Lack of motivation?
The science engagement field needs more professional personnel management
| Estimated reading time: 20 minutes.
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I have been interested in motivation theories for a long time. In my position as a Management board member of the AHHAA Science Centre I have conducted hundreds of job, development or exit interviews with employees. I have taken many Human Resources courses over time and read books about staff motivation. I have seen first-hand how people have different reasons and motivations for why they work. Common theories like the generation theory or public sector motivation theory easily explain some of the reasons for our employees’ motivation. Yet there are always those who just love the special atmosphere of the science centre and who are driven by their passion to be part of it. Our own science centre was chosen as the “Dream job place” in Estonia in 2016 in a 360-degree study conducted by the Marketing Institute and a special committee. The competition was tough then and it still is.
In order to write this article I wrote to contacts in more than ten European science centres and museums, asking peers to share their staff motivation practices. I was surprised to receive almost no feedback. I know that most science centres and museums do not have a personnel policy or a personnel manager inside the organisation. They employ personnel specialists handling legal procedures, employment documents etc. but when it comes to personnel management there seems to be a gap. In the long run I believe that this could lead to serious problems since the competition for ‘the good people’ is hard already with big for-profit companies in the market. The objective of this article is to introduce some of the theories of motivation that I have found interesting and relevant to the science engagement field and to describe how we put them into practice at the AHHAA Science Centre. I’d also like this article to open a conversation in the field about the way we attract, motivate and retain personnel.
Why does staff motivation matter?
Most science centres and museums in Europe are (at least) over 20 years old. Especially in the science centre field you will find quite many employees who have now been working in the sector for their whole career, some of them since the opening day of their science centre. The personnel is ageing together with the organisation - in our own case every year the average age of our employees is growing. In my experience, those who have been in the organisation for more than ten years hardly tend to have motivational issues (unless they are tired of their particular position). They know why the organisation is meaningful and what their personal part in it is. Besides, at this age they usually have families, hobbies, and many other things apart from their job to focus on. The problem is that this older generation will be retiring soon. It is excellent if these people could mentor newcomers to our business. Values would be handed down and in this way our organisations could secure their sustainability. This should be a strategic target.
![Staff of the AHHAA science centre, Tartu, Estonia Staff of the AHHAA science centre, Tartu, Estonia](https://www.ecsite.eu/sites/default/files/ahhaakad_hiigelpingil_800pix.jpg)
Without motivation and the feeling of being valued, it is easy to go to another job as soon as the first obstacle occurs. There is an almost endless selection of professions and lately the unemployment rate in most European countries has been low. In a recent article for the Dropbox “Work in Progress” platform, D. Vallance explores widespread feelings of getting sad and lonely at work. A good personnel policy can prevent many of these modern work problems [1]. Human contact is the key to many problems.
Today’s workforce does not always value the same things as its predecessors. People are looking for different things from their jobs beyond paycheck, a retirement plan and insurance (Deloitte 2019). Taking into consideration the fact that in my experience the main motivation for the younger generation is the possibility of self-development (which is not an endless prospect in a pyramid- structured organisation) and the fact that nowadays people tend to have children and families later in life, work has to offer more and more sources of motivation. In the near future employees will want workplaces to offer many of the things that workers of previous generations got from families, home and non-professional activities or groups – such as the feeling of being recognised, valued, given constant positive feedback and even offered candies and cakes once in a while (ironically just like parents do at home). The basic needs like physical/psychological needs and safety that Maslow described in 1943 with his famous pyramid (Maslow 1943) are not that valued among younger generations simply because they are taken for granted [2].
![Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Pyramid. Source: Pontg95, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Pyramid.](https://www.ecsite.eu/sites/default/files/maslows_hierarchy_of_needs_pyramid-800pix.png)
In Estonia and in Eastern Europe the younger generation has not experienced hunger, great unemployment or the crash of the factory-based economy. The ‘simple’ things jobs had to offer in the eighties or nineties (such as financial stability) are not as interesting or appealing any longer. It is no secret: work in our sector does not pay as well [3] as it does in IT for example [4]. One of the main reasons why young people choose a career in the museum sector is that it seems idyllic and perhaps even a bit ‘aristocratic’ to work with arts, science and culture. Only a few youngsters come to work simply because they want to accomplish our mission statements (most of which are very ‘dramatic’ and actually quite distant from ordinary employees’ daily work). I have witnessed that it takes young people a few years to reach the top level of available career places in an organisation such as ours. Then they need to go forward to other places that get: a) better options for development; b) better salaries. It is a constant challenge to keep the good people in our organisation. You have to be one step ahead and learn from startups and the private sector.
Of course, there is a “core dream team” in our science centre and probably in every other science centre as well. These are the people who come to work no matter whether night or day, who get that spark in their eyes the minute you tell them that next experiment or exhibition will be something extra crazy and practically impossible. These are the people who do not ask for salary rises so often (usually only when someone advises them to do so) because they feel that it is a privilege to work in such a fun and inspiring place where no dream is impossible. The question is – how can we turn this feeling of being privileged to be working here into a common spirit? How can we pass it on to new employees who will be the main workforce in ten or twenty years? We need these younger people because someone has to keep our places open and because the ones who founded our science centres and museums are going to retire one day.
What are the key motivators for working in your science centre or museum today and in the future? There are many ways to find out. The most time-consuming yet probably most thorough would be to conduct job interviews, development interviews and exit interviews with all of your personnel regularly. A bit more time-efficient would be to conduct employer satisfaction surveys, why not via an app. Yet no written survey would give the kind of information that colleagues share in the coffee corner. Hence, the good old listening and interview version would remain my favourite way of getting these answers. At AHHA we run interviews with at least half our personnel once a year and all personnel every second year. One and a half hours per person in our usual minimum.
Generational differences
The so-called generation theory is definitely one of the most popular in the personnel management sector. The principle is simple: grouping people together by their birth year and finding common denominators within these groups. There are the ‘Traditionalists’ born in 1922-1945 and the ‘Baby boomers’ born in 1946-1964 (Stark & Farner 2015). Traditionalists are already rare in our organisations. The Baby boomers focus on the mission of the organisation and value money, title and recognition. They tend to work beyond retirement eligibility years (Stanley et al. 2013). Then there are ‘Generation Xers’, born between 1965-1980. They are results-oriented and prefer a strict work-life balance (Stark & Farner 2015). They like changing the rules and do not have a problem with going over hierarchical structures, but they usually accept work the way it is organised. The ‘Millennials’ or ‘Generation Y’ are the ones born between 1981-2000. They would like to have an immediate impact on their workplace. Their work has to be meaningful and they require constant feedback. They are used to constant change and they consider taking risks a part of the job (Arrington & Dwyer 2018). After this comes ‘Generation Z’. They were the most recent ones to enter the workforce and are the most unknown. Generation Z is technologically fluent, always connected and using all the available “apps”. They are competent in multitasking and often focus more on speed than accuracy. They prefer flexible work hours and continuous learning (Fratricova & Kirchmayer 2018). It is quite important to understand that different generations sometimes value opposite things. For example, Generation X wants strict work hours and a separate private life while Generation Z likes a flexible work-life balance mixed with personal hobbies.
All of them are in a different stage of their life cycle. They had different childhood experiences and their parents raised them to value different things. Being familiar with the historical background that shaped their childhood and what they are experiencing now in their personal life helps understand their main motivation to work. However managers shape the face of their organisation and the motivation system inside it often reflects whether the manager is a Millennial, Baby boomer or Generation Xer. The younger the manager the more he or she gives positive feedback and expects the same from others. The older the manager, the more he or she talks about mission, strategy and fulfilling strategic goals. Generations differ on their views of what a manager’s role is as well. Recognising what people expect from a manager helps improve overall communication and enhance internal communication. Younger generational cohorts tend to change jobs at a greater rate than the previous generations (Arrington & Dwyer 2018). One of the reasons for this might be less binding financial commitments to their family or simply a lack of motivation.
The only way to keep the good people is to create a positive psychological climate that will encourage people to invest their time and effort into the workplace more avidly and fulfil the goals of the organisation. It is also important that the right people do the right things. There really is no point in forcing the Generation Z into routine job positions where they have to be at a certain place strictly by the clock. It is the fastest way to lose them. Conversely, most older workers should not work in positions like temporary exhibitions or projects where things tend to change constantly and fast. In my experience, it is also important to have people of different ages working together because in this way you will have a better selection of ideas and viewpoints. It might be easier to choose co-workers who are the same age as you - you are sharing the same jokes and language. However, this is not a good strategy in the long run.
A ‘normal employer’ is usually motivated to keep the best people in the organisation as long as possible. However, from a generational point of view I advise to just understand younger people’s need to move on with their career and instead of holding on to them you may just write a good letter of support and let them go. You never know when you will be partnering with them again and it is good for the reputation of your organisation to have people with positive memories of you. The same goes for older generations - at one point they may need to work a bit less. It is a manager’s job to find a satisfactory position for a valuable person in the organisation.
Of course, generation theory also has its limits. Sometimes people just do not represent their generation’s profile. And this is why it is good to combine it with other practices.
NGO and public sector motivations
Most science centres and museums are NGOs (non-governmental organisations) or belong to the public sector. According to third sector personnel motivation theory, employees of this sector enjoy high job satisfaction and do not mind low turnover because their work itself is considered rewarding and meaningful (Selander & Ruuskanen 2016). The original theory was formalised in the 1980s by authors like Buchanan (1975), Mosher (1982), Perry, Porter, and Lyman (1982) or Rainey (1982). People working in the NGO sector like the idea of giving something back to society and feel appreciated for doing this. However, this might not be eligible in the future as younger people are more individualistic. A more experimental generation, they are open to trying new products and services, crossing categories to build their individual identities (Howard 2018), while public sector work is more about collectivism than individualism.
Public service motivation exclusively is not enough to retain employees in the workplace. Loyalty to a specific organisation is more likely when values and job quality are coherent with employees’ personal value-systems (Selander & Ruuskanen 2016). Therefore, it is important to find out what the personal values of future employees are before hiring them.
Public sector motivation theory was quite popular in the 1990s and the beginning of this century. Today this “sector based” motivation is not that visible anymore. Probably the main reason for this is that borders between sectors are becoming blurrier. Many public sector organisations historically offered a clear career progression path. This does not correspond to the changing needs of economic and labour markets that well anymore. Therefore, many “old” institutions have started to re-structure their organisations in order to become more flexible. The useful idea to keep in mind from this theory is that career paths should be as flexible as possible. Secondly, it is a good idea to ask about personal values and beliefs in job interviews. It may turn out quickly that the most qualified person for the job might not be the one most likely to stay in your organisation.
Volunteers’ motivations
A lot of us are using volunteers in the everyday running of our organisations. What makes a person work without a salary? It is quite popular to use retired volunteers in the USA (Osborne 1999). Some European science centres also use them, like Heureka in Finland for instance. Depending on local law, it might also be possible to use younger volunteers. Our own science centre is active in the ERASMUS+ volunteering programme and we have hosted international volunteers under the age of 26. We also use local volunteers aged 16-21. This generation’s motivation to work in a science centre is very different from previous ones. ERASMUS volunteers usually want to experience new countries and cultures. They want to live abroad and socialise. Estonian youngsters volunteering for us want to socialise as well but their main motivation is to add a first work experience to their CV. Being a museum or science centre volunteer is a socially valued occupation.
Their older peers’ motivation is different. Sometimes they enjoy not having responsibilities any longer and sometimes they just want a place to go to in the morning (Osborne 1999). The most obvious reason for this is the Maslow pyramid again. The basic safety needs are fulfilled and people need more to be happy. Older people want to be in charge of their time and duties. At the same time, they want to feel useful, to socialise and have a network (Osborne 1999). This older generation is partly composed of Baby boomers who delay retirement or work voluntarily due to loneliness and because of the belief that they are needed in the workplace (Luscombe et al., 2013).
Both older and younger volunteers can be an extremely useful workforce in a museum or science centre. Older people often have knowledge and wisdom that the youth is lacking. At the same time, youngsters have passion and enthusiasm that compensates for their lack of knowledge. However, motivating volunteers is a full-time job and you shouldn’t underestimate the value or the cost of it.
Motivating science centre and museum workers
Science centres and museums in Europe usually do not have a dedicated human resources manager. This position normally appears when an organisation grows big enough, but most European museums and science centres are not that big. Sometimes it is easier to use tools such as &Frankly (used for instance at Universeum, Sweden) in order to find out whether people are happy in their organisation. This particular tool helps to find out how people in your organisation feel about a specific point in real time. Some managers run development interviews and some just talk in a hallway. In the Estonian science centre and museum field we have quite often used university students who are looking for research topics for their thesis. In this way, we are asking the questions we are interested in anonymously and the student is analysing the results.
We studied science centre explainers’ motivation in 2016 at the Estonian Maritime Museum, the Energy Discovery Center and the AHHAA Science Centre (Kuldmaa 2016). The thesis concluded that age was an important influencing factor of motivation. Generations showed many differences in the things they valued, which confirms the generation theory. The job satisfaction and work-related wellbeing of Estonian museum workers were also recently examined (Merihein 2017). A Masters student conducted the study and the results showed that 86% of the employees researched were generally pleased with their work. The author found that it was easier for employees to understand the job they were doing if they believed in the core values of the organisation. Understanding institutional core values improved internal relations at the studied museums (Merihein 2017). Making work meaningful, giving employees a sense of belonging, trust and relationship was found to be the most important. Understanding the meaning of one’s work is the key element here (Deloitte 2019).
The Copernicus science centre in Poland has done a research in Employer Value Proposition (EVP) (DiVanna et al 2005). In short, as summarised by the Talentlyft website, EVP is “the balance of the rewards and benefits that are received by employees in return for their performance at the workplace”, or, quoting Minchington (from the same website): “a set of associations and offerings provided by an organization in return for the skills, capabilities and experiences an employee brings to the organization”. When the Copernicus science centre started working with this framework they had a growing team, rising employee turnover and relatively low salaries compared to the market. Their goal was to build awareness of different tools and to show that each field needs a specific approach. In the process it was important to see what managers value most and what, in their opinion, works and what doesn't work. Aleksandra Wójcik-Głodowska, who shared this case study with me, explained that they organised a series of meetings with Directors, followed by workshops with managers, about the different aspects of Employer Value Proposition (EVP). First of all they concentrated on defining why they need a broader approach than Compensation and Benefits and what is specific to Copernicus as a workplace, in terms of career (i.e. stability, chance to progress), work environment (i.e. work-life balance, autonomy, etc.) and culture (i.e. collaboration and team spirit, social responsibility, trust etc.). Having drawn a list for each aspect of EVP, managers voted on what was crucial and how well it worked. The same voting was done by the Directors. They saw that for both groups the same aspects were critical. Next, in a workshop managers evaluated the most highly rated elements, using a "START, STOP, CONTINUE” format. All the materials will be used in a bigger project for a new motivation system run by external experts. A first reported benefit is that the team were happy to have fruitful discussions about management and motivation models and engagement of their managers.
Unfortunately as said at the beginning of this article there is not much more data from other countries to refer to here. I would be delighted if I could learn from others’ experiences too.
What makes it special to work in a science centre or a museum?
There are several studies about museum personnel management and motivation but almost none about working in a science centre specifically. Probably because compared to museums there are not so many science centres in the world. Science centres are also a bit younger than museums. Both types of organisations have many things in common as informal learning institutions. Most researchers working on museum workers’ motivation agree that it is a prestigious thing to work in a museum (for instance Fopp 1997) and it can be assumed that the same applies for a science centre as well.
In my opinion, the main reason why people like working in a science centre is that they like the idea of constant change in exhibitions and science. Science never stands still. Every new exhibition or exhibit teaches us something new about the world. If you have the need to constantly get new information or learn something, then a science centre or a museum is a perfect place. Learning is an endless process and the topics we get to introduce to our customers are for the most part endless as well. We have this project or exhibition-based system that does not let you get comfortable too easily. There is always a new exhibition to be looking forward to or a new programme coming out. The routine lies in doing the same tasks (floorplans, posters, interactivities, MakerSpaces, workshops, guided tours etc.) but changing the topics makes it special (of course, dinosaurs excluded).
![Staff Christmas stockings at the AHHAA science centre, Tartu, Estonia Staff Christmas stockings at the AHHAA science centre, Tartu, Estonia](https://www.ecsite.eu/sites/default/files/christmas_in_ahhaa-800pix.jpg)
I do not have all the answers on how to keep everyone motivated, but from my own experience, I can say that it is a good idea to talk regularly with everyone in your workplace to understand the needs and values in your organisation. Be prepared to get surprised by the way little things might sometimes make a big difference. Things like candy in the right place and at the right time or celebrating the dumbest and most boring day in the calendar. Having common events for socialising is also important. Making sure that different people from different departments are in charge of organising the parties is a key to fostering friendships among your staff. Having friends at work makes the job rewarding. I try to do things like saying “hello” to the new explainer on the first week of his or her career or noticing when someone is tired or feeling sad. It is not easy especially when you are tired as well. However, these little things might put your organisation on the path to becoming a modern and popular place to work at.
I am sure that there are more theories that can be useful in personnel management for our sector. I am also sure that some of you, dear readers, have excellent personnel management strategies. If you are ready to share these, please contact me and why not talk at a future Ecsite Conference? We will probably never be able to offer the same salaries as for-profit companies and new startups but we can explore what is good about working for us and how to leverage these strengths. Science centres and museums are wonderful places to work at because we can make a difference in society. Promoting critical thinking makes the world a bit better place to live in, and this is a good reason to get up in the morning and go to work.
1 https://blog.dropbox.com/topics/work-culture/tips-for-fixing-workplace-loneliness.html?fbclid=IwAR0_wz2ndb6yRlX4L0QbNy21A5QfqguTkjUuRRnHsH01pItKK_oCgdxxXTY
2 https://www.managers.org.uk/insights/news/2018/july/maslow-how-to-stay-motivated-once-youre-fulfilled
3 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-48579765
4 https://blog.linkedin.com/2019/january/10/linkedins-most-promising-jobs-of-2019
5 https://mtmrecognition.com/2019/01/multi-generational-workforce/
6 https://probonoaustralia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1_McCrindle.png
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