A RESEARCH STUDY IN PARTNERSHIP WITH IKYA HUMAN CAPITAL SOLUTIONS LTD., MTHR GLOBAL AND THE ACADEMY OF HRD

1. CAREER ASPIRATIONS
AND ATTRIBUTES OF
INDIAN GEN Y
@ WORKPLACE
A RESEARCH STUDY IN
PARTNERSHIP WITH
IKYA HUMAN CAPITAL
SOLUTIONS LTD.,
MTHR GLOBAL
AND
THE ACADEMY OF HRD

2. INDIAN GEN-Y

3. RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
AN EXPLORATION
OF INDIAN WORKING GEN-YERS CAREER
ASPIRATIONS
AND
HOW COMPATIBLE
THEIR CAREER ASPIRATIONS WITH THEIR
ON JOB MOTIVATIONS AND VALUES

4. INTRODUCTION
Gen Y population
in India is 25.47%
of world
population
(Indian
Population
Bureau, 2009),
but not all are
‘employment
ready’
Generation Y professionals’
skills and potentials are
crucial if economies are to
move up the value chain.

7. THE RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY
Lack of validated Indian
Studies on Indian Gen Y
population
We laugh at We ask ‘Y’ With a smile
stringent rules ‘how’ we fight
and ‘what’ workplace
unproductive ‘when’ challenges.
processes at often, till So lead us
workplace we are and we can
ready to do anything!
proceed…
so answer
us!

8. KEY DEFINITIONS
1. Career anchors: A person's career anchor is his or her self-concept
consisting of 1) self-perceived talents and abilities, 2) basic values, and, most
important, 3) the evolved sense of motives and needs as they pertain to the
career.
2. Managerial Task/Competence: People in this category exhibit a strong
desire to climb the corporate general management ladder. Their ultimate
objective is management per se and the responsibility which accompanies
general management positions.
3. Technical / Functional Competence: For individuals anchored in technical /
functional competence, actual work content becomes a primary concern and
chief area of interest in formulating career decisions.
4. Security and Stability: The primary concern of people in this anchor
category is stability and / or security.
5. Variety: The centrally important theme would involve the diversity of
challenges and the need to maintain flexibility of responses.
6. Creativity: Individuals anchored in creativity are dominantly influenced by a
motivation to build, create, invent or produce something of their own.

9. KEY DEFINITIONS
6. Autonomy and Independence: In this category, emphasis is on personal
freedom which can be expressed in any number of ways.
7. Basic identity: The need to be associated with a firm or occupation
which externally or visibly enhances or substitutes for self definition.
8. Intrinsic motivation: Intrinsic motivation is "the motivation to engage in
work primarily for its own sake (Amabile, Hennesy & Tighe 1994:950) and
refers to the pleasure or the personal fulfillment from performing the
activity itself (Sonesh-Kedar & Geirland 1998).
9. Extrinsic motivation: Extrinsic motivation emphasizes the value an
individual places on the ends of an action. It is "the motivation to work
primarily in response to something apart from the work itself (Amabile,
Hennesy & Tighe 1994: 950).
10. Achievement orientation: Achievement orientation is conceptualized as
a perceptual-cognitive framework that influences how individuals
approach, interpret, and respond to achievement activities. (Dweck &
Leggett, 1989).
11. Role immersion: High orientation and involvement in one’s professional
role in an organization.

10.  Cross-sectional exploratory study
RESEARCH  Urban locations of India, divided in 4 zones (North,
DESIGN AND South, East And West)
 Mixed methodology
METHODOLOGY  Two stage sampling: Judgmental and convenience
sampling
As the scope of our research study
 Schein’s (1985) career orientation inventory , Udai
is limited to the working Gen Y
Pareek’s (1997) extrinsic and intrinsic motivation and
professionals in India today, the
Sarupriya ‘s(1983) value preference scales
Gen Y of our study are born
between 1981-1991  Duration May’2011 to October’2011
We have received a total of
707 responses from the
online survey; however, only
378 were completed
responses. The research
findings are based on the
quantitative data of 378
responses and the
observations from
conducting 10 focus group
discussions and 21 triad
interviews.

11. DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE
1981-1985 1986-1991 Unknown
Gender Male Gender Female Gender Unknown
4%
35%
51%
61%
0-5years 5-11 years Post Graduates Graduates Unknown
20% 11%
29%
60%
80%

12. Service Sector Manufacturing Sector Unknown
SAMPLE GEN-YERS
23%
3%
WORK PROFILE
74%

13. SAMPLE GEN-YERS
WORK PROFILE

14. SAMPLE GEN-YERS
WORK PROFILE

15. FINDINGS: Characteristics of Gen Ys’ Career
Aspirations and Value preference

16. FINDINGS: Characteristics of Gen Ys’ Motivation

17. FINDINGS: The Relationships between Gen Ys’
Career Aspirations (CA) with Gender Cohorts -
Males & Females

18. FINDINGS: The Relationships between Gen Ys’
Motivation(s) with Gender Cohorts -Males & Females

19. FINDINGS: The Relationships between Gen Ys’ Value
Preference(s) with Gender Cohorts -Males & Females

20. FINDINGS: The Relationships between Gen Ys’ Career
Aspirations (CA), Motivation, Value with Location

21. FINDINGS: The Relationships between Gen Ys’ Career
Aspirations (CA), Motivation, Value with Service Industry
& Manufacturing Industry Sectors

22. FINDINGS: The Relationships between Gen Ys’ Career
Aspirations (CA), Motivation, Value with Service Industry &
Manufacturing Industry Sub-Sectors

23. FINDINGS: The Relationships between Gen Ys’ Career
Aspirations (CA), Motivation, Value with Gen Ys’ Work
Experience

24. FINDINGS: Correlation between Gen Ys’ Career Aspiration
with Intrinsic & Extrinsic Motivators And Value Preferences

25. FINDINGS: Diametric Motivation(s) of Indian Gen Y
@ workplace… a challenge for organization(s)!

26. CONCLUSIONS, LIMITATIONS AND
DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
Conclusions
– Managerial competence, organization brand identity and sense of service are
Gen Yers’ focus in making their career decisions. However, a Gen Y employee
may have one particular primary aspiration and two or more secondary
aspirations.
– Gen Ys are motivated by extrinsic factors, only marginally than the intrinsic
factors and they are highly oriented towards achievement value.
– Overall career aspirations are positively correlated with intrinsic motivations
and values such as achievement, monetary and role orientations.
– Partial negative correlation is seen between the career anchors and intrinsic
motivations, such as, technical & functional competence - technically
competent supervisor, autonomy & independence - Equitable
Pay, geographical stability - equitable pay.
– Some career anchors are partially negatively correlated with extrinsic
motivations, such as managerial competence vis-a-vis sound company
policies, job stability vis-à-vis fringe benefits and alike.
– Further analyses showed there were significant differences within the different
cohorts, such as, industry, gender, location, and work - experience, for overall
career aspirations, motives and values.

27. CONCLUSIONS, LIMITATIONS AND
DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
Direction for Future research:
– Gen Ys’ career aspirations, motives and values are shaped by their individual
socio-cultural background
– As Gen Y moves forward in their career & life stages, their career aspirations
also gets influenced by their personal and socio-cultural needs.
– North youth is not enough demanding for comfortable working conditions
&sound HR policies. Either it could be because of “satisfied lot” Low aspirations
or something more serious. These in-congruencies is worth exploring in future
research
Limitations:
– Inter and intra organizational factors have not been considered {for eg.
Comfortable working condition (as an extrinsic motivator) is very low at 18.71
(at Delhi & NCR) as compared to west (54.84) & south which indicates that
organization in the north zone may have less developed corporate culture}.
– Market variables are neglected, {for eg. In the eastern zone, job stability lower
than any other zone, maybe because of “socio-political effect”- more security
feeling}.
– We have taken a single unit of analysis. Also, the underlying reasons of the
correlation analysis results remain inconclusive, but it gives direction for future
research.
– Generation Yers’ archetypes not explored. Scope of study limited to urban
locations

28. RECOMMENDATIONS