.2%), only a small number of participants were active in education for a period less than three years (7.7%). More than three quarter of the participants was active in their current function for longer than three years (78.6%). Only a small number of participants works less then sixteen hours a week (8.4%), while the majority work seventeen to thirty-two hours a week (51.1%), and the remaining part thirty-tree to forty hours a week (40.6%). A large part of the participants were solely active in education (39.2%), and the majority were active in education for over eighty percent of their professional live (82.8%). A minority works in primary education (32.2%), the majority in secondary education (64.3%), and only a small part in adult education (3.5%).
Measures
12 abilities and knowledge” and “I will not continue to learn and grow in my current job”. Job content plateau was measured on a seven point Likert scale, ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7) (α =.77)
Intrinsic motivation was measured using the three items of the intrinsic motivation dimension of the motivation at work scale (MAWS) developed by Gagné et. al. (2010); the items are included in the appendix. Preceding by the stem “Using the scale below, please indicate for each of the following statements to what degree they presently correspond to one of the reasons for which you are doing this specific job”, two example items are: “Because I enjoy this work very much” and “Because I have fun doing my job”. Intrinsic motivation was measured on a seven point Likert scale, ranging from not at all (1) to exactly (7) (α =.87).
Growth need strength was measured by the twelve-item scale of Hackman and Oldham (1976); the items are included in the appendix. Participants choose twelve times between two statements that each represent a job, where the participant indicates which option is preferred. An example is: Option A “A job with a supervisor who respects you and treats you fairly” or option B “A job which provides constant opportunities for you to learn new and interesting things”. Growth need strength was measured on a five point Likert scale, ranging from strongly preferring A (1) to strongly preferring B (5) (α =.75).
Innovative work behaviour was measured by self-report of teachers on the nine-item scale of individual innovation by Janssen (2001); the items are included in the appendix. Example items are: “Generating original solutions to problems” and “Making important organizational members enthusiastic for innovative ideas”. Innovative work behaviour was measured on a seven point Likert scale, ranging from never (1) to always (7) (α =.94).
Control variables were included to test the stability of relationships. If the study was replicated the grounds for concluding the original relationship would turn out to be genuine (Babbie, 2007). Items that where included were gender, age, educational background, working hours, percentage of professional life active in education, years of experience in the sector, years active in current position and type of professional organization.
13 taken into account on behave of the possible influence of duration on the relationships. Likely on the growth need strength, people who spend a lot of time on their job have less opportunity to seek challenge outside their profession. Working hours was asked for in five categories, 0-8; 8-16; 16-24; 24-32 and >32. The percentage active in education was asked with the following categories: 1-20%; 21-40%; 41-60%; 61-80%; 81-99%; solely in education. Years of experience in education and in current position were asked in the categories: less than one year; 1-3; 3-5; 5-7; 7-9; 10-20; more than 20 years. The professional organisation was asked to account for differences between different types of educational professions. All measures are on individual scales, by how people perceive their own situation.
Data Analysis
All statistical analysis was done in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The items of the different concepts, respectively job content plateau, intrinsic motivation, innovative work behaviour and growth need strength were tested for reliability. Reliability was tested with the standard test of Cronbach’s Alpha; scores above 0.70 were regarded as reliable (Nunnally, 1978). The data was checked for outliers, defined as data more than three standard deviations away from the mean; no extreme values were reported. Mean and standard deviation and correlation for all variables were computed. Variables that correlate significantly with innovative work behaviour (dependent variable) were taken into account in further analyses.
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RESULTS
Descriptive Statistics
The descriptive statistics are shown in Table 1, showing the means, standard deviations and correlation between the variables of this study. The demographical variable gender shows negative correlations with growth need strength (r = -.27 p >0.01); male participants scored higher on growth need strength than female participants. Educational sector is positively correlated with job content plateau (r =.18, p >0.05) and growth need strength (r =.24, p >0.01). Working hours is positively correlated with innovative work behaviour (r =.23, p >0.01); teachers that work more hours per week scored higher on innovative work behaviour. As innovative work behaviour is the dependent variable, and working hours is the only demographic variable that correlated with innovative behaviour, I decided to include this control variable in further analyses (Becker, 2005).
Hypothesis Testing
The results of the regression analyses to test Hypotheses 1 and 2 are shown in Table 2.
Hypothesis 1 predicted that job content plateau would be negatively related to intrinsic motivation. The results of the analysis confirm a significant negative relationship (β =.37, p < .01).
Hypothesis 2 predicts that intrinsic motivation would be positively related to innovative work behaviour. The regression analysis confirms this hypothesized positive relationship (β =.34, p < .05).
Hypothesis 3 predicts that the relationship between job content plateau and innovative work behaviour would be mediated by intrinsic motivation. This hypothesis was tested with model 4 of A.F. Hayes’ PROCESS tool for SPSS. The mediation of intrinsic motivation between job content plateau and innovative work behaviour was confirmed, with a significant indirect effect of .11 (CI -.23; -.04). The results of the mediation analysis are shown in Table 2.
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TABLE 1
Mean, Standard Deviation and correlations of study variables
Mean
SD
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
1. Age
44.19
12.12
2. Gender
1.62
.49
-.17
*3. Education
3.33
2.23
.09
-.11
4. Educational sector
3.93
1.71
.15
-.23
**.42
**5. Working hours per week
3.97
1.03
-.06
-.46
**.11
.14
6. Percentage active in education 3.46
2.21
-.05
-.01
.10
.08
.15
7. Experience in sector
5.49
1.72
.74
**-.10
-.00
.01
.13
-.14
8. Functional tenure
4.38
2.04
.54
**-.15
.06
.03
.13
-.02
.65
**9. Job content plateau
2.76
.95
-.02
-.14
.05
.18
*.04
.04
-.13
.09
10. Growth need strength
2.86
.57
.16
-.27
**.15
.24
**.13
.09
.07
.05
-.07
11. Intrinsic motivation
5.38
.99
.03
-.50
.06
-.02
.09
.06
.08
-.01
-.35
**.33
**12. Innovative work behaviour
3.79
.98
-.05
-.15
.03
.07
.23
**.12
.04
-.03
-.19
*.38
**.36
** Note: Gender was coded 1=male, 2=female; Education was coded 1=LBO, 2=MBO, 3=HBO associate degree/MBO level 4, 4= HBO bachelor, 5=HBO master, 6=WO bachelor, 7=WO master, 8=Doctorate; Educational sector was coded 1=Primary school class 1-4, 2=primary school class 1-8, 3=primary school special education, 4=vmbo, 5=havo/vwo, 6=MBO, 7=HBO, 8=WO and 9=special secondary education. Working hours per week was coded 1= 0-8 hours, 2= 9-16 hours, 3= 17-24 hours, 4= 25-36 hours, 5= 33-40 hours. Percentage active in education was coded 1=1-20%, 2=21-40%, 3= 41-60%, 4=61-80%, 5=81-99%, 6=100%. Experience in sector as well as functional tenure was coded 1= <1 year, 2=1-3 years, 3=5-7 years, 4=7-9 years, 5=10-20 years, 6=<20 years. Job content plateau, motivation at work scale and innovative work behaviour were measured on a 7 point Likert scale. Growth need strength was measured on a five point Likert scale.16
TABLE 2
Regression analyses for testing hypotheses 1, 2 and 3. Predictor Mediator variable: Intrinsic Motivation
Β SE T p
Hypothesis 1
Constant 6.39 .24 26.56 .00
Job content plateau -.37 .08 -4.44 .00
Predictor Dependent variable: Innovative Work Behaviour
Β SE T p
Hypothesis 2
Constant 1.21 .49 2.50 .01
Working hours per week .19 .07 2.56 .01
Intrinsic motivation .34 .08 4.48 .00
Hypothesis 3 Direct effect of job content plateau on innovative work behaviour
Effect Boot SE LLCI* RLCI*
Direct effect -.09 .08 -.25 .08
Indirect effect of job content plateau on innovative work behaviour by mediation of intrinsic motivation
Effect Boot SE LLCI* RLCI*
Indirect effect -.11 .05 -.23 -.04
Note: *Based on 50,000 bootstrap interval
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TABLE 3
Results of mediated moderation analyses for testing hypotheses 4 and 5. Predictor Mediator variable: Intrinsic Motivation
Β SE T p
Hypothesis 4
Constant -.01 .08 -.10 .92
Job content plateau -.35 .08 -4.5 .00
Growth need strength 30 .08 3.88 .00
Growth need strength x job content plateau
.10 .08 1.27 .21
Conditional effect of job content plateau on innovative behaviour at different values of growth need strength
Effect Boot SE LLCI* RLCI*
Hypothesis 5
Low (M - 1 SD) -.14 .05 -.26 -.06
Middle -.11 .04 -.22 -.04
High (M + 1 SD) .08 .06 -.22 -.01
Direct effect of job content plateau on innovative work behaviour
Effect Boot SE LLCI* RLCI*
Mediator .03 .03 -.02 .10
Note: *Based on 50,000 bootstrap interval.
DISCUSSION
18 Theoretical Implications
The significant negative effect of job content plateau on intrinsic motivation provides a new theoretical insight in why and how an important job factor might undermine the motivation among teachers. As such, it extends previous research showing that job content plateau as an independent variable is negatively related to job satisfaction (Allen, Russell, Poteet, & Dobbins, 1999; McCleese & Eby, 2006). Based on the self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000), I reason that a lack of challenge and having mastered all knowledge, skills, and abilities in a job would frustrate fulfilling the need for competence and therefore undermining of intrinsic motivation of teachers
The current results show that intrinsic motivation mediates the relationship between job content plateau and innovative work behaviour. Experiencing higher job content plateau undermined intrinsic motivation which, in its turn, inhibits teachers from engaging in innovative work behaviour. As such, this finding contributes to the job factors, motivation, and individual innovation literature by providing a fine-grained understanding of why job content plateau is detrimental for innovative work behaviour. Based on literature, the positive relation between intrinsic motivation and innovative work behaviour was expected (Hon, 2012; Wong, Gardiner, Lang, & Coulon, 2008; Zhang & Bartol, 2010). As such, by replicating this relationship, this study contributes to the further empirical evidence for the important role of intrinsic motivation on individual innovation (Hammond, Farr, Neff, Schwall, & Zhao, 2011). By investigating this relationship in education this study not only replicates the effects of intrinsic motivation but broadens the field as well, showing that intrinsic motivation promotes innovative work behaviour not only in the business but also in the educational sector among teachers.
19 I did not find empirical evidence for the hypothesized moderating role of growth need strength. This might be due to the scores of the teachers present in the sample because their ratings are relatively low on job content plateau, scoring 2.76 on a 7-point Likert scale. Growth need strength was scored 2.86 on a 5-point Likert scale, neither extremely high. These scores suggest that these teachers do not perceive their own position as being job content plateaued nor do they have a high need for growth. This relatively medium score on growth need strength might be influenced by the fact that it was measured on a 5-point Likert scale, a 7-piont Likert scale is in literature suggested to be the best (Krosnick & Presser, 2010).
Implications for Practice
20 The positive relation found between working hours and innovative work behaviour should be considered by policy makers and school directors for improving innovative work behaviour. The Netherlands have the highest percentage of part-time workers in the European Union (Eurostat, 2015). The desirability of small contracts for teachers should be considered when seeking for high innovative work behaviour.
Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research
Several limitations of the current study must be acknowledged. First, the generalizability of the findings. The entire sample was derived from teachers, therefore the findings cannot be generalised to other professions. The distribution of job content plateau and with that the effect on intrinsic motivation and innovative work behaviour may be different for other occupations. It is important to state that the sample of this study consists of mostly primary and secondary school teachers, only a few participants did work in adult education. Future research might test the role of job content plateau in intrinsic motivation and individual innovation in other jobs and other sectors than education. Moreover, the entire sample has been retrieved in The Netherlands, therefore it could be considered to check whether in other countries, cultures and educational systems the results would be comparable.
A second potential limitation is that all measures used in this study were based on self-rating, thereby raising the likelihood that the results might be influenced by common method variance. Therefore in future studies it would be good to take objective observations of individual innovation into account (Haerens, et al., 2013;Van den Berghe, et al., 2013), or both self-ratings and non-self-ratings in the same study (Ng & Feldman, 2013), to investigate the differences.
21 Another suggestion is renewed investigation of the found relationship between job content plateau and intrinsic motivation. This study has shown that this relationship is significant and therefore hopefully inspires other researchers to take this knowledge into account. As stated earlier it would be good to repeat this study in other occupations to investigate the presence of this relationship. In this research the subgroups were too small to provide statistical significant differences between groups, therefore researching a larger group of participants in only one strict profession (pure primary, secondary or adult education) would be good to investigate possible differences between groups. This study is only the first step in exploring the relation between job content plateau and intrinsic motivation, contributing to the explanation of the complex phenomenon intrinsic motivation.
For future research the influence of working hours on innovative work behaviour should be considered. The analyses showed that teachers working more hours per week show increased innovative work behaviour. Therefore studying working hours per week was checked when testing the hypotheses, the investigated relationships remained significant. As mentioned earlier The Netherlands is a high number of part-time workers. Therefore the extent to which working hours influence innovative work behaviour should be determined to see whether innovation could be stimulated by encouraging the enlargement of contracts.
22
CONCLUSSION
23
APPENDIX
List of items used in this study
Job content plateau items (Milliman, 1992)
1. I do not expect to be constantly challenged in my job in the future. 2. I will not continue to learn and grow in my current job.
3. My current job tasks and activities will become routine for me in the future. 4. My current job responsibilities will not increase significantly in the future.
5. My current job will not continually require me to develop my abilities and knowledge. 6. I will not be challenged in my current job.
Innovative behaviour items (Janssen, 2001)
How often does this worker perform the following work activities: 1. Acquiring approval for innovative ideas.
2. Searching out new working methods, techniques, or instruments. 3. Transforming innovative ideas into useful applications.
4. Introducing innovative ideas in a systematic way.
5. Making important organizational members enthusiastic for innovative ideas. 6. Generating original solutions to problems.
7. Creating new ideas for improvements. 8. Mobilizing support for innovative ideas.
9. Thoroughly evaluating the application of innovative ideas.
Motivation at Work Scale items (Gagné, et al., 2010) *Were not used in this research
Intrins1 Because I enjoy this work very much Intrins2 Because I have fun doing my job
24 *Ident2 Because this job fulfills my career plans
*Ident3 Because this job fits my personal values
*Intro1 Because I have to be the best in my job, I have to be a “winner” *Intro2 Because my work is my life and I don’t want to fail
*Intro3 Because my reputation depends on it
*Ext1 Because this job affords me a certain standard of living *Ext2 Because it allows me to make a lot of money
*Ext3 I do this job for the paycheck
Note: The stem is “Using the scale below, please indicate for each of the following statements to what degree they presently correspond to one of the reasons for which you are doing this specific job” and is accompanied by the scale 1= not at all; 2= very little; 3 = a little; 4 = moderately; 5 = strongly; 6 = very strongly; 7= exactly.
Growth need strength items (Hackman & Oldham, 1976) 1A) A job where the pay is very good
1B) A job where there is considerable opportunity to be creative and innovative
2A) A job where you are often required to make important decisions. 2B) A job with many pleasant people to work with
3A) A job in which greater responsibility is given to those who do the best work.
3B) A job in which greater responsibility is given to loyal employees who have the most seniority
4A) A job in an organization which is in financial trouble and might have to close down within the year.
25 5A) A very routine job.
5B) A job where your co-workers are not very friendly.
6A) A job with a supervisor who is often very critical of you and your work in front of other people. 6B) A job which prevents you from using a number of skills that you worked hard to develop.
7A) A job with a supervisor who respects you and treats you fairly.
7B) A job which provides constant opportunities for you to learn new and interesting things.
8A) A job where there is a real chance you could be laid off. 8B) A job with very little chance to do challenging work.
9A) A job in which there is a real chance for you to develop new skills and advance in the organization.
9B) A job which provides lots of vacation time and an excellent fringe benefit package.
10A) A job with little freedom and independence to do your work in the way you think best. 10B) A job where the working conditions are poor
11A) A job with very satisfying teamwork.
11B) A job which allows you to use your skills and abilities to the fullest extent.
12A) A job which offers little or no challenge.
26
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