Employee motivation, job satisfaction, live-work balance, material reward and career aspirations

Abstract

Edward Affainie is experienced security and international relations professional with years of experience in the Ghana Armed Forces and the United Nations in complex political and security situations. Currently, he is the Deputy Security Adviser for the United Nations Department of Safety and Security in Zimbabwe and a Doctoral Researcher at the Political Science and International Studies (POLSIS) Department at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. He previously worked at the United Nations Headquarters, where he moderated memorandums of understanding between the United Nations and member states to deploy troops for peacekeeping missions. He deployed and managed complex peacekeeping missions from startup to liquidation and served in various capacities in different peacekeeping missions in countries such as Cambodia, Southern Lebanon, Western Sahara, Liberia, Sudan, and South Sudan. His research interests are in the causes of war and conflict, management, leadership, governance, and security. His extensive length of professional experience as a military officer and an international civil servant contributes to his research interests. He retired from the Ghana Armed Forces at his peak career in 2010 at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and as the Deputy Director of Army Peacekeeping Operations at the Army Headquarters. He is a graduate of the Nigeria Command and Staff College and the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College. Abstract: Companies and Organisations’ existence, stability, and productivity depend mainly on their employees. This essay explores the factors that affect employee motivation, intention, and behaviour. It also examines three of the most recent studies on employee motivation and subsequently analyses these studies’ findings against their chosen theoretical frameworks and assesses their contributions to the framework. The first study by Saraswathi (2011) hypothesises that different professions can influence how employees perceive motivational factors. The second study by Shaikh et al. (2019) hypothesises that motivators and hygiene factors are equally important in improving employee performance. The third study by Kyndt et al. (2012), hypothesises that although intrinsic motivators can contribute to employee’s intention levels, satisfiers may make the inconvenience disappear but do not alter the employees’ intention or behaviours. The paper identifies gaps in knowledge that arise from these studies and further provides future research recommendations to understand employee motivation further. The essay provides gaps in the study of employee motivation for researchers in this field to explore further to contribute to knowledge in the field.