Turnover Intentions and Work Motivations of Millennial Employees in Federal Service

In the face of looming retirements in the federal service, retaining and motivating the next generation of workers has emerged as a critical concern for human resource professionals in federal agencies. While a growing body of work provides advice and strategies on making government work more inviting for the members of the Millennial generation, those born after 1982, not much is known about the turnover intentions of those already in public service. Do Millennial workers in the federal agencies resemble older workers in terms of their work motivations and turnover intentions? This study compares Millennial and older generation workers in U.S. federal agencies, in terms of their turnover intentions and work motivations. The analyses show that they are more likely than their older counterparts to report an intention to leave their jobs, and most work attributes do not matter more for Millennial workers’ decisions to leave.

[1]  Lynne C. Lancaster,et al.  When generations collide : who they are, why they clash, how to solve the generational puzzle at work , 2002 .

[2]  E. Ng,et al.  Managing the New Workforce: International Perspectives on the Millennial Generation , 2012 .

[3]  Jonathan L. Johnson,et al.  On the Use of "Intent to..." Variables in Organizational Research: An Empirical and Cautionary Assessment , 1999 .

[4]  J. Guzmán.  Regression Models for Categorical Dependent Variables Using Stata , 2013 .

[5]  The Next Generation Challenge: Incorporating the Local Government Managers of the Future , 2010 .

[6]  J. S. Long,et al.  Regression models for categorical dependent variables using Stata, 2nd Edition , 2005 .

[7]  E. Deci,et al.  Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions. , 2000, Contemporary educational psychology.

[8]  Annie Hondeghem,et al.  Revisiting the Motivational Bases of Public Service: Twenty Years of Research and an Agenda for the Future , 2010 .

[9]  Elliroma Gardiner,et al.  Generational differences in personality and motivation: Do they exist and what are the implications for the workplace? , 2008 .

[10]  Noel Landuyt,et al.  Leadership and Reform: Mapping the Causal Pathways of Performance Information Use , 2009 .

[11]  C. L. Jurkiewicz,et al.  Generational Comparisons of Public Employee Motivation , 1998 .

[12]  J. Kellough,et al.  Cross-Agency Comparisons of Quit Rates in the Federal Service , 1995 .

[13]  J. Perry,et al.  The Public Service of the Future , 2010 .

[14]  N. Howe,et al.  13th Gen: Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail? , 1993 .

[15]  Stacey L. Connaughton,et al.  The Impacts of Communication and Multiple Identifications on Intent to Leave , 1999 .

[16]  C. Pinder,et al.  Work motivation in organizational behavior, 2nd ed. , 2008 .

[17]  David M. Johnstone.  Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation , 2001 .

[18]  Andrew B. Whitford,et al.  Exit, Voice, Loyalty, and Pay: Evidence from the Public Workforce , 2007 .

[19]  Gregory B. Lewis,et al.  Turnover Intention and Turnover Behavior , 2012 .

[20]  P. E. Crewson,et al.  Public-Service Motivation: Building Empirical Evidence of Incidence and Effect , 1997 .

[21]  D. Houston.  “Walking the Walk” of Public Service Motivation: Public Employees and Charitable Gifts of Time, Blood, and Money , 2006 .

[22]  Nicky Dries,et al.  Exploring four generations' beliefs about career: Is “satisfied” the new “successful”? , 2008 .

[23]  Bram Steijn,et al.  Person-Environment Fit and Public Service Motivation , 2008 .

[24]  G. Starks.  The Effect of Person–Job Fit on the Retention of Top College Graduates in Federal Agencies , 2007 .

[25]  Robert DeBard,et al.  Millennials coming to college , 2004 .

[26]  Gregory B. Lewis,et al.  Who Wants to Work for the Government , 2002 .

[27]  John D. Marvel,et al.  So Hard to Say Goodbye? Turnover Intention among U.S. Federal Employees , 2011 .

[28]  J. G. Caillier,et al.  Are Teleworkers Less Likely to Report Leave Intentions in the United States Federal Government Than Non-teleworkers Are? , 2013 .

[29]  Francine D. Blau,et al.  Race and Sex Differences in Quits by Young Workers , 1981 .

[30]  Carole L. Jurkiewicz,et al.  Generation X and the Public Employee , 2000 .

[31]  D. Moynihan,et al.  Explaining Turnover Intention in State Government , 2008 .

[32]  Jeannette Taylor.  Public service motivation and work preferences of the Millennials in Australia , 2012 .

[33]  Jean M. Twenge,et al.  Generational Changes in Materialism and Work Centrality, 1976-2007 , 2013, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[34]  Elise C. Freeman,et al.  Generational differences in young adults' life goals, concern for others, and civic orientation, 1966-2009. , 2012, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[35]  Anthony M. Bertelli.  Determinants of Bureaucratic Turnover Intention: Evidence from the Department of the Treasury , 2006 .

[36]  John K. Crum,et al.  Working for America , 1999 .

[37]  D. McFadden,et al.  Specification tests for the multinomial logit model , 1984 .

[38]  Leonard Bright.  Does Public Service Motivation Really Make a Difference on the Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intentions of Public Employees? , 2008 .

[39]  M. Winograd,et al.  Millennial Momentum: How a New Generation Is Remaking America , 2011 .

[40]  B. Jimenez,et al.  Does Performance Management Affect Job Turnover Intention in the Federal Government? , 2011 .

[41]  Gregory B. Lewis,et al.  Turnover Rates in Federal White-Collar Employment: Are Women more Likely to Quit than Men? , 1989 .

[42]  Scott Keeter,et al.  Millennials: Confident. Connected. Open to Change. , 2010 .

[43]  C. D. Sutton,et al.  Generational differences: revisiting generational work values for the new millennium , 2002 .

[44]  Stanley Lemeshow,et al.  Goodness-of-fit Test for a Logistic Regression Model Fitted using Survey Sample Data , 2006 .

[45]  John L. Cotton,et al.  Employee Turnover: A Meta-Analysis and Review with Implications for Research , 1986 .

[46]  B. Jorgensen.  Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y? , 2003 .

[47]  J. Twenge.  Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before , 2006 .

[48]  Kenneth J. Meier,et al.  Employee Turnover and Organizational Performance: Testing a Hypothesis from Classical Public Administration , 2007 .

[49]  Leonard Bright.  Why Age Matters in the Work Preferences of Public Employees: A Comparison of Three Age-Related Explanations , 2010 .

[50]  Gregory B. Lewis.  Turnover and the Quiet Crisis in the Federal Civil Service. , 1991 .

[51]  David Kettler,et al.  The Problem of Generations , 2017 .

[52]  Alan C. Acock,et al.  A Gentle Introduction to Stata , 2005 .

[53]  E. Ng,et al.  New Generation, Great Expectations: A Field Study of the Millennial Generation , 2010 .

[54]  Soonhee Kim.  Factors Affecting State Government Information Technology Employee Turnover Intentions , 2005 .

[55]  Sally Coleman Selden,et al.  A Model of Voluntary Turnover in State Government , 2000 .