Chapter 3: Practical study on the motivation that Romanian

and Egypt Y-Generation have

THE OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

To compare at faire level the Y generation employees we’ve made a short survey. We
asked 100 people to complete a short survey (20 questions) to reach our main targets. The most
pursued objectives were:

 discovering the main motivational factors for Y generation employees;

 discovering the age and the choice of work (organization or own business ) in
dependence of nationality;
 comparing data on the latest studies conducted by Romanians vs. Egyptians;
 observing if the employees are paid at fair value;
 concluding if the respondents deal with some volunteer programs.

HYPOTHESESE
Through close observations and review of literature, we suppose that:
• If the income is better in the Romanian labor market, the Romanian Y Generation
employees' will focus more on the quality of work in its process, timing, and margin of freedom.

• Since the income on the Egyptian labor market is one of the lowest in the world, the
Egyptian Y Generation employees' will focus on the progressing of their salaries first, and then
will ask for the development of work quality and conditions.

Conducting an empirical research study, we asked people considered the “Y Generation”

to complete our survey. 50 of our respondents are originally from Romania and the other half are
Egyptian employees. In the next few pages, I will present the conclusions of the study using
diagrams and describing them by general knowledge about the nations.

THE OBTAINED RESULTS

Diagram 1 shows the gender distribution of the respondents. We looked for 50 women
and 50 men to take into account gender in accordance with their nationality and their chances of
being employed. A detailed analysis of the respondents shows us how many Egyptian and
Romanian men work and how many Egyptian and Romanian women are employed. According

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to them, out of the 50 Egyptian respondents, 29 are men and 21 women. We cannot conclude on
the basis of such small figures, but our data also demonstrate the reflection of the education and
culture of the Egyptians in their employment.

Diagram 1: Distribution of employees by gender

In diagram number 2 is represented the distribution of the respondents by their age. We

can certainly say that the respondents belong to “Y Generation”. We have just 5 respondents out
of 100 that are up to 35 years old.

Diagram 2: Distribution of employees by their age

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 As we mentioned earlier we’ve asked to participate at our survey 50 people from Egypt
and 50 people from Romania. Diagram 3 represents de distribution of nationalities respondents.

Diagram 3: Distribution of employees by nationality

The 4th diagram informs

us about what kind of work
does have the respondents,
either they work in an organization or they are freelancers. We can see that 74 respondents are
working in different organizations which means that people who are part of “Y Generation”
have ambitions from 20 years. We can conclude this from our diagram but Jean M. Twenge’s
article about the empirical evidence on generational differences in work attitudes can deny our
statistics. In his article it’s written that there are differences in work values and in motivations of
the employees. These details will be observed and commented through next diagrams. Also as it
seams from the diagram there are some respondents that are students which allows us to
compare people from “Y Generation” with the generation that’s upcoming.

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 Diagram 4: Distribution of employees by their work

One of the important factors that

we should take into account while
comparing the motivations of “Y
Generation ” between Romania
and Egypt is the education. The 5th diagram represents all forms of education that exists in both
countries. The diagram is well connected to Table 1 that’s a development of the answers offered
by people. There is presented the last form of education completed by each nationality. As we
can see 36 of the respondents who have the last form of education as a bachelor’s degree are
Egyptians. This number is a good one because it means that people want to study and they know
the importance of having a degree altough just a bachelor one. Despite this 11% of the egyptian
respondents have studied also master degree which means that people want to perform as
individuals and they recognize the importance of universities and what these institutions can
bring to them. Unfortunately one of the egyptian respondents has finished just the lyceum.
Egyptian education faces an important challenge because of the quality of teachers that teach in
public schools. That’s the reason that leads to such decisions among Egyptians: to finish one of
the basic forms of education or to go somewhere abroad where they can get a better high
education. Compared to the Egyptians, Romanians are very addicted to studies. From a total of
50 respondents, 27 Romanians has completed bachelor studies and 19 of them have a master
degree. We can observe the differences between these two cultures, two countries, two nations
by the people and their choice of studying.

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 Diagram 5: Distribution of the last forms of education completed by respondents

Egyptians Romanians

Gymnasium 0 0

Lyceum 1 0

Post-secondary school 1 2

Bachelor’s degree 36 27

Master degree 11 19

Doctorate 1 2

None 0 0

Table 1: Distribution of last form of education by nationality

The 6th diagram shows us how many of our respondents are working in Romania and

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how many of them does not. We’ve centralized the responses in table 2. 48 of Egyptians that
respond to our survey are working in their native country. There are a lot of reasons why they
are studying abroad and then return to their country. One of the main reasons why that are doing
that is strong connected to their future. They want to introduce something new in their country,
to help people and to change something about their education culture and the future of the
country. Compared to Egyptians, 42 of the Romanians that responded to the survey are working
in Romania. 8 of the Romanian respondents are working abroad. We will see in later diagrams
that they are working just for money not for their pleasure.

Diagram 6: Distribution of employees that are working in Romania

Egyptians Romanians

YES 2 42

NO 48 8

6 of these respondents are working

in Republic of Moldova, Holland
OTHER COUNTRIES No
and USA. 2 of the respondents are
not working.

Table 2: Distribution of the respondents that are working in Romania by nationality

The 7th question of the questionnaire was more for understanding the answers of other
questions. We’ve asked people in which field they are working so we could understand by the
age of the respondents what do they choose to work and what future they can have. It is very

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important as well the team you are working with. The diagram 7 shows us the average age our
respondents are working with. In general we can say that just 19% of respondents are not
working in a young team which shows us a great statistics. People from “Y Generation” are vey
ambitious and they begin to work from early ages in order to achieve their purposes.

Diagram 7: Distribution of the average ages of the team that respondents work with

The 8th diagram represents the respondent’s importance and need for continious
development of professional skills at their current workplace. As we can see in the chart 83% of
the respondents think that it’s very important to be an employee in an organization that can
improve you knowledge and can develop your professional skills .

Diagram 8: Distribution of importance to the need for continuous development in the current workplace

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 The 9th diagram is the most important one because it defines the main subject of the
work. With the help of diagram 9 and table 3 we will discover motivations of egyptians and of
romanians. As we can see from the table the most important motivation for egyptians and for
romanians is a high salary. That’s a proof that “Y Generation” is interested just in making
money and having great conditions at work. We can also conclude from the 3 rd table that
romanian’s are searching for a place to work where they can fill safe. The mai reason more
romanian’s than egyptian’s have chosen safety is because the are working in construction and
they are aware of all kind of situations. For egyptian’s is very important to make friends at work.
A proof to this is the number of them who responded this, 34 people way more than romanian’s.

We can certainly conclude which are the main motivations of the nations. Romanian’s
are looking just for a place which could bring them high salaries and an advancement
perspective. In meantime Egyptian’s are searching for high salary and a friendship with the work
colleagues. A very good statistics is demonstrated by the prestige of the company. Just 8
egyptian’s from a total of 50 are searching and looking for a place which is already known by
everybody. They keep their attention at their future perspectives and they have the ambition to
bring the organization to another level by therselves. From the table we can see that more
Romanian’s are looking for a place of work which name and activity and other detailes are
known to everybody.

Diagram 9: Distribution of motivation chosen by respondents

Egyptian Romanian

Table 3: Distribution of motivations classified by what the respondents have chosen

 High salary 40 37

Safety at work 14 21

Relationship with team / department

34 24
colleagues

Advancement perspective 22 26

The prestige and image of the company 8 15

Working conditions 17 24

The 10th diagram represents the overtime work the employees are doing. It’s not one of
the best statistics but people are working overtime from different reasons. The 12 th question
respond at the previous one and shows us the reasons that lead to a lot of overtime work. A lot of
people said that the main reason they are working more is that they have a lot of unfinished
work. It’s glad although they are determined to finish everything so nothing will remain undone
for the nearest future. Another reason some people are working overtime or during the weekend
and legal leave is that they are paid more. This is happening just for people that are working in
call-centers. Another people that are working in weekends or during legal leave are the doctors
that told us at question 14 that they have a duty and they really enjoy helping other people.

Diagram 10: Distribution of overtime work done by respondents

Diagram 11: Distribution of work in weekends or during legal leave done by the respondents
 Diagram number 12 shows us a very good statistic. The employees are remunerated at
fair value at least 81%. People from “Y Generation” are satisfied about their place of work and
they are remunerated as they have to be.

Diagram 12: Distribution of people who are remunerated fairly

The 13th diagram represents the reasons that lead to resignation and which of these is the
main one that can lead the respondents to resign their work. 67 answers told us that a low salary
can lead to quit their work which demonstrate again the material part “Y Generation” is paying
attention at. 19 of the respondents would resign their work if there would be observed a
stagnation of professional development. Most of employees are getting tired and get to know
something known as rutine which means that they grew enough in that company and it’s time to
move on and get another job another experiences.

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 Diagram 13: Distribution of the reasons for job dissatisfaction that lead to resignation

The 14th and 15th diagrams are well connected and show us how a company evaluates
their employee’s and what methods they are using. One of the numbers that should alarm the
employees is the 8% from the 15th diagram. At least 8 people does not have evalution in their
organization so that the employer does not know what to improve what system from his
company is not working and how the employee is doing his job. A bad statistic can be observed
also in the 14th diagram where 3 respondents doesn’t know if they have any methods or tools for
evaluating their performances.

Diagram 14: Distribution of the methods and tools that are used for evaluating performances of the
employees by respondents

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Diagram 15: Distribution of the time companies have their evaluation of employees by respondents
 The 16th diagram shows us how many people deal with volunteer programs. There are
many reasons why 57 % of the respondents are not volunteering and it’s about time. People who
said no are working in areas that doesn’t allow you to have a lot of free time for doing
something that would not bring them money.

DISCUSSION:

Concerning our case study, data collected on the questionnaire from employees on both
countries were indexed to calculate the mean percentile (Figures: 1:2 ~ 7). Data analysis is done
using mean percentile is shown in table-1, 2 ~ 7. It is observed from the table –1 that females Y
Generation is less present on Egyptian companies (20%) than Romanian (60%), it is younger
with 5 than the Males (Median M=34; Median F=29) Table-3, 4, these generation in Romania
aspires to join those organizations which will provide them opportunities in terms of taking
benefit from the good communication (19%), good correlation between the personal and the
professional life (19%), high responsibility tasks (17%), flexibility on the work process (17%),
and collaboration (14%), then a good salary (14%).

The results from Egyptian Y Generation were approximate on the majority of factors,
except for salary where 100% of the employees' mentioned its big importance (29% of the whole
answers), the correct and efficient communication (20%), the according of high responsibility
tasks and the collaboration on the work place and process (15% respectively), the flexibility of
work (12%), and then the work-life balance (9%) acted as factors of motivation with respective
importance for the Y Generation employees.

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 Note: all the Factors provided above are necessary for the motivation of Y Generation
employees' in both countries and the difference on the Importance (presented on percentages) is
indicating the main starting points preferred and necessary to open the discussion and the
planning with while processing the establishment of strategic motivational and loyalty plan for
company's employees' in each country of our case (Romania, and Egypt). This does not exclude
the necessity of any of the factors of law percentages.

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 CONCLUSION

The persons making part of the Y Generation (from early 1981'sto late1996's) in both,
Romanian and Egyptian market, are remarkable groups that are ambitious, optimistic,
continuously working and expecting for the change and has a clear sense of where they are
going, we can see this through their answers on the survey, clear and determinate. Taking and
giving exchanged benefit from Y Generation's competencies at the workplace will help
organizations in both countries (Romania and Egypt) to achieve there ambitious goals. Many
opportunities exist to motivate Y Generation as discussed above.

There are many intervention points where HR can engage on a personal and professional
level. HR needs to understand their aspirations and motivational needs in order to implement a
successful HR intervention to engage them. HR needs to take a panoramically view for each
individual and group while creating correct, targeted, and integrated talent management strategic
plan. As findings suggested that Y Generation employees in both countries aspires to have high
variety, technical & functional competence and managerial roles, while they are motivated by
equitable salaries especially for Egyptian companies, a considerate & sympathetic supervisor to
communicate correctly and to take in consideration the equilibrium between personal and
professional life of his employees.

HR department need to work out for interventions which will satisfy and make them
actively engaged through the previous identified criterions. Suggested HR interventions in
cooperation with the rest of departments would help the organization to attract and keep its Y
Generation staffs motivated and in high spirit. It is firmly believed that, if the organization
would detect and make prevision the needs and the strengths of the Y Generation, it could take a
sustainable benefit on the coming years and achieve its strategic aspiration.

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