Theory Of Work Motivation Research Articles

The Role of Motivation and Work Environment to Promote Productivity of Chili Farmers in Magelang

This paper examines the impact of motivation and the work environment in supporting the productivity of chili farmers in Magelang. We use managerial work motivation theory to identify farmer motivation and use the work environment as a measuring tool to determine the environmental conditions around agricultural land. The quantitative model is estimated to show that motivation and work environment can significantly boost farmer productivity. The sample in this study was 64 respondents, regression analysis was used in this study using SPSS 22. Farmers with high motivation will increase the productivity of their crops, although this is not significant. Finally, farmers with a good working environment will increase farmer productivity significantly.

Work Practices Mediated By Motivation Enhancing Productivity and Performance of Airports Post-Privatization – An Empirical Evidence

Purpose: Airport privatisation is rapidly gaining ground, leading to a significant increase in research interest. Amid rapid airport privatisation, Indian airports offer a unique lens to study the impact of work practices on productivity and performance mediated by motivation. Theoretical Framework: The study draws upon relevant theories including high-performance work systems (HPWS) and motivation theories impacting productivity and performance. Method: This study investigates the detailed thematic analysis and self-administered surveys (Likert scale) collected from 50 professionals in 9 major Public-Private Partnership (PPP or 3Ps) airports in India on various aspects of work practices which includes work design, digitisation, and flexibility, with motivation mediating productivity and performance including effectiveness, efficiency, and quality outcomes. Their reliability and validity were analysed using Cronbach's alpha, Pearson correlation, and Mediating analysis using Process 4.2. Purposive sampling is employed in this study. Result: The study finds a positive impact of work practices on employee productivity and performance through motivation. Importantly, it reveals motivation as a key mediator, offering valuable insights for aviation professionals. The analysis confirms model accuracy by representing strong prediction and regression value alignment.

When the Going Gets Challenging-Motivational Theories as a Driver for Workplace Health Promotion, Employees Well-Being and Quality of Life.

Being characterized by high numbers of physical and mental health issues, the veterinary sector faces some negative peculiarities compared to other professions. To evaluate and possibly improve employees' well-being and to reward according to individual motivation, managing staff and the profession in general must understand every individual's motivation. Defining the motivation of veterinary professionals in a multidisciplinary way can be the first step in increasing the well-being of employees. To assemble current theories of work motivation and adapt and extend them to serve the veterinary profession, basic knowledge of the classical general psychological motivational theories and work motivational theories is inevitable. The authors aimed to illustrate the different motivational theories' key aspects and historical evolution to provide veterinary personnel with broad knowledge. In addition, the availability of already existing literature should be evaluated. A scoping review was performed. Methodological, empirical, review, and theoretical articles were evaluated. Only a minority of the studies (1.3%) evaluated motivational theories in veterinary health care. This reflects that there is a need for research in this field. Still, it is illustrated that the veterinarian profession would benefit from the implementation of general psychological as well as motivational work theories.

Influence of Path-Goal Theory of Leadership Styles and the Moderating Role of Task Structure in Leadership on Teachers’ Satisfaction, Motivation, and Performance

This study investigated the influence of path-goal theory of leadership styles and the moderating role of task structure in leadership on teachers' satisfaction, motivation, and performance in the Division of San Pablo City public secondary schools. The research design adopted for this study was a descriptive-correlational study involving survey questionnaires administered to 579 junior high school teachers across 13 public secondary schools. Data analysis utilized mean, standard deviation, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and multiple regression analysis. Findings indicate that teachers perceived their school heads as demonstrating directive, supportive, participative, and achievement-oriented leadership styles. Task structure in leadership was generally perceived favorably. Teachers exhibited moderate job satisfaction, positive work motivation, and very satisfactory performance across various domains. Correlation analysis revealed significant positive relationships between path-goal theory of leadership styles, work motivation, and teachers' performance. However, no significant relationship was found between leadership styles, task structure in leadership, and job satisfaction. Task structure in leadership showed a weak negative correlation with job satisfaction and a moderate negative correlation with aspects of work motivation but no significant relationship with teachers' performance. Regression analysis demonstrated that path-goal theory of leadership styles directly influenced work motivation and teachers' performance, while job satisfaction had a strong baseline level independent of leadership styles. Task structure in leadership moderated the relationship between leadership styles, job satisfaction, and teachers' performance but did not moderate work motivation. This study contributes to understanding leadership practices that positively influence teachers' motivation and performance, offering implications for enhancing school leadership and improving educational quality.

The Influence of Implementing Curriculum Management and Lecturers’ Work Motivation on Improving the Quality of Education

The purpose of this study was to find out and analyze the magnitude of the influence of Curriculum Management and lecturer work motivation simultaneously on improving the quality of education, to find out and analyze the magnitude of the influence of Curriculum Management partially on improving and to find out and analyze the magnitude of the influence of lecturer work motivation partially on improving the quality of education. In this study the authors used references from the grand theory of administration, middle theory of management and organization and operational theory of curriculum management and work motivation which are still relevant to this research. The research object that was used as the research locus was Polytechnic of Adiguna Maritime Indonesia Medan. Where the population that is used as a sample of respondents is the director and lecturers. The method used is descriptive analysis method with a quantitative approach. The schedule and time of research starts from February 2023 to May 2023. The results showed that dimensions of curriculum management can influence the Improvement of education quality at Polytechnic of Adiguna Maritime Indonesia Medan. It is illustrated that lecturer work motivation has no significant effect on improving the quality of education.

Pay Suppression in Social Impact Contexts: How Framing Work Around the Greater Good Inhibits Job Candidate Compensation Demands

Past research suggests that when organizations communicate the benefits of their work for human welfare—that is, use a social impact framing for work—job candidates are willing to accept lower wages because they expect the work to be personally meaningful. We argue that this explanation overlooks a less socially desirable mechanism by which social impact framing leads to lower compensation demands: the perception among job candidates that requesting higher pay will breach organizational expectations to value work for its intrinsic (rather than extrinsic) rewards, or constitute a motivational norm violation. We find evidence for our theory across five studies: a qualitative study (Study 1), a hiring experiment with undergraduate students (Study 2), an online labor market field experiment (Study 3), a vignette-based simulation (Study 4), and a stimulus sampling study using multiple occupations (Study 5). Exploratory analyses find that the negative effects are unique to monetary (versus nonmonetary) job rewards. Together, results uncover a novel mechanism by which emphasizing work for the greater good leads job candidates to accept lower wages—one that reflects candidates self-censoring on pay from concerns about violating organizational norms rather than solely from a willingness to trade higher pay for potentially meaningful work. Our research contributes to understandings of how social responsibility messaging impacts workers’ perceptions of organizations and negotiation behavior. It also holds implications for emerging scholarship on managers’ implicit theories of employee work motivation. Funding: I. Hussain thanks the Dean’s Research Excellence Grant at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas Austin for generous financial support. The research also benefitted from Tier 1 Academic Research Funds awarded to M. Pitesa [Grant C207/MSS19B011] and M. Schaerer [Grant C207/MSS22B011] by the Ministry of Education, Singapore, and the Research & Development Fund of INSEAD. Supplemental Material: The online supplement is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2023.1675 .

Moderation in all things, except when it comes to workplace safety: Accidents are most likely to occur under moderately hazardous work conditions

AbstractIn this article, we argue that the relationship between workplace hazardousness and accidents is best characterized as an inverted‐U, such that accidents are most likely to occur within moderately hazardous environments. Specifically, whereas highly hazardous work environments are strong situations in which there is a clear need for a high degree of safety behavior, the amount of safety behavior needed to minimize accidents within moderately hazardous environments is more ambiguous. Drawing on self‐regulatory theories of work motivation, we argue that most individuals tend to exhibit a proportional response to hazardousness, such that moderately hazardous environments are met with a moderate degree of safety behavior. However, we demonstrate that proportional responses to hazardousness will ultimately yield an inverted‐U relationship between hazardousness and accidents. Instead, a sharp, non‐linear increase in safety behavior is needed to keep accidents at a low and constant level as hazardousness increases. We present four studies to test our hypotheses. Studies 1 and 2 used archival data to test our hypothesis of an inverted‐U relationship between hazardousness and accidents in natural work settings. Studies 3 and 4 were experiments which replicated this finding, and more importantly, demonstrated that the inverted‐U relationship between hazardousness and accidents was driven by a failure to sharply increase safety behavior in response to small increases in hazardousness. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these results for the safety literature, particularly the need to educate workers regarding the pattern of safety behavior needed to fully offset environmental hazardousness.

Motivation at work: An analysis from the self-determination theory perspective

In the rapidly evolving organizational landscape of the 21st century, traditional motivational strategies are increasingly inadequate. This paper explores the application of Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as an alternative framework for understanding and enhancing employee motivation. Originating as a critique of traditional reward-punishment models, SDT focuses on fulfilling employees’ intrinsic psychological needs—autonomy, competence, and relatedness—to improve job satisfaction and organizational efficiency. The paper begins by tracing the historical development of work motivation theories, from scientific management to human relations theories, and positions SDT in this context. Using a combination of literature review and empirical analysis, including ANOVA and factor analysis, the study examines how SDT can be practically applied in the workplace. It discusses the benefits of autonomy, competence, and relatedness in increasing job satisfaction and performance, while also acknowledging the limitations and challenges of SDT, such as cultural variations and resource constraints. The paper concludes that SDT offers a robust, adaptable framework for modern organizations, with significant implications for future research and practice.

JOB CHARACTERISTICS ASSOCIATED WITH INTENT TO QUIT AMONG NURSING HOME EMPLOYEES AND MANAGERS

Abstract High turnover and recruitment challenges of nursing home employees and managers is an ongoing concern. This study’s objective was to examine intent to quit among all staff and assess the roles of job characteristics and job satisfaction. Employees and managers within one nursing home chain working in direct patient care or nursing were compared. Data came from the Work, Family, Health Network 18-month follow-up survey in 2012 (Total = 1,000, Managers = 101, Employees = 899). A cumulative logit model controlling for demographics was estimated for lower intent to quit. Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory of Work Motivation guided the study. Employees scored significantly lower on family-supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSBs), schedule control (SC), and decision authority (DA) than managers. Employees and managers did not differ on job satisfaction, intent to quit, or job demands. Satisfied workers had 5.88 times greater odds of lower intent to quit compared to workers who were neutral or disagreed (p < .0001). DA (OR=0.29) and SC (OR=0.19) were related to higher intent to quit. In contrast, FSSBs (OR = 1.45), safety compliance (OR=1.41), and the combination of high DA with high SC (OR = 1.4) were related to lower intent to quit. Among nursing home staff, lower intent to quit may be achieved through improving job satisfaction, safety culture, the quality of supervision, and job enrichment through more schedule control and decision-making power. It is also imperative to develop strategies to retain those with more education through further research.

Job Characteristics Associated With Intent to Quit Among Nursing Home Employees and Managers.

High turnover and recruitment challenges of nursing home employees and managers are an ongoing concern. This study's objective was to examine intent to quit among all staff and assess the roles of job characteristics and job satisfaction. Employees and managers within one nursing home chain working in direct patient care or nursing were compared. Data came from the Work, Family, Health Network 18-month follow-up survey in 2012 (total = 1,000, managers = 101, employees = 899). A cumulative logit model controlling for demographics was estimated for intent to quit. Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory of Work Motivation guided the study. Employees scored significantly lower on family-supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSBs), schedule control, and decision authority than managers. Employees and managers did not differ on job satisfaction, intent to quit, or job demands. Satisfied workers had an 83% decrease in the odds of reporting an intent to quit compared to workers who were neutral or disagreed (odds ratio [OR] = 0.17, p < .0001). Decision authority (OR = 3.49) and schedule control (OR = 5.18) were independently related to greater odds of reporting an intent to quit. In contrast, FSSBs (OR = 0.69), safety compliance (OR = 0.71), and the combination of high decision authority with high schedule control (OR = 0.72) were related to lower odds of reporting an intent to quit. Among nursing home staff, lower intent to quit may be achieved through improving job satisfaction, the quality of supervision, safety culture, and job enrichment through more schedule control and decision-making power.

Sickness presenteeism explained by balancing perceived positive and negative effects.

Within the ever-growing body of research on sickness presenteeism, studies of perceived consequences are scarce and equally rare are joint considerations of beneficial and harmful effects. This study examined how experienced and expected consequences of the behavior are related to presenteeism. Positive and negative effects were considered simultaneously and comprehensively. This approach allowed us to capture the trade-off process of individuals in deciding to work or call in sick when ill. In a cross-sectional online survey, 591 working adults in Germany rated a thoroughly developed pool of specific experienced or potential consequences of working while sick and gave an overall judgment of effects. The results show that perceptions of effects are consistent with behavior. Individuals who exhibit presenteeism do so primarily because of work-related effects such as the completion of one’s work tasks and the meeting of deadlines. Few specific effects stand out and can largely explain attendance behavior and the overall assessment of effects. The findings are consistent with the assumptions of the health belief model and the expectancy value theory of work motivation and they relate to the health-performance framework. They demonstrated that benefits and costs of the behavior are simultaneously weighed in the decision to engage in presenteeism or not.

THE EFFECT OF LEADERSHIP, WORK DISCIPLINE AND WORK MOTIVATION ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE

Purpose: To determine and measure the influence of Leadership, Work Discipline, Work Motivation, either partially or jointly on Employee Performance at the Food and Agriculture Security Service.&#x0D; Research Methodology: This type of research is a causal associative research using a quantitative approach with the survey method. The population in this study were 206 agricultural extension workers from the Department of Food Security and Agriculture. The technique used in sampling in this study is by proportionate stratified random sampling using the Slovin formula as many as 68 people.&#x0D; Results: There is a partial influence of leadership on employee performance at the Department of Food and Agriculture Security by 87%. There is a partial effect of Work Discipline on the Performance of Food and Agriculture Security Service Employees of 89.6%. There is a partial influence of work motivation on the performance of employees of the Food and Agriculture Security Service of 82.7%. There is a positive and significant influence of leadership, work discipline and capacity simultaneously on the performance of employees of the Food and Agriculture Security Service. The magnitude of the positive influence of Leadership, Work Discipline, Work Motivation on Employee Performance is 95.1% while the remaining 4.9% is influenced by other factors.&#x0D; Limitations: Resecarh variable just Leadership, Work Discipline And Work Motivation On Employee Performance, need the development of other variables that support&#x0D; Contribution: Theoretically, the results of this study are expected to contribute ideas, especially in the science of human resource management as study material in the further development of theories of Leadership, Work Discipline and Work Motivation in an effort to improve employee performance.

Investigating Alderfer’s Work Motivation Theory to Explore Work Burnout

The pandemic has changed the way people work. In the midst of excitement of working from home emerged the issue of work burnout. Work burnout is a phenomenon associated with people and their career development. Work burnout is an important risk factor for excessive stress in individual professional lives. The present study aims to explore Alderfer's Work Motivation Theory to understand work burnout. This study explores how ERG (Existence, Relatedness and Growth) Motivation influences the factors of personal, colleague and work-related burnout. Feeling of deprivation in the working environment leads to burnout. Therefore, this research aims on personal, colleague and work-related burnout. The data conducted through a total of 100 respondents from a public university in Malaysia. The data collection using quantitative methods was performed through questionnaires and SPSS was used to summarize the demographic information and descriptive analysis. The questionnaire consists of 4 sections, a) demographic profile, b) personal burnout, c) work related burnout and d) colleague related burnout with a total of 23 items. The findings shed light on the role of work motivation in transmitting the impact of work burnout. The major contribution of the study is to understand that work motivation is indeed affecting work burnout. The study presented has profound implications for future studies of work motivation and it is hoped this study will provide valuable evidence on how to focus on personal, colleague and work-related burnout for continuous improvement.

Transformational Leadership and Project Success: A Mediating Role of Public Service Motivation

Previous studies have linked public-sector employees’ motivation to desired results such as higher performance and improved quality of public services. However, questions about the impact of employee motivation on public projects have received less attention. This article uses work motivation theory to explore the fundamental processes by which transformational leadership (TL) and public service motivation (PSM) engender public project success (PS). Analysis of 296 public servants’ data working on Pakistan public projects showed a positive correlation between TL, PSM, and PS. It also showed that PSM partially mediates the relationship between TL and PS.

Perceived Organization-Profession Goal Conflicts and Work Motivation among Healthcare Professionals

Healthcare organizations often present goals and values that conflict with those held by public health policies and healthcare professions, and this organization-profession goal conflict can influence work motivation among healthcare professionals. However, as most work motivation theories have primarily focused on micro-level factors, research has rarely been conducted to understand how perceived organizational goal conflicts influence the type of work motivation that healthcare professionals develop. To fill the research gap, this paper builds a process model on motivation development among healthcare professionals, with particular focus on those who perceive organizational goal conflicts and choose to identify with either their organization or profession. In this model, I suggest that one of four motivational situations (i.e., M1~M4) will occur depending on organizational contexts and each professional’s social identification choice. This model tries to predict motivation development and suggest what management strategies will be effective for each motivational situation.

Pressure to Be Creative: How Organizational Creativity Pressure Influences Employee Work Engagement

Creativity and innovation are vital for organizational growth and success, driving many organizations to increase pressure for employee creativity. Yet, researchers have neglected investigating how employees respond to creativity pressure at the workplace. This paper introduces the concept of organizational creativity pressure – the pressure on employees to continually develop novel and useful ideas and solutions – and investigates how employees respond to this pressure. Drawing on the transactional theory of stress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) and the need-based theory of work motivation (Green, Finkel, Fitzsimons, & Gino, 2017), we theorize that organizational creativity pressure, as a form of workplace stressor, is appraised as a challenge stressor and promotes work engagement in employees. Building on the emerging research on gender and creativity, we further theorize that the positive effects of organizational creativity pressure on challenge appraisal and work engagement are stronger for men than for women. An experimental study and a field survey found evidence consistent with our theory. Unexpectedly, the pattern of interaction is such that men are significantly less engaged than women at low organizational creativity pressure. At high organizational creativity pressure, there is no significant gender difference in engagement. These findings have important theoretical contributions for research in creativity, gender and workplace stress as well as practical implications for modern organizations in which creativity is an important performance imperative.

Childhood migration and work motivation in Adulthood: Evidence from China

Childhood characteristics other than social background may affect work motivation in adulthood. In this research we assess the influence of childhood migration experience on adult work motivation from the perspective of work motivation theory, based on data from the 2016 China Labor-force Dynamic Survey. We use propensity score matching and weighted multiple linear regressions while controlling for the city effect. The results suggest that the effects of childhood migration experience on work motivation are causal: those with such experience are more likely than those without to be driven by social factors and less likely be driven by economic factors. The results also highlight the significant moderating role of social integration as a mechanism through which the experience of migration in childhood affects adults’ levels of work motivation, both economic and social. The moderate effect is more pronounced among male and rural adults. Our findings indicate that entrepreneurs should consider employees’ experiences and formulate more targeted incentive programs to improve employees’ organizational commitment and performance.

Explaining Age Differences in the Motivating Potential of Intergenerational Contact at Work

AbstractUnderstanding the effects of intergenerational contact at work is important given aging and increasingly age-diverse workforces. The aim of this research was to better understand who derives motivational benefits from intergenerational contact, and the processes by which this occurs. To do so, we adopted a motivational lens grounded in need-based theories of work motivation and lifespan development theory. We argue that the motivating effect of intergenerational contact on work engagement via sense of belonging is more pronounced for older compared with younger employees due to changes in goal priorities across the lifespan. Specifically, we posit the generativity motive and perceived remaining time at work as lifespan-related mechanisms that explain the moderating effects of age on the links between intergenerational contact and work engagement. In Study 1, a laboratory experiment with 45 younger and 45 older participants in Switzerland, we found support for a causal effect of intergenerational contact on sense of belonging. In Study 2, a three-wave field study with 560 employees in Germany, we found that sense of belonging mediated the relation between intergenerational contact and work engagement. Furthermore, perceived remaining time at work explained the moderating effect of age on the link between sense of belonging and work engagement. By highlighting age differences in the motivating potential of intergenerational contact, we advance research on intergroup contact, employee motivation, and workforce aging.

Uncertainty in Work Motivation Theory Building

This article responds to Locke and Latham's (2004) masterpiece, What should we do about motivation theory? Six recommendations for the twenty-first century. In their paper, Locke and Latham revie...

Mitigating Information Overload: An Experiential Exercise Using Role-Play to Illustrate and Differentiate Theories of Motivation

Work motivation is a core component of many management courses. However, its effective teaching can be hampered by the fragmentation and seeming incoherence of the various theories of work motivation. To address this challenge, we describe an interactive role-play activity that induces students to synthesize, apply, and compare several theories of motivation. In the first part of the exercise, students work in small groups to prepare a role-play skit illustrating a specific theory of motivation. In the second part, groups present their role-play skits in front of the class, and the rest of the students try to determine which theories were performed. Next, the debriefing session encourages students to discuss, compare, and contrast the theories. Though the present exercise focuses on four theories—the hierarchy of needs, the two-factor theory, expectancy theory, and self-determination theory—the activity can be easily adapted to incorporate other models of motivation.