A study on motivation factors at work for employee what matters and how they affect the employee satisfactions and performance

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITÉ LIBRE DE BRUXELLES SOLVAY BRUSSELS SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS & MANAGEMENT MBQPM4 NGO NGUYEN THUY PHUONG THAO A STUDY ON MOTIVATION FACTORS AT WOR

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITÉ LIBRE DE BRUXELLES

SOLVAY BRUSSELS SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS & MANAGEMENT

MBQPM4

NGO NGUYEN THUY PHUONG THAO

A STUDY ON MOTIVATION FACTORS AT WORK FOR

EMPLOYEE: WHAT MATTERS AND HOW THEY AFFECT

THE EMPLOYEE SATISFACTIONS AND PERFORMANCE

MASTER FINAL PROJECT MASTER IN BUSINESS QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Ho Chi Minh City (2014)

STATEMENT OF AUTHENTICATION

I certify that all materials presented here are of my own creation, and that any work

adopted from other sources is duly cited and referenced as such

Acknowledgements

I would like to take this great opportunity to sincerely thank a number of people and the institution who have made it possible for my final project and this master program to become a reality

My gratitude goes to Professor Jacques Martin for the useful comments, remarks and engagement through the learning process of this master thesis Also, I like to thank the participants-my colleagues at Room to Read, who have willingly shared their precious time during the process of survey and interviewing

My appreciation goes to my manager-the Country Director of Room to Read Vietnam-Mr Phong Le for his dedicated encouragement and support and he provided me opportunities to balance my work and time for completing this paper

In addition, I would also express my sincere thanks to my closed classmate, Ngan

Ho, who has given me thoughtful discussions and all the fun that we had for the past one and a half years of this program Also I thank to my best friend, Anh Nguyen who have been giving me the motivation all the way

Lastly, I have so much appreciation and thankful to my families especially my parents who have given me unconditional love and encouragement in my studies

My very special thanks go to my younger brother and my sister-in-law for their love and patience to endure my divided attention between the family and the demanding studies

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 2

List of Tables 5

Abstract 6

Introduction 1 Subject 7

2 Statement of the Problem 7

3 Significance of the study 9

4 Objectives 9

5 Main Research Questions 9

6 Scope of the Study 10

7 Methodology 10

8 Justification 11

9 Limitations of the study 11

10 The structure of this research paper 11

Part 1: Literature Review and Conceptual Framework 1.1 Introduction 12

1.2 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory 12

1.3 Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory of work motivation 13

1.4 Motivation theory 15

1.5 Conceptual Framework 16

Motivation 17

Intrinsic Motivators 17

Extrinsic Motivators 17

Performance Management 17

Part 2: Performance Assessment of RtR and Efforts of Human Resource Department in Improving Performance 2.1 Introduction 18

2.2 Assessment of employee performance evaluation results 18

2.3 Human Resource department and its functions 19

2.4 Training 19

2.5 Employee Management System 19

2.5.1 Staff benefits and allowances 20

2.5.2 Staff Programs 20

2.5.3 Staff attendance 20

2.5.4 Discipline 20

2.5.5 Supervision 20

2.5.6 Performance Management 21

Part 3: Findings and Analysis 3.1 Introduction 22

3.2 Work Performance at RtR 22

3.3 Managers’ responses 23

3.4 All employees’ responses 23

3.4.1 Hygiene Factors 24

3.4.2 Motivation Factors 28

Conclusion: Summary of the Findings 1 Introduction 32

2 Summary of the key Findings and Conclusion 32

3 De-motivating factors 33

4 Positive results 33

5 Positive Relationship between Motivation and Performance 33

6 Alternative Measures for improvement 34

7 Conclusion 34

8 Recommendations 35

References 37

Appendix A Questionnaires for all employees 40

Appendix B Interview questions 47

Appendix C Presentation Outline 48

List of Tables

1.1 Maslow’s hierarchy of need 13

1.2 Hygiene and Motivator factors 15

2.1 Summary of performance evaluation results in three years (2011-2013) 20

3.1 Overall opinion about staff’s performance 23

3.2 Do you feel motivated at your current job? 24

3.3 Do you see your job is secured in the organization? 25

3.4 How communication in your workplace is? 26

3.5 Management shows a genuine interest in motivating employees? 27

3.6 Supervisors’ communication 28

3.7 I feel the job I do gives me a good status 28

3.8 Do you feel that your supervisor recognized you in your job? 29

3.9 If achieving recognition, credit, and acclaim motivates you to do your best work? 30

3.10 I find opportunities for advancement in the organization 30

3.11 I am satisfied with the responsibility and role that I have in my work 31

Abstract

Employers have asked themselves over and over what it takes to motivate an employee, and there are many studies that have been done to understand the motivation factors, and yet applications differ from one organization to another Room to Read organization (RtR) is not different, we have established some employee programs and benefits structures in order to put efforts in motivating employees, but still existing challenges when dealing with motivations Satisfaction survey still received certain comments such as no room for advancement, communication problems still exist, lack of motivation at work

This study examined the factor structure of the motivation in working environment, and the main target for this examination is all employees at RtR in Vietnam office The participants are comprised of various functions in the organization; they are from program teams, administration, monitoring & evaluation, and finance team (N=44) The theories to be discussed are the Hierarchy of Needs theory, Herzberg’s motivators, and motivation theory Additionally, we will look into perspectives between the managers and the staff in regarding the motivation factors, to see if there is any gap As a result, motivation strategies and programs will be recommended by the end of this paper and it will be presented to RtR’s management team It thus builds awareness to employer as well as management

to keep employees motivated by creating a positive work environment, and giving employees opportunities to grow When employees are motivated there is high performance and reducing turnover which are most concerns of vary organizations Qualitative and quantitative data and direct experiences’ information were used

The findings will support the significant measurement toward motivating employees; this brings a new dimension of boosting employee morale and performance in the organization As RtR is considered to have the salary competitive advantage, this study will not analyze deeply into the salary factor, in fact it made an overview of all aspects that are linked to create positive and expected environment where the employees feel motivated A detailed analysis is made based on the responses from the questionnaires from all participants

INTRODUCTION

1 Subject

It is said that the most valuable asset that an organization has is its employees, as they are not possible to copy from competitors and each employee is unique from one to another Therefore, motivating employees to create loyalty and high productivity would be considered as an art of the management in the organization.Motivation in the workplace is affected by several factors as each employee has his or her own individuality (Honore, 2009)

“Motivating employees requires employers to study the employee’s monetary, physical and psychological needs, because individuals are motivated by a number

of items namely intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.” Intrinsic reward is the pleasant feeling an individual gets from doing a good job, while extrinsic reward is something given to an individual by someone else as appreciation for doing a good job which consists of salary increases, commendations, and promotion” (Certo,

1998 cited in Honore, 2009, p 63)

The organization’s cultures and features of each job should determine what best approach taken to motivate To build strong foundation for a motivating culture, we need to understand the power and complexity of the internal factors that motivate each of employees’ behavior

This research study addresses numbers of important issues regarding the factors

of motivating employees in the workplace How importance of determined factors those lead to employee satisfaction and well-performing job? What are the current practices that affect the employee motivation, and the study will also look into applied theories to support the findings and recommendations

2 Statement of problem

Room to Read is a non-governmental organization that is working on the educational development in some of rural areas that is less developed and needs the supports The office in Vietnam has been operating since 2001 As a non-profit business, people somehow takes advantages of values through business processes, people efficiency is neglected because they are not working to create profits for running the business They also claimed that NGO working environment (staff performance) should be taken easy and no need to put any pressure Therefore, there are employees’ performance problems, unfortunately managers just bypassed without finding solutions or resolving the problems Poor time management and the failure to meet deadlines for the preparation of important working documents has become a common practice This has been observed by the missing documents during Human Resources assessments and internal audits, penalties and fines given by Local Government authorities and internal correction procedures had to be processed every time there was internal audit carried out annually

The staff appraisal exercise has also shown that duties and responsibilities are not being adequately carried out, with low scores observed in many cases This is revealed through the appraisal files that are filled annually and kept in the Human resource office Some line managers have shown great weakness in the supervision of their subordinates with the appraisal assessment not carried out, or defined review comments Performance goals have not been set correctly as some KPIs are not relevant to the staff’s duties and responsibilities Managers’ perspectives tend to be task-oriented as it is observed that some staff’s behavior issues are neglected to resolve by the managers, they requested their Director and

HR to solve it for them Consequently, some managers have ignored their supervisory roles and have taken to blaming the subordinates for their failures This is indicated by the way in which workers manage their own affairs without superior intervention Consequently, although there is training budget available, staffs still claimed that they do not see opportunities to advance their knowledge and skill in the organization

Although most of policies and procedures have been managed globally, the country office has not been well understood and left them unintentional The practices are too flexible and they can be changed whenever there are requests from any manager of the country management team (a group of selected managers who are authorized to give and suggest certain practices), without any risk management or considering over operational practices This have been experienced in meetings, staff do not care to read policies’ documents and managers do not mind, and previous applied practices such as poor of time-off management, inadequate required staff’s own pocket contribution to the office activities, inconsistent staff benefits applied In addition, reasons for staff leaving mostly are looking for better opportunities and advancements

Poor people management can negatively affect the long term business perspectives; additionally inadequate staff professional behaviors also are harmful for the organizational image and environment, especially for the strategies of retaining and attracting talents Motivated employees are needed for organizational survival (Honore, 2009, p.74) Satisfied employees are more productive, and thus help organizations prosper as a result So how people are motivated? This therefore makes it appropriate through research, for the factors affecting staff performance to be identified and appropriate measures to be taken to revive the organization, to avoid negative consequences that may affect the future functional ability of the organization

“Wright and McMahan's work points to the importance of human resources in the creation of firm-specific competitive advantage HRM practices influence employee skills through the acquisition and development of a firm's human capital The effectiveness of even highly skilled employees will be limited if they are not motivated to perform, however, and HRM can affect employee motivation by encouraging them to work both harder and smarter” (Mark, 1995, p 637)

3 Significance of the study

This research study would benefit to both current employees, especially the managers and also the organization as a whole The studies and literature will withdraw necessary attention to the management regarding the effort of motivating their staff as well as effective and appropriate ways to do Efforts need to be made

to ensure that reasons preventing optimal performance are identified The research study will help to inform RtR about the motivational problems and develop strategies to minimize the problems, and help the managers and the workers, to realize their obligations and responsibility towards, the good performance of the organization

The research information can be used to get more value out of the people hiring and already employed by using effective motivational strategies rather than monetary incentives Managers then will have a clearer picture to lead the staff and work with peer in order to achieve effective leadership practice in the workplace The recommendations in this report will enable managers to get the best performance out of their employees and increase productivity in their departments Additionally, employees can use this information to determine what helps motivate them as well as understand what motivates their peers If there is a greater level of understanding and cohesion between employees and managers, the organization as a whole will prosper

4 Objectives

The main objective of this study is to identify the employee motivational factors in the organization, and how they affect the work performance Specifically, we will look into:

1) To understand the current motivational measures and the effectiveness of those

2) To analyze if there is a relationship between motivational factors and performance

3) To identify effective ways to improve current situations with focusing on motivation toward employees

5 Main research questions

The main research questions are:

1) What are the causes of the described problems at RtR?

2) Why are the current motivational perspectives and practices not effective and to what extend they affect the performance?

3) What are the better motivational measures can be identified in order to ensure improvements?

6 Scope of the study

This study was completed by using the input of full-time and part-time employees

of the organization in all different departments These employees were surveyed for the purpose of discovering what is most motivating to them in the workplace Employee motivation is defined as the eagerness or drive in an employee that directly influences their level of involvement or performance in the workplace Motivating factors and incentives are reasons for employee motivation, and in order to best evaluate and describe which of these factors are most and least critical to employees, we have split this study up into the following criteria: communication, management, incomes, long-term incentives, and non-financial incentives

or head of departments There are all total of 44 employees in the organization have responded to the questionnaires, out of 44 employees there are 10 managers selected for the interviews

In gathering primary data, both open and closed questionnaires were used The questionnaires were to establish of understanding what motivates the staff at work and their expectations, at the same time to get understanding of what they feel about the motivational factors of working environment In addition, in order to get

an insight on what the managers’ perspectives about motivational factors those influence their staff, one-on-one interviews with managers were conducted with open questions with regarded matters All targeted participants have returned their surveys and interview questions

Secondary data have been fully utilized to analyze the motivational measures that can enhance good performance, past studies and case studies were used and surveys from all the available internet sources All possible accessible relevant books, journals, published and unpublished papers, documents related to motivation and workers performance were consulted from all the available internet sources in Vietnam and elsewhere The organizational documentations and reports were of most importance to gather the necessary information for this research A full reference list is presented at the end of the study

Additionally, information regarding RtR’s employee satisfaction survey results in the past together with information in regards to the trend of performance of the organization was accessed from HR department in the organization Statistical data is analyzed using statistical tools such as Excel data analysis, averages, and percentages

8 Justification

The research study is considered as studied experiences and current practices, therefore information perceived from regular encounters with employees will be an input in this research In addition, the research applied various types of questions such as opened, opened ended and ended questions in order to get more insightful of the data, and all employees in the organization have participated to get the most related measurements

9 Limitation of the study

Not all managers could complete the survey questionnaires because of their business travels and busy schedule during the surveys distributed Beside only some elaborations could be done through interview with the managers

Some of employees suggested that if the survey provided more elaborated questions, they could provide more thoughts and explained feelings toward the motivation at work

10 The structure of this research paper

This research paper has introduction section and three main parts The introduction is to introduce the paper, identify the problems to address in the research and the significant of the study The section also indicated the paper objectives together with research questions, scope of the study, methodology, justification, and identified some limitations Part 1 explains the literature review and the conceptual framework which are related to the topic discussed Part 2 explores into the assessment of the organization in order to provide an overview in human resources or staff management in term of employee relations and performance Part 3 withdraws the research findings from the data collected and the interpretations from secondary data sources, and the last section contents the summary of key findings with conclusions and recommendations

PART 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

1.1 Introduction

This reviews the literature of four motivation theories: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory, Herzberg’s motivators, Motivation theory and the human resource management paradigm and important concepts of motivation, extrinsic motivators, intrinsic motivators, performance management approaches, good work performance and good organization performance This section brings to light what can be done in order to motivate workers to perform to achieve organizational objectives and goals

1.2 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory

According to Maslow in his theory of Hierarchy of Needs, “employees have fine levels of needs: physiological, safety, social, ego and self-actualization” (Wilson,

1995 cited in Honore, 2009, p 65) The basic assumptions of this theory are that once a need has been met the motivation behind reaching that need decreases in importance and another need comes in The lower level of needs must be satisfied before the higher needs can begin to be met If these needs are not met then a person would fail to develop into a healthy individual The higher needs are met to make the person grow and develop into a healthy individual In line with his argument is that, for adequate work motivation leaders and managers need to understand the active needs that create individual employee motivation (Honore, 2009)

It is clear that Maslow’s hierarchy of need makes sense, but it has not been supported by sufficient empirical evidence It is observed to be rigid since people have varying needs and it is therefore difficult to accept that people needs tend to follow a steady progress up the hierarchy of need

In Reshaping Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to Reflect Today's Educational and Managerial from Keil (1999) indicates Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory is almost fifty years old In that time, the educational and managerial fields have changed greatly His article presents a debate of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs theory to reflect that in today's world, a closed triangle is not a valid representation Instead, an open, wide faced structure is needed to better reflect that self actualization is never ending And with this never ending self actualization, individuals can engender lifelong learning, change management, and boundlessness, all important factors for the 1990's educational and managerial environments “Self actualization is defined as a process of becoming, and the process of development which does not end” (Heylighen, 1992 cited in Kiel, 1999,

p 167),"the individual doing what he is fitted for – what a man can be, he must be, and a desire to become more and more what one is” (Maslow, 1954 cited in Kiel,

1999, p 167), and "being a mature, fully human person in whom the human potentialities have been realized and actualized" (Mittelman, 1991 cited in Kiel,

1999, p 167) Given these definitions, the shape of the Hierarchy of Needs must

be changed so as to integrate the 1990's society Managers, teachers, and parents

find that encouragement yields greater productivity Organizational development concepts have long espoused this (Kiel, 1999, p 167)

In addition, according to Frame (1996) Maslow's theory of motivation becomes not

a continuum but a discontinuity The gratification of each lower need is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for the emergence of the next higher one While scientific research fails to defend Maslow’s hierarchy of need, his theory is very popular and useful for motivation purposes It has been used as the introductory theory for many managers around the world

Table 1.1 Maslow’s Hierarchy of need

1.3 Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory of work motivation

Herzberg’s motivators are categorized into two factors "motivators and hygiene” The Two-Factor Theory suggests that humans have two different sets of needs and that the different elements of the work situation satisfy or dissatisfies these needs (Wright, 1989 cited in Lundberg, Gudmundson, and Andersson, 2009)

The hygiene factors

This set concerns the basic survival needs of a person The factors are company policy such as for example reward system, salary, and interpersonal relations According to Herzberg, these factors can cause dissatisfaction when not satisfied However, when satisfied these factors do not motivate or cause satisfaction, they only prevent dissatisfaction (Herzberg; Herzberg, Mausner and Bloch, 1971; 2005 cited in Lundberg, Gudmundson, and Andersson, 2009, p 891)

The motivator factors

The second set of needs is growth needs, which refers to factors intrinsic within the work itself, for example recognition of a task completed, achievement, responsibility, advancement and work itself These factors are according to Herzberg, the motivating factors, which implies that humans try to become all that they are capable of becoming and when satisfied they work as motivators (Herzberg; Herzberg, Mausner and Bloch, 1971; 2005 cited in Lundberg, Gudmundson, and Andersson, 2009, p 891) According to Herzberg, content of work, (for example, opportunities for responsibility and advancement) is the only way to increase satisfaction and thereby enhance work motivation However, when the growth factors are missing this does not cause dissatisfaction, simply an absence of satisfaction (Wright, 1989)

The Two-Factor Theory has been criticized for not taking individual differences of needs and values into account when explaining work motivation (Parson & Bradbride, 2006; Tietjen & Myers, 1998)

Method dependency is another problem and variation in methodology, (questionnaires, interviews or behavioral observations) implies that different results are obtained Also, when respondents answer critical incident questions, they may selectively recall situational factors and projecting failures to external factors Evidence also questions how well the theory applies to individual variations like gender, culture and age categories not to mention organizational differences However, according to Furnham, Forde, and Ferrari (1999 cited in Lundberg, Gudmundson, & Andersson, p 892), the theory and its applications remain influential within the domain of organizational theory

Table 1.2 Hygiene and Motivator factors

May cause dissatisfaction in the

working environment but they cannot

Work motivation is a set of energetic forces that originate both within as well as beyond an individual’s being, to initiate work-related behavior and to determine its form, direction, intensity, and duration (Pinder, 1998 cited in Latham and Pinder,

2005, p 486).Thus, motivation is a psychological process resulting from the interaction between the individual and the environment (Latham and Pinder, 2005,

p 486)

According to White (1959 cited in Fisher, 1978, p 274) individuals, who are reinforces by a feeling of efficacy, will behave to exert control over their environment The feeling then creates enjoyment which is called intrinsic reward because the individuals feel achievement and accomplishment (Fisher, 1978)

“An American psychologist named Edward C Tolman formulated Expectancy theory in the 1930s This theory suggests that human behavior will be motivated by the conscious expectation more than response to stimuli Expectancy theory can also be used to explain another phenomenon That is, an individual worker seems

to adjust his own motivational levels to those of his/her colleagues and his acceptance by the group within and knows that exceptional output on a unilateral basis will anger his colleagues and disrupt the group norm of production But if the

individual feels frustrated and unhappy, he will not make the maximum contribution

to either the common task or harmonious relationship in the group, which will affects job performances as well as individual needs” (Ugah and Arua, 2011)

Motivation theory discussed in this study is a fundamental approach, and different aspects will be discussed because analyzing the employee motivation factors requires looking into motivation through work design, management styles, and performance management approaches

Organization

's outcomes

Strong and loyal workforces Good organization performance

Motivation

According to Hellreiger and Slocum (2004) cited in Honore, 2009, p 63) motivation

is the forces toward an action of a person that results in the behavior of the person when he or she is behaving in specific goal It is the desire to do the best possible result or contribute maximum effort to perform certain task

Intrinsic Motivators

Intrinsic motivators are an endogenous part of a person’s engagement in the activity; they arise from the person’s feelings about the activity, and they are necessarily bound up with the work itself (Amabile, 1993, p 189)

Individuals are intrinsically motivated when they seek enjoyment, interest, satisfaction of curiosity, self-expression, or personal challenge in the work (Amabile, 1993, p 188)

Extrinsic Motivators

Extrinsic motivators include anything coming from an outside source that is intended to control (or can be perceived as controlling) the initiation or performance of the work, for example: promised reward, praise, critical feedback, deadlines, surveillance, or specifications on how the work is to be done (Amabile,

PART 2: PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT OF RTR AND EFFORTS OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEPARTMENT IN IMPROVING PERFORMANCE

2.1 Introduction

This part of the study reviews the employee performance indicators assessed by

HR department from the year 2011 to 2013 The performance ratings are categorized in five levels, which are Need improvement, Satisfactory, Good, Very good and Excellence

This part also provides a review of the effort of human resource functions to improve the performance levels of the employees

2.2 Assessment of employee performance evaluation results

The performance evaluation is conducted yearly through a review process starting

in October 3600 performance review is applied, that includes self-review, peers’ review, managers’ review At each step, HR department involves in monitoring and evaluating the outcomes to ensure the reviews are fairness, transparent and accurate

Table 2.1 Summary of performance evaluation results in three years (2011-2013)

There is no “Excellence” rating in three years, although the “very good” rating was rapidly improved from 2011 to 2012, and stayed the same from 2012 to 2013, the

“good” rating was declined 7% from 2012 to 2013, and “satisfactory” was increased 6% from 2012 to 2013 “Need improvement” was increased yearly from

2.3 Human Resource department and its functions

The human resource department practices labor policies locally and other programs managed by global office The HR department has full responsibility of overall HR functions in Vietnam office

The functions of the office include:

 To manage payroll and labor policies according to the local labor policy and procedure

 To handle all staffing issues and consult with the global office when required

 To control and monitor staffing code of conducts

 To develop staff development and welfare programs

 To plan budgets and manage personnel costs

 To handle general management of the country office’s HR management

2.4 Training

Annual budget is allocated by percentage of total payroll budget, the training needs are solely based on requests from the employees, and managers have no responsibility in identifying or approving the requests, in fact they acknowledge the training course and dates that the employees are absent for the training All requests were sent directly to HR and the Director for approval Consequently, relevant training for the employees is not guaranteed and following up performance after the training has not been taken by the manager In addition, training record is not monitored well, the record was not updated

To remedy the training quality, boost the staff morale, and monitor budget effectively, HR department has tried to implement the staff development system, for instance training calendar in place, managing record system by each department, and managers take actions to consider the requests and are the main responsibility of approving them; internal training and knowledge sharing are encouraged and put in the systematic approaches

After the system was installed, the responses from the managers were not positive, because they see it as time consumed rather than staff development activities

2.5 Employee Management System

The system clearly defines roles, responsibilities and accountabilities in the process which has the objectives of fairness, realistic evaluation and encouraging the managers to constantly provide feedbacks on their staff’s performance The reviews are carried out through certain periods: after probation, mid-year review, and year-end review

2.5.1 Staff benefits and allowances

Salary and benefits offered to the employees are considered competitive advantage in the market In addition, employees are also provided other allowances such as telephone, per diem, house rental, and travel allowances for those staff that required going out often as well as commuting regular around the project areas Beside the local required social, health and unemployment insurances, the organization also buy additional accidental and health insurances for all employees and their two family members to ensure their medical cares are insured

2.5.3 Staff attendance

The office installed the attendance finger-print machine to monitor employees’ in and out time Additionally, as the nature of the business weekend working and compensatory leaves are controlled and managed by using Compensatory leave form HR department monthly collected the forms and checked the attendances and the compliance of compensation policies However, there are several wrong implementations as well as managers signed the approval without considering the right policies applied The co-operation of the managers is lacking in monitoring the staff attendance

2.5.4 Discipline

All new staffs are introduced and explained the rules and regulations, and regular reviews of the regulations are conducted by HR department at least once month There is weakness of controlling the practices for some staffs in the project fields where is far away from the main office This requires closed monitoring from the managers to improve the situation In recent two-years there was no disciplinary action taken due to violated rule and regulation, however there were some employee had certain negative behaviors Those issues were reported to HR and

HR person supported the manager to handle the issue In order to improve the situation there is the need of manager’s follow up and counseling, however the actions have not been taken seriously in some cases

2.5.5 Supervision

Country management team has monthly meetings to discuss and brainstorming of improve the operation Several staff’s concerns have been discussed and advised

from HR and Director to solve Supervisory applications have been emphasized frequently to seek the effective supervision in managing staff The managers seemed unaware of staff issues and personality problems, in fact they tend to task-oriented rather than over performance management and they expect that all staff issues should be solved by either HR or the Director, not to mention the communications related to performance which they requested HR to communicate

to their staff

Some leadership training courses have organized for the managers; however the effectiveness outcomes are come from the attempt to change and practice, in which it has not been seen from the managers

2.5.6 Performance management

The performance guideline is rolled down from Global office and carried out to implement by the country HR office Beginning of year goal settings are defined by the individual staffs and their managers; mid-year and year-end reviews are conducted and coordinated with HR to ensure the process is in line

Despite the systematic structure and guideline from HR department, some managers still failed to provide concrete information during the reviews such as not being able to provide relevant feedbacks for certain set goals, professional development evaluations were neglected to review The feedbacks were just solely based on the agreement of the completed tasks instead of providing quality evaluation Consequently, this creates some problems related to staff’s disagreement after the performance rating was confirmed This showed the weakness of the managers in managing and monitoring staff performance

PART 3: FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

3.1 Introduction

This part withdraws the findings and analysis based on the results of responses and interviews to the distributed questionnaires, formal and informal interviewing sessions The employee motivation and performance at work that this study discussed are intrinsic, extrinsic motivators and work performance The focus is in comparisons with the management’s perspectives and the organization’s objectives

As mentioned in the previous part, it is crucial that the organization should apply good practices in order to gain the employee’s commitment and motivations so that there is the good performance for both individuals and the organization

This analysis will explore four major focuses, first is the perceptions of work performance at RtR, how the manager responded, and all employees’ responses and perceptions which are explained in hygiene and motivation factors

3.2 Work Performance at RtR

The managers were asked about their opinion regarding the work performance of their staffs, 40% responses are good while 60% ones are just fair Details are in table 3.1 below

They explained the main factors determined their responses were because their staff currently does not meet certain set of skills required to performance the job better and more effective, such as training skills, confidence to establish trusting relationship with partners and English skills Those limitations significantly affected their performance at work Some managers complained that because of the staff’s short comings, managers had to take over the related tasks and consequently there were more workloads for them

The managers also added, during the year-end performance review they often struggled with determining the ratings between “Good” and “Satisfactory”, and even sometimes they considered to rate certain staff as “need improvement” However, at the end they decided to rate “good” because they did not want to discourage the staff and result in low morale

Table 3.1

Overall opinion about staff’s performance

Responses Frequencies Percentages

3.3 Managers’ responses

When asking the managers about positive factors influencing the motivation on employees, and requested them to rate 8 factors in 1 to 8 while 8 is the strongest influence to 1 is lowest influence The average rate for salary factor was the strongest one that is 7 When interviewed, their responses referred to monetary factor such as salary While other factors such as company social activities, flexible schedules, training, and performance appraisal were necessary in an organization but not adequate to encourage or motivate people Practically, comparing to NGO organizations RtR’s salaries and benefits are considered competitive in the labor market

More than half of the managers felt that recognition and opportunity for advancement are also important to motivate employees However, (managers indicated) normally in NGO environment the opportunity is rare and there is less chance to have such environment for them to take advancement Contradictorily, during the survey managers’ average of rating for training opportunity was only 2.1

Although they felt that creating environment that makes employees feel part of the team, increases teamwork, and at the same time motivates them at work; all of the managers when responding to the survey rated the “company social activities” at the lowest level (average rating was 2.1)

3.4 All employees’ responses

This section analyzes the responses answered by all employees on the hygiene factors (job security, working relations, and supervisors’ communication); motivation factors (achievement, recognition, advancement, and satisfaction of job responsibility)

Overall responses regarding the motivation that all employees felt as following table

Table 3.2

Do you feel motivated at your current job?

Response Female Male Frequency Total %

Based on the table 3.2 of the responses, there were major of employees who felt motivated at work (50% of employees felt very motivated and 36% of them felt somewhat motivated), only total of 14% felt not motivated at work

When asked some of employees who felt not motivated, they shared that main reasons were they did not have chance to maximize their skills, the nature of the required tasks is very routine and the job is not challenging enough for them

3.4.1 Hygiene Factors

3.4.1.1 Job security

In order to understand how the employees perceived the feeling and perception of having a job secured in the organization, they were asked the question: “Do you see your job is secured in the organization?” Below in table 3.3 are their responses

Table 3.3

Do you see your job is secured in the organization?

Response Female Male Frequency Total %

Source: Data collected by Author

Table 3.3 shows that 68% of total male and female agreed/strongly agreed that they feel job secured However, 20% were not sure and 11% were disagreed and strongly disagreed that they were having a secured job The reasons why they were not sure or disagreed were because the organization’s business nature is NGO and they would not know if there are funds for coming years

At the end of the survey, the employees were also asked if they felt motivated

at their current job followed by four choices: very motivated, somewhat motivated, unmotivated, very unmotivated

There was strong correlation that is r=0.6 between the responses of “Job secured” and “motivation”