Eşitsizliğe Karşı Sessiz Kalma: Mavi Yakalı Çalışanların Motivasyonu Üzerine Görgül Bir Çalışma

Year 2009, Issue: 22, 395 - 408, 01.08.2009

Cenk Sözen Hakkı Okan Yeloğlu Fikret Ateş

Abstract

Bu çalışma önemli motivasyon kuramlarından olan, eşitlik kuramının temel varsayımlarından yola çıkarak Türkiye’deki örgütlerde çalışanların algıladıklarıeşitsizlik karşısında tutumlarının ne olacağınıaraştırmayıhedeflemiştir. Çalışmada ülkeye has kültürel özellikler nedeniyle çalışanların algıladıklarıeşitsizlikler karşısında sessiz kalmayıtercih edecekleri öne sürülmüştür. Bu iddiayıtest etmek amacıyla bir üniversitede çalışan tüm mavi yakalılar üzerinde görgül bir çalışma gerçekleştirilmiştir. Öncelikle sınırlıve rasgele seçilmişbir grup üzerinde öntest yapılarak anket yeniden düzenlenmiş. Daha sonra ana çalışma gerçekleştirilmişve toplanan veriler üzerinde faktör analizi ile regresyon analizi yapılmıştır. Yapılan ileri nicel analizler sonucunda elde edilen bulgular çalışanların algıladıklarıeşitsizlikler karşısında tepkisiz kalmayıtercih ettiklerini göstermiştir.

Keywords

Eşitlik kuramı, eşitlik algısı, motivasyon, eşitsizliğe tepki, örgütsel performans

To Keep Silent Against Inequality: An Empirical Study on the Motivation of Blue Collar Workers

Abstract

Motivation is an important concept in modern day organizations. The conversion of industrial society to the postindustrial phase has increased the rate of white collar workers and decreased blue collars’ in organizations. It becomes vitally important to benefit from employees’ intellectual capacity. A great attention has been given to find the ways to motivate professionals in the organizations. But, the current situation and the drives that lead to motivation of blue collar workers in post-industrialist era have remained unclear. Motivation theories and techniques potentially give managers several tools to create a positive synergy over employees. First attempts to bring an explanation to the question of how can workers be motivated was mostly based on the needs of the individuals. The motivation theories which are based on human needs have begun with Maslow’s 1954 hierarchy of needs theory and developed by various scholars like McCleland 1961, 1971 , Herzberg 1966 and Alderfer 1972 . The interests of researchers have shifted from needs satisfaction to work process for the motivation of workers and some authors like Adams 1963 , Vroom 1964 and Locke 1968 made important contributions to the process based theories. Despite the political and economic developments during the last three decades motivation theories of 50’s and 70’s formed a background or a frame of reference for the following studies. One of the interesting theories which has taken attention of many researchers is equity theory. Equity theory focuses on determining the effect of the tension created by inequality perceptions of the employees on work performance. The situations which leads to inequality perceptions and the effects of demographic differences on equity perceptions of employees are important areas of study in this field. We are more interest in the responses of the employees when facing inequality situations in this study. Different cultural contexts may create different types of responses in case of inequality. Cultural variables which are defined by Hofstede 1980 can be used to bring an explicit explanation to the response side of equity theory in different cultures. There is a lack of cross-cultural studies on equity theory in the relevant literature. So, this study is a chance to test equity perceptions and the responses of the employees in a country which represents a bridge between the east and the west. Hofstede 1989 classified Turkey as a low uncertainty avoidance and high power distance country in his major cross-cultural study. The employees in such country may prefer not to give responses in case of inequality because they may be afraid to lose their jobs and may have a bad impression over others in the workplace. This study strongly claims that, workers in Turkey can perceive inequality but they prefer to keep silence instead of attempting to engage in corrective actions in their workplace. To support and test this idea, the study was conducted over all blue collar employees working in a university in Turkey. A questionnaire form was conduted which consisted several questions and propositions were suggested after a literature study. These propositions are tested empirically by both conducting models and other relevant statistical techniques. The analyses were made by a statistical program the results of the analyses were interpreted if they support the propositions or not. There are two groups of statements in the questionnaire form. One group formed by a list of different statements which represent unfair situations. Other group includes different type of possible responses as a result of inequality perceptions. Visual analog scale was used to measure the answers of respondents in these two groups of statements. Likert type measurement was not preferred in the study because it’s been aimed to measure the respondents’ thoughts. Before the main research, a pre-test was made over fifty employees in the same university and minor adjustments were made in the questionnaire form to increase reliability of the measurement tool. After the pre-test results the questionnaire form was rebuilt again and ain study was conducted over 159 blue collar workers. At the results of the analyses section, the demographics of respondents were explained firstly. According to the results, 73.6% of the respondents are male and 26.4% are female. 22,2% of the employees are bachelor and 77,4% are married. The ages of the respondents are changing between 23 and 46 and the work period of the respondents in the institution are ranging from 1 to 16 years. The reliability of the scales which was analyzed with the relevant statistical program based on Cronbach Alpha, representing the first group of statements is 72,46% and second group is 75,86%. Factor and regression analysis were used to test the basic thesis of the study. The first part of the questionnaire form was reduced to a major scale to measure the inequity. The second part of the questionnaire form was analyzed with factor analysis and three major factors were detected. The three factors are regressed over the inequity scale. A stepwise approach was used in the analysis because; it’s aimed to measure the effects of the factors separately. Different models were conducted and all of the models were ststistically significant. Although the coefficients of determination of the models were low, the results of the analysis partially supported the hypothesis of the study. Findings show that equity perceptions of blue collar workers are high but they generally don’t prefer to provide equity by showing corrective actions. They decide to keep silence instead and may wait till the situations get better. The results of this study provide important critical insights for the motivation of workers in Turkey. Silent workers may cognitively decrease their performance as a result of their inequality perceptions. It is so hard for a manager to determine the workers unwillingness to use their capacity while conducting the routine job activities. This study doesn’t represent all organizations in Turkey. But, it can open and show a path to the potential researchers to test the theoretical approach of this study with broad cross-sectional or longitudinal studies in different industries, markets and comparing other type of workers especially blue and white collar ones

Keywords

Equity theory, perception of equity, motivation, reaction to ineqaulity, organizational performance

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