The differences of the organizational membership of
younger and older workers
Roelof de Jong
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Faculty of Economics and Business
MSc Business Administration December 2011
Author: Roelof Johan de Jong Studentnumber: 1909215
Specialisation: Small Business and Entrepreneurship 1st Supervisor: Prof. dr. C. K. Streb
MANAGEMENT SUMMARY
The aim of this master thesis was to investigate the differences of the organizational membership (Employee- Organization Relationship) between younger and older employees. This is done within the concepts need fulfillment, mattering and belonging. The main question stated at the beginning of this research was:
“Does the organizational membership of younger and older employees differ from each other?”
This document continues with a discussion of existing theory relating to the Employee-Organization Relationships (EOR). Furthermore, theory about
conceptualizing age is done to make this concept clear. Also the moderating role of age is discussed within this research because this is the moderating variable.
After reviewing this, the framework of the organizational membership is described. Masterson and Stamper (2003) already made a beginning with this but never tested this. The concepts of the organizational membership are need fulfillment, mattering and belonging. The antecedents of need fulfillment are perceptions of person
organization fit and psychological contract. The antecedent of mattering is perceived organizational support, which is divided into organizational rewards and procedural justice. The antecedents of belonging are organizational identification, psychological ownership and commitment. All these concepts are related with age.
A quantitative research approach is applied in order to investigate the differences of the age groups (group 1 = 18-40 and group 2 = 41 -65) within the abovementioned concepts. The following hypothesis were tested:
H1: Younger employees have a higher person organization fit than older employees H2: Younger employees have a lower psychological contract than older employees H3: Younger employees have lower organizational rewards than older employees H4: Younger employees perceive a lower procedural justice than older employees H5: Younger employees have a lower belonging than older employees
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The findings show that younger employees have a higher person organization fit than older workers. This means that the needs of younger workers are more satisfied through salary and training opportunities than older employees. Furthermore, younger workers have a lower feeling of psychological contract than older employees, which means that younger people are less loyal and are not unwilling to support their competitors.
An interesting finding is from the third hypothesis. Younger and older workers would like to develop themselves. Thus, this hypothesis is rejected.
I have achieved a major milestone by graduating on the University and collect the Masters degree. You can compare my school career with travelling from the Netherlands to America with stop
I managed to start at the secondary school. After that, I did high school and HBO. Last year, I joined the
pre-all points in one year. This is satisfied.
There are several reasons to clarify this long school career. I always would like to become a professional soccer player. Although I have had the chances on my 17 became aware of the fact that
were to achieve the highest level in the Dutch amateur soccer competition and a would like to get my Master title
reached both: Master of Science a
competition (Harkemase Boys, Topklasse Nederland). The characteristics discipline, perseverance, driven and the desire to win helped me to accomplish these goals. Of course, this process is not without downs
am convinced that every setback has a value and makes you stronger!
I also could not make this without my parents. They have always supported me in everything and encouraged me to study (also paying my st
the things they have done for me. To conclude: I appreciate how you raised me and all the extra love that you give me. There is no way that I can pay you back but the plan is to show you that I understand. You both are appreci
I would like to thank my supervisor mister Streb for his assisting during the process. He always responded very quickly, which speed up the process a lot. His suggestions and criticisms were very valuable
PREFACE
I have achieved a major milestone by graduating on the University and collect the Masters degree. You can compare my school career with travelling from the
Netherlands to America with stops in Spain, Brazil and Mexico: It takes a lot of time. I managed to start at the secondary school. After that, I did high school and HBO.
-master program on the University of Groningen and collect all points in one year. This is also true for the Master, which makes me really
There are several reasons to clarify this long school career. I always would like to become a professional soccer player. Although I have had the chances on my 17 became aware of the fact that my social career was the most important. My next goals were to achieve the highest level in the Dutch amateur soccer competition and a would like to get my Master title. Therefore it is so special that this year I have reached both: Master of Science and the highest level in the Dutch amateur soccer competition (Harkemase Boys, Topklasse Nederland). The characteristics discipline, perseverance, driven and the desire to win helped me to accomplish these goals. Of course, this process is not without downsides but the road to the top is full of pitfalls am convinced that every setback has a value and makes you stronger!
I also could not make this without my parents. They have always supported me in everything and encouraged me to study (also paying my study) and there is no limit to the things they have done for me. To conclude: I appreciate how you raised me and all the extra love that you give me. There is no way that I can pay you back but the plan is to show you that I understand. You both are appreciated.
I would like to thank my supervisor mister Streb for his assisting during the process. He always responded very quickly, which speed up the process a lot. His suggestions and criticisms were very valuable to my final graduation.
Roelof de Jong
I have achieved a major milestone by graduating on the University and collect the Masters degree. You can compare my school career with travelling from the
s in Spain, Brazil and Mexico: It takes a lot of time. I managed to start at the secondary school. After that, I did high school and HBO.
master program on the University of Groningen and collect also true for the Master, which makes me really
There are several reasons to clarify this long school career. I always would like to
become a professional soccer player. Although I have had the chances on my 17th, I
my social career was the most important. My next goals were to achieve the highest level in the Dutch amateur soccer competition and also
. Therefore it is so special that this year I have nd the highest level in the Dutch amateur soccer competition (Harkemase Boys, Topklasse Nederland). The characteristics discipline, perseverance, driven and the desire to win helped me to accomplish these goals. Of
he road to the top is full of pitfalls. I
I also could not make this without my parents. They have always supported me in udy) and there is no limit to the things they have done for me. To conclude: I appreciate how you raised me and all the extra love that you give me. There is no way that I can pay you back but the plan
5 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 7 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 11 2.1 EOR theory 12 2.2 Age 14 2.3 Age as a moderator 15 2.4 Organizational membership 15
2.4.1. Need fulfilment and age 17
2.4.1.1. Perceptions of person-organization fit 17
2.4.1.2. Psychological contract 17
2.4.2. Mattering and age 19
2.4.2.1. Perceived organizational support 19
2.4.3. Belonging and age 21
2.4.3.1. Organizational identification 21 2.4.3.2. Psychological ownership 22 2.4.3.3 Commitment 22 2.5 Conceptual framework 23 3. METHODOLOGY 26 3.1 Research design 26 3.1.1. Research type 26 3.1.2. Research approach 26 3.2 Procedure 26 3.2.1. Instrument 26
3.2.2. Population, Respondent approach and duration 27
3.2.3. Method 28
3.3 Measures 29 3.3.1. Need fulfilment 29 3.3.2. Mattering 30 3.3.3. Belonging 31 4. RESULTS 32 4.1 Demographics 32 4.2 Findings 32 5. DISCUSSION 36 REFERENCES 44 APPENDICES: 46
APPENDIX 1: EOR THEORY REVIEW 46
APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONAIRRE ENGLISH 64
APPENDIX 3: QUESTIONAIRRE DUTCH 66
APPENDIX 4: SPSS OUTPUT FACTOR ANALYSIS 68
APPENDIX 5: SPSS OUTPUT CRONBACH ALPHA 72
APPENDIX 6: SPSS OUTPUT INDEPENDENT T-TEST 76
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The differences of the organizational membership of
younger and older workers
ROELOF DE JONG
University of Groningen
The aim of this research is to empirically explain the differences of the two different age groups (18-40 and 41-65) within the concepts of need fulfilment (measured by the antecedents perceptions of person organization fit and psychological contract), mattering (measured by the antecedents Perceived Organizational Support: organizational rewards and procedural justice) and belonging (measured by the antecedents organizational identification, psychological ownership and commitment). This research provided evidence that younger employees have a higher person-organization fit, a lower psychological contract, lower procedural justice and belonging than their older counterparts. There is no evidence found between the relationship of organizational rewards and the different age group. The online questionnaire is fulfilled through 100 respondents.
1. INTRODUCTION
The world is facing an aging problem for the upcoming years. The proportion of older individuals and thus the age of the workforce are rising (van Vianen, Dalhoeven and de Pater, 2011). These demographic changes have consequences on the workforce of organizations. The United Nations (2007) state that one third of the workforce of developed countries is older than 50 in 2050. In the United States, half of workforce of 147 million is already 40 years or older (Kunze, Boehm and Bruch, 2010). The companies in some countries in Europe already face the problem of aging. According to Statistics Netherlands (2010), one quarter of employees of Dutch companies is already 40 years or older. Also in Germany is the same problem. Specifically, BMW had the problem that the average age of the plant workers is expected to rise from 39 to 47 in 2017 (Bauer and Hauermann, 2010). Because of the improved nutrition and medical hygiene people live longer and face less medical problems (Baumol et al., 2007).
structure of regional and global economic systems and the retirement policy have to be adjusted (Bloom et al, 2010). Thus, a smaller workforce has to carry the same burdens.
What is then the effect of aging on the organizations? One major problem is the knowledge transfer. Delong (2007) mentioned that the knowledge creation and retention is mandatory in the new economy. Delong (2007) referred to one of the largest oil companies who forced to retire their top 200 managers. Little effort was made to transfer the knowledge and thus flow away out of the organization. This phenomenon is called braindrain. Aging has also an impact on culture in
organizations. According to Hodkinson (2011) there is a gap between the cultures of younger and older people. Furthermore, Mir, Mir and Mosca (2011) mention that the there has to be paid attention to the recruitment of younger personnel. This is because there has to be an equilibrium in the workforce. Especially when the majority of the workforce makes a shift in age years. Furthermore, another effect of this aging problem for the companies is that there will be a labor shortage in the upcoming years. Therefore, companies need to retain their personnel. The outcome of the survey of Manpower (2007) over 28,000 employers in 25 countries is that only 21 % of employers have strategies to retain their workers. The reason of this is that employers do not understand how to make effective strategies to retain their workers. Manpower (2007) identified that workers need to have a sense of belonging and providing feedback about their job performance. Thus, it is a challenge for employers to remain their workers within the organization. Important aspects are how employees see their relation with their organization and what kind of factors are important for employees in the relationship with their employer. The Employee-Organization Relationship is thus important to study.
In the last 20 years, a sound body of scientific literature about the employee
organization relationship (EOR). According to Coyle-Shore and Shapiro (2007 p.3), the EOR is “an overarching term to describe the relationship between the employee
and the organization”. The theory about EOR discusses social exchange and the
inducement contributions model. There are three aspects important to social
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benefits exchanges occur, this creates a mutual obligation between the parties and a relationship exists (Coyle-Shore and Shapiro, 2007).
In 1991, Graham started with discussing the importance of the relationship between the employees and the organization. Graham (1991) started with discussing particular right and responsibilities that are associated with organizational membership. Graham elaborated that the membership of an organization results in three rights: civil,
political and social. Furthermore, Graham (1991) discussed three sets of
responsibilities (obedience, loyalty and participation). Graham (1991) argued that the more rights an individual has, the stronger the relationship between the individual and the organization. Although this argument, there is no elaboration on the motives of individuals in having an organizational membership. This may be an important determinant of the tie between the employees and organizations.
Masterson and Stamper (2003) were the first researchers who came with more
specific concepts about the perception of organizational membership. These concepts reflect the relationship with the organization and consist of need fulfilment, mattering and belonging. The reason why these concepts are taken into account in this research is that these concepts specifically focus on the relationship between the employees and the organization. Consequently, these concepts can measure how important the different factors for employees are in a relationship. With this framework, they were the first authors who made an overall representation of the organizational
membership.
The research of Macey and Schneider (2008) discusses three kinds of engagement: psychological state engagement, behavioral engagement and trait engagement. They show that the term employee engagement is very much related to psychological states, traits and behaviors. They conclude with measurements of the three kinds of
engagement.
ensuring supervisors treat everyone equally, and providing feedback to older workers on their job performance”. It is important to encourage these older people within the organization because they become a larger part of the organization. Armstrong and Schlosser (2011) did their research about organizational membership and the intention of older workers to remain a member of the organization. They concluded that older workers will intend to stay longer within an organization if they perceive that they belong to their organization.
The Employee Organization Relationship is explored by many researchers. This suggests that a lot of relationships are empirically solved and thus there is nothing left to research. However, the existing literature about the Employee Organization
Relationship does not provide clear answers about the impact of age on the factors that influence the relationship. Masterson and Stamper (2003) made an overall framework of factors that might influence the relationship. This is not empirically tested yet. Armstrong and Schlosser (2011) came relatively close with their approach. They tested some antecedents of the model of Masterson and Stamper (2003) and related this with the intention to stay for only older workers.
Although the interest for the older workers is growing (Armstrong and Schlosser, 2011; van Vianen, Dalhoeven and de Pater, 2011), there is a lack of empirical
evidence on the role of age on the factors of the Employee Organization Relationship. Therefore, the objective of this study will be to explain empirically if the concepts of the framework of Masterson and Stamper of the EOR change between younger employees and older employees. The following research question is posted:
“Does the organizational membership of younger and older employees differ from each other?”
In order to answer the research question, several sub questions are proposed:
“Does the person-organization fit of younger and older employees differ from each other?”
11 “Does the organizational rewards of younger and older employees differ from each other?”
“Does the sense of procedural justice of younger and older employees differ from each other?”
“Does the sense of belonging of younger and older employees differ from each other?”
This research starts with a systematic literature review. This is needed to give a clear picture of the existing research about this subject. The choices that are made are described within this literature review. The outcomes of this systematic literature review will be outlined in the conceptual model. The model will be empirically tested and a questionnaire will be conducted to collect the needed data. After this, the method and results will be discussed. The last part that will be conducted is the discussion/conclusion.
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
In order to find the relevant literature about employment relationships, the systematic literature review of Brereton et al. (2007) is conducted. They suggested a review, which can be grouped in three phases: Plan review, conduct review and document the review (figure 1). The systematic literature review is applied to this process to make an overview of the literature about the EOR. The review pointed out that there is much literature about the EOR. For example, Kuvaas (2008) examined whether and how the quality of the EOR influences the relationship between employee perception of developmental human resource practices and outcomes of employee. In appendix 1 there is an overview of EOR theory from 2000 – 2011.
2.1 EOR theory
As already is mentioned in the introduction, t
describe the relationship between the employee and the organization
Shore, 2007) and discusses social exchange and the inducement contributions model. A social exchange relationship means that one party benefits from another party. If these benefits reciprocates over time and repetitive benefits occur, this
mutual obligation. After a while, the relationship is based on trust between the exchange partners. According to Cotterel, Eisenberger, & Speicher (1992), trust is crucial in the social exchange relationship because there is a risk that the benef
not be returned. Thus, the social exchange relationship involves th
engagement”: A series of benefits creates an obligation to reciprocate to the both parties (Shapiro and Shore, 2007).
The inducements contributions model
and the employee. According to March & Simon (1958), it is an exchange where the organization offers inducements in return for the contributions of the employees. Shapiro and Shore (2007:4) state that: “From an organizatio
contributions need to be sufficient enough to generate inducements from the As already is mentioned in the introduction, the EOR is “an overarching term to
describe the relationship between the employee and the organization
Shore, 2007) and discusses social exchange and the inducement contributions model. A social exchange relationship means that one party benefits from another party. If these benefits reciprocates over time and repetitive benefits occur, this
mutual obligation. After a while, the relationship is based on trust between the exchange partners. According to Cotterel, Eisenberger, & Speicher (1992), trust is crucial in the social exchange relationship because there is a risk that the benef
. Thus, the social exchange relationship involves th
engagement”: A series of benefits creates an obligation to reciprocate to the both parties (Shapiro and Shore, 2007).
The inducements contributions model views the relationship between the organization and the employee. According to March & Simon (1958), it is an exchange where the organization offers inducements in return for the contributions of the employees. Shapiro and Shore (2007:4) state that: “From an organization’s perspective, employee contributions need to be sufficient enough to generate inducements from the
an overarching term to describe the relationship between the employee and the organization” (Shapiro and
Shore, 2007) and discusses social exchange and the inducement contributions model. A social exchange relationship means that one party benefits from another party. If these benefits reciprocates over time and repetitive benefits occur, this creates a mutual obligation. After a while, the relationship is based on trust between the exchange partners. According to Cotterel, Eisenberger, & Speicher (1992), trust is crucial in the social exchange relationship because there is a risk that the benefits will . Thus, the social exchange relationship involves the “rules of engagement”: A series of benefits creates an obligation to reciprocate to the both
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organization, which in turn need to be attractive enough to elicit employee contributions. The inducements contributions model is based on the reciprocal exchange between an employee’s contribution and the organization’s inducements”. There are also some assumptions made in the Employee Organization Relationship theory. Most researches state that the parties in the EOR are the individual employee and the organization. Most of the times, it is not clear who the employee considers as the organization when answering questions about the relationship because the organization is split into different exchange partners. This could lead to a methodology problem because in most of the cases surveys are used. In these surveys, the asked questions to participants are about the “organization” (Shapiro and Shore, 2007). If the organization is represented by different agents or groups and depends on the perception of the employee, it could be argued that each individual employee
works for a different organization.
To prevent any mistakes within the interpretation of the relationship, some assumptions are made in the scientific literature. The first assumption is that the employee attributes the organization with human qualities. According to Levinson, Price, Muden, Mandl & Solley (1962), this is called anthropomorphization. The second assumption is made from the organization’s perspective. Herein, the organizational agents pursue the interests of the organization in the relationship with the employees. In the EOR scientific research, the overall assumption is made that the employees have a relationship with a single entity (the organization) (Shapiro and Shore, 2007).
2.2 Age
The term “older worker” is used in different ways. For example, Warr (2000) refer to workers from the age of 40 to those aged over 75 years. Studies about labor market participation, the term “older worker” is referred to workers aged from 50 or above. This is, according to Kooij, de Lange, Jansen en Dikkers (2007), most done in studies concerning a decline in the market participation rate in this age in the labor market Age is also referred to changes in psychological, social, biological functioning of time. Employees can have the same chronological age but can differ in terms of health, career stage and family status. According to Kanfer and Ackerman (2004), calendar age or chronological age hold for age related processes that can influence the work outcomes directly of indirectly.
The complexity of operationalizing age is mentioned by several authors. Sterns and Doverspike (1989) made five approaches to conceptualise aging of the workforce, which is also recommended by Kooij, de Lange, Jansen en Dikkers (2007) and Lange et al (2007). The first approach of Sterns and Doverspike (1989) is chronological age and this refers to the calendar age. Second, performance based age is distinguished and refers to the variation in individual abilities and functioning through different ages. The authors explain that when the chronological age increases, the individuals also go trough various biological and psychological changes. Another approach is the psychosocial age and is based on the self and social of age. The self perception explains how the old employee feels himself. The social perception involves the age norms in with respect to an organization and occupation. The fourth approach of Sterns and Doverspike (1989) is organizational age and refers to the aging of the employees within the organization and the jobs. The last approach is the life span concept of age. According to Lange et al. (2006), this can be best measured by family status.
In some studies, the age is conceptualized as life stage and other in calendar age. Most organizational studies use the calendar age as an conceptualization for age. For
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therefore calendar age will be adopted in this paper.
Another finding in the scientific literature is that the workforce is split up in two groups. However, there is some difference in constructing the groups. For example, Kooij et al (2007) conceptualise the aging workforce in two groups. The first group is the working people that have an age below 50 years. The second group is the workers that are 50 and above. This is most done in studies according to Kooij et al (2007). In contrast to that, the Muijnk and Zwinkels (2002) argue that the group of older people is about 40 or above. Furthermore, Sterns and Doverspike (1989) also referred to “older workers” from the age of 40 years. Since several studies used this group, there will be referred to the following groups (in calendar years):
Group 1: 18 – 40 years. Group 2: 41 -65 years 2.3 Age as a moderator
Since this study also would like to investigate the moderating role of age, the possibility of this have to be investigated. Recent studies already show that age can act as an moderator. For example, Kanfer and Ackerman (2004) found that the motivational structures of younger and older employees may change over time. Also Freund (2006) used the similar moderating effect. He found that younger individuals focus on the optimization of the performance. In contrast to that, older workers focus more on minimizing losses. Bertolino, Truxillo and Fraccaroli (2011) used age as a moderator. In this research, they concluded that age moderated the relationship between proactive personality and training motivation. Bertolino et al. (2011) found that younger workers have a more positive attitude to train themselves than older employees. Additionally, Witt, Treadway and Ferris (2004) also argue in their paper that age could function as a moderator. Given these effects of age as a moderator, it could be argued that age works as a moderator and will be applied to this paper. 2.4 Organizational membership
organization.
Graham (1991) started with discussing particular right and responsibilities that are associated with organizational membership. Graham elaborated that the membership of an organization results in three rights (civil, political and social). The civil rights, which Graham (1991) described, include fair treatment. Furthermore, the political rights include the ability of employees to make decisions about their own work and organizational procedures. The social rights include wages, social status and training opportunities. Furthermore, Graham (1991) discussed three sets of responsibilities (obedience, loyalty and participation). The employees are responsible for following organizational rules and procedures and are responsible for the good use of
organizational resources. Besides that, the loyalty towards the organization means that the employees defend the organization against threats and cooperate with others within the organization. The last one is participation and this means that the
employees keep informed about organizational activities and are willing to contribute to the organization through sharing ideas.
Graham (1991) argued that the more rights the employees get by the organization, the stronger the relationship with the organization. Although this argument, there is not an elaboration on the motives of individuals in having an organizational membership. This may be an important determinant of the tie between the employees and
organizations. Furthermore, Graham (1991) provided no framework that represents the relationships with each other. Another thing that is lacking, is the empirical work of the constructs.
Masterson and Stamper (2003) introduced the perceived organizational membership and this can be viewed as the inclusion in the organization. The organization brings individuals together with the aim to achieve the same goals. According to McMillan and Chavis (1986, p. 9) and Masterson and Stamper (2003, p. 475), the community is defined as “a feeling that members have a belonging, matter to each other and to the group and have faith that the needs of members will be met through commitment’. Masterson and Stamper (2003) argue that the organizational membership is reflected by belonging, need fulfilment and mattering. Therefore, Masterson and Stamper (2003) used these concepts as the underlying dimensions of perceived organizational membership.
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could perceive a high sense of mattering but a low sense of belonging. So it is not necessarily true that the dimensions are interrelated. As already mentioned before, the focus in this and Masterson and Stampers (2003) work is the relationship between the employee and the organization. The relational ties are outside the scope of this
research.
2.4.1. Need fulfilment and age
McMillan and Chavis (1986) and Masterson and Stamper (2003) mentioned that individuals must see their membership as fulfilling their needs. For example, Peterson & Martens (1972) argue that the positive status of the group has benefits towards the individual member and therefore would like to become a member of the group (economic needs). Furthermore, the competence of group members may meet the individual members’ needs (Hester et al., 1976). Cohen (1976) argues that the shared group values may lead to priorities and goals by individual members. Moreover, individuals also believe that their contribution help other people (McMillan and Chavis, 1986). These statements indicate that employees are motivated to see themselves as members of the organization because they can fulfil some important employee needs, like the economic needs (benefits of being a member), relatedness needs (status) and developmental needs (growth opportunities).
There are two related concepts that elaborate on the employees’ perceptions: Kristof (1996) measures the perceptions of person-organization fit and Rousseau (1989) elaborates on the psychological contracts. This will be related with age.
2.4.1.1. Perceptions of person-organization fit
The person organization fit reflects the harmony between the members of the
fulfilment. This also relates with right and responsibilities, which Graham described in her work. Therefore, this relational tie will be categorized as the need fulfilment. The scientific literature is relatively limited about the relationship between person-organization fit and age. Cennamo and Gardner (2008) empirically tested this relationship and found that older employees are more aligned with their
organizational rewards. In line with this lies the research of Kanfer and Ackerman (2004). The authors argue that older workers focus less on training on their work than their younger colleagues. Furthermore, Bertolino et al. (2011) pointed out that
younger employees have more motivation to train than older people.
There is also some recent research about age and intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Rhodes (1983) provide support for a positive relation between age and the intrinsic motivation. Furthermore, the article of Kooij, de Lange, Jansen, Kanfer and Dikkers (2011) showed that there is a negative relation with age and extrinsic values. Since salary is indicated as extrinsic motivation, it is suggested that older workers are less sensible for money incentives. Therefore, the combination of these articles makes it reasonable to state that older workers that younger workers have a higher person-organization fit than older employees. The following hypothesis is proposed:
H1: Younger employees have a higher person-organization fit than older employees.
2.4.1.2. Psychological contract
According to Rousseau (1989), an employee’s psychological contract with their organization represents the obligations and expected returns from each party in a relationship. Rousseau (1995) mentioned that the human resource activities like recruiting practices, performance reviews, personnel manuals and training programs can improve the psychological contracts. This is because the communication of the organizations improves and therefore also the expected obligations from employees. In exchange for the human resource activities, the organization expects some
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The relationship with age is also mentioned in the researches. Ng and Feldman (2003) argue that when individuals grow older, the emotions and the intensity of those emotions also change. Lawton et al. (1992) added to this and found that older individuals are better able to regulate their emotions. Furthermore, Lang and Carstenen (2003) state that when people grow older, the future time perspectives decrease. The research of Feldman (1994) state that the socio-emotional aspects become more important when the employees are getting older in contrast to the younger employees. Additionally, Freund (2006) argues that economic and
developmental aspects are more important to younger employees. Younger workers would like to have a career. This suggest that older workers have more the feeling of a psychological contract than younger workers. Thus, the following hypothesis is posted:
H2: Younger employees have a lower feeling of a psychological contract than older employees.
2.4.2. Mattering and age
Masterson and Stamper (2003) mentioned in their paper that individuals are attracted to people in the organization that have an influence within the organization. They also referred to Peterson and Martens (1972), which argued that individuals are attracted to a bigger group when they perceive some influence over the bigger group. This
element is called “mattering”. Another synonym for this is making difference to a group (McMillan and Chavis, 1986).
When the employees within an organization are told that they are valued members, it is more likely that they have a closer organizational membership (Masterson and Stamper, 2003). For example, when organizations give some individuals influence about procedures and allow them to make decisions, employees feel that they matter to an organization (Graham, 1991).
2.4.2.1. Perceived organizational support
organizational support. Furthermore, Eisenberger et al (1986) argued that the perceived organizational support explains the perception of the value of the employees by the organization. Thus, the employee feels that they matter to the organization. The organization demonstrates this and the employees perceive a higher level of support.
Eisenberger and Aselage further researched the theory behind this. In 2003, they made an integration of the organizational support theory (OST) and psychological contract theory (PCT). Eisenberger and Aselage (2003) argue that that the
organizational support theory maintains that employees form a global belief about how the organization cares about the employees and values their contributions. They refer to the perceived organizational support (POS). According to Rhoades and Eisenberger (2002) there are three antecedents of POS: organizational rewards and working conditions, support received from their supervisors and procedural justice. Eisenberger and Aselage mentioned that autonomy in a job and recognition from management are indicators of organization rewards and working conditions. The support from supervisors refers to the beliefs of the employees that the supervisors care about them. Since this lies outside the scope of this research, this antecedent about support from supervisors will be excluded. The last antecedent involves the fairness of the policies and procedures of organizations for distributing resources.
Within the scientific literature there is not much about the perceived organizational support in relation with age. Helman et al. (2006) did an attempt to clarify this relation. They describe that age have influence on the POS. Van Vianen et al. (2011) used the perceived developmental support as a moderator in the relationship between age and training and developmental willingness. They state that “age is most strongly and negatively related to training and development willingness for people who
perceive little developmental support” (Van Vianen et al, 2011 p. 238). The difference between this study and the one of Van Vianen et al. (2011) is that this study uses age as a moderator and Van Vianen et al. (2011) uses developmental support as a
moderator.
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their organization, even when they are treated unfairly. Moreover, Ng & Feldman (2009) state that younger employees are more inclined to change from organization and that justice violation is a trigger to leave the organization. Furthermore,
Armstrong and Schlosser (2011) found that an older employees wants to remain at the organization when the supervisor implements the procedural practices fairly. Thus, the following propositions are made:
H3: Younger workers have lower organizational rewards than older workers. H4: Younger workers have lower procedural justice than older workers 2.4.3. Belonging and age
According to the Merriam and Webster dictionary, the definition of belonging is a close or intimate relationship. In the scientific literature, Masterson and Stamper state that according to McMillan and Chavis (1986), belonging in a group is that
individuals invested in themselves to become a member of the organization and has a right of belonging. According to Masterson and Stamper (2003) it reflects the
personal relatedness with other colleagues. Examples of this are shared symbols, rituals or language/jargon that is used within the organizations. McMillan & Chavis (1986) argues that employees who invest in their organization, have more the feeling that they belong to the organization and therefore carry more value.
Armstrong and Schlosser (2011) concluded in their research that older workers would like to remain a member of the organization when the organization values the
contribution of the older workers and thereby fostering a strong sense of belonging.
2.4.3.1. Organizational identification
According to Masterson and Stamper, organizational identification is “one’s perception of belonging to one’s work organization” (p. 482). Employees who can identify themselves with the organization are becoming psychologically intertwined with its successes and failures (Masterson and Stamper, 2003).
Ashforth and Mael (1989) argue that factors like shared goals, liking en similarity can affect the group formation. The antecedents shared goals possibly reflect the
investment in the organization. Therefore, it is related with belonging.
Smith (1993) and Veenstra et al. (2004) suggest that the increasing age have stronger links with the organization.
2.4.3.2. Psychological ownership
Another factor that is related with belonging is psychological ownership. For example, it is associated with the ownership of an organization (vandeWalle et al., 1995) and is recognized by items like ‘this is my organization’.
Meyer, Allen, & Smith (1993), Veenstra et al. (2004) and Ng and Feldman (2009) state that increasing age and tenure are likely to be associated with greater seniority and security. Hence, older workers have stronger links with an organization.
2.4.3.3 Commitment
Macey and Schneider (2008) discuss in their paper different engagement factors. In the paper it becomes also clear that some authors define engagement in organizational commitment. Wellins and Concelman (2005) argue that engagement is commitment, as to a cause. Macey and Schneider refer to Meyer and Allen (1997) and they state that commitment is related with belonging and being part of the family. Furthermore, Mowday et al. (1982) also argue that commitment is related with the concept of belonging. The article of Masterson and Stamper did not mention commitment as a part of belonging. Consequently, the article of Macey and Schneider mention that commitment is part of the engagement. Other authors (Wellins and Concelman; Mowday et al.) make some clear arguments why commitment is related to the concept of belonging and not to engagement. Therefore, in this research it is related with belonging. Mir, Mir and Mosca (2002) argue that there are two types of
organizational commitment: affective and continuance commitment. Affective
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more experienced workers increases with high levels of autonomy. Thus, it could be argued that older workers are more committed to the organization as younger workers.
In all cases, it is assumed that older workers have a more sense of belonging than younger workers. Therefore, the following hypothesis is tested:
H5: Younger workers have a less sense of belonging to the organization compared to the older employees.
2.5 Conceptual framework
The results of the literature review show what factors are important for an employee-organization relationship. According to Masterson and Stamper, there are several antecedents of the perceived employee organization relationship. They mention fulfilment, mattering and belonging as concepts. These three concepts influence the perceived organizational membership.
In this framework, age plays in all relationships a moderator role. In recent scientific work, age is several times used as a moderator. Furthermore, other empirical research investigated the moderating role of age within the concepts fulfilment, mattering and belonging. Based on this work, several hypotheses are proposed and are tested during this research. The key findings are summarized in the conceptual model (figure 2). The conceptual model is used as a starting point for this paper. Recall, the central question of this research is:
“Does the organizational membership of younger and older employees differ from each other?”
In order to answer this research question, several sub questions are made (as already mentioned in the introduction):
1.1 “Does the person-organization fit of younger and older employees differ from each other?”
1.3 “Does the organizational rewards of younger and older employees differ from each other?”
1.4 “Does the sense of procedural justice of younger and older employees differ from each other?”
3. METHODOLOGY
The methodology addresses what type of approach is used for the execution of the research. In this chapter, the research design, the procedure of data collection, measures and reliability will be discussed.
3.1 Research design 3.1.1. Research type
The objective of this study is to investigate if there are differences in the need fulfilment, belonging and mattering of the employee organization relationship among younger and older employees. To give answer to this question, there is chosen to conduct an empirical research. The literature review of this master thesis is the starting base for data collection and analysis. Thus, this analysis is more deductive because the collected data is used to test the theory (Trochim, 2006).
3.1.2. Research approach
The research approach is quantitative research. This type of research is highly applicable when the aim is to determine the relationship between independent variable(s) and dependent variable (Hopkins, 2000). Since the aim of this research is to test the belonging, mattering and fulfilment differs in age within the employee organization relationship, the quantitative approach seems to be an appropriate choice. Next to the concept measurements, demographic and descriptive data will be asked in this approach. This is done to improve the completeness of the information. 3.2 Procedure
3.2.1. Instrument
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reduce this, the questionnaires will be checked on the accuracy to meet the characteristics of the respondents. Hence, the target group for this research is the
working population in the Netherlands.
The questionnaire is available on the website thesistools.com. This website provides a free tool to publish the sites. An advantage is that the data is rather easy to transmit to SPSS. The questionnaire is made in the Dutch language because otherwise the questions can be differently interpreted. Within this questionnaire, several statements are made and can be answered on the Likert scale (Totally disagree – totally agree). 3.2.2. Population, Respondent approach and duration
The population within the existing researches is very broad. For example, Saks (2006) has an sample in variety of organizations in Canada. The sample of the research of De Moura et al. (2009) is in hospitals and universities in UK and Japan. Furthermore, the sample of Kooij et al. (2007) varies in county and business. The countries of this meta analysis were USA, Asia and Europe in government organizations, universities, manufacturing companies and professional service companies. The age group differs from 18 till 77 years. At last, Armstrong and Schlosser (2011) focus on older people (50 – 70 years) within the hospitals in Canada. Since these papers already focused on some of the concepts mentioned (e.g. De Moura (2009) et al. about identification and Kooij et al (2010) on commitment and job satisfaction) in the theoretical framework and are focused on age groups, the respondents for this research consist of workers in hospitals, government, universities and professional service companies in the Netherlands. This group contains Small and Medium-sized enterprises (SME’s), which do not have more than 250 employees. The advantage of this research is that the whole framework of Masterson and Stamper (2003) is tested with age as a moderator, with the support of the other theoretical work. Concluded, the integration of age as a moderator is the contribution of this research.
The duration about this process is about two weeks but this is dependent on the reaction of the participants. Another part what is crucial is to have a representative sample. The age groups are divided in two groups. The first group is from 18 – 40 and the second group from 41 – 65 years. At least 50 respondents from the first and second group is needed to get an representative sample. In total, the minimum respondents are 100 (N=100).
3.2.3. Method
The data that are collected trough the questionnaire from the Thesistools site, is imported to the statistics programme SPSS. The data is transformed into variables in order to process the data well.
First, the factor analysis will be applied to investigate whether the concepts can be measured together. This will be further elaborated in the results. After this, the measurement reliability is determined by examining Cronbach’s alpha reliability analysis. A Cronbach α of 0,6 is taken to determine the reliability. The data of the respondents will be analysed by conducting an independent samples t-test because the independent and dependent variables have to be compared (Keller, 2009). After that, aggregate variables are made entailing the means of accumulated items for each research variable. These aggregate means represent the scores for the independent and dependent variables under study for each respondent. A significance level of α 0.05 will be used in order to accept or reject correlations found.
3.2.4. Validity
Baxter & Babbie (2004) argues that the validity is important in conducting research and mention hereby three types of validity. The first is the Measurement validity and investigates if the researcher really measures what he or she would like to measure. The aim of this is to find the right measurement instrument to reflect the concept. Since several academic researchers used the only survey as a measurement instrument, this could also is applicable in this research. Also the operationalization of the variables measures is part of the measurement validity (see 3.3).
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role. Thesistools is used to run the survey to collect the needed data and therefore procedural factors cannot affect this research. There is also no experimenter or researcher attribute effect or observer bias because there is no personal contact between the researcher and its respondents.
The third type is External validity. This refers to the generalizability of the entire population. The questionnaire is available to every individual in every sector. The results are not fully generalizable because the sample is too small. This only gives a reflection of a small population.
3.3 Measures
The measurement of the concepts is based on recent scientific work. The measurements of these researches are compared and match with each other. For example, Veenstra et al. (2004) have the same conceptualization of organizational identification as the work of Masterson and Stamper (2003). The work of Masterson and Stamper (2003) has already provided some examples of measurements and will be followed during this research. The conceptualization of POS is based on Aselage and Eisenberger (2003) because they provided more elaborated measurements. Of course, Masterson and Stamper (2003) give also some good examples but it was too concise. With these both measurements there can be adequately measured what is intended to measure. In the following section, an elaborated of the concepts will be given.
3.3.1. Need fulfilment
The need fulfilment concept is measured through the ‘perceptions of person-organization fit’ and ‘psychological contract’.
Perceptions of person-organization fit.
Masterson and Stamper (2003) state in their paper that the perception of person-organization fit can be measured through financial resources or training opportunities.
The questionnaire will contain the following statements:
- My working needs are fulfilled only through the amount of my salary.
Psychological contract.
In operationalizing the psychological contract, employees are asked to rate their obligations towards the organization. For example, questions are asked about working extra hours, refusal to support competitors, protection of information, and spending at least 2 years with the firm). It is important to note that the psychological contract consists explicitly of the employee's perceptions regarding the two parties' obligations, and not actual objective contractual obligations. This results in the
following statements:
- I work extra hours for the organization on a regularly base. - I refuse to support competitors.
- I make sure that adequate information is protected well and only available for the organization where I work for.
3.3.2. Mattering
The concept is mattering measured by the antecedent ‘perceived organizational support’.
Perceived organizational support.
As earlier discussed, there are three antecedents of perceived organizational support (organizational rewards, support from supervisors and procedural justice). Aselage and Eisenberger (2003) states that autonomy in the manner in which jobs are carried out is an important measure for organizational rewards. Furthermore, the training opportunities given by the employer is also an important measure for organizational
rewards. Therefore, the following statement is made:
- For me, it important to develop myself.
The last antecedent of POS is procedural justice. Aselage and Eisenberger (2003) argue that this involves the fairness of formal organizational policies. This would result from specific decisions of the organization. This could be about pay rises or promotions. Therefore, the next statements are made:
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- The organization where I work for always commits to the agreements that are made
about job promotions.
- The organization where I work for always commits to the agreements that are made about training opportunities.
3.3.3. Belonging
The concept belonging is measured by the antecedents ‘organizational identification’, ‘psychological ownership’ and ‘commitment’.
Organizational identification
Masterson and Stamper (2003) state that organizational identification is the perception of the employee that he or she belongs to the organization. Therefore, the following statement is made:
- I can identify myself well with the norms and beliefs of the organization.
Psychological ownership
With psychological ownership, Masterson and Stamper (2003) mean that that the employee approaches his job like the employee is owner of the organization. Therefore, the following statement is made:
- This organization is my organization.
Commitment
Macey and Schneider (2008) refer in their paper to the concept belonging. They state that important measures are “being part of the family” and also “pride”. Therefore, this study makes the following statements:
4. RESULTS
In this chapter, the findings of this research are presented. First, the demographic data of this analysis is given. After that, the research findings are displayed.
4.1 Demographics
In total, 107 questionnaires are collected through the website thesistools.com. Only 100 questionnaires are allowed for the analysis. In 7 cases, the questionnaire was not completely fulfilled and therefore excluded from the analysis. From these 100 fulfilled questionnaires, 64 (64 percent) is male and 36 (36 percent) is female. A total number of 50 persons is between 18 -40 years and the other 50 persons is 41 years or older with a maximum age of 65.
4.2 Findings
Factor analysis
A factor analysis was executed to test whether the items in fact measure the construct. Statistical analysis pointed out that there are four components. SPSS aggregated questions 7 till 13 together as one component (Appendix 4). However, theory concluded that the components procedural justice and belonging could be measured separately. Therefore, it is taken separately and thus there are 5 components instead of 4. The components are marked with asterisk. All the factors consist a minimum of 0,7 and thus measure in fact what they measure. The results are presented in table 1.
Item Component 1 Compo nent 2 Compo nent 3 Compo nent 4 Q3. My working needs are fulfilled only through
the amount of my salary
-0,515 0,695* 0,106 -,199
Q4. My working needs are fulfilled by getting a lot of training opportunities given by the employer
-0,495 0,730* 0,179 0,043
Q5. I work extra hours for the organization regularly
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Q6. I Refuse to support competitors 0,481** -0,371 0,431 -0,304
Q7: I make sure that adequate information is protected well
0,335** 0,193 0,682 -0,155
Q8. For me, it is important to develop myself -0,111 -0,003 0,354*** 0,885
Q9. The organization where I work for always commits to the agreements that are made about a pay rise
0,664**** 0,042 -0,059 0,131
Q10. The organization where I work for always commits to the agreements that are made about job promotions
0,833**** 0,083 0,020 0,076
Q11. The organization where I work for always commits to the agreements that are made about training opportunities
0,806**** 0,212 0,042 0,102
Q12. I can identify myself well with the norms and beliefs of the organization
0,840***** 0,078 -0,210 0,144
Q13. This organization is my organization 0,833***** 0,273 -0,157 -0,031
Q14. I feel part of the family within this organization
0,790***** 0,174 -0,096 -0,107
Q15. I am proud of this organization 0,832***** 0,221 -0,188 0,007
Table 1: Factor analysis *Person organization fit **Psychological contract
Cronbach
The reliability of the Cronbach’s alpha test need to be at least 0,6 in order to be consistent. The measures of this research are already tested by other researches so it could be assumed that these measures hold. For organizational rewards, there is only one measure so the Cronbach is not taken into account. The scale reliabilities are presented in table 2. All variables match the requirements are therefore are used in this analysis (see appendix 5).
Component Cronbach Alpha
Person organization fit 0,784
Psychological contract 0,600
Procedural Justice 0,834
Belonging 0,913
Table 2: Cronbach Alpha reliability
Hypothesis
H1: Younger employees have a higher person organization fit than older employees An independent t-test is used to test whether there are differences in the person organization fit between the groups of 18-40 and 41-65. The group of 18-40 has a higher mean score on person organization fit than the other group (41-65). This is respectively 3,08 and 1,88 (T=6,663; df = 98). This means that younger employees indeed have a higher person organization fit than older employees.
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H3: Younger employees have lower organizational rewards than older employees The independent t-test is executed to measure the organizational rewards. The means of the groups do not differ much. The mean of the younger employees is 4,54 and the mean of the older group 4,30. However, the standard deviation does differ from each other. This is 0,54248 for the younger group and 1,01519 for the older group. The Levene’s test showed a significance level of 0,038 and therefore the equal variances are not assumed. The t value is 1,474 and the degrees of freedom is 74,874. The significant level of this test is 0,145, which pointed out that there is no significant difference between younger and older employees. Thus, this hypothesis is rejected. H4: Younger employees perceive a lower procedural justice than older employees The mean of the younger group is 3,1533 and the mean of the older group is 4,17. The standard deviation differ from the groups. The standard deviation of the younger group is 0,94331 and of the older group 0,75929. The Levene’s test has an F-value of 1,264 and a significance level of 0,264. This means that the equal variances are not assumed. The t-value is -5,937 and the degrees of freedom is 93,721. This all means that younger employees have a lower procedural justice than older employees.
H5: Younger employees have a lower belonging than older employees
An independent t-test is used to test the last hypothesis. The means are respectively 3,31 for the younger workers and 4,10 for the older employees. The Levene’s test pointed out with a 0,328 significance score that the equal variances are assumed. The t-value is -4,208 and the degrees of freedom is 98. This test pointed out that younger employees have a lower belonging than older workers. Therefore, the hypothesis is accepted.
5. DISCUSSION
A major contribution of this paper is the application of the perceived organizational membership framework on the younger and older workers. This study empirically demonstrates what effects the need fulfillment, mattering and belonging has. Specifically, this is measured through the person organization fit and psychological contract for the concept need fulfillment, the organizational rewards and procedural justice for mattering and the identification, psychological ownership and commitment for belonging. These concepts are tested on 2 groups: Group 1 is the age between 18 and 40 and group 2 is the age between 41 – 65. The differences of these two groups are determined within this research.
H1: Younger employees have a higher person organization fit than older employees The first hypothesis is empirically supported. This means that training opportunities and salary requirements is more important for younger employees. This research confirms that the needs of the younger are more fulfilled by salary and training opportunities than older workers. These findings are in line with the theory. For example, Kanfer and Ackerman (2004) argue that younger people are more motivated to develop new skills and expertise. Furthermore, Bertolino et al. (2011) found that younger workers have positive relationships with proactive personality, training motivation and career development. Also, younger are more motivated to make career moves and make job promotions. In contrast to that, the occupational
achievement plays a smaller role in the lives of older workers.
Kooij, de Lange, Jansen, Kanfer and Dikkers (2011) showed that there is a negative relation with age and extrinsic values. In other words, salary is more important for younger workers than for older employees. Thus, these statements are in line what is
found in this research.
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investments and also loses the knowledge. Furthermore, SME’s must be aware of the
fact that salary is very important for younger workers.
The older employees also not have to be forgotten. With aging in prospect, the knowledge of older workers is very valuable. Despite less attention have to be paid on this group about career perspectives, trainings developments and salary, the organization has to pay attention to the retention of the knowledge of the older people. To prevent braindrain, this has to be formally recorded on paper. An option could be that organization could create mentoring opportunities that give older employees the opportunity to transfer the knowledge and expertise.
H2: Younger employees have a lower psychological contract than older employees. This research also confirms that younger employees have a lower feeling of a psychological contract than older employees. The outcomes make clear that younger workers do not work extra hours for the organization. One reason could be that these extra hours are not paid out. Furthermore, younger workers do not refuse to support competitors, which means that sensitive information leaks to their competitors. In the extension of this, younger workers do not protect the information of the organization well and not only available for the organization. This could cost the organization a competitive advantage. These findings are in line with the scientific work of Eisenberger and Aselage (2003). They state that older employees are more loyal to their organization than younger employees. Additionally, Ng and Feldman (2009) argue that emotional reactions of older people become less intense and that older employees are more able to regulate emotions than younger employees. Furthermore, older workers prefer stability and are less motivated to search for job alternatives. This also means that older employees are more loyal and also are more able to regulate their emotions and do not support competitors.
H3: Younger employees have lower organizational rewards than older employees. An interesting finding of this research is that there is no significant difference about the organizational rewards between the two groups. This research found that both groups find it important to develop themselves. However, the first hypothesis found that older employees are less motivated to get training. Thus, older employees would like to develop themselves but are less willing to get training opportunities. These two statements are quite contrary with each other. The theory is rather scarce about the relationship between age and POS. For example, Helman et al. (2006) did describe that age have influence on the POS but did not clarify it that much. Furthermore, Van Vianen et al. (2011) used the perceived developmental support as a moderator in the relationship between age and training and developmental willingness. They state that “age is most strongly and negatively related to training and development willingness for people who perceive little developmental support”. Thus, the theory and hypothesis 1 found older employees do not feel the need to develop themselves in their job. However, this research found that older and younger feel the need to develop themselves. This could be clarified with the pyramid of Maslow (1970), which states that individuals would like to develop themselves throughout. The fourth ranking in the pyramid is self-esteem. Orth et al. (2010) did a longitudinal study about self-esteem development from young adulthood to old age. They found that self esteem increases during young and middle adulthood, reaches a peak at the age of 60 years and declines when the individual is 70 years or older. The highest ranking of the pyramid is self-actualization. Maslow (1970) argues that the self-actualization could only be attained at mid-life. Cook- Greuter (1999) found that 5 % (younger than 25), 18 % (aged 26 – 35), 45 % (aged 36 – 45), 18 % between the age of 46 and 55 and 0% between 56 and 65 years reach the highest stage of development. Because the tested groups within this research are 18-40 and 41-65, it supports that older worker have also the need to reach the highest level of Maslow’s pyramid. For SME’s it is a good development that all employees would like to develop themselves. This contributes to the expansion of the knowledge of the company.
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organization more fairly than younger workers. They are treated in a fair manner and feel more respect and dignity. The research of Armstrong and Stassen-Schlosser (2011) supports this finding by stating that procedural justice is also related with the intention to stay at the organization. Furthermore, they find support for the statement
that older people perceive more procedural justice.
The organization should pay attention to this and educate the management about human resource practices to treat employees with respect and dignity and apply the procedures at a correct manner.
H5: Younger employees have a lower belonging than older employees.
The last finding is that younger employees have a lower belonging than their older counterparts. This means that older people can identify themselves better with the organization, feel more that it is their organization, feel part of the family and is more proud of this organization than younger workers. This is in line with what Mir, Mir and Mosca (2002) state: the new age employee is less committed than the old employee. Also other research within this paper supports the results of this research. Organizations could influence this to give younger employees the opportunity to enhance skills. Furthermore, a flexible work environment contributes to the commitment of younger people.
The added value of this research is that age plays a moderating role within the organization membership. The moderating role of age is confirmed in 4 of the 5 hypotheses. Younger workers have a higher person organization fit, which means that their needs are only fulfilled through salary and training opportunities. Furthermore, younger workers have a lower psychological contract, lower procedural justice and
belonging than their older counterparts.
