Employee involvement and job satisfaction: a tale of the millennial generation
| Published date | 01 April 2019 |
| Pages | 374-388 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-04-2018-0100 |
| Date | 01 April 2019 |
| Author | Gustavo A. García,Diego René Gonzales-Miranda,Oscar Gallo,Juan Pablo Roman-Calderon |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
Employee involvement and job
satisfaction: a tale of the
millennial generation
Gustavo A. García
Department of Economics, Universidad EAFIT, Medellin, Colombia
Diego René Gonzales-Miranda and Oscar Gallo
Department of Organization and Management, Universidad EAFIT,
Medellin, Colombia, and
Juan Pablo Roman-Calderon
Department of International Business, Universidad EAFIT, Medellin, Colombia
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to empirically study the effect of employee involvement in the
workplace on job satisfaction for millennial workers in Colombia.
Design/methodology/approach –Data were obtained from a sample of 2103 millennial employees
working in 11 companies of different sectors located in the five main cities of Colombia. Ordered probit
models were estimated to study the effect of employee involvement on job satisfaction, in general, and how
different forms of participative decision making in the workplace produce different impacts on individual
satisfaction with objective and intrinsic aspects of the job, in particular.
Findings –The empirical results show that, for millennial workers, there is a positive link between employee
involvement and job satisfaction. Moreover, there is a higher positive impact on job satisfaction when
millennial workers participate in decisions on general aspects of the company than when they participate in
specific decisions such as those concerning teamwork or main tasks at work. Another interesting result is that
millennial workers attach high importance to intrinsic aspects of their jobs (such asthe possibility to use their
knowledge in the work), which may improve their satisfaction in a higher participative environment.
Research limitations/implications –The results can present bias due to the use of self-report data from
millennial workers. Another potential limitation is the cross-sectional nature of the data, which does not
control for unobserved individual effects. The study may be extended to other developing countries to help
identify results more precisely for different contexts.
Originality/value –The value lies in explorin g the relationship between employee involvem ent and job
satisfaction for mille nnial workers in the cont ext of a developing countr y. The paper simultaneou sly
considers different ty pes of employee involveme nt and estimates their eff ects on different facets of
job satisfaction.
Keywords Employee involvement, Job satisfaction, Colombia, Millennial workers
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Allowing employees to participate in job-related decisions is arguably one of the most
popular strategies used by many organizations to increase employees’level of job
satisfaction (Harley et al., 2000; Scott et al., 2003; Pacheco and Webber, 2016). Although there
is a substantial body of research that links employee involvement in the workplace and job
satisfaction, there is scant evidence of this relationship among millennial (or Generation Y)
workers. This generation, which in this study represents the individuals who were born
between 1980 and 1999 (Strauss and Howe, 1992; Zemke et al., 2000; Lancaster and Stillman,
2002), is thought to be significantly different in terms of outlooks and preferences, in
general, and work values, in particular, when compared to previous generations (see the
special issue of Journal of Business and Psychology (2010) on millennials at work for a broad
Employee Relations: The
International Journal
Vol. 41 No. 3, 2019
pp. 374-388
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-04-2018-0100
Received 6 April 2018
Revised 9 July 2018
Accepted 19 July 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0142-5455.htm
This study was fundedby the academic unit Alta Dirección of Universidad EAFIT (Medellín, Colombia).
374
ER
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