Self-Determination Theory: The Mediating Role of Generational Differences in Employee Engagement

The fulfilment of basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness exists along a continuum from amotivation to intrinsic motivation. Between these extremes is extrinsic motivation. More than ever before, we have more generational gaps in today’s workplace, and it is generally believed that younger employees differ strongly from older generations in values and motivation. Generational differences were used as the mediating variable in this study, which examines the predictive validity of employee engagement using extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse data obtained from 564 respondents across different generational cohorts using structured questionnaire. The study found that generational differences do not positively mediate between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation and engagement outcomes. Generational differences in the workplace were found to be mostly exaggerated. Also, intrinsic motivation was more positively related to employee engagement than extrinsic motivation across all generations. Furthermore, we found that even though extrinsic and intrinsic motivation operates on different spectrums, they complement each other. These findings have important implications for managers, particularly because employee engagement is a critical enabler for productivity and employee retention.