In class we looked at the results of a survey that aimed to uncover which job qualities are the most motivating to employees. The qualities that were ranked in the survey were promotion, income, meaningful work, hours, and job security. Interestingly, in both years the survey was taken (1973 and 2000), the results were the same: meaningful work, promotions, income, job security, and hours were the rankings from most important to least important. The survey results proved that intrinsic motivation (meaningful work) is much more motivating than extrinsic motivation (everything else).
Before the results of the survey were revealed to us, our class believed that meaningful work would be at the top of the list in 1973, but income would top the list in the more recent survey. When Professor Caza asked us why we though income would be more motivating to our generation than meaningful work, the students couldn’t give a solid answer. Some suggested that we are attracted to a higher standard of life, while others said we are more driven by financial success.
The class’s confusion made me curious to see if all Wake Forest students would be motivated by income, like the students in our class seemed to be. To test the hypothesis, I conducted a survey similar to the one we viewed in class, and sent it to approximately fifty students.
The results were surprising:
While there was a lot of variation in the ranking of the list in its entirety, the top-ranked quality was overwhelmingly common. Of the forty one total votes, meaningful work was ranked first twenty nine times. Income was the second-ranked choice with eight votes (about twenty percent) and job security came third with four votes (ten percent). Of the twenty nine votes for meaningful work, income was chosen as second most important thirteen times (a little less than half). It was followed by hours, job security, and promotions with seven, four, and one vote, respectively.
When asked to explain their choices, the most common response among students who ranked meaningful work first said they could not imagine doing something they did not enjoy. Many said that enjoying their work vastly outweighed making a high salary (intrinsic motivation). Even those who ranked income first were not motivated by money itself (with the exception of one extrinsically motivated individual who ranked his qualities in the order of what would make him the most money overall). They explained that they are used to a certain standard of living, and they want to earn a high salary in order to maintain that lifestyle. Others explained that they want to be able to provide for their families, which is still a form of intrinsic motivation because they are working for a cause and a purpose. The desire to provide for their families was also the most given reason for students who listed income as their second choice after meaningful work.
Analysis:
I find the results of the survey very interesting for two main reasons. First, due to the competitive nature of Wake Forest students, I expected students to be as motivated by salary as they are with obtaining good grades and a high GPA. Most people do not pull all-nighters when studying for exams because they love the subject so much that they can’t put their books down. They pull all-nighters to get a good grade. I assumed that a student body that is so motivated by positive feedback in the classroom would be equally motivated by a high salary at work.
Second, many Wake Forest students were raised in a relatively high standard of living (this is a generalization, of course), that can only be maintained by a high salary. I was surprised to find that more students did not choose salary as their first option for this reason. It is interesting to see that meaningful work still outweighs salary despite these motives.
Given the aforementioned reasons, I was not surprised to find that, among those who ranked meaningful work first, high income was the second most important work quality. It was interesting, however, to see that promotion was nowhere near the second place quality (considering it was ranked second in the surveys taken in 1973 and 2000). Rather, promotions only received one vote. The student who placed promotions second explained that “Coming out of college, I'm prepared to have job transitions and work long hours, so I am prepared for those, and ranked them as less important. For me, I now have the opportunity to really delve into what I want to do, and hopefully do well at it - which is why meaningful work and promotions were ranked higher.” For some reason, this student is the only person who responded with a sincere desire in moving up the corporate ladder. Others were relatively uninterested in promotions, ranking it between third and last place in their list of qualities. Not only does the ranking of promotion contradict with the surveys taken in the past; it also contradicts with my belief that students are motivated by salaries, since promotion typically comes with an increase in salary.
The results of my survey reveal that I was wrong about Wake Forest students because they are more motivated by meaningful work than I would have guessed. Perhaps the discrepancy between the surveys of 1973 and 2000 and the survey results I just provided can be explained by our lack of work experience. Because we have not yet entered the workforce, promotions are not in the forefront of our minds. We expect to be happy with our work and make a lot of money right off the bat. Maybe if I ask the same Wake Forest students to take this survey again in ten years, the qualities that motivate them at work will more exactly align with those of the generations before us.
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