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However the results revealed that participation in Walt-Disney-provided training and development activity has no direct relationship with intrinsic motivation, ...
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An Honours Degree Project Submitted to the School of Business in Partial Fulfillment of the Graduation Requirement for the Degree of Bachelor of Business Administration (Honours) Hong Kong Baptist UniversityHong Kong April 2009
TABLE OF CONTNETS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………...................................... iii
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First of all, I would like to express my sincere thankfulness to my project supervisor – Professor V. Lee. Hamilton for her valuable guidance and insightful advice on this project. I am grateful to her professional opinions and continuous support throughout this project. Secondly, I would like to say thank you to my classmates Anthony and Ming who have provided me opinions and encouragement in the whole research process. I would also like to thank all my Disney foreign friends who have spared their valuable time in helping me to distribute the questionnaires electronically. Finally, I would like to express my truthful gratitude to all respondents who have spent their precious time to finish the questionnaires. Without the support from anyone above, this project can never be realized. Thank you very much!
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Data collected from a sample of Walt Disney World Resort employees (N=111) was used to study the relationship between participation in Walt-Disney-provided training and development activity and employees’ working attitudes. Results of regression analysis revealed that significantly positive relationship exists between amount of time in training and employees’ intrinsic motivation and job satisfaction, and perceived helpfulness of training has a positive relationship with intrinsic motivation, job satisfaction and affective commitment. However the results revealed that participation in Walt-Disney-provided training and development activity has no direct relationship with intrinsic motivation, job satisfaction and affective commitment. Suggestions and recommendations were discussed and given following the results of analysis.
The Walt Disney Company provides extensive training opportunities for the program participants through its own “Disney University”. Undoubtedly training can surely upgrade knowledge and skills of program participants, however, the questions of whether these training opportunities can lead to improved program participants’ working attitude remain unanswered. Therefore this study tries to examine whether the training participation of the Walt Disney World’s program participants would have any positive effect on participants’ working attitude, i.e. intrinsic motivation, job satisfaction and affective commitment. Accordingly, the objectives of this study are: (1) To investigate the influence of Walt Disney World program participants’ training participation, amount of training and perceived helpfulness of training on participants’ intrinsic motivation. (2) To investigate the influence of program participants’ training participation, amount of training and perceived helpfulness of training on participants’ job satisfaction. (3) To investigate the influence of program participants’ training participation, amount of training and perceived helpfulness of training on participants’ affective commitment.
2.1 Employee Development Porter (1990) states that the more industries spend on employee training and development, the more competitive those industries will become. He observes that education and training expenditure is critical in forming national competitive advantage. Porter also notes that organizations must consistently invest in employee development through their own training and development programs to remain competitive in market. He points out how Japanese companies have trained highly skilled workers through their own educational programs. He contrasts this to some American companies that are afraid to make similar investment because they are worried that employees may leave the company and join other competitor organizations after training. In a certain extent, this may be true. However from a wider perspective, Michael Porter describes that the employees who choose to leave their companies can bring benefit to the national economy by working for other employers and customers. 2.2 Human Capital Building It is noted by Blair and Kochan (2000) that the economic value brought to US economy from organizations and other companies shows a trend of increasing depending on human capital other than physical capital. They think human capital is
Degree Program Sponsorship. 2.4 Amount of training and Perceived Helpfulness of training It was found by studies (Saks, 1996, p.436) that amount and perceived helpfulness of training are both positively correlated to job satisfaction and affective commitment, and negatively correlated to intention to quit the organization. This study will do similar investigation, but for a group of Walt Disney Internship program participants. The construct “Amount of Training” measures the number of weeks spent in Walt-Disney-provided training and development programs during the International College Program or College Program. The construct “Perceived Helpfulness of Training” measures the level of perceived helpfulness that each respondent has. 2.5 Intrinsic Motivation Rewards are classified into extrinsic and intrinsic rewards by motivational theorists. It was stated by Vecchio (1991) that extrinsic rewards are external to people and examples are salary and benefits, while intrinsic rewards are internal to people and examples are personal growth, responsibility, accomplishment and competence. Leading to these types of feeling, intrinsic rewards can have impact on extrinsic rewards positively or negatively. Wiersma (1992, p.101) explains if recipients take extrinsic rewards as recognition of their accomplishment and competence, this will
generate a positive impact. However if in a certain extent recipients take the rewards as being controlled, negative impact will be formed. Deci and Ryan (1992, 1987) connect intrinsic motivation with improved performance and enhanced creativity. He notes organizations have to provide opportunities to meet the people’s intrinsic needs which could be anything that the people desire to accomplish or know. Many content theories of motivation integrate into a construct “Intrinsic Motivation”. These include theories of Maslow, Alderfer and Herzberg. Maslow (1987) emphasizes individual need for self-actualization. Alderfer (1972) states a need of people to master and control his/her surrounding environment. The Two Factor Theory of Herzberg (1959) explains the individual needs of motivator factors, i.e. advancement, achievement, personal growth, responsibility and achievement and recognition. In this study, the construct “intrinsic motivation” is established according to motivation conceptualizations of Thierry (1990) since these conceptualization contain most of the motivation theories above. The following hypotheses are proposed: H1a: Participation in Walt-Disney-provided training and development programs positively influences the intrinsic motivation of Disney employees. H1b: For employees participating in one or more Walt-Disney-provided
Saks (1996) conducted a survey on 152 junior accountants to investigate whether there is any correlation between the amount and perceived helpfulness of training, and outcomes of work. It was found by Saks that “training amount and helpfulness were both positively correlated to job satisfaction, organizational and professional commitment, and ability to cope, and negatively correlated to intention to quit the organization and profession.” Saks commented that the actual time spent in training and development activity may not be as influential as the person’s subjective feeling on the amount of training he/she received. Saks measured the amount and perceived helpfulness of training from 152 junior accountants to determine if their expectations and needs for the training were met. This study duplicates a part of Sak’s study, but puts it in the framework of Walt Disney International College/College Program participants to decide if the same relationship exists. Therefore the following two hypotheses are proposed: H2b: For employees participating in one or more Walt-Disney-provided training and development programs, the amount of training has a positive influence on overall job satisfaction of Disney employees. H2c: For employees participating in one or more Walt-Disney-provided training and development programs, the perceived helpfulness of training has a positive influence on overall job satisfaction of Disney employees.
2.7 Affective Commitment Organizational commitment is a measure to indicate how strong an individual wants to gain identification with, get involved with, and maintain membership in a particular organization. Meyer and Allen (1991) define the three constructs of organizational commitment as affective commitment which refers to the psychological attachment to the organization; continuance commitment which refers to the costs related to leaving the organization; and normative commitment which refers to a perceived obligation to remain with the organization. The three components of commitment are respectively described as “the product of emotional attachments (affective commitment); the costs of leaving, such as losing salary or seniority (continuance commitment); and the individual’s personal values (normative commitment). This study leaves out continuance commitment and normative commitment but mainly singles out affective commitment as construct to be measured. It is because the target respondents in this study are Walt Disney International College Program or College Program participants who on the average only take a 3-month to 12-month internship working at Walt Disney World Resort, that means they know exactly when their employment with Walt Disney Company will end. Therefore it would be quite impossible for this group of employees to have continuance and normative
influence on affective commitment of Disney employees. H3c: For employees participating in one or more Walt-Disney-provided training and development programs, the perceived helpfulness of training has a positive influence on affective commitment of Disney employees.
2.8 Theoretical model The hypotheses above can be depicted in the following theoretical models.
Participation in training (+) Amount of Training (+) Helpfulness of Training (+)
Satisfaction (+)^ Job
Dependent Variable
Independent Variable
Participation intraining (+)
Amount of Training (+) Helpfulness of Training (+)
Intrinsic Motivation (+)
Dependent Variable
Independent Variable
3.1 Research Design This study aims to investigate the Walt Disney International College program and College program participants’ participation in company-provided training and development activity and its effect on participants’ working attitude, i.e. intrinsic motivation, job satisfaction and affective commitment. Most of the questions in this study were chosen from an existing survey of a foreign dissertation (Holden, 2002). The questionnaire includes intrinsic motivation measure, job satisfaction measure, affective commitment measure and other additional demographic information. But there were some minor changes tailor-made to the situation of the Walt Disney World Resort employees. 3.2 Sample and Procedures The target respondents chosen for this study were the Walt Disney International College Program or College Program participants working in the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida US. All of them were young employees with entry-level positions. Most of respondents were from US and China and the rest of them were from all over the world. The researcher of this study once participated in the Walt Disney International College Program in 2007 summer, therefore this researcher distributed all the questionnaires electronically with the help of his friends made in the Walt
Disney World Resort. Questionnaires in only English were used in order to suit the language need of international respondents. Cover letters were attached with the questionnaires to state the purpose of the study and information for contacting the researcher, and to guarantee the confidentiality of the responses. 230 e-mails were sent to invite potential respondents to fill in the questionnaires, and 111 questionnaires were finally finished, yielding a response rate of 48.3%. 3.3 Measures Participation in Training and Development Programs (Independent Variable) The independent variable “Participation in Training and Development Programs” represented employees’ participation in one or more Walt-Disney-provided training and development programs during the International College Program or College Program. Respondents were asked to check a box to show participation in each type of program. The Participation in Training and Development Programs (PTP) Index indicated a count of total number of programs attended. Please refer to Appendix (B) Questionnaire for the list of training and development activity included. Amount of Time in Training (Independent Variable) The independent variable “Amount of Time in Training” represented how long the respondents spent in Walt-Disney-provided training and development activities.
