Browsing by Author "Torpo, Hanna"

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate what kinds of achievement goal orientation groups can be identified among young employees and to examine how the groups differ in experiences of team atmosphere, job-education correspondence and the length of the employment. In this study, motivation was examined through the concept of achievement goal orientation and team atmosphere through the notion of psychosocial work environment. The study concentrated on a specific age group, which has not been common in work motivation studies. The aim was to acknowledge a wide set of different kinds of goals at work, and therefore an instrument assessing five types of achievement goal orientations was used (mastery-intrinsic, mastery-extrinsic, performance-approach, performance-avoidance and avoidance orientation). The study focused on young adults, aged 18-30, in their working life. The respondents (n = 170) were classified into goal orientation groups by utilizing a person-oriented approach and two-step cluster analysis. Analysis of variance and cross tabulation were performed to examine the group differences. Three goal orientation groups were found in the data: mastery-oriented (46 %), performance-oriented (26 %) and avoidance-oriented (28 %). On average, the employees in this sample demonstrated high levels of mastery-intrinsic and mastery-extrinsic orientations. Mastery-oriented employees evaluated their team’s atmosphere to be better than the other two groups. Mastery-oriented young adults reported more often than expected that their job corresponded strongly to their education, whereas avoidance-oriented reported most that their job did not correspond to their education at all. Regarding the length of the employment, the groups did not differ from each other. The results of the study indicate that by investing in the team solidarity, the mastery-oriented attitude of young employees can be supported. The results are also a strong argument for the importance of helping young adults in their challenges in the context of work and other areas of life.