Essay: Motivation – millennials, employees of soft play industry

The purpose of this report is to research methods, options and to conduct research on the topic: To investigate relationship between motivation millennials employees and motivation in at soft-play workplace. Thus, the purpose of this study is to understand what motivation means to Millennials and what soft play industry do to motivate millennials.
A case study of soft play industry (kidzabout, jungle kingdom, Jolle rogers).
The proposal will show the topic, soft play industries study of (Kidzabout, Jungle kingdom,jolle rogers).
Theoretical research rationale, practical and personal will be discussed .in addition literature review on the topic, research objective, aim and methodology will be introduced.
Conclusion will be discussed at the end of the research proposal.
Research Rationale/Theoretical
There are number of studies on how to motivate millennials at work and working performance. Majority of the researches has been done by the older generations and lack of the perspective of millennials and how they feel motivation is being managed at their workplace. Older generations like Generation X and Baby Boomers are retiring therefore Millennials will eventually become future leaders. Therefore, it is important to understand what motivates millennials and what are the features that they perceive as commons. As well as how soft play industry motivates their young employees.
Research Rationale/Practical
Enable me to understand what motivates Millennials and how they perceive motivation in a workplace. Demonstrate the importance of managing motivation in the soft play industry. Help small business owners understand the importance of motivation and what effect it has on their young employees. Understanding how Millennials perceive world and what features, values matters to them will enable managers to address the right motivation techniques.
Research Rationale/Personal
I am a small business owner and the topic of this study has been close to my personal interest for a very long time now. Some of my employees are Millennials and I decided to examine their perspective to work motivation in a soft play industry. I want to understand what factors motivates Millennials and what they perceive as a common or meaningless. I observed that what can motivate older generation employees, does not motivate Millennials. Thus, this research will enable me to understand what rewards and motivates Millennials.
Background/ Definition/ Literature review
Background
Millen are usually seen as people who have been born between 1981-2000 (Finney 2008). However, there is no distinct line between the ages. Therefore, the starting and ending years should be more seen as indicators then specific time lines. Millennials has evolved from Generation X and recognise and values different motivation practices. It is important to understand that every generation recognise and values different motivation approaches therefore certain motivation actions can only work for from a certain generation. According to Finney (2008) Millennials can be seen as very goal orientated, well-educated and impatient then other generations. There are certain traits that can be seen on Millennials such us drive, confidence, strive for promotion. Many of the managers are still from the baby boomer’s generation and created reward and motivation programmes for baby boomer’s generation. it is clear that this motivation programme will not be very effective n other generation, especially Millenails who have different priorities and are driven by different aspects. Soft play industry such as Kids about is ….
Literature Review
In my study, I have included 3 motivation theories that I believe are prevalent on how to motivate and understand Millennials. Ages of theories vary however are still an inspiration and base to many researches. Katz, Blumler & Gurevitch (1974) introduced theory of Uses and Gratification. I have chosen this theory as it shows how people use website, blogs and other channels of mass receivers to motivate to fulfil their motivational needs. Theory list five assumptions such us; audience conceived as active, relationship between source of communication and audience, media world is very competitive, goals are concluded from their audience and the fifth one mention the cultural significance of mass communication.
The main idea behind this study is to stress that Millennials use their preferred media themselves to give them their needs gratification. Sepp et.al (2011) research points out that media are powerful motivators for Millennials.
One of Herzberg theories is KITA that was introduced in 1987, making it fresh enough to use in study about Millennials. Theory is about giving employees a kick to motivate them. According to Herzberg (1987) most of performance incentives related to pay increases and bonuses can actually harm and demotivate employees. Herzberg called above motivators extrinsic motivators. That kind of motivators are given from a third party; such as bonuses on the top of basic salary would be given from an external source. However, its work mentioning that the work has not changed therefore to keep the employee motivated employer will have to continue to provide financial gratification on the top of the basic salary. KITA is about motivating employees intrinsically (Herzberg 1987). Intrinsic approach is about making the work fulfilling and satisfying, where the gratification comes from the work satisfaction. KITA introduced to types of approaches Negative Physical KITA and Positive Physical KITA. Neither of those approaches work well as the main focus is to constantly kick employees to perform better. Herzberg recommendation was to enrich employee’s jobs which would lead them to jobs satisfaction. Herzberg (1987) believed that his intrinsic approach to motivation by giving employees ownership and accountability would increase their motivation.  Communicating directly to employees, taking on challenging tasks, giving sense of leadership would naturally increase their motivation.
Third motivation theory is Fair Process by Kim & Mauborgne 1997. Theory focuses on showing employees that they are respected and that their opinion matters. There are 3 main factors involved in the theory such us: Engagement where employees participate in decision making processes, Explanation where management explains to employees what is happening in the business and third factor focuses on Expectation clarity where there is transparency in decision making process.
Research questions
Describe what motivation means to you?
Do you feel motivated at your current workplace?
How would you like to be motivated?
Do you believe there is a link between work motivation and performance?
Share your experience of effective and ineffective work motivation?
Research aim and objectives
Research aim
To identify how millennial employees are motivated in the soft play industry
Research objectives
To critically analyse how Millennials are motivated in a soft play industry.
To conduct interviews with employees from soft play industry and to identify if they feel motivated at work
To analyse the data collected and understand what motivate employees in a soft play industry.
To offer recommendation to manager on how to motivate Millennials
Methodology
The purpose of this study is to provide results and understanding on how Millennials are motivated and what matters to them. This study can be utilised for academic and managerial purposes. In order to obtain the correct data, I will carefully select soft play industry employees based on their age, background and experience.
Research approach is inductive where I will be focusing on the small sample size compared to the larger population.
I will also use semi -structured interview method. Semi-structured interview method assumes that the interviewees understands the subject and are eligible to participate. Semi-structured interviews are useful when sample size is small. In order to make semi-structured successful I paid extra attention to the question that will be asked to get the best outcome.  In this case I will focus on investigating employee’s feelings, perceptions and earlier experiences.
My research will be qualitative where the focus lies on the individual employees. In depth interviews will be conducted with employees from soft play industry. The main idea behind the interviews is to understand the Millennials pint of view and perception on work motivation. After interviews collected data will be analysed and findings will be provided. Research will be based on the primary data from employees, however secondary data will be also explained through literature review.
Research limitations
One of the major limitations of the study is the time and financial resources. If financial resources would be available there would also be more time to conduct empirical researches. All interviewees are aged 17-23 from a soft play industry it will only show a picture on Millennials from this industry and provide quite narrow perspective. In addition is the number of interviews would be larger there would be more data to compare and analyse the findings. Last limitation is related to the researcher conducting the study if I would have been more experienced in conducting reaches the study would have been more comprehensive.
Conclusion
In conclusion, my research is based on all Millennials, employees of soft play industry and aged 17-23. Aims and objectives of the study were formulated to understand the perception of Millennials on work motivation and what motivates them at work. Questions formulated will help to answer aim of the research on how Millennial employees are motivated in the soft play industry. Theoretical approaches used will enable me to understand the perspective.  Study will enable me to investigate on how Millennials perceive work motivation and what factors motivate them at work. Research will also showcase what is treated as common by Millennials and how they feel about the current work motivation methods used in their workplaces. As mentioned study is limited to soft play industry only and the limitations of the study has been identified in the earlier paragraph.