Achievement Need, Salary Grade, Age, and Sex among Bank Employees

Abstract

This smdy concerned the part played by achievement motivation in the careers of bank employees. Subjects were 27 women and 10 men employed by a large metropolitan bank in San Francisco. The measure of achievement motivation employed was the NachNaff scale developed by Lindgren (1976). The scale has 30 pairs of self-descriptive adjectives. One adjective in each pair describes behavior consistent with achievement-related behavior, whereas the orher describes affiliation-relard behavior. The respondent is asked to select the adjective in each pair which is the more descriptive of his usual behavior. Subjects completed the NachNaff scale anonymously and also reported their sex, age, and monthly salary. Ages ranged from under 20 to 55 yr., with means of 28 for women and 30 for men, and monthly salaries ranged from $650 to $2000, with means of $1250 for women and $1335 for men. An analysis of the scores of the NachNaff scale showed clear sex differences in achievement motivation. for the mean for women was 15.41 (SD 5.85) and the mean for men was 19.1 (SD 5.4). These means are significantly higher (p < .OI) than those reported by Lindgren for samples of community college and university smdents which ranged from 11.17 to 13.57. The differences in means between bank employees and college students are consistent with McClelland's (1961) analyses, which would lead one to expect that people in business would be more competitive and achievement-oriented than those in the academic world. but the expected relationship between achievement motivation and economic did not appear within the context of the bank in auestion. The Pearsonian correlation between the achievement motivation of the women employees and their salary grade was an insignificant -.06, and a correlation of -.64 (p < .05)-the opposite of what might be expected-was found for the men. Women's salaries were, however, significantly correlated .62 (p < .01) with age while the correlation of .50 for men was not statistically significant. Correlations of achievement motivation with age were nonsignificant: -.I8 for women and -.36 for men. One can only speculate about the surprising negative correlation between xhievement motivation and salary for the men. It may be that affiliation-rype motives, as characterized by cooperation, support, and trust, are more consistent with success in banking than is achievement behavior, as characterized by competitiveness, opportunism, and assertiveness. Perhaps younger, more achievement-oriented employees are discouraged and drop our. Or it may be thar male employees, who initially have high need for achievement, find this need diminished with succeeding promotions.