Enhancing Work Motivation By Promoting Work-Life Balance: Empirical Study On Career Development

Abstract

This study aims to examine the relationship between career development and work-life balance with employees’ motivation. 300 respondents of Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) of one aircraft in Indonesia were participated in this study. Career development was measured by five items developed by ( Greenhaus & Collins, 2003 ). Work life balance was measured by scale developed by (Fisher, Bulger, & Smith, 2009), while work motivation was measured by scale developed by ( Teck-hong & Waheed, 2011 ) . All items were reliable with Cronbach alpha greater than 0.7. The design of the present study is cross sectional study. Results of regression analysis indicated that career development and work-life balance significantly influence employees’ motivation with R square 14.9%, p < 0.01. The present study also found that career development show more contribution than work life balance in predicting work motivation. Findings in this study can be used to design intervention in enhancing work motivation among MRO by promoting good career development program and more balance in term of work life.

Keywords: Career DevelopmentWork-Life Balance and Work Motivation

Introduction

Employee motivation is one of prominent factor that discuss in the human resource area. This is due to motivation contributes greatly for organizational effectiveness (Isyanto & Desriani, 2013) . Highly motivated employees tend to perform well in organization (Anthony & Weide, 2015). Therefore, employee motivation should closely monitor by management and ensure that factors related to employee motivation are exist.

One of the predictor of employee motivation is career development. Career development refers to all of the technical and managerial skills employees acquire to achieve their career plans. (Mccormick, 2007) explained that career development consider as a development process by which individuals make occupational choices up to their early adulthood, to being viewed as a lifelong process of occupational decision making process that occurs at different sub-stages of one‘s life. Career development can be in the form of career path as well certain career program that employee need to go through to become promoted in their work (Greenhaus & Collins, 2003). In other word career development include learning activities, developing and mentoring employees to ensure that they navigate their career path within an organization to enhance organizational productivity.

Other than career development, work life balance also become new variable that can contribute to employee motivation. (Fisher et al., 2009) divided Work life balance as work/non-work enhancement and work/non-work conflict. According to Fisher et l (2009), at least there are two theories explained the positive and negative effect of work interference. (Kshirsagar, 2015) explain about role theory in which there are several roles accumulate in a person’s life, including roles at work (e.g., supervisor) and roles outside of work (e.g., spouse). Role interference occurs when two (or more) sets of pressures occur at the same time such that compliance with the demands of one set makes compliance with the other more difficult (Fisher et al., 2009) . However, role accumulation can also have positive consequences. (Terhadap, 2016) suggested that managing multiple roles could result in the strain of interference, but could also result in enhancement, furthermore work/nonwork interference would occur when resources in one role, such as time or energy, are depleted or perceived to be depleted via meeting the demands of the other role.

Problem Statement

Research on employee motivation was conducted in several settings, including in aircraft industry. Aircraft industry is a growing business in Indonesia. However, there is still lack of company provide air craft maintenance in Indonesia. Employees who work as the aircraft maintenance also known as the Maintenance and repair overhaul (MRO). GMF is one of the biggest aircraft maintenance in Indonesia, however result of preliminary study based on the interview with the Human resource manager and the employees, employees do not perceived career development program is effective enough due to lack of systematic career development program and objective performance measurement. Therefore, turnover rate is increasing and, low motivation due to uncertain career path that lead to low productivity. Furthermore, imbalance work and life among employees’ due to heavy work load, shift time schedule during weekend, poor leadership among supervisor who promote employees based on like or dislike create more problems among MRO and contribute as demotivating factors on employees’ performance. Therefore, the present study examines the relationship between work life balance and perceived career development toward work motivation among MRO.

Research Questions

Based on the literature mention above, there are several research questions that investigate in the present study:

• Is there significant influence of perceived career development on work motivation?

• Is there significant influence of work life balance on work motivation?

• Is there is significant influence of perceived career and work life balance on work motivation?

• Is there is significant different across demography in term of perceived career development, work life balance and work motivation?

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the present study is to examine the relationship between work life balance and perceived career development toward work motivation among MRO.

Research Methods

Sample of this research was maintenance employees at one of company GMF which engaged in providing aircraft maintenance services. The number of production base maintenance personnel at PT GMF AeroAsia are 1193. Base Maintenance is a unit that provides a variety of service routines for heavy maintenance checks, major defect fixes, aircraft exteriors, wingtip modifications, cabin repair and reconfiguration, in-flight entertainment installations, structural improvements, and cargo conversion. 300 employees were participated in the present study. Simple random sampling was used to select the respondents.

There three measurements used in the present study including, work life balance scale, perceived career and employee work motivation scale. The instrument for measuring career development variables was adapted from the scale developed by Greenhaus, Parasuraman and Wormley (1990) as cited in (Greenhaus & Collins, 2003). There are 5 items on this scale. Measured by 5 points Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree 5 = strongly agree). The instrument has been tested for reliability by Greenhaus, Parasuraman and Wormley (1990) with Cronbach's alpha 0.88. Instruments for measuring work-life balance variables were adapted from the scale developed by Fisher, Smith and Burger (2009). There are 17 items on this scale. Measured by 5 points Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree). Instruments has been tested for reliability by Fisher, Smith and Burger (2009) with cronbach's alpha for WIPL 0.91, PLIW 0.82, WEPL 0.70, PLEW 0.81.

All of these three instruments are valid wit Cronbach alpha greater than 0.8. in which career development indicate .8 cronbach alpha, while work life balance scale indicated .835 cronbach alpha and work motivation indicate 0.909 cronbach alpha.

The instrument for measuring work motivation variables was adapted from the scale developed by Ewen et al. (1966), Graen (1966), Sergiovanni (1966), House and Wigdor (1967), Lindsay et al (1967), Maidani (1991), and Pizam and Ellis (1999) in (Teck-hong & Waheed, 2011). There are 30 items on this scale. Measured by 5 points Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree).

Descriptive analysis as well as simple regression analysis was used to analyses the data. This research is cross sectional design in which all data were gather one time only.

Findings

The number of respondents with age 21-23 years are 113 people (37,70%), age 24-26 year are117 people (39%), age 27-29 year are 48 people (16%) and age ≥ 30 year are 22 people (7.30%). The majority of respondents are 21-26 years old category. 92 % of the respondents are males employees, and only eight percent of the employees are female employees. Fifty two percent of the respondents are graduated from senior high schools, thirty-seven of the respondents are graduated from Diploma programme and only eight percent are graduated from university with bachelor degrees. Most of the respondents in the present study having senior high school as the educational background. Around thirty five percent of the respondents are married and sixty-five are single. With regard to tenure, there are 57 people (19%) with working period less than 1 year. The working period 1-5 years as many as 158 people (52.7%). Work period 5- 10 years are 69 people (23%) and for tenure more than 10 years as many as 16 people (5.3%). The majority of employees’ tenure participating in this study is 1-5 years. With regard to working place, there are three hangar used in the present study. Hangar used for production unit employees of PT GMF AeroAsia base maintenance unit. It consists of hangar 1, hangar 3 and hangar 4. General description of hangar 1, 3 and 4 as follows.

Hangar 1 is used for base and heavy maintenance consisting of C-check and D-check of Boeing type aircraft for wide body type (Like: B-747). This hangar has an area of 21450 m2.Hangar 3 has an area of about 22500 m2. This hangar consists of 3 lines used for base and heavy maintenance consisting of C-Check and D-Check. Hangar 3 is used for special airbus airbus, (Like: A-330). Hangar 4 is the most recent hangar with an area of 67022 m2 with 64000 m2 production area and 17600 m2 office area, built as a base for heavy and maintenance of all narrow body planes from both Boeing and Airbus. Hangar is the largest hangar for the plane narrow body type with a maximum capacity of 16 aircraft. There are twenty nine percent of the respondents from hangar one, thirty percent from hangar tree and thirty seven percent from hangar four.

With regard to career path, they are several layers in career development of MRO in this company. Employee career growth of PT GMF AeroAsia base maintenance unit which participated in this research is Aircraft Maintenance Technician / Aircraft Structure Technician (AMT / AST), Senior Aircraft Maintenance Technician / Senior Aircaft Structure Technician (SAMT / SAST), Aircraft Maintenance Engineer / Aircraft Structure Engineer (AME / ASE) and Senior Aircraft Maintenance Engineer / Senior Aircraft Structure Engineer (SAME / SASE).The difference between maintenance and structure is maintenance for production employees who work on the aircraft system and structure for production employees who work on the aircraft structure. In this research, Four job positions as AMT / AST are 129 people (43%). SAMT / SAST as many as 154 people with percentage (51.3%). AME / ASE as many as 5 people with percentage (1.7%). And for the position of SAME / SASE as many as 12 people with percentage (4%). The majority of job positions of respondents are SAMT / SAST.

Result of descriptive study shows that, respondents in this study are moderately satisfied in term of their perceived career development ( M=17.7; SD=2.7) from the maximum score of twenty five. These sample also indicate moderate score in term of work life balance (M=51.80; SD=8.2) from maximum score of eighty five In term of work motivation, sample in the present study also indicate moderate score( M=108.6; SD=11.7) from maximum score of 150.

Hypothesis one is supported in which there is significant influence of perceived career development toward work motivation with R square twelve percent. Eighty eight percent of work motivation determined by other variables such as compensation, work design as well as working environment. This finding in line with previous study who found that perceive career development predict employee motivation (Nugroho, 2012)(Haryani, 2008). Result suggest that, organization need to ensure their employees career path to maintain their motivation high. Proper planning for career development, clear expected competencies, competencies gap analysis as well as training and several relevant interventions for enhancing performance need to be done. In the context of GMF company, career development program actually already exists, however the programme does not supported by good human resource system, therefore there is no exact time for promotion as well as lack of objectives competencies assessment. Sometime employees with senior high school educational background are having less chance to be promoted in compare to employees with diploma and bachelor degree program. Due to lack of objectives assessments, these employees feel like they do have some competencies with their coworker with diploma and bachelor educational background, but they did not promote while their friend with higher educational background had a better career path. Therefore, it is suggested that this organization carefully plan their maintenance employees career path to maintain their motivation for work.

Hypothesis two is supported in which there is significant influence of work life balance with work motivation with R square 4.6 %. Another ninety-five-point four percent of work life balance are explained by other variables such as support system, number of children and ect. This finding in line with previous study done by (Khatri & Behl, n.d.) and (Novelia, 2013) who stated that quality of employee work life balance are related with their motivation to work. If employee perceive more balance between work and non-work, they tend to be more motivated to work and happy at the work place. In the context of GMF company, some hangar having less employees than other, therefore the employees have heavy workload, more shift time during the weekend and also shortened break times during peak season. This contribute to imbalance life between work and non-work, that latter on become one of the force factor that contribute to employee demotivation. Therefore, it is suggested for this company to re design the work schedule as well as to reexamine the availability of human resource for equal work load. To maintain healthy balance between work and non-work, several intervention programme can be done such as training work life balance at the individual level as well as at the organizational level. At the individual level organization can educate employee about positive spill over, in which several roles should give more enhancement instead of giving conflict at the individual life. This balance can be attained by developing support system, building emotional and psychological strength. According to Fisher (1999), achieving a good balance between work and non-work is about accepting different role in life with minimum conflict and have control over decision that individual made regarding work and non-work issues. While at the organizational level, top management should be educated about the work life balance policy. Furthermore, several company policies should promote employees work life balance. A positive role balance culture also can be socialized at the organizational level

Hypothesis three is supported, in which there is significant influence of perceived career development and work life balance with work motivation with R square 14.9, F(2, 297), 26.04 p < 0,01. Result of regression analysis indicated that there are significant influence of both perceived career development and work life balance with employees motivation. in which the contribution of career development programme is greater than work life balance in predicting work motivation. Therefore, in the context of the present research, it is suggested that, organization ensure a good career development program for the employees, with objective and measurable standard of competencies as well as implementing more policies that promote work life balance.

Some of hypothesis four is supported, some others are not supported. There are mix findings in term of work life balance, perceived career development and work motivation score across demography variables including, age, gender, tenure, educational background, working place and job position in term of career path. There are significant different in term of work motivation across different positions, in which lower position shows lower motivation in compare to higher position. Post hoc result of ANOVA indicated that, the most significant different is occur between AMT (lowest position) with SAMT/SAST (manager and supervisor level). Manager and above most probably have less problems regarding career development in compare to MRO. Therefore, they should be more motivated than MRO in achieving reasonable target.

There is also significant different in term of work life balance across different gender, in which female employees showed lower work life balance than male employees. Female employees shows mean score (M= 48.71) and males employees shows mean score (M= 52, 17). According to conflict theory, females have more role in term of work life, therefore work life balance score become higher in females employees than males employees. In the context of the present study, there are more males’ employees than female employees. However, small number of females’ employees still need extra attention from the organization to receive more policies that can promote work life balance.

With regard to working place, there is also significant across different hangar in term of work life balance. In which hangar three shows lower work life balance in compare with other two hangar. In line with previous study, lack of human resource and heavy work load lead to low productivity that can contribute to demotivation, in the context of the present study hangar three is one of the hangar with lowest human resources (MRO) therefore, automatically they have heavier workload and more frequent shift time during weekend as well as more over time during peak seasons. These factors may contribute to lower score in term of work life in compare to others two hangar. Therefore, organization should establish a better human resource management, work schedule and compensation package for hangar with lower score of work life balance.

There is significant different in term of work life balance across different ages, in which younger employees shows higher work life balance in compare to older employees with the age of above thirty. In the context of the present study younger employees might have fewer roles, so that they might have fewer conflict and better work life balance in compare to older employees. Therefore, several interventions program can be done to enhance work life balance among older employees.

Conclusion

In conclusion, career development and work-life balance significantly influence employees’ motivation. The present study also found that career development show more contribution than work life balance in predicting work motivation. In addition, the present study also found that, males’ employees and younger employees show lower score on work life balance. Furthermore, higher positions with higher educational background are more motivated than lower position. Therefore, organization should pay attention on the career development program among lower position with non-bachelor degree. Findings in this study can be used to design intervention in enhancing work motivation among MRO by promoting good career development program and more balance in term of work life.

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