Generation Y ’ s Work Values and Fit Assessment : A Study in Malaysian Context

Since 2000, generation Y has been entering into the workplace in great numbers (Lee et al., 2012). The size of the generation Y workforce in Malaysia has reached over 50% of the total workforce (Angeline, 2011). This signifies that the generation Y workforce becomes the main pillar of the Malaysian economy. However, the reality of generational workforce differences at the workplace has been acknowledged and backed up by scientific facts very recently.


Introduction
Since 2000, generation Y has been entering into the workplace in great numbers (Lee et al., 2012).The size of the generation Y workforce in Malaysia has reached over 50% of the total workforce (Angeline, 2011).This signifies that the generation Y workforce becomes the main pillar of the Malaysian economy.However, the reality of generational workforce differences at the workplace has been acknowledged and backed up by scientific facts very recently.Such a reality is realised through the implementation of rigorous methodologies (i.e., time lag studies and cross temporal methods), rather than implementing a cross sectional method that confounds the generational effects with career/maturity __________________________________________________________________________ ______________ Abdelbaset Queiri, Nizar Dwaikat and Haruna Yelwa (2016), Journal of Southeast Asian Research, DOI: 10.5171/2016.346903Since then, several scholarly studies have attempted to find meaningful differences in generational workforce work values, personality traits and life goals, with the utilization of time lag studies (Kowske et al. 2010; Twenge et al., 2010;Twenge, 2010;Twenge and Campbell, 2008).These studies concluded that generational differences exist.However, it would not be accepted that such differences are absolute.Instead, the generational workforces share some characteristics and differ in others; such characteristics are brought with them into the workplace and affect their workplace attitudes and behaviours.
Among the different characteristics, understanding the preferred work values for the generation Y workforce in Malaysia becomes mandatory for organisations.Work values gain particular attention, as they play an essential role in demonstrating individuals' needs and goals.They are regarded as influential, basic and salient (Cennamo & Gardner, 2008).The importance of work values could be rooted in the vocational behavioural studies, which posit that work values are relevant in explaining attitudes, behaviours and making decisions in the workplace.Essentially, work values are contextualized, express human needs and are relative to the motivational aspects of an individual's life (McAdams & Olson, 2010).More importantly, work values peak during the early adulthood; they remain enduring throughout one's life time (Twenge et al., 2010).
Given that the generation Y workforce is the latest group featured at the workplace, many of their work values are not well known by organisations.
Hence, understanding generation Y's preferred work values is helpful to engage in strategies that match generation Y's needs; such strategies could be retention, motivation and with regards to influence its performance among other strategies.
Unlike Western countries, the generation Y workforce in Malaysia is exposed to different life events, such as economic events and cultural backgrounds.Thus, it is worthwhile to investigate generation Y's work values in the context of Malaysia, rather than stereotyping the desired work values from the perspective of Western countries.Moreover, Malaysia has three main ethnicities, which are Malay, Chinese and Indian.Therefore, each of these ethnical groups has been exposed to their own rearing practices and sub-cultural backgrounds, and this, in turn, may influence the preferred generation Y's work values during the formative years.
Accordingly, this study firstly aims to identify the most preferred work values for the generation Y workforce in general.Secondly, it aims to investigate meaningful differences in the preferred work values among the three different types of ethnicities for the generational Y workforce in Malaysia.Thirdly, this study assesses the extent that these work values are supplied from the perspective of generation Y's employees.This, in turn, enables the assessment of the degree of fit between the desirable work values and the supplied work values by organisations.

Generation Y Workforce in Malaysia
The generation Y workforce, interchangeably known as millennials, or echo boomers, are the latest members to enter the workplace.Although there are inconsistencies with regards to when generation Y starts or ends in the literature, there is a prevalent consensus that a generation is born within the same time span of two decades, in the sense that, during the two decades, fundamental life events are experienced at the developmental stage.Two decades are sufficient to notice a decline in the birth rate of generation X, which signifies the start of a new generation (Kupperschmidt, 2000).Hence, for the purpose of this research, generation Y is defined as those who are born between the years of 1980 and 2000 (Hess & Jepsen, 2009)

Work Values Typologies
Another issue that adds to the complex nature of work values is the existence of numerous typologies of work values.The wide range of work values could be attributed to the scope and number of work values under analysis, which resulted in the proliferation of many work value labels (Trede & Schweri, 2013).For instance, Hei and Chu (2008) utilised the Super's work values inventory scale with the aid of exploratory factor analysis and second order confirmatory analysis.The outcome of their study included three dimensions, which were self-fulfilment, tangible rewards and liberal spirit.On the other hand, Westerman and Yamamura (2007)

Work Values in Malaysian Context
The magnitude of preferences of each generational workforce pertaining these work values has been inconclusive.The results are indecisive to confirm the higher preference of a particular generation for a particular work value more than the other generations.The inconclusive conclusion results are further compounded with the use of a cross sectional study, which confounds career effects and time effects with generational effects (Twenge et

Sample and data collection
The selection of the sample design was guided by the following criteria; the current study uses a non probability sampling method.More specifically, a purposive sampling method was utilised due to two main reasons.The first reason is that this study considers an employed generation Y employee that has at least one year of working experience.According to Lim (2013), although generation Y employees are born between 1980 and 2000, there is a need of mature work conception.Consequently, choosing a generation Y employee with experience at the workplace would constitute for adequate respondents for this study.The second reason is that generation Y selected participants should be employees with qualification, professionalism or have an educational background.According to Kim et al. (2009), work values preferences may differ between skilled labour and manual labour, and between educated employees and non-educated employees.Additionally, this segment is important to organizations, since they represent a major source of hiring for skilled jobs.
In total, 350 self reported questionnaires were distributed at various service organisations around the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor area.These organisations are known to employ a majority of generation Y employees, such as: the business process outsourcing sector, hospitality sector, health sector and etc.
The self-reported questionnaires begin with demographic questions, such as the age of respondents and years of experience, in order to identify whether the respondents meet the specified sampling criteria.Respondents who do not meet the sampling criteria are excluded from further analysis.
Overall, a total of 318 self-reported questionnaires were retained for further analysis; the rest did not meet the prespecified criteria of sampling.Those who do not belong to the generation Y cohort were excluded.Also, those who had more than 5% of missing data were excluded.

Measures
This study uses the Work Values Scale (WVS), developed by Lyons (2004), which consists of 31 items that aim to represent five work values dimensions (extrinsic, intrinsic, status, freedom and altruistic values).The respondents are asked to indicate the desirability level of having a job with 31 items in the survey, using 5point scale, ranging from 1 ("very undesirable") to 5 ("very desirable").
For the purpose of assessing the perceived fit with work values, the respondents are asked another time to indicate the extent the 31 items were supplied by their current organisation.A commensurate measuring scale was utilised, which is the same scale described in measuring work values desirability.Thus, respondents are asked to indicate the extent that the 31 items are provided by their organisations, using 5point scale, ranging from 1 ("to no extent at all") to 5 ("to a very great extent").

Analysis
The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPPS, version 20) was used to perform the analysis and achieve the objectives of this study.First, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed to group the multiple indicators to their corresponding constructs according to the content.Second, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was utilized using Amos 18 to establish the construct uni-dimensionality, which is represented by the construct validity.
Thereafter, reliability of the constructs is assessed to ensure the internal consistency of the respondents.Subsequently, descriptive analysis was performed to rank the preferred work values according to respondents' perceptions; the ranking is based on the mean score.
Furthermore, an ANOVA one way test was performed to investigate the differences in the desirability level for the different work values among the three ethnic groups.A discrepancies score between the desirable work values and supplied work values on each work value dimension was used to measure the fit.

Results
All the items in both forms have univariate normality, and there was no sign of univariate outliers.The implementation of EFA had resulted in 17 2012), who had found a significant difference towards the preferences of certain work values (extrinsic vs. intrinsic).Their findings could be due to the small sample size used (n = 118).

Conclusion and Implications
The most desirable work values for generation Y employees are extrinsic rewards.This finding may reflect Western findings, which show an increasing preference towards extrinsic rewards, as generation Y employees face financial obligations and lack the internal locus of control.This reflects the need of maintaining good relationships with supervisors and co-workers.

Following
the recommendation ofHair et al. (1998) andBentler (1990), the measurement model shows a reasonable goodness of fit (CFI = 0.94, TLI = 0.92, and RMSEA = 0.053).The work values model for organizational form shows a reasonable fit in terms of the data (SRMR = 0.069 and CFI = 0.90).
Concurring with Lyons et al.'s (2010) work values conception, in this research, work values are expressed in terms of the relative desirability and preferences towards various aspects related to the workplace.For instance, if an individual prefers an interesting and challenging job, it could be considered that the individual holds an intrinsic work value.

Table 4 : Perceived work values fit descriptive statistics
As shown inTable 4, the desirability of all work values factors exceed the level of being supplied by organizations; this is indicated by a positive means score.Otherwise, it would be negative in the case the supplied work values exceed the desirable work values.In this sense, organizations fall short to provide the desirable work values based on the respondents' perception.Given this, generation Y employees encounter the highest discrepancy score with freedom work values, and the lowest discrepancy score with altruistic work values.