CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Gmund Freud formulated a theory that stated that people were lazy at work and that workers
are very far from becoming optimistic, the workers have no ambition and they always avoid
taking any responsibility and that all the workers want is security. Based on this assumption
Freud stated that to get the people to work there must a reward system, they must be coerced,
punished and intimidated. For this reason therefore the managers in any organisation
according to this theory are viewed as taking the responsibility of policing workers who
refuse to work and that they cannot be trusted. However his theory was based on some
unrealistic assumptions.
Douglas McGregor also formulated a theory that explains employee motivation, according to
his theory people always want to learn, and that work is viewed as natural and therefore the
people will develop self development and discipline, this theory also states that rewards to
employees is not so much in monetary form but the freedom to undertake difficult tasks and
challenging tasks all by themselves. Therefore the manager's job in this theory is only a way
to lead workers into self development and also achieve efficiency in the organisation, the
managers work is viewed as soft and simple.
Abraham Maslow theory of need also in a way describes employee motivation. He
formulated the theory of needs whereby he states that human beings have a hierarchy of
needs whereby they first satisfy lower needs before satisfying the higher needs, human needs
include physiological, emotional support needs, esteem need and the need for self
actualization. According to this theory therefore human beings are dominated by their
unsatisfied needs because when one need is met then he aspires for the other higher needs.
The three theories by the theorist helps us to understand human beings at work, although
some theories are based on some drastic assumption it is true that each theory is based on
some assumption and therefore they all help explain employee motivation. Other studies
show that effective communication, increased confidence, job security, team work,
appropriate recognition of employee contribution and the provision of training programs in an
organisation improves motivation in an organisation; there are therefore various methods by
which an organisation can increase effectiveness and productivity of labour.
This paper focuses on a study undertaken on employee motivation which involved 30
employees from the EDUCATION, however only 16 questionnaires and therefore they were
the only ones considered in this study
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The motivated school (thinking about motivation as an institutional, rather than individual
thing in the first instance) has certain key features. How many are shared by your school?
These useful tips will help to set you on the right track, or progress your journey if you’re
already on the way.
Contextual factors are really crucial when it comes to motivation. Major motivating
factors in a person’s job tend to be salary, conditions of service and opportunities in
the work place (also environmental factors such as the quality of the work space and
the extent to which personal needs are met at school, such as having a safe place to
store possessions and the space and time in which to eat meals). Some of these factors
will be fixed, but most can be improved.
Explore the giving of financial rewards in the form of clear career pathways and
recognition of excellence. It is always possible for schools to find ways of doing this
that work in their context.
Some schools develop internal knowledge development gateways. In other words,
there is a requirement for staff to attain a certain amount or type of knowledge before
passing through to subsequent levels. The professional standards can be a useful tool
for this. The beauty of this approach is the extent to which it is developed for your
school as opposed to a generic model which may or may not meet your needs.
Give CPD the highest possible profile in your school. Professionals are expected to
show development over time and there is an absolute responsibility on the part of the
employer, whoever that may be, to facilitate that development. CPD can be viewed as
the mode of transport for travelling from one location to another within a career. How
are your staffs travelling? In first class? Or are they making their own way there by
any means at any pace? It’s an interesting question to consider.
How do staffs generally perceive motivation in your school? What’s the balance
between extrinsic motivation (emerging from outside a person) and intrinsic
motivation (emerging from within)?
What are the conditions in which motivation can truly flourish in a school, and in
particular, in your school? What is the over-riding atmosphere in your school’s
staffroom?
Revisit performance management arrangements in your school. Has anyone in your
school sought staff views on the effectiveness of performance management processes?
What improvements could be made? There will always be some!
How motivated is your governing body? Does it engage in critical thinking and
commitment to training, or has its motivation to improve seen better days?
For the bigger picture view of motivation you may want to explore becoming
an ‘Investors in People’ school.
NEED OF THE STUDY
Contextual factors are really crucial when it comes to motivation. Major motivating
factors in a person’s job tend to be salary, conditions of service and opportunities in
the work place (also environmental factors such as the quality of the work space and
the extent to which personal needs are met at school, such as having a safe place to
store possessions and the space and time in which to eat meals). Some of these factors
will be fixed, but most can be improved.
Explore the giving of financial rewards in the form of clear career pathways and
recognition of excellence. It is always possible for schools to find ways of doing this
that work in their context.
Some schools develop internal knowledge development gateways. In other words,
there is a requirement for staff to attain a certain amount or type of knowledge before
passing through to subsequent levels. The professional standards can be a useful tool
for this. The beauty of this approach is the extent to which it is developed for your
school as opposed to a generic model which may or may not meet your needs.
Give CPD the highest possible profile in your school. Professionals are expected to
show development over time and there is an absolute responsibility on the part of the
employer, whoever that may be, to facilitate that development. CPD can be viewed as
the mode of transport for travelling from one location to another within a career. How
are your staffs travelling? In first class? Or are they making their own way there by
any means at any pace? It’s an interesting question to consider.
How do staffs generally perceive motivation in your school? What’s the balance
between extrinsic motivation (emerging from outside a person) and intrinsic
motivation (emerging from within)?
What are the conditions in which motivation can truly flourish in a school, and in
particular, in your school? What is the over-riding atmosphere in your school’s
staffroom?
Revisit performance management arrangements in your school. Has anyone in your
school sought staff views on the effectiveness of performance management processes?
What improvements could be made? There will always be some!
How motivated is your governing body? Does it engage in critical thinking and
commitment to training, or has its motivation to improve seen better days?
For the bigger picture view of motivation you may want to explore becoming
Investors in People’ school.
I was recently asked by a journalist whether I thought that teacher well-being was compatible
with the job of being a teacher. My reply was that we have no option; it has to be compatible.
The same could be said of teacher motivation. We have no option; teachers have to be
motivated to engage fully in their continuing professional and personal development in the
context in which they work. We cannot allow the doing of the job to take over from the
development required in order to progress. That’s why motivation will always remain one of
the key tasks of professional learning leaders, and will help to distinguish between those who
perform the role well, and those who perform the role with excellence.
CHAPTER 2
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
DATA ANALYSIS
The sample:
The data was collected from 14 males and 16 were female, the total sample was 30
respondents, the research was aimed at finding out management tools that can be used to gain
employee satisfaction and performance. There were no respondents aged below 20 years, 20
respondents aged between 20 to 29 years, 24 respondents were aged between 30 to 39 years,
26 individuals were aged 40 to 49 years and only ten respondents were aged 50 years and
above.
The sample was from various departments where 8 respondents were from the directors'
general office, 15 from planning department, 13 from the education department, 14 from the
finance department, 18 from the administration department and 12 from the supervision
department. The respondents also had different educational backgrounds where 12 had
secondary certificates, 18 had a degree in diploma, 28 had a bachelor's degree, four had a
master's degree and none of the respondents had a PHD.
RESULTS:
According to the respondents view regarding motivation majority agreed that motivation and
job satisfaction was a way to achieve staff loyalty, motivation and job satisfaction data can be
summarised in a chart as follows:
The chart shows the role played by motivation in enhancing workers loyalty
The question was aimed at checking the employees view regarding motivation and the role it
plays in promoting employee loyalty, according to the data majority of the respondents
agreed to the statement that employee motivation and job satisfaction contributed to the
increase in employee loyalty.
DATA INTERPRETATION
QUESTIONNAIRE
EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION IN EDUCATION SECTOR
1. Are you satisfied with the support from the management?
2. What type of incentives motivates you more?
3. How far you satisfied with the incentives from the management?
4. Does the management involve you in decision making connected to your
department?
5. Do you think incentives and other benefits will increase your performance?
6. Does periodical increase in salary motivate you the most?
7. As an employee what motivates you the most?
8. Do you maintain good relationship with your fellow workmates?
9. Is your work and performance recognised?
10. Does you get motivated by being given scope to organise own approach to work?
11. Is your job providing variety, interest and stimulation?
12. Is individual differences are respected in your organisation?(eg:age,gender,race,etc)
13. Do you receive enough opportunities to interact with the employees on a formal
level?
14. Do you believe in yourself more?
15. Do you involved in whistle blowing to protect the work ethics?
16. Do you have a fear of failure?
Motivation and employee performance:
In the question there was also a question aimed at collecting data that was aimed at reporting
whether motivation leads to improvement of employee performance, according to the data
collected majority of the respondents agreed that motivation increases performance and
efficiency in an organisation. The chart below shows the percentage of those who agreed to
the statement that employee motivation improves job performance:
From the 45% agreed that employee motivation led to improvement at the workplace,
however only 14% disagreed to this statement, therefore according to this study we can
conclude that employee motivation leads to improved employee performance.
Monetary rewards as motivation tool:
The study also aimed at finding out whether money rewards led to motivation in an
organisation, according to this study the majority agreed to this statement with only 14
employees disagreeing to this statement, the data can be summarised in the table and chart as
follows:
Strongly agree 45
56% agree
20 25% neutral
5-6% No interested From the response of this question it is clear that when monetary rewards
are increased this result into increased employee motivation, from the data collected 81% of
the respondents agreed that monetary rewards result into increased motivation in the
organisation.
From the results of this statement aimed at finding out whether money leads to motivation it
is clear that if an organisation increases or offers monetary rewards this will increase
motivation to the workers, for this reasons therefore the organisation whose objectives is to
increase motivation must increase its monetary rewards to its workers.
Job security and its significance:
The question was aimed at finding out whether job security is an important factor to the
employees; however the number of respondents who strongly agreed to this statement was
not as strong as the previous study of the importance of monetary rewards toward motivation,
the data for this statement is as follows summarised by the table and chart below:
Strongly agree 30-38%
Agree 24-30%
Neutral13-16%
Disagree7-9%
Job security according to this study is also an important motivation tool, those employees
who feel that their jobs are temporary may fail to be motivated and those who feel that they
have job security will be more motivated, according to the respondents 68% viewed job
security as very important to them while only 17% disagreed to this statement and 16% were
neutral regarding this statement.
Pride as a measure of confidence
The questionnaire also included a measure of pride possessed by the respondents for working
in the ministry, many of the employees agreed to be proud for working in the organisation
meaning that the ministry has boosted employee confidence in the workplace, the following
table summarises the data collected:
From the chart 75% of the respondents agreed that they were proud for working with the
ministry, our previous analysis also shows these levels of motivation from job security and
therefore we can conclude that the organisations motivation strategy is even in terms of
boosting confidence and also job security.
Methods used to motivate employees in the organisation:
A question was also aimed at finding out whether the ministry had many methods of
motivating employees, according to the data it is clear that the organisation does not use
many methods to motivate workers, from the data only 27% agree that the organisation has
put in place many methods to motivate workers, 50% disagree that the organisation has not
put in place appropriate methods to motivate workers, for this reason therefore it is clear that
the organisation ahs to adopt other employee motivation strategies such as monetary rewards
method of motivation.
Worker recognition:
From the study also there was evident that workers are not appropriately recognised for their
contribution in the organisation, this is evident from the data collected regarding the
organisations recognition for their contribution, also regarding the evaluation of their
performance the workers do not really agree that they are properly evaluated fairly in the
organisation, worker recognition data was as follows:
This data shows that the employees are not properly recognised in the organisation, also the
ministry does not fairly recognise the contributions made by its employees, and for this
reason therefore this is a draw back into the achievement of motivation in the organisation.
Therefore the organisation has a weakness in that it does not provide proper recognition of
reward system to its employees, also that there only a few motivational activities in the
organisation. In conclusion therefore regarding recognition the organisation should initiate
programs that help in the fair recognition of contributions of the workers.
Skills and motivation:
The provision of training to workers is also a way of promoting empowerment and
motivation, a large number of respondents agree that their skills match their skills and that
they clearly understand their responsibilities in the organisation, the organisation also offers
training programs to its employees, however a large number of respondents agree that their
job needs more skills and therefore there is need to increase the training program in the
organisation to motivate the workers and enable them to properly fit in their role played in the
organisation.
Promotions:
Promotions in the organisations are not fair, this is according to the data collected regarding
promotion, majority of the respondents disagreed that the promotion system in the
organisation is satisfactory. For this reason therefore it is clear that this will discourage
workers to be motivated and satisfied with their job. The data below summarises the
responses:
From the above chart 46% disagree that promotion is satisfactory while only 38 state that
promotion is satisfactory, for this reason therefore there is need to change the promotion
system in the organisation to motivate more workers as a way of achieving productivity.
CHAPTER 4
FINDINGS
Abraham Maslow. Sigmund theory of employee motivation was based on the assumption that
workers must be coerced to work, the theory by Douglas McGregor states that the workers
are ready to learn and therefore there must be organisational learning that will motivate
workers and finally Abraham Maslow introduced the hierarchy of need that every
organisation should be aware of and which may be important in the determination of the level
of motivation in any organisation.
From the above case study of employee motivation in the ministry of education it is clear that
worker motivation is achieved through rewards systems, monetary rewards, recognition of
workers, offering training programs to improve skills, improvement of confidence, job
security enhancement and finally through proper communication.
In this study it is also clear that there is a difference between motivation strategies in the
public sector and the private sector, this is because in the public sector the orders and
instructions will determine the direction which these strategies follow. In the private sector
however the motivation strategies may be more effective than in the public sector because the
reward system in more flexible and does not follow instruction, the rewards in the private
sector recognise all employees through performance and role played.
It is evident there exist some weakness in the motivation structure of the ministry, this is
because the promotion strategy of the organisation is not satisfactory to all its employees,
also there is a weakness where less individuals agree that there are many methods to promote
the workers, for this reason therefore the ministry should adjust their motivation strategy and
aim at rewarding all the workers who perform their duties effectively and also to put in place
more motivation method in the ministry. The promotion system should also be changed into a
more fair and appropriate system in order to motivate the workers.
However despite the various weaknesses that the ministry posses there is also evidence of
strengths in the organisation and this is through their ability to provide a training program in
the ministry, there is also proper communication channels between the workers and the
managers and this motivates the workers. However the ministry does not reward its workers
through monetary rewards and this is one of the draw backs in motivation, another problem is
that the strategies and instruction are provided by the ministry and therefore they are not
flexible leading to under recognition of role played by the workers.
Finally it is clear that there are many advantage associated with motivation of workers, one
advantage is that worker loyalty is increased and also that there is increased productivity of
the workers, therefore the motivation of workers in any organisation will increase
competitive advantage over its rivals and lead to success of the organisation. However there
is a need to undertake further research on other ministries and also other organisation that
will help us determine the importance of employee motivation.
CONCLUSION
The objective of the study was to compare the relative importance of various motivational
factors for employees in public and private Educational sector and the availability of such
factors in their jobs. In addition, the study made a comparison of the importance and
availability of those motivational factors between employees of public and private. The
findings showed that employees in both public and private education sectors ranked 'high
salary' and 'seniority based promotion' as the two most important motivational factors.
The other factors such as relaxed working environment and benefits after
retirement were ranked as more important by the public sector employees than those
respondents in private sector. In contrast, the private employees ranked another two factors,
namely, a stable and secure future and opportunity for advancement, as more important than
their counterparts in public. However, on the overall, the comparison of 'Wants' of public and
private employees demonstrated that most of the mean differences of these 'Wants' were
insignificant, indicating that the level of importance of the various factors could be the same
The findings of this study also revealed that except for 'fringe benefits' and 'social status', the
availability of other motivational factors 'Gets' is significantly different as far as the public
and private employees are concerned. The factors that were more available to employees in
the public than those in private included: a stable and secure future, relaxed working
environment, physical working environment, balanced work and family life, and benefits
after retirement. On the other hand, personal development, high salary, opportunity for
advancement, chance to provide benefit to society, and seniority based promotion were
considered
References:
Ashford E. (1989) the experience of powerlessness in organizations, journal of
Organizational Behaviour, 43 (1) 207 to 242
Bluman A. (2000) Elementary Statistics: A Step by Step Approach, McGraw Hill press, New
York
Chiles M. and Zorn E. (1995) Empowerment in organizations, Journal of Applied
Communication, 23 (1) 1 to 25
Kreisberg S. (1999) Transforming power Domination, empowerment, and education,
University of New York Press, New York
Patton M. (1990) Qualitative evaluation and research method, Sage publishers, Newbury
Rapport J. (1984) Studies in empowerment: Introduction to empowerment, Beacon Press,
Boston
Thomas W. and Velthouse A. (1990) Elements of Empowerment: An Interpretive Model of
Motivation, Journal of Management, 15 (4) 666 to 681
.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. CHAPTER
i. INTRODUCTION
ii. .NEED OF THE STUDY
iii. .SCOPE OF THE STUDY
2. CHAPTER
i. DATA ANALYSIS
ii. QUESTIONNAIRE
iii. EMPLOYEE REVIEW
3. CHAPTER
i. DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
4. CHAPTER
i. ASSUMPTIONS
ii. FINDINGS
iii. CONCLUSION
iv. REFERENCES
PROJECT REPORT ON EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION
IN
EDUCATION SECTOR
SUBMITTED BY
V.KAVIN (3511110164)