Building organizational commitment of generation Y at workplace: A theoretical perspective

R.G. Munthe, A. Aprillia & R. Setiawan

Maranatha Christian University, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia

ABSTRACT: In the era of digitalization, companies are required to adapt to the rapid changes that occurs.

1 INTRODUCTION

Today’ s era of digitalization bring new changes that effects human life. The impact has also entered areas such as: politics, economics, socio-culture, defence, security, and information technology. Digital era is born with the emergence of digitalization and Inter­net network, especially computer information tech­nology. Moreover, the growing sophistication of today’s digital technology is making great changes to the world and the birth of a variety of advanced digital technologies.

The development of digital technology facilitates business organization in the way of accessing infor­mation in different ways. Moreover, business organ­izations are also enabled to make use of the digital technology freely yet still under-controlled. Organ­ization is no longer merely run by employees but through the use of machines.

Artificial intelligence, super connectivity, sophis­ticated digital tools, real-time information, virtual environments, and innovations are some of the breakthroughs that become a part of people’s daily life. Accordingly, many companies are required to follow such changes very quickly in order to sur­vive. The same scenario are seen in the majority of retail companies (especially in Indonesia), when they show changes in the way they offer discount, open new stores, and shut down many of their store or in the way they shrink the size of the company due to the threat of digitalization era (Sundjaja 2013).

In this millennial age, the capacity of the organ­ization actually lies in the collection of individuals’ thoughts within the company. The individuals are not only required to be able to adapt to the changes the era offer, but also to drive the changes as well as to innovate quickly as the organizational change is the transformation of humans within it (Ege et al. 2017). Therefore, the organizational change can not be separated from the learning capacity of the people in it to adapt to the changes. One of the crucial fac­tors for changing the internal environment within the organization is its employees. Employees are an active resource that plays a major role in corporate survival considering the fact that the success of future organizations comes from organizations whose employees have a good learning capacity at the present time (Sudharatna & Li, 2004).

Further, companies and organizations’ innovation certainly needs competent human capital in respond­ing to the rapid changes of customer demands. Not only that employees’ capability in terms of informa­tion technology aspects that is important, encourage­ment and commitment of all organizational personnel is also indispensable (Robbins & Judge 2013).

Human Capital is lifeblood in achieving organ­izational success because they are the source of innovation and improvement as human capital is a source of very useful knowledge, skills, and com­petencies in an organization or company. It reflects the company’s collective ability to produce the best solution based on the knowledge possessed by the people in the company (Manuti et al. 2017). However, human capital is also a difficult component to measure.

The current Human Capital is dominated by “Generation Y” or “Nexters” or “Generation Me” or “Millennials” that refers to the youngest generation in the workforce. This generation was born between the year 1980 and 1994. Generation Y in comparison to the other two generations at work, have a very dif­ferent job values. In addition, Generation Y are also different in terms of personalities and expectations in relation to the job/task they are given (Kuron et al. 2015). For the Y generation, supports from supervisors/superiors by giving independent respon­sibility as well as chances to be actively involved in completing a job/task (accountability) are ones of the requirements for them to work maximally (Kul- talahti & Viitala 2015). Gaining achievements and appreciations in their workplace is a kind of job sat­isfaction that they themselves need to feel in their workplace (Kuron et al. 2015).

However, Generation Y often have high turnover in the workplace that has been proven that they tend to stay in a job for about 18-36 months only (Wan 2012). When Generation Y did not get the achieve­ment in their workforce, they will not any consider­ation of staying longer in the company.

2 RESEARCH METHOD

The type of research used in the study is literature study.

Literature study method refers to a series of activ­ities related to library data collection methods whose main goal is to find the foundation to acquire and build the theoretical base and frame of thinking (Zed 2008). Library study was applied in this research since its primary purpose was to develop both theor­etical and practical aspects of benefit. In the present study, the data were collected by reading, recording, and managing research materials under the issues being investigated.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

One of the attempts to suppress the turnover of talents of Y generation is to understand them, so as to treat, direct and lead them according to their characteristics and needs (Weyland 2011). Recent study found that accountability is a stres­sor that affects organizational commitment. Accountability can be seen as a barrier or an obs­tacle which prevents the achievement of a goal or can also be seen as an opportunity to achieve a goal. In order to see this as an opportunity to achieve the goal, there must be an emotionally- bound commitment that comes from person-envir­onment fit (Laird et al. 2015) which in another language from the person that has a calling to do it.

“Calling” is viewed from a neoclassical per­spective focusing on the individual’s internal and individual choices on the outside and both of them are in the same path (fit) then it is called “calling”. This perspective emphasizes the importance of realizing personal value as well as emphasizing the importance of meeting the needs of society. The Neoclassical Perspective believes that the sense of call encompasses both itself and beyond, that is, the function of the work is to realize the individual’s self-worth and fulfil the function as part of the environment and social contribution.

Therefore, in order to make the organization succeed, employees are required to improve their competence in accordance with the demands of changes. Organizations need a stable yet always changing circumstance (Abrahamson 2000). Iron­ically, the process of change can destabilize the foundations built for future organizational success by undermining the motivational base of employ­ees in the form of ‘trust’. This can be a serious threat to the success of the organization because ‘trust’ is the psychological ties of the organiza­tion and its members (Robbins & Judge 2013). The low level of trust between the two is the biggest barrier in creating change in the organiza­tion. Trusts perfect the mechanism of an innov­ation and greater responsibility. It is reciprocal. When a trust is present, employees feel that they are respected and given the power to make deci­sions. They will be able to work with integrity and demonstrate their abilities optimally. In order to form trust, employees must feel that they have been treated fairly and that their manager is honest and the organization has a goal worth fighting for. Furthermore, employees should be prepared to learn new skills and commit to the organization. Therefore, growth, opportunities for learning and increased experience, is important. If an employee has been motivated to perform better, he or she needs a bigger and more chal­lenging job which provides opportunities for growth. Employees need the opportunity to learn skills in carrying out their work, and to be super­vised and developed accordingly (Mondy 2010). They must understand their role in achieving organizational goals and their limits in making new breakthroughs.

Employees need support and guidance in perform­ing their roles rather than being blamed when making mistakes. Most people want to keep learning and growing in order to increase their capacity. This capacity will impact Generation Y employees as human capital since they have renewed their skills. The company’s investment in training and develop­ment is a key to show not only about the organiza­tion’s commitment to its employees but also its commitment to grow its human capital. Unfortu­nately, many companies today often take shortcuts through headhunting strategy in order to gain its competitive advantage within a relatively short time. The uniqueness of the head-hunters are habit of “piracy” of workers in a particular company by offering jobs that are considered to have better chance. The new position in companies that offered by head-hunters should be “tempting” or provide better value to improvement of career or salary increase (Sarjana et al. 2017).

4 CONCLUSION

The Generation Y is marked as a creative employee. Creative employees will show optimal performance and tend to be consistent and even growing. Employee performance can be built through a combination of three main components, namely skills, motivation, and the ability to be creative. An expertise is defined as a set of skills and knowledge of employees in performing vari­ous tasks and work. Employees gain expertise derived from their talents or potential and evolve into valuable experiences gained through a range of their actual educational and job programs. If skill is their ability to work, hence motivation is the willingness of employees to work. There are various things that encourage employees to work; ranging from the desire to earn a living, a hobby, looking for a challenge, and to actualize them­selves with their work. Motivation relates to the factors within the employees that drive them to continue working. In addition to willingness and creativity, employees must also have a creative soul. In order to grow, the employees must not be in a “compulsion” condition to do something, but they must be in a “willingness” to do some­thing that have an inner impulse (intrinsic motiv­ation) to fulfil his needs such as achievement and recognition. The “willingness” here has a mean­ing of no burden or in other words how one can “do what you love” (Amabile 1997). Employees who love their work will devote all their effort toward their spirits; in other words will do every­thing to progress himself with the work he did and do. In order for a person to “do what you love”, an employee must know himself and his personality. By having the will, ability, and cre­ative spirit then the employees will always try to continuously update themselves with the work they do. As a conclusion, the solution to make human capital coming from Y generation have a high intention to remain in their workplace and have high organizational commitment is by giving employees the jobs they want and by offering them the opportunity to develop and advance their careers that in turn will result in a high organizational commitment (Mathieu & Zajac 1990). If organizations do not provide facilities for career development or even limited opportunities to grow, the employees’ organiza­tional commitment will decrease. Employees will leave when they are given better opportunities and offers from the competitor companies.

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