--- RESEARCH PROJECT (BMBR5103) WHAT FACTORS AFFECT EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION AT ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT OF A HIGH TECHNOLOGY COMPANY? STUDENT’S FULL NAME : PHAN VIET SANG STUDENT ID : CGS00064981 INTAKE : MARCH 2016 ADVISOR’S NAME & TITLE : Dr. BUI PHI HUNG August 2017 --- Advisor’s assessment. Advisor’s signature --- CERTIFICATION I certify that this research project has been written by myself. The research of the project has not been submitted for any degree, and it is not being currently submitted for any other degrees.
To the best of my knowledge, I conceived that any help received in preparing the research project and all the reference sources have been acknowledged. The study in this project does not necessarily reflect the views of Open University Malaysia school. Author Phan Viet Sang i --- ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my deep gratitude to Dr. Bui Phi Phung as the best lecturer who had taught me in the past time about the subject “Business Research Method”.
Your thoughtful and patient supervision have inspired me in completing this research project. My love to my wife and family who are always with me last 3 months for spiritual support. My appreciation to colleagues in company and classmates in MBA course who supported me in the survey and topic discussion. Thank you! Phan Viet Sang ii --- ABSTRACT This thesis studies the factors that affect employee motivation in engineering department of a High Technology Company using descriptive approach by survey questionnaire.
The thesis applies the two factor theory of Frederick Herzberg to evaluate the extrinsic factors and intrinsic factors that affect the employee motivation. The two factors are called hygiene factors and motivators. The study also evaluate the employee motivation to their performance. The first research questions looked at the extrinsic factors affecting the level of employee motivation.
The second research questions looked at the intrinsic factors influencing employee motivation. Then, the third research questions addressed the impact of employee motivation on the level of employee performance. With 107 respondents answering the survey and through correlation analysis, the findings indicated that leadership style, effectiveness of information, job enrichment, and quality of working environment were the most important extrinsic factors that affects employee motivation. The study also identified work meaningfulness, trust, training and development, and job significant contribution were the most highly cited intrinsic factors influencing employee motivation.
The study found that most respondents felt the absenteeism has correlation with turnover rate. Levels of stress are correlated to productivity level. Turnover rate, absenteeism, employee productivity and employee turnover affects employee motivation. The research concluded that motivating employees is an important factor on employee performance.
It’s important to know which factors motivate the employees in a given organization so that the management can put more emphasis on. Recommendations indicated that the organization should effectively exploit the extrinsic factors influencing employee motivation as a strategy for establishing a positive employee motivation. Leaders can use both extrinsic and intrinsic motivators in tandem to optimize performance in the workplace and to improve employee engagement. iii --- Key words: Herzberg’s two factor theory; extrinsic factors; intrinsic factors; hygiene factors; motivators; employee motivation; employee performance.
iv --- TABLE OF CONTENT CHAPTER ONE – INTRODUCTION 1.2 The research question .3 Research Aims and Objectives .4 Justification of the Study.5 Limitations of the Study .6 The Structure of the Paper. 3 CHAPTER TWO – LITERATURE REVIEW 2.3 Engineering and Engineer definition .1 Needs theories of motivation .2 Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs .3 Frederick Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory .3a Motivation factors and its subcomponents. Hygiene factors and its subcomponents .5 Four generations in the workplace .6 Factors affecting employee motivation in the workplace .1 Extrinsic factors that affect employee motivation .2 Intrinsic factors that affect employee motivation. 23 v --- CHAPTER THREE - RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.2 Research Paradigm and Philosophies .4 Population and Sampling Design .5 Reliability of Study .6 Data Collection Methods.8 Data Analysis Methods.
30 CHAPTER FOUR – DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 4.3 Extrinsic factors that affect employee motivation .4 Extrinsic Factors that affect employee motivation .5 Impact of Employee Motivation on Performance .6 Correlation Analysis Results. 49 CHAPTER FIVE – DISCUSSIONS OF KEY RESULTS 5.2 Discussion of Key Results. 51 vi --- CHAPTER SIX – CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 6. 57 vii --- LIST OF TABLES Page Table 2.1: Motivational factors and their sub-division .2: Intrinsic factors that affect employee motivation .1: The alpha coefficients for the variables .2: Cronbach's Alpha of Extrinsic factors.3: Cronbach's Alpha of Intrinsic factors .4: Cronbach's Alpha of Employee motivation .1: Descriptive statistics of extrinsic factors .2: Descriptive statistics of intrinsic factors .3: Descriptive statistics of Employee Motivation on Performance .4 Correlation among Extrinsic Factors .5 Correlation among Intrinsic Factors .6: Correlation among employee motivation factors.
49 viii --- LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 2.1: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs .2: Opportunities for Satisfaction in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs (Schermerhorn, 2001:286) .3: Subcomponents of hygiene factors and motivators .4: The Relationship of Hygiene and Motivational Factors (Scanlan, and Keys, 1987: 237) .5: Herzberg and Maslow theory relations (Mondy, Holmes, and Flippo, 1940:275) .6: Factors Affecting Employee Motivation in the Workplace .1: Monetary Compensation/Salary Structure Affects Motivation .2: The Leadership Style Affects on Employee Motivation .3: Job Enrichment by the Organization Affects Motivation .4: Organizational Information Management Affects Motivation .5: The Quality of the Work Environment Affects Motivation .6: The Employee-Management Relationship Affects Motivation .7: Promotion Opportunities Affects Employee Motivation .8: Co-Workers Affect Employee Job motivation .9: Employee Motivation is affected by the Nature of Job that they do .10: Appreciation by the Organization Affects Job Motivation .11: Skill Requirement Impacts on Employee Job Motivation .12: The Employee View of the Job Affects Motivation .13: Trust Exhibited at the Workplace Affects Job Motivation .14: Constant Feedback on Employee Performance Affects Motivation .15: Employee Responsibilities Impact on Overall Motivation .16: Fairness in Treatment of Employees Affects Job Motivation .17: Employee Perception on Skill Development Affects Motivation .18: Perception about Contributing to Firm’s Growth Affects Motivation. 43 ix --- Page Figure 4.19: Employee Empowerment and Autonomy Affects Motivation .20: Employee Motivation directly Impacts on Absenteeism .21: Employee Motivation Directly Affects Employee Productivity .22: Employee Motivation is directly related to Employee Turnover .23: Employee Motivation Impacts on the Employee Safety Practice .24: Employee Stress is Associated with Job or Workplace Motivation .25: Unionization Need in Organizations is Attributable to Motivation .26: Employee new Skill Acquisition rates is Attributable to Motivation. 47 x --- CHAPTER ONE – INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background Nowadays, employee motivation is considered as one of the most vital parts in reaching the success and prosperity of business in such a dynamic and fierce market competition. People are playing an important role for effective operation in every organization.
And motivation is one of the factors that affect the productivity of people. Process and equipment engineers play a vital role in the management of projects in engineering department. In the recent years, engineering departments have realized this and become increasingly interested in managing employees which will enhance business performance. How to understand the motivational factors that affect employees, especially the engineers, who work in engineering department of high technology manufacturing company, is a big challenge to answer, deeply understand, and put into the actions to the managers and leaders of the organization.2 The Research Question The review of the literature suggests that there is a need for further research on employee motivation in manufacturing and engineering organization.
It is important to assess the impact of motivation on the performance of the engineers. Therefore, the main aim of this business research is to investigate the topic “What factors affect employee motivation at Engineering Department of a High Technology Company?” where the targeted customer to conduct the survey are the process and equipment engineers under Engineering Department in order to draw out the most factors that impact to their motivation in daily work and career work.3 Research Aims and Objectives Overall, this research aimed to investigate factors that affect employee motivation within the engineering organization and identified the most contribution factors to be applied to increase employees and organizational performance. The purpose of this study is to examine the ranked importance of some motivational 1 --- factors and to recognize how the Engineering Department of a High Technology Company in Vietnam is performing in motivating its workforce. Therefore, in order to achieve objectives of this research, it investigated Herzberg’s two factory theory.
The survey period is from June to July 2017 to explore the factors that motivate employees most according to the ranked order of importance. The current paper starts with an introduction on the factors that have influential impact on employee motivation followed by literature review. Then the research methodology is discussed in detail. Results are presented and interpreted, then followed by findings, conclusion and recommendations.4 Justification of the Study The modern trend in human resource management highlights the importance of motivating employees and helping them develop in the respective skills and talents to get maximum output from these resources.
There are various aspects that justify the overall importance of this research project. Firstly, the research adds value and significance to the organization current business strategy and it will identify the strengths and weaknesses of the approach that may bring the ideas to staff retention and minimize the turn-over rate within the business. It explores the importance of motivating staff within an organization. Furthermore, the findings of this research could aid the organization with a proposal to focus on the most contribution factors for employee motivation.5 Limitations of the Study This research is focused on one particular engineering department, therefore indicating that the data collected may be seen as insufficient.
Many participants refused to take part in this research due to lack of time or hesitating to answer the survey question. Moreover, the size of the sample population may be deemed as inadequate in relation to the size of the business under investigation.6 The Structure of the Paper This section of the paper will summarize the six chapters of this management research. - Chapter one: refers to the introduction of the study and highlights the research question, the justification of the study. It also outlines the structure of the paper and the limitations of the research.
- Chapter two: aims to give literature review regarding motivation theory, employee motivation factors within organization. - Chapter three: will provide the main methodological concerns that are related to the research such as research design, population, sampling, data collection method. - Chapter four: will provide the data analysis techniques followed by the findings of this research. - Chapter five: identifies the discussion of the key findings in regards to the literature that has been reviewed alongside the main implications of the research.
- Chapter six: provides the conclusions and summary of the study, as well as the limitations of the research and directions for future studies.7 Conclusion The survey result concludes that, payment is not the only factor for motivating employees; rather there are some other pivotal factors, like opportunities for growth and development, job security, interesting work are the key which have significant contribution in propelling employee motivation in the workplace. Carefully designed employee engagement programs and reward systems should be considered. 3 --- CHAPTER TWO – LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction Human resource is the sole strategic asset of every organization. In the age of globalization, if organizations are to sustain and grow their way out of the current economic depression, they have to utilize their human resources effectively.
And these resources will retain and give their best when they are motivated by several organizational and other factors. Before identifying the factors that motivate the employees, we must understand what motivation is.2 Motivation definition According to Pinder (2008) “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”.