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5.1 A Motivating Place to Work: The Case of Zappos

Robert Sinnett – Zappos! – CC BY 2.0.

It is unique to hear about a CEO who studies happiness and motivation and builds those principles into the company’s core values or about a company with a 5-week training course and an offer of $2,000 to quit anytime during that 5 weeks if you feel the company is not a good fit. Top that off with an on-site life coach who also happens to be a chiropractor, and you are really talking about something you don’t hear about every day. Zappos is known as much for its 365-day return policy and free shipping as it is for its innovative corporate culture. Although acquired in 2009 by Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Zappos managed to move from number 23 in 2009 on Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” list to 15 in 2010.

Performance is a function of motivation, ability, and the environment in which you work. Zappos seems to be creating an environment that encourages motivation and builds inclusiveness. The company delivers above and beyond basic workplace needs and addresses the self-actualization needs that most individuals desire from their work experience. CEO Tony Hsieh believes that the secret to customer loyalty is to make a corporate culture of caring a priority. This is reflected in the company’s 10 core values and its emphasis on building a team and a family. During the interview process, applicants are asked questions relating to the company’s values, such as gauging their own weirdness, open-mindedness, and sense of family. Although the offer to be paid to quit during the training process has increased from its original number of $400, only 1% of trainees take the offer. Work is structured differently at Zappos as well. For example, there is no limit to the time customer service representatives spend on a phone call, and they are encouraged to make personal connections with the individuals on the other end rather than try to get rid of them.

Although Zappos has over 1,300 employees, the company has been able to maintain a relatively flat organizational structure and prides itself on its extreme transparency. In an exceptionally detailed and lengthy letter to employees, Hsieh spelled out what the new partnership with Amazon would mean for the company, what would change, and more important, what would remain the same. As a result of this type of company structure, individuals have more freedom, which can lead to greater satisfaction.

Although Zappos pays its employees well and offers attractive benefits such as employees receiving full health-care coverage and a compressed workweek, the desire to work at Zappos seems to go beyond that. As Hsieh would say, happiness is the driving force behind almost any action an individual takes. Whether your goals are for achievement, affiliation, or simply to find an enjoyable environment in which to work, Zappos strives to address these needs.

Based on information from Robischon, N. (2009, July 22). Amazon buys Zappos for $847 million. Fast Company . Retrieved February 28, 2010, from http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/noah-robischon/editors-desk/amazon-buys-zappos-807-million ; Walker, A. (2009, March 14). Zappos’ Tony Hsieh on Twitter, phone calls and the pursuit of happiness. Fast Company . Retrieved February 27, 2010, from http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/alissa-walker/member-blog/tony-hsiehs-zapposcom ; Happy feet—Inside the online shoe utopia. (2009, September 14). New Yorker . Retrieved February 28, 2010, from http://about.zappos.com/press-center/media-coverage/happy-feet-inside-online-shoe-utopia ; 100 best companies to work for. (2010, February 8). Fortune . Retrieved February 26, 2010, from http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2010/snapshots/15.html .

Discussion Questions

What potential organizational changes might result from the acquisition by Amazon?
Why do you think Zappos’ approach is not utilized more often? In other words, what are the challenges to these techniques?
Why do you think Zappos offers a $2,000 incentive to quit?
Would you be motivated to work at Zappos? Why or why not?

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Work Futurist

Senior Quantitative Researcher, People Insights

Principal Writer

Use motivation theory to inspire your team’s best work

5 frameworks for understanding the psychology behind that elusive get-up-and-go.

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5-second summary

Motivation theories explore the forces that drive people to work towards a particular outcome.
These frameworks can help leaders who want to foster a productive environment understand the psychology behind human motivation.
Here, we’re outlining five of the most common motivation theories and explaining how to put those theories into practice.

A huge part of a leader’s job is creating an environment where productivity thrives and teams are inspired to do their best work. But that uniquely human brand of motivation can be quite slippery – hard to understand, inspire, and harness.

An academic foundation on motivational theory can help, but opening that door exposes you to enough theoretical concepts and esoteric language to make your eyes glaze over.

This practical guide to motivation theories cuts through the jargon to help you get a solid grasp on the fundamentals that fuel your team’s peak performance – and how you can actually put these theories into action.

What is motivation theory?

Motivation theory explores the forces that drive people to work towards a particular outcome. Rather than accepting motivation as an elusive human idiosyncrasy, motivation theories offer a research-backed framework for understanding what, specifically , pushes people forward.

Motivation theory doesn’t describe one specific approach – rather, it’s an umbrella category that covers a slew of theories, each with a different take on the best “recipe” for motivation in the workplace.

CONTENT THEORIES VS. PROCESS THEORIES

At a high level, motivation theories can be split into two distinct categories: content theories and process theories .

Content theories focus on the things that people need to feel motivated. They look at the factors that encourage and maintain motivated behaviors, like basic needs, rewards, and recognition.
Process theories focus on individuals’ thought processes that might impact motivation, such as behavioral patterns and expectations.

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A quick Google search will reveal dozens of different approaches that promise to unlock relentless ambition on your team.

It’s not likely that a single motivation theory will immediately ignite human-productivity hyperdrive. But the psychology happening behind the scenes gives unique insight into the components that influence human motivation. Leaders can then build on that foundation to create an environment that’s conducive to better focus and enthusiasm.

Let’s get into five of the most common and frequently referenced theories.

1. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

One of the most well-known motivation theories, the hierarchy of needs was published by psychologist Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper “ A Theory of Human Motivation .”

The gist is that Maslow’s hierarchy outlines five tiers of human needs, commonly represented by a pyramid. These five tiers are:

Physiological needs: Food, water, shelter, air, sleep, clothing, reproduction
Safety needs: Personal security, employment, resources, health, property
Love and belonging: Family, friendship, intimacy, a sense of connection
Esteem: Status, recognition, self-esteem, respect
Self-actualization: The ability to reach your full potential

As the term “hierarchy” implies, people tend to seek out their basic needs first (which make up the base of the pyramid). After that, they move to the needs in the next tier until they reach the tip of the pyramid.

In this same paper, however, Maslow clarifies that his hierarchy of needs isn’t quite as sequential as the pyramid framework might lead people to believe. One need doesn’t necessarily have to be fully met before the next one becomes pertinent. These human needs do build on each other, but they’re interdependent and not always consecutive. As Maslow himself said , “No need or drive can be treated as if it were isolated or discrete; every drive is related to the state of satisfaction or dissatisfaction of other drives.”

The iconic pyramid associated with Maslow’s theory wasn’t actually created by Maslow — and is even considered somewhat misleading, as you don’t need to “complete” each level before moving forward. The pyramid was popularized decades later by a different psychologist who built upon Maslow’s work along with other management theories.

Maslow’s theory was originally focused on humans’ fundamental needs generally, but in the intervening decades, it’s frequently been adapted and applied to workplaces.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in practice

The biggest lesson for leaders here is that you need to have the basics in place before anything else. Because Maslow’s tiers build on each other, a promotion won’t do much to motivate your team members if they’re concerned about the safety of their work environment.

Do your team members feel that they have some level of job security? Are they adequately paid? Do they have safe working conditions? Those are the base requirements you need to meet first.

The hierarchy of needs can support a more holistic approach to management, so you can confirm basic needs and then evolve a more nuanced idea of what people need to thrive. Do they have solid connections with you and their colleagues? Do they receive adequate recognition? Do they have some autonomy in their position?

2. Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory (AKA dual-factor or two-factor theory)

Frederick Herzberg, a behavioral scientist, created the motivation-hygiene theory in 1959. The theory is a result of his interviews with a group of employees, in which he asked them two simple questions:

Think of a time you felt good about your job. What made you feel that way?
Think of a time you felt bad about your job. What made you feel that way?

Through those interviews, he realized that there are two mutually exclusive factors that influence employee satisfaction or dissatisfaction – hence, this theory is often called the “two-factor” or “dual-factor” theory. He named the factors:

Hygiene encompasses basic things like working conditions, compensation, supervision, and company policies. When these nuts and bolts are in place, employee satisfaction remains steady – it’s the absence of them that moves the needle. When they’re missing, employee satisfaction decreases.
Motivators are things like perks, recognition, and opportunity for advancement. These are the factors that, when present, increase employee motivation, productivity, and commitment.

Here’s the easiest way to think of this theory: Hygiene issues will cause dissatisfaction with your employees (and that dissatisfaction will hinder their motivation). Motivators improve satisfaction and motivation – but only when healthy hygiene is in place.

Herzberg’s theory in practice

Herzberg’s two-factor theory is often described as complementary to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, as both place an emphasis on ensuring an employee’s basic needs – like security, safety, and pay – are being satisfied.

Maslow’s theory is more descriptive, and gives you a comprehensive understanding of the human needs that drive motivation. Herzberg’s theory focuses specifically on prescriptive takeaways for the workplace, giving managers a simple, two-part framework they can use to confirm the presence of hygiene factors before trying to leverage any motivators.

3. Vroom’s expectancy theory

The premise behind Vroom’s expectancy theory , established by psychologist Victor Vroom in 1964, is pretty straightforward: We make conscious choices about our behavior, and those choices are motivated by our expectations about what will happen. In other words, we make decisions to pursue pleasure and avoid pain.

The nuance lies in Vroom’s finding that people value outcomes differently. To unpack that added layer of complexity, Vroom dug a little deeper to explain two psychological processes that influence motivation:

Instrumentality: People believe that a reward will correlate to their performance.
Expectancy: People believe that as they increase their effort, the reward increases too.

Vroom’s theory indicates that people need to be able to anticipate the outcome of their actions and behaviors. And, if you want to boost motivation, they need to care about those outcomes.

Vroom’s expectancy theory in practice

The one thing your career development plan is missing

Remember that everyone on your team might not be motivated by the same rewards, so your first step is to understand what each of your team members value so you can create opportunities for corresponding outcomes. From there, you can set clear expectations that connect performance to their desired rewards. (This is also what a career development plan does, by the way).

Of course, not every single expectation has a reward directly attached to it. Employees are required to fulfill the responsibilities of their jobs simply because…it’s their job.

Vroom’s theory is all about seeking pleasure and minimizing pain. So, in situations where a reward isn’t relevant, make sure employees are in the loop on what the consequences are if expectations aren’t met.

4. Reinforcement theory

The reinforcement theory is a piece of a broader concept called operant conditioning , which is often credited to psychologist, B.F. Skinner. However, Skinner’s work builds on the law of effect , established by Edward Thorndike in 1898.

Despite its convoluted origins, this is another theory with a simple premise: Consequences shape our behaviors. We’ll repeat behaviors that are reinforced, whether that means they lead to a positive outcome (positive reinforcement) or they end or remove a negative outcome (negative reinforcement).

This theory doesn’t focus on our internal drivers – it’s all about cause and effect. If we do something and like the result, we do it again.

Reinforcement theory in practice

Because this theory is so strongly correlated to human nature (hey, you probably weren’t eager to touch a hot stove again after it burned you once, right?), it’s one of the most intuitive to apply on your team.

When an employee does something desirable, reward that behavior – whether in the form of well-deserved recognition, taking a dreaded task off their plate, or offering a more tangible perk like an extra day off.

5. Self-determination theory

5 questions about motivation with Daniel Pink

The self-determination theory , introduced by psychologists Richard Ryan and Edward Deci in their 1985 book , focuses on finding motivation within yourself.

Ryan and Deci argue that motivation shouldn’t necessarily be derived from dangling carrots or waving sticks at people. That type is what they refer to as controlled motivation , in which people choose their behaviors based on external results.

Far more powerful than that, the psychologists argued, is autonomous motivation (also known as intrinsic motivation). Under these circumstances, people feel motivated when their choices are aligned with their internal goals and beliefs. Their behaviors aren’t directed by external approval, rewards, and punishments. Instead, their behaviors are self-determined.

Autonomous motivation doesn’t happen on its own. To get there, people need to have three psychological needs met:

Autonomy: The feeling that they have a choice and some ownership over their behavior
Competence: The feeling that they are knowledgeable and capable
Relatedness: The feeling that they are connected to others

The psychological needs of self-determination theory

When those three boxes are checked, people are better equipped to pull motivation from within, rather than relying on the external factors that are central to so many other motivation theories.

Self-determination theory in practice

You might guess that meeting those three core psychological needs is crucial for this theory – and there’s no need to overcomplicate it.

Here are a few ideas:

Autonomy: Give employees flexible schedules and the ability to decide for themselves when and where they do their best work.
Competence: Offer additional trainings and learning opportunities to continue to refine their skills.
Relatedness: Provide outlets – whether it’s designated Slack channels or team outings – for team members to bond and get to know each other on a more personal level.

That’s not an exhaustive list. You have room to get creative and find other ways to boost your employees’ sense of ownership, proficiency, and connection.

Motivation doesn’t have to be a mystery

Motivation can feel fickle – like a fleeting phenomenon that magically happens when conditions are just right .

But, as your team’s leader, it’s your responsibility to conjure that “just right” environment where people can perform their best work.

You don’t need to be a mind reader to make that happen. Motivation theory can help you identify methods among the madness and create an environment where a high-level motivation is a constant – not a fluke.

Advice, stories, and expertise about work life today.

An experiential exercise for teaching theories of work motivation: using a game to teach equity and expectancy theories

Organization Management Journal

ISSN : 2753-8567

Article publication date: 1 July 2020

Issue publication date: 27 November 2020

This paper aims to provide an experiential exercise for management and leadership educators to use in the course of their teaching duties.

Design/methodology/approach

The approach of this classroom teaching method uses an experiential exercise to teach Adams’ equity theory and Vroom’s expectancy theory.

This experiential exercise has proven useful in teaching two major theories of motivation and is often cited as one of the more memorable classes students experience.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is an original experiential exercise for teaching the equity and expectancy theories of motivation.

Work motivation
Equity theory
Expectancy theory

Experiential exercise

Swain, J. , Kumlien, K. and Bond, A. (2020), "An experiential exercise for teaching theories of work motivation: using a game to teach equity and expectancy theories", Organization Management Journal , Vol. 17 No. 3, pp. 119-132. https://doi.org/10.1108/OMJ-06-2019-0742

Emerald Publishing Limited

Published in Organization Management Journal . Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Theories of work motivation are central to the field of management and are covered in many introductory management, leadership, human resource management and organizational behavior courses ( Benson & Dresdow, 2019 ; Steers, Mowday, & Shapiro, 2004 ; Swain, Bogardus, & Lin, 2019 ). Understanding the concept of work motivation helps undergraduate students prepare for leading and managing others. Teaching these concepts in the classroom allows students to experiment and share ideas with others in a lower-stakes environment than if they were in an actual place of work with other employees. But teaching students theories of work motivation is not easy. First, there are dozens of theories ranging from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, to self-determination theory, to goal setting theory, to Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory (a.k.a. two-factor theory), to job characteristics theory, just to name a few ( Anderson, 2007 ; Holbrook & Chappell, 2019 ; Latham & Pinder, 2005 ; Locke & Latham, 1990 ). Second, students tend to evaluate the explanatory power of different motivational theories based on how they relate to their work and life experiences ( Anderson, 2007 ). This tendency to view motivation theories through the lens of personal experience poses a challenge for undergraduate level students who have limited work exposure; they often lack the context to make sense of the various motivational theories ( Mills, 2017 ). Therefore, to provide a common experience through which students can understand theories of work motivation, we developed an experiential activity. Specifically, we use an in-class basketball exercise. This experiential approach not only provides a common context for students to reference in applying theories of work motivation, but also incorporates elements of fun and competition, which have been shown to help engage students more fully ( Helms & Haynes, 1990 ; Azriel, Erthal, & Starr, 2005 ).

While there are numerous theories of work motivation ( Latham & Pinder, 2005 ), like others, we have found focusing on too many of these theories during one class overwhelms students and causes them to question academics’ understanding of the topic ( Anderson, 2007 ; Holbrook & Chappell, 2019 ). However, focusing on too few theories also limits students’ education and understanding of why multiple theories of motivation exist. We find that acknowledging the existence of multiple theories is advisable, and we suggest instructors emphasize the complexity of motivation, but that they do not try to force students to learn or apply the details of a large number of theories of motivation in a single class period. Therefore, our exercise focuses on two basic theories of work motivation – Vroom’s Expectancy Theory and Adams’ Equity Theory. We chose to focus on these two theories because they are among the most influential theories of work motivation ( Anderson, 2007 ; Holbrook & Chappell, 2019 ; Miner, 2003 ) and among the most frequently included in management and organizational behavior courses and textbooks ( Miner, 2003 ; Miner, 2005 ).

Theoretical foundation

Both expectancy and equity theories of motivation have been identified as important frameworks for teaching and understanding motivation, and both emphasize the cognitive approach to motivation ( Miner, 2003 ; Stecher & Rosse, 2007 ).

Adams’ equity theory centers on the perception of fairness ( Adams, 1963 ). When people feel they have been fairly treated, they are more likely to be motivated. When they feel they have not been fairly treated, their motivation will suffer. These perceptions of equity are derived from an assessment of personal input and outputs – or what people put into a task compared to what they receive as a result ( Adams, 1963 ; Kanfer & Ryan, 2018 ). Inputs can include things like time, effort, loyalty, enthusiasm and personal sacrifice. Outputs can include but are not limited to, thing likes salary, praise, rewards, recognition, job security, etc. But the theory is more complex than simply the assessment of personal inputs weighed against outputs. Adams’ equity theory also incorporates the concept of perceived equity ( Adams, 1963 ; Kanfer & Ryan, 2018 ). People compare their inputs and outputs to others. If they feel that another person is putting in the same level of effort, but getting more outputs as a result, that person’s motivation may suffer ( Kanfer, 1990 ; Kanfer & Ryan, 2018 ; Stecher & Rosse, 2007 ). This theory can be summarized using a visual equation that highlights how perceived equity can impact motivation ( Appendix 1 ). This same visual equation can help students understand how leaders can influence motivation in their subordinates; how leaders can impact equity. For example, if inequity exists, leaders may require subordinates to reduce personal inputs, or they may adjust the outcomes. They might also counsel their subordinates to change their comparison points (e.g. a low-level worker should not compare herself to a senior VP with 12+ years of experience).

Expectancy : Is the individual properly trained and do they possess the necessary resources to effectively do the job?

Instrumentality : Does the individual trust that they’ll receive what they were promised if they do what they were asked?

Valence : Does the individual value the reward they were promised ( Kanfer & Ryan, 2018 )?

In this exercise, we use a mini basketball game in class to teach students about both Adams’ equity theory and Vroom’s expectancy theory. Using the game in class ensures students have a common context through which to apply and understand these two theories of work motivation. As noted by Stecher & Rosse (2007) , both theories offer compatible frameworks for understanding work motivation, yet they are most often taught as distinct non-related theories. We find that teaching these two theories using the same experiential exercise helps students understand the complexities of motivation. Specifically, this exercise helps students understand how multiple theories can explain motivation issues for the same situation.

Learning objectives

understand the complexity of motivation and its impact on performance;

explain differences in an individual’s motivation and behavior as a function of common psychological forces experienced by people; and

apply knowledge of work motivation theories to address issues of motivation.

Target audience.

This exercise is designed for undergraduate students in introductory courses in leadership, management, human resource management or organizational behavior – wherever theories of work motivation are covered. This approach has been used for over a decade teaching college juniors and seniors in a leadership course. While the approach has not been used to teach graduate students, there is no reason to believe it would not be an effective means for teaching those enrolled in an MBA program.

Class size.

The exercise has been used in classes ranging from 15 to 36 students. As participation by multiple students positively impacts the class, it is recommended the exercise be used for smaller classes. Time could become a factor in larger classes. Furthermore, space could prove a limiting factor in larger classes as some room is needed to set up the game.

Supplies needed.

mini basketball hoop and mini basketball (a trash can and wadded up paper can work if you do not have access to a small hoop and ball);

means for keeping time (stopwatch, wristwatch or wall clock with a second hand);

painter’s tape or note cards to annotate shot positions on the floor in the classroom;

one bag of miniature candy bars; and

slides of equity and expectancy theory to assist in de-brief ( Appendix 1 ).

This exercise as described can be completed in a single 75-min class session. If less time is available, we recommend instructors teach only one of the theories as outlined in this article (conduct only one of the two rounds of the game), covering the other theory during another class period.

a brief overview of work motivation by the instructor (via short lecture or through soliciting input from students to gauge the level of preparation) (10 min);

the first round of the game (10 min);

de-brief and application of equity theory (10 min);

the second round of the game (10 min);

de-brief and application of expectancy theory (10 min);

small group discussion on the future application of theories (15 min); and

structured de-brief of group discussions (10 min).

Student preparation before class.

It is recommended that instructors assign students readings focused on work motivation in advance of the class. A large number of organizational behavior or management textbooks contain chapters on this topic. At a minimum, the assigned reading should cover equity and expectancy theories.

Instructor preparation and classroom setup.

Instructors should set up the classroom with supplies they obtained before beginning class. A visual example of the classroom setup for Rounds 1 and 2 of the exercise can be found in Appendix 2 . The mini-basketball hoop should be located in front of the classroom where all the students can see it. Depending on the size/shape of the classroom, the shooting positions for Rounds 1 and 2 of the exercise can be placed in any location. The shooting position for Round 1 should be a moderately difficult shot, perhaps two to three steps away from the basket. Mark the position with tape or a notecard.

Round 2 requires three different shooting positions. Each position should be marked with tape or a notecard. The first position is the “easy” shot. It should be very close to the basket (1-2 steps in front of the basket). The purpose of this first position is to create the opportunity for a shot that the average person would have lots of confidence in making (high expectancy). The second position should be further away (six to eight steps away from the basket) and potentially behind a row of desks for some added difficulty. The purpose of this second position is to create a shot of medium level difficulty where students are not completely confident (lower expectancy) that they will be able to make it. The third position should be the hardest shot that you can create while still leaving a very small possibility of the shot being made (lowest expectancy). It is recommended you make the student stand outside of a doorway so that they have to shoot a strange trajectory. If your classroom space is not big enough to support making a shot position that is far away from the basket, you can instead add difficulty by requiring the student to wear a blindfold or to shoot backwards. For the positions needed for Round 2 of the exercise, instructors should test the positions and ensure the three different locations are of varying difficulty and that the third position is an extremely difficult (almost impossible) shot to make.

Running the exercise

Introduction to motivational theories (10 min).

Given the number of motivational theories that exist in the academic world, we find it helpful to acknowledge this initially with students to highlight the overall complexity of the topic. In this introduction, instructors can briefly highlight the variety of motivational theories that exist (e.g. expectancy, equity, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, self-determination theory, goal setting theory, Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory, job characteristics theory, etc.). This can be done in any number of ways – asking students to list and/or briefly describe the various theories covered in their assigned reading, etc. Teachers should tailor this introduction based on their specific situation (e.g. the content of assigned reading, length of class, etc.). After talking through the variety of theories that exist, it is important to highlight to students that these theories should be viewed more as a conceptual toolbox for them to use in different situations as opposed to viewing all of these theories as a group of non-congruent viewpoints all competing to be the truest ( Anderson, 2007 ).

After a brief review of the assigned reading(s), instructors can tell students that they are going to play a game to apply what they have learned.

Round 1 of the game (10 min)

Ask all of the students to stand up and tell them to stretch out, limber up, and get prepared for a mini-basketball competition. During this session, the instructor will provide students with an exciting and competitive experience to which they can apply the concepts of Adams’ Equity Theory.

Divide students into four even teams. Have students move around and sit with their team as a group. Explain that Team 1 will compete against Team 2 in a basketball shootout. Establish an incentive of your choice – candy often works well. Show this incentive to the students. Now call Team 1 and Team 2 up to the front of the class and instruct them that:

[…] you can take as many shots as you want at the hoop in 60 seconds, but everybody in your team needs to shoot at least once. The team that ends up with the most baskets made will win. Team 1, you will go first.

Use a stopwatch or watch with a second hand to keep time and instruct members of the opposing team to keep score.

Once Team 1 completes their turn, record their score and call Team 2 forward. Before allowing Team 2 to start their turn, move the shooting spot three paces further away from the basket (move the tape or notecard back three paces).

You will likely experience negative feedback from Team 2 after moving the basket. Common responses include, “this isn’t fair.” Pay close attention to the complaints that they use, these are often very useful to bring up during the discussion portion of the exercise. You might respond lightheartedly with “life isn’t fair” or “what, are you scared?” Allow Team 2 to complete their turn, paying close attention to their affect and comments. If done correctly, Team 2 should lose to Team 1. Congratulate Team 1 on their excellent performance and give each member of Team 1 their prize (a small candy bar works well) and have both Teams 1 and 2 return to their seats.

Now call Team 3 forward. Instruct them that will have 60 s to shoot from the same spot that Team 2 shot from. Keep time and have a member from Team 4 count the baskets. When time is up, record the score. Now call Team 4 forward. Have them shoot from the same spot Team 3 did. Start the clock. However, do not stop the team from shooting after 60 s. Let them continue to shoot for an additional 30 s – or longer – until you hear the members of Teams 1, 2 and 3 start questioning how much time Team 4 is getting to shoot. Record the number of shots made. Team 4 should beat Team 3. Congratulate team 4. Do NOT give Team 4 any candy for winning. Have Teams 3 and 4 return to their seats.

Round 1 de-brief and application of equity theory (10 min)

This is where the instructor begins to apply Adams’ equity theory to the scenario. Ask students if anyone is feeling unsatisfied or unmotivated. You should have several hands go up. If not, remind them of the negative comments you heard during the game – calling on students by name if necessary. Now start to inquire as to why people said what they did.

At this point, the instructor should put up the slide with Adams’ equity theory on it ( Appendix 1 ) and ask students to explain what happened using the equation on the slide. The class should point out several areas where “the equation does not balance.” For example, the inputs for Team 1 were less than the input for Team 2. Team 2 had a harder shot and, therefore, had to provide more inputs (work harder). Students should also point out that the outputs were not even. Team 4 beat Team 3 (just as Team 1 beat Team 2), but Team 4 did not receive the same outcome/reward. Less clear is the factor of Team 4 having more time than Team 3. Ask students how this factor impacts motivation using equity theory.

Pass out candy to all members of the class – to reduce feelings of inequity. Keep three pieces of candy for Round 2.

Round 2 of the game (10 min)

Now tell the class that you are going to ask for three volunteers. Inform the class that if they volunteer and are selected, they have a choice to make – they must choose one of three shooting/prize positions.

Shooting Position #1. Tell the students that if they choose shooting position #1, they get to shoot from the closest spot (and show them where it is). Let them know that they can take three practice shots and that for making a basket, they will receive a piece of candy.

Shooting Position #2. Tell students if they choose this option, they get to shoot from the spot of moderate difficulty and show them where it is. Let them know they get one practice shot and that their prize for making the basket is something of medium desirability – perhaps lunch paid for by the instructor at a local moderately priced restaurant of the student’s choice.

Shooting Position #3. Tell students that if they choose this option, they get to shoot from the most difficult spot and show them where it is. Tell them that they do not get any practice shots from this location. Promise an extremely desirable reward (high valence) and also something that the students may question whether you have the power to give it to them (low instrumentality). A great example is offering them the ability to get out of having to do a major course requirement such as a capstone project or thesis paper. You could also offer something like getting to park in the Dean’s parking spot for the rest of the semester. The creativity behind choosing this third reward is that you want to find the balance of a reward that is extremely high in desirability, but also something that in hindsight students should realize was probably outside of your ability to deliver on that reward (low instrumentality). By creating a reward that is somewhat unrealistic for shooting position #3, the instructor will allow for a follow-on discussion about the power of instrumentality in Vroom’s expectancy theory. If a student questions whether or not they will receive the reward by meeting the performance outcome (making the shot), then their instrumentality will be lower which may alter the position they select to shoot from.

Now that all three shooting positions have been described, pick three volunteers at random and have them come to the front of the room. Ask the first student what option she would like to choose and have her take the shot. Repeat for the second and third students (students can all shoot from the same spot if they desire). After the final volunteer chooses the shooting position and takes the shot, have students return to their seats and prepare for the de-brief.

Round 2 de-brief and application of expectancy theory (10 min).

After the volunteers have returned to their seats, the instructor can display the Vroom’s expectancy theory slide ( Appendix 1 ) to begin shaping the class conversation in terms of Vroom’s expectancy theory.

Individual behavior = the physical act of shooting the basketball;

Performance outcome = making the basketball in the hoop; and

Reward outcome = the prize received based on making the shot from the shooting position the student chose.

Next, ask the students to break down each of the three options in terms of expectancy, instrumentality and valence . The following should come out in the discussion:

Expectancy – Shooting position #1 has the highest expectancy of all three positions. Self-efficacy is increased through multiple practice shots and the close distance makes the shot seem achievable.

Instrumentality – Shooting position #1 should have a high level of instrumentality. Students know you have the candy bar and that you delivered on what you promised during round 1. Therefore, it is likely they trust and believe they will receive the reward candy bar for achieving the performance outcome of making the shot.

Valence – Shooting position #1 likely has the lowest valence of all three positions in terms of overall value. However, valence could run from low to high depending on individual preference. The candy bar may have lower valence if students do not like the particular candy bar.

Expectancy – Lower than shooting position #1 because the shot is more difficult, and the student only gets one practice shot. However, the expectancy of shooting position #2 is still greater than shooting position #3 because the shot is easier and the student still receives a practice shot which raises the student’s confidence in their ability to achieve the performance outcome of making the shot.

Instrumentality – Lower than shooting position #1, but higher than shooting position #3. There might be some trust issues related to whether the students will receive the lunch. As the student does not immediately get the reward of the free lunch by achieving the performance outcome of making the shot, the instrumentality may be low. The instrumentality should still be higher than shooting position #3 because the student should have more trust that the instructor will buy them lunch as compared to not having to write the final paper for the class.

Valence – Should be higher than position 1 since lunch is more expensive than just a candy bar. However, individual preferences again may vary depending on if the students have free time in their schedule or if they would even like to have lunch with their professor.

Expectancy – The lowest of all three positions as there is no practice shot and the difficulty of the shot is so high that students do not really believe that they will be able to make the shot.

Instrumentality – Should be the lowest of all three positions as the reward may seem so great that some students will doubt if the instructor will follow through on giving the reward, or if they even have the power to give out the reward. But this may not be rated by students as low initially.

Valence – The highest of all three positions. The reward of not having to write a final paper, or some other exclusive reward (parking in the Dean’s parking spot) should be viewed as extremely appealing to most students given the high value they place on their time in a busy college schedule.

After going through each of the shooting positions, have the non-participating students in the classroom evaluate the multiplicative factors for each shooting position and ask them if it makes sense why each student chose to shoot from where they did.

Small group discussion on the future application of theories (15 min)

After students have had a chance to run through both games as well as the de-brief for each exercise, it is now time to turn the discussion toward an application of both theories to future leadership situations. Break students back out into the teams they were on for the Adams’ equity theory portion of the class. Instruct the groups they will have 15 min to talk amongst themselves to brainstorm examples of personal experiences or potential future scenarios where they can apply Adams’ equity theory and Vroom’s expectancy theory. Examples that often come up range from peers on group projects receiving the same reward/recognition even though they contributed less, gender discrepancies in pay or promotion, poor incentive systems, etc.

Structured de-brief of group discussion (10 min)

Spend the last 10 min of this class asking each group of the teams to share an example they discussed within their small group. Ensure that you press the students to use the correct terminology when talking about their examples through the lens of either Adams’ equity theory or Vroom’s expectancy theory and ask them how they might positively impact motivation in the scenario they discussed.

Potential challenges.

Challenge : The instructor does not properly manage time for a thorough debrief of each exercise

09:30-09:40. A brief overview of work motivation theories;

09:40-09:50. The first round of the game (Adams’ equity theory);

09:50-10:00. De-brief round one exercise and apply Adams’ equity theory;

10:00-10:10. The second round of the game (Vroom’s expectancy theory);

10:10-10:20. De-brief round two exercise and apply Vroom-s expectancy theory;

10:20-10:35. Small group discussion on the future application of theories; and

10:35-10:45. Structured de-brief of group discussions.

Challenge: A student manages to make the impossible shot

Solution: In the event that a student does make the nearly impossible shot from shooting position #3 (this did happen in one instance and it turned into a viral Instagram video with over 20,000 views) then the instructor needs to be prepared to not follow through on the reward. Instead, the instructor should discuss the concept of instrumentality and how the trust between a leader and their direct reports is essential to ensuring positive motivation in the workplace. This is why it is important that the reward for shooting position #3 is somewhat unbelievable in the first place because it will allow for a great discussion on instrumentality and the belief that achieving a performance outcome will lead to a given reward. The instructor can begin by polling the students to see how many of them completely believed that the reward for shooting position #3 was realistic and attainable. Through this discussion, the instructor can highlight what happens to motivation when managers create extremely difficult goals (low expectancy) with extremely valuable rewards (high valence) to try and motivate their workers. This also provides a strong example to the students of what happens to trust when a leader fails to follow through on a promised reward and how that will impact instrumentality and thus motivation in the future.

Challenge: Students may not have real-life examples to discuss in their groups.

Solution. If group discussion is lagging, the teacher can suggest situations that students may have experienced or direct them to use the internet to find examples and to discuss those instances.

This experiential exercise has proven useful over the past 10 years in providing an introductory look at the complexity of workplace theories of motivation. In semester-end student feedback, this class has been mentioned numerous times as one of the most impactful lessons of the course. Multiple students have commented on the effectiveness of the hands-on exercise in creating a memorable point of reference that makes it easier to retain class learning concepts. In fact, the most recent end of course feedback over one-third of students cited this lesson as the most memorable of the 30-lesson course. Additionally, the in-class exercise provides a common context for students with varying experiences to engage with and allows for the introduction and application of two of the major theories of motivation. Furthermore, the fun, competitive format generates interest and excitement. Note, we have also used miniature golf instead of basketball to teach each theory – having students putt with different equipment, from different distances, and for different prizes. For a brief overview on the setup using mini-golf, please see Appendix 3 . We encourage faculty to have fun with the exercise – it is not just for the students!

Adams’ equity theory

Vroom’s expectancy theory

Setup for Round #1 – Adams’ equity theory

Setup for Round #2 – Vroom’s expectancy theory

Setup for Vroom’s expectancy theory using mini-golf

Appendix 1. Sample slides for use in de-briefing

Appendix 2. sample classroom setups for rounds 1 and 2, appendix 3. instructions for use of mini-golf instead of basketball.

If the classroom does not allow for the setup of the three different shooting positions for the basketball exercise, then it is easy to replace the basketball exercise with a mini-golf option. Below is a brief highlight of the differences in classroom setup for the golf exercise.

putter, golf ball and plastic solo cup;

painter’s tape or note cards to annotate shot positions on the floor in the classroom; and

bag of miniature candy bars.

Round 1 Exercise (Adams’ equity theory)

There are no major changes needed for this round. Simply follow the same instructions for Round 1 of the basketball exercise, except instead of basketball shots replace that with made putts into the solo cup. This will still allow for the same comparison and perceived inequities amongst the four teams that will create a rich discussion on Adams’ equity theory.

Round 2 Exercise (Vroom’s expectancy theory)

Again, there are no major changes needed for this round, other than just replacing the concept of a made basketball shot with a made putt. Below is an example of the three putting positions and how you can still create a similar scenario to the basketball exercise in terms of expectancy , instrumentality and valence for each putting position.

Putting Position #1: Create a short two-foot putt that is fairly easy to make. Allow the student to have three practice putts. This creates an option with high expectancy (an easy putt with practice shots), high instrumentality (the student believes that if they make the putt, they will receive the candy) and low valence (candy is not as valuable as lunch or getting out of writing a final paper).

Putting Position #2: Create a six-foot putt that is not straight on but instead is at a slight angle to the cup so that it is more difficult to make. Allow the student to have only one practice putt. This creates an option with a medium level of expectancy (a slightly more difficult putt), a medium level of instrumentality (the student has to trust that you will actually buy them lunch at some point in the future) and a medium level of valence (the lunch is greater than the candy bar, but most likely not as valuable as not writing the final paper).

Putting Position #3: Create the longest most difficult putt that your classroom will allow. Additionally, tell the students they will receive no practice putts and they will have to putt with the handle end of the putter. This creates an option with a very low level of expectancy (students will have a very low level of belief that they can make the putt given both the distance and the fact that they have to putt with the handle), a low level of instrumentality (again the reward should be so valuable that some students will doubt the reality of actually receiving the reward) and a very high level of valence (the reward should be extremely desirable).

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THE IMPACT OF LEADERSHIP ON EMPLOYEES' MOTIVATION - CASE STUDY PUBLIC UTILITIES COMPANIES IN KOSOVO

2020, THE IMPACT OF LEADERSHIP ON EMPLOYEES' MOTIVATION - CASE STUDY PUBLIC UTILITIES COMPANIES IN KOSOVO

In any activity, as well as in public services, employee motivation is a challenge. Seeing the importance of Human Resources in the growth and success of any organization, it is pushed to them to study leadership styles, which is used effective style to achieve the set goals and increase the effectiveness of the organization. Leadership has an impact on the company's success by aligning common goals of the organization and the individuals within it, this influence did empower individuals to take the necessary actions to achieve the goals. Through this research, different leadership styles will be studied to identify the most appropriate and influential style in motivating employees of the public utilities sector in Kosovo. Population of this research are the public utility sector employees in Kosovo, sample were 150 workers selected by random method. Data analysis was done by quantitative method using SPSS software. According to research results, based on multiple linear regression and correlation coefficient, we conclude that the leadership styles affect the motivation of workers. There are also statistically significant differences in employee motivation, depending on the type of leadership style used. Based on these results, this topic is particular importance as it not only measures the impact of leadership on employee motivation, but also identifies the most influential leadership style that contributes to creating the most successful model in employee motivation. Based on these results, this topic is particular importance, as it not only measures the impact of leadership on employee motivation, but also identifies the most influential leadership style that contributes to creating the most successful model in employee motivation.

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Health care professionals’ motivation, their behaviors, and the quality of hospital care: A mixed-methods systematic review

Associated data.

Supplemental digital content is available in the text.

Health care professionals’ work motivation is assumed to be crucial for the quality of hospital care, but it is unclear which type of motivation ought to be stimulated to improve quality. Motivation and similar concepts are aligned along a motivational continuum that ranges from (intrinsic) autonomous motivation to (extrinsic) controlled motivation to provide a framework for this mixed-methods systematic review.

This mixed-methods systematic review aims to link various types of health care professionals’ motivation directly and through their work-related behaviors to quality of care.

Six databases were searched from January 1990 to August 2016. Qualitative and quantitative studies were included if they reported on work motivation in relationship to work behavior and/or quality, and study participants were health care professionals working in hospitals in high-income countries. Study bias was evaluated using the Standard Quality Assessment Criteria for Evaluating Primary Research Papers from a Variety of Fields. The review protocol was registered in the PROSPERO database (CRD42016043284).

A total of 84 out of 6,525 unique records met the inclusion criteria. Results show that health care professionals’ autonomous motivation improves their quality perceptions and work-related behaviors. Controlled motivation inhibits voicing behavior, but when balanced with autonomous motivation, it stimulates core task and proactive behavior. Proactivity is associated with increased quality of care perceptions.

Practice Implications

To improve quality of care, policy makers and managers need to support health care professionals’ autonomous motivation and recognize and facilitate proactivity as an essential part of health care professionals’ jobs. Incentive-based quality improvements need to be complemented with aspects that stimulate autonomous motivation.

It is widely assumed that health care professionals’ work motivation is beneficial for the quality of patient care in hospitals ( Berenson & Rice, 2015 ; Franco, Bennett, & Kanfer, 2002 ). Health care professionals’ work motivation is increasingly being investigated, as scholars draw on the positive effects of motivation on performance that were observed in the organizational literature ( Cerasoli, Nicklin, & Ford, 2014 ; Kim, Kolb, & Kim, 2013 ). However, it is unclear whether these findings apply to the quality of patient care, as studies from the field of organizational research tend to focus on individual-level employee outcomes, such as performance or employee behavior, rather than on team or organizational outcomes ( Kim et al., 2013 ). In a complex system as health care, quality follows from the performance of many independent actors working together in a connected system, which means that performance at the individual level does not necessarily predict the outcomes of the system: quality of care (Griffin, Neal, & Parker, as cited in Gagné, 2014 ; Hollnagel, Wears, & Braithwaite, 2015 ).

The inability to determine whether and how health care professionals’ motivation affects patient care is problematic, because it hampers the development of effective motivation-based policies and interventions to boost care quality. Moreover, current motivational strategies may even have unintended consequences. For example, financial incentives, which are widely popular in health care ( Berenson & Rice, 2015 ; Flodgren et al., 2011 ), may improve performance on relatively simple tasks but at the same time hold the potential to “crowd out” intrinsic motivation, which determines the quality of performance on complex tasks ( Cerasoli et al., 2014 ). Therefore, more insight is needed in the relationships between health care professionals’ work motivation, their work behaviors, and the quality of care.

Previous attempts to integrate the literature on this topic were unsuccessful in linking health care professionals’ work motivation to the quality of hospital care. In an overview of reviews, Flodgren et al. (2011) concluded that there is some but limited evidence for the effectiveness of financial incentives in changing professional practice, but no evidence to support any effects on patient outcomes. Likewise, systematic reviews on nurses’ work engagement and physicians’ occupational well-being reported positive associations with work behaviors, but the link with care outcomes was understudied ( Keyko, Cummings, Yonge, & Wong, 2016 ; Scheepers, Boerebach, Arah, Heineman, & Lombarts, 2015 ).

This review aims to go beyond existing work to get more insight in the relationship between motivation and quality of care. To achieve this aim, we apply a broad approach by synthesizing the evidence from quantitative and qualitative studies on (a) the direct relationships between autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and amotivation of all health care professionals involved in direct patient care in hospitals and the quality of hospital care, (b) the relationships between these types of work motivation and health care professionals’ core task and (c) proactive behaviors, and (d) the relationship between proactive behaviors and the quality of patient care in hospitals. To overcome a potential lack of evidence due to narrow conceptualizations of work motivation and work behavior as observed in previous reviews, we use extensive conceptualizations of these constructs by considering similar concepts, which we place within a theoretical framework to guide our systematic search for evidence and the synthesis of results. The theoretical framework and research questions are depicted in Figure Figure1 1 and will be further explained subsequently.

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Theoretical framework: motivational continuum and Research Questions (RQ) 1–4

Work motivation is defined as “a set of energetic forces originating within and beyond an individual’s being, which determines the form, direction, intensity and duration of work- related behavior” (Pinder, as cited in Gagné, 2014 , p. 38). According to the self-determination theory, various forms of work motivation exist on a continuum (Deci & Ryan, as cited in Gagné, 2014 ). This continuum ranges from autonomous motivation at the one end, through controlled motivation, to amotivation at the other end of the continuum . Autonomous motivation means that the reasons to engage in a behavior stem from within a person. From most autonomous to least autonomous, a behavior can be perceived as enjoyable or interesting in itself ( intrinsic motivation ), or as an integral part of oneself ( integrated regulation ), or the values underlying the behavior can be considered congruent with one’s personal goals and identity ( identified regulation ). Controlled motivation means that reasons to engage in a behavior stem from beyond a person. When driven by controlled motivation, a behavior is done because it has instrumental value; it helps to obtain a sense of self-worth or prevents one from feeling guilty ( introjected regulation ) or it leads to a separable outcome such as money or status ( external regulation ). Amotivation refers to not being motivated to engage in an activity (Deci & Ryan, as cited in Gagné, 2014 ).

From this perspective, we align several related constructs that refer to energetic forces that guide behavior with this motivational continuum to guide our review. From most to least autonomous, we consider work engagement (“a positive affective-motivational state of work related well-being”; Bakker et al., as cited in Kim et al., 2013 , p. 249), psychological empowerment (intrinsic task motivation due to finding the task meaningful and experiencing self-efficacy and a sense of impact; Thomas & Velthouse, as cited in Gagné, 2014 ), psychological ownership (being psychologically tied to an object as an extension of one’s identity, e.g., the organization, or the patient; Van Dyne & Pierce, 2004 ), affective commitment (“a force that binds an individual to a course of action relevant to one or more targets,” e.g., the job, organization or patient, based on values, personal involvement, and identity; Meyer & Herscovitch, as cited in Gagné, 2014 , p. 34), and finally job and work involvement (the importance of one’s job or work in general; Kanungo, as cited in Gagné, 2014 ).

At the controlled side of the continuum, we consider normative commitment (an attachment to a target based on a perceived obligation; Meyer & Herscovitch, as cited in Gagné, 2014 ) and continuance commitment (an attachment to a target based on a cost–benefit analysis of maintaining versus withdrawing from the commitment; Meyer & Herscovitch, as cited in Gagné, 2014 ).

Finally, a construct that is often used to predict behavior is behavioral intention , which refers to a willingness to exert effort to achieve something ( Ajzen, 1991 ). This construct can be interpreted as the absence of amotivation. To enhance readability, the concepts at the autonomous side of the continuum are referred to as autonomous motivation, and the concepts corresponding with the controlled side are referred to as controlled motivation. When relevant, specifications are given.

Quality of Care

The main aim of this review is to understand the impact of health care professionals’ work motivation on the quality of care. Quality of care encompasses more than just one type of outcome. Following the World Health Organization, quality is defined along six dimensions: effectiveness (congruent with current medical evidence and leads to improved health outcomes), efficiency (optimal and sustainable use of personnel and resources), accessibility (timeliness and skills and resources match the medical need), patient-centeredness (respects for individual needs and preferences of the patient), equitability (equality despite gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status), and safety (minimized risk and harm to patients; World Health Organization, 2006 ). This review aims to shed more light on Research Question 1: “How do autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and amotivation relate to the six dimensions of quality of hospital care?”

Work Behaviors

Health care professionals’ actions within a hospital system are the core of patient care. For this reason, it is meaningful to consider health care professionals’ work behaviors as mediators between motivation and quality of care ( Franco et al., 2002 ).

Work behavior can be classified into two types, namely core task behavior and proactive behavior ( Kim et al., 2013 ; Van Dyne & Pierce, 2004 ). Core task behavior refers to the behaviors to fulfill formal task requirements (Crant, as cited in Gagné, 2014 ), which is similar to role prescribed (or in-role ) behavior (behavior that is recognized by the formal reward system and that is part of the job description; Borman & Motowidlo, as cited in Kim et al., 2013 ). Examples of core task behaviors are guideline adherence and compliance to organizational procedures and protocols ( Gagné, 2014 ). Studies using these concepts are included in our review in order to answer Research Question 2: “How do autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and amotivation relate to health care professionals’ core task behaviors?”

Many core task behaviors are formalized in evidence-based guidelines and protocols, which are specific per discipline within the hospital and grounded in ample scientific evidence ( Greenhalgh, Howick, & Maskrey, 2014 ). Consequently, the relationship between core task behaviors and quality of care is too extensive for this review. Yet, it can be argued that, although there are exceptions, exerting these behaviors contributes to care quality.

Proactive behavior , the second type of behavior, refers to challenging current circumstances and taking initiative to create new ones and is also described as going beyond one’s job or task requirements ( Gagné, 2014 ). Similar concepts are extra-role behavior (positive and discretionary behavior that is not prescribed in formal job descriptions; Borman & Motowidlo, as cited in Kim et al., 2013 ) and organizational citizenship behavior , which refers “discretionary work behaviors that contribute to organizational well-being but are not part of formal job expectations” (Organ, as cited in Van Dyne & Pierce, 2004 , p. 446). Examples of proactive behaviors are engaging in quality improvements and voicing concerns or speaking up in unsafe clinical situations ( Gagné, 2014 ). We include these concepts in our review to determine their motivators, as Research Question 3 states: “How do autonomous, controlled, and amotivation relate to health care professionals’ proactive behaviors?”

Health care professionals’ proactive behaviors are indispensable for quality of care, as the complexity of the health care system can never be completely captured in guidelines and protocols ( Greenhalgh et al., 2014 ; Hollnagel et al., 2015 ). However, proactive behavior may have inconsistent contributions for each of the six dimensions of quality. For example, patient-centeredness is likely to increase when health care professionals “go the extra mile” for their patients, but this may diminish efficiency. Therefore, Research Question 4 states: “How do health care professionals’ proactive behaviors relate to outcomes on the six dimensions of quality of hospital care?”

In line with the broad approach of this review, a mixed-methods systematic review was conducted. Reviews can be mixed by including various types of studies, by applying mixed methods for the synthesis of studies, or by applying both theory building and theory testing modes of analysis ( Harden, 2010 ). This systematic review was mixed in the sense that we included qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods studies. This systematic review was registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO, No. CRD42016043284) of the University of York. The data were managed using a PRISMA-based Excel workbook and ATLAS.ti, Version 8.3.2.

Sources and Search Strategy

An elaborate search string was entered into PubMed, PsycINFO, Business Source Premier, CINAHL, EMBASE, and Web of Science. Two librarians (from medical and social sciences departments) were consulted for the development of the search string, which combined three key themes: motivation/behavior (e.g., motivation OR engagement OR proactive behavior OR guideline adherence), health care professionals (e.g., nurse OR physician OR resident), and quality of care (e.g., effectiveness OR safety). The search was limited to studies published in an academic journal between January 1990 and August 2016 and written in the English language. The full search string is available from the first author on request.

The search string identified a large number of records, which included all relevant references obtained from related reviews. Consequently, it was considered appropriate to deviate from the research protocol by not performing a backward reference search.

Study Selection

To be eligible for inclusion in the systematic review, a paper had to match the following criteria: be an empirical quantitative or qualitative paper revealing information on at least one of the four research questions, study participants were health care professionals providing direct patient care, the study took place within a hospital setting and in a high-income country as classified by the World Bank ( The World Bank Group, 2016 ), because the availability of resources is an important factor influencing care quality in middle- and low-income countries ( Fritzen, 2007 ). Furthermore, the paper had to report on individual-level self-reported measures of work motivation, whereas the measures of health care professionals’ behaviors and quality of care could take place at either the individual or at the group level and could be either self-reported (e.g., self-reported behavior or perceived quality) or externally assessed (e.g., supervisor-assessed work behavior or outcomes derived from hospital systems).

The interrater agreement for a random selection of 10% of the screened records was unsatisfactory for both the title and abstract and full-text screening (around 0.5). Consequently, we deviated from the review protocol, which describes that the first author would screen the remaining papers. Instead, the complete title and abstract screening and the complete full-text screening were done by two independent reviewers. Inconsistencies were discussed until consensus was reached.

Risk of Bias, Data Extraction, and Synthesis of Results

The risk of bias was assessed using the Standard Quality Assessment Criteria for Evaluating Primary Research Papers ( Kmet, Cook, & Lee, 2004 ), with quality assessment (QA) checklists for quantitative papers (14 items) and for qualitative papers (10 items). These instruments resulted in a QA score for each paper with a possible range from 0 to 1, with 1 being the highest score. Studies were included regardless of their QA score, which is used to determine the risk of bias across studies and to differentiate between findings from low-quality and high-quality studies (with QAs below and above average, respectively).

The data extraction concerned the research method, sample size, response rate, descriptive information about the participants, definitions, and operationalizations of the concepts and research findings. The QA and data extraction were performed by two independent reviewers for 41.67% ( n = 35) of the research papers, where disagreements were discussed until consensus was reached. The correlation between the QAs of the first author and the second reviewers was satisfactory ( r = .61, p < .001) and the correlation between the first authors’ initial QA and the consensus decision was high ( r = .89, p < .001). Therefore, it was considered appropriate to perform the risk assessment and data extraction of the remaining papers by the first author. The extracted data were entered into a spreadsheet and coded in ATLAS.ti to enable the narrative synthesis of results per research question. In the synthesis of results, we distinguished between findings based on quantitative or qualitative evidence. For mixed-methods studies, this categorization was based on the type of evidence about the research question presented.

The search resulted in the identification of 6,525 unique records, of which 84 records matched the inclusion criteria. A PRISMA flow diagram of the identification and selection of records is given in Figure Figure2 2 .

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PRISMA flow diagram of the literature search

Study Characteristics and Risk of Bias

The included records on quantitative findings ( n = 66) reported on four quasi-experimental studies, four time-lagged studies, four mixed-methods studies, six longitudinal studies, and 48 cross-sectional studies. Records reporting on qualitative findings ( n = 18) reported on three case studies and 15 interview studies. Of all included studies, 46 focused exclusively on nurses, 13 focused exclusively on physicians, and 25 studies had participants from multiple professions, including nurses, physicians, paraprofessionals, and physician assistants. Together, the studies included over 102,500 health care professionals.

The QA resulted in an overall mean score of 0.70 ( SD = 0.21), with M QAquantitative = 0.71 ( SD = 0.19) and M QAqualitative = 0.70 ( SD = 0.27). The QA across studies (available from the first author on request) demonstrated that a potential risk of bias of quantitative studies are the lack of control for confounding factors and the limited definition and/or operationalization of the concepts of interest. For qualitative studies, most frequently observed shortcomings were the lack of reflexivity, the ambiguity of the sampling strategy, and data collection and/or analysis.

Seventy-one of the studies reported on one of the research questions of this review, eight studies reported on two research questions, four studies reported on three research questions, and one study reported on all four research questions. An overview of the results is depicted in Table Table1. 1 . For each research question, the findings based on quantitative evidence will be described first, followed by the qualitative findings, which deepen our understanding of the relationships of interest. In the conclusions for each research question, reflections are made upon the influence of the quality of the studies.

Overview of findings per research question (first author and year of publication of the reporting study)

Note. Qualitative evidence is depicted in italics. RQ = research question; OCB = organizational citizenship behavior.

a High-quality study.

b Externally assessed outcome.

Each finding (positive, negative, or no association) about Research Questions 1–4 is depicted in Table Table1 1 and papers reporting multiple research findings are represented multiple times. Full references to the included studies are given in Supplemental Digital Content 1 ( http://links.lww.com/HCMR/A67 ). The full descriptions of the study characteristics and findings as depicted in Table Table1 1 are available from the first author on request.

Motivation and Quality of Care

The first research question was investigated in 29 studies: 24 studies reported on quantitative evidence and 5 on qualitative evidence. The quantitative evidence showed that autonomous motivation, mostly investigated in terms of work engagement and empowerment, positively influenced overall perceptions of quality. Organizational commitment had mixed (positive and no) effects on perceived quality, and professional commitment was positively associated with three out of six patient-perceived quality indicators.

Autonomous motivation positively affected safety perceptions but had no association with the number of safety events. Work engagement was mostly positively associated with perceived safety, but one study reported no association. There was no effect of controlled motivation on perceived safety.

Autonomous motivation had mixed effects on perceived patient-centeredness, with some studies finding a positive association, one study finding no association and one study reporting a negative association. Controlled motivation was negatively associated with perceptions of patient-centeredness.

For the less investigated quality dimensions, behavioral intention was positively associated with perceptions of equitability. Autonomous motivation positively affected perceived effectiveness and efficiency of care. Furthermore, an otherwise unspecified sense of motivation was not associated with effectiveness, nor with accessibility of care.

The qualitative evidence also supported positive associations between autonomous motivation and perceptions of quality, safety, and patient-centeredness, whereas an absence of motivation was perceived to lead to poor quality of care. An interview study found that physicians’ motivation to provide patient-centered care results from a balance between autonomous reasons (values) and controlled reasons (their own agenda based on external factors such as resources and fear of uncertainty).

When merely considering the high-quality studies, there was a positive association between autonomous motivation and perceived quality and safety. Patient-centeredness was stimulated by a balance of autonomous and controlled motivation. The studies focusing on effectiveness, equitability, and efficiency perceptions and externally assessed quality were either of low quality or reported no effect. Therefore, the effect of motivation on these outcomes remains uncertain.

Motivation and Core Task Behavior

Of the 19 studies that reported on the second research question, quantitative evidence was presented in 15 studies, and four studies presented qualitative evidence. The quantitative findings were that autonomous motivation, most often investigated in terms of work engagement and organizational commitment, positively influenced self-reported core task behavior and guideline adherence. Mixed (positive and no) results were found for the relationship between autonomous motivation and externally assessed core task behavior. One study reported that the relationship between autonomous motivation and supervisor-assessed core task behavior was mediated by commitment to the supervisor. Whereas normative commitment had a positive association with core task behavior, continuance commitment had a negative association with core task behavior. Mixed effects were reported for behavioral intention and an otherwise unspecified sense of motivation in relationship to self-reported guideline adherence. Behavioral intention did not predict observed guideline adherence.

The qualitative evidence also supported positive associations between autonomous motivation and core task behaviors. Core task behavior was reported to result from a balance between autonomous and controlled motivation, in which controlled motivation contributed to as well as inhibited this type of behavior.

When merely considering the high-quality studies, autonomous motivation was positively associated with core task behavior. Moderately controlled motivation contributed to core task behavior, but motivation at the most controlled end of the continuum did not to contribute to and even inhibited core task behavior. As the studies on behavioral intention were of low quality, its effect remains unclear.

Motivation and Proactive Behavior

The third research question was investigated in 43 studies, of which 32 presented quantitative findings and 11 presented qualitative findings. The quantitative evidence generally showed a positive relationship between autonomous motivation and proactive behavior, but findings were mixed for identified regulation, involvement, and organizational commitment. Controlled motivation had no or a negative association with self-reported proactive behavior. Furthermore, controlled motivation, commitment to patients, and goal internalization did not affect externally assessed proactive behavior. For voicing behavior, it was found that, whereas autonomous motivation stimulated voicing behavior, this behavior was discouraged by extrinsic factors (e.g., colleagues’ approval and the fear of failure).

The qualitative findings supported the positive association between autonomous motivation and proactive behavior. Nevertheless, it was observed that even if health care professionals experience a sense of ownership or find quality improvement important, this autonomous motivation may exist without actual engagement in proactive behavior. Similar to the quantitative findings, autonomous and controlled reasons simultaneously stimulated proactive behavior, quality improvements, and voicing behavior. However, for voicing behavior, controlled motivation held the potential to overrule autonomous motivation to speak up, thereby preventing this type of behavior.

Overall, autonomous motivation was positively associated with proactive behaviors. The association between controlled motivation and proactive behavior was dependent on the type of proactive behavior; whereas controlled motivation, combined with autonomous motivation, stimulated quality improvements and possibly also proactivity, controlled motivation negatively affected voicing behavior. When merely considering the high-quality studies, the results do not change.

Proactive Behavior and Quality of Care

Of the 12 studies reporting on the fourth research question, nine reported on quantitative findings and three reported on qualitative findings. The quantitative results showed that proactive behavior positively influenced perceived quality and had mixed effects on externally assessed quality and safety. Proactive behavior even had a negative effect on safety when safety was operationalized in terms of a low number of reported incidents in the hospital system. Furthermore, although proactivity among nurses stimulated nurse compliance to screening, it had no influence on the actual effectiveness of care delivered by physicians. Regarding quality improvement projects, positive effects were found on care effectiveness and safety, except when the patients were vulnerable. Voicing behavior was not associated with quality perceptions.

The qualitative evidence resembled these findings. Patients as well as nurses perceive nurses’ proactivity as an indicator of high-quality care, and nurse-reported (but not externally assessed) proactivity was indeed associated with externally assessed safety outcomes. Furthermore, interventions to stimulate proactivity or quality improvements had generally positive effects on externally assessed safety and effectiveness, but when patients were vulnerable, quality improvements had less or no effect.

When merely considering the high-quality studies, there was a positive association between self-reported proactive behavior and self-reported quality. Proactive behavior had a positive association with externally assessed safety in terms of the absence of harm to patients, but it had no or even a negative association with externally assessed safety when this was operationalized as the number of incident reports. The studies reporting on externally assessed proactive behavior, voicing behavior, or evaluations of interventions were of low quality, which limits their reliability.

This review highlights the importance of autonomous motivation for health care professionals’ behaviors and the quality of care. We show that autonomous motivation is directly and positively associated with quality, safety, and patient-centeredness, whereas controlled motivation and amotivation are negatively associated with quality.

In addition, the findings of this review provide nuanced insights on the role of controlled motivation and incentives. Moderately controlled motivation is positively associated with core task performance, as observed in the organizational literature. In contrast with findings from the field of organizational studies, which support a positive effect of external regulation on performance ( Cerasoli et al., 2014 ), our findings show that motivation at the most controlled end of the continuum is not or negatively associated with health care professionals’ core task behaviors. This discrepancy might be due to differences between work motivation of health care professionals versus of employees from other types of organizations. In a study comparing the motivation of for-profit and not-for-profit employees (with the latter group including hospital employees as their organization has a social rather than a profit mission), not-for-profit employees had lower external regulations than employees working in organizations driven by monetary goals ( De Cooman, De Gieter, Pepermans, & Jegers, 2011 ). Furthermore, studies among medical students indicate that they choose their profession out of intrinsic and identified motivation rather than extrinsic motivation ( Berenson & Rice, 2015 ), and they maintain this high level of intrinsic motivation throughout their career ( Berenson & Rice, 2015 ; Scheepers et al., 2015 ). Because of this high level of intrinsic motivation and low level of external regulation, health care professionals might not be very susceptible for extrinsic motivators. This would also provide an explanation for the finding that providing incentives does not stimulate proactive behaviors and quality improvement, unless this is combined with autonomous reasons to act. These observations challenge the emphasis on incentivizing (e.g., financial incentives) and penalizing (e.g., public reporting) as a means to extrinsically motivate health care professionals to improve quality and potentially explain why these methods have not reached their anticipated success ( Berenson & Rice, 2015 ; Flodgren et al., 2011 ; Franco et al., 2002 ).

Furthermore, our review sheds further light on the role of proactive behavior in the health care setting. Our findings show that proactive behavior generally contributes to effectiveness, but only when the treatment is under the direct control of the proactive health care professional. In addition, proactive behavior contributes to safety, but not if safety is operationalized as the number of reported incidents. We argue that the number of reported incidents is probably not a valid measure of patient safety, which is confirmed by our finding that autonomous reasons contribute to voicing, but that this motivation can be overruled by controlled reasons to act, such as social reprimands. We state that the number of reported incidents reflects the safety culture or the learning potential of an organization; if there is a supportive safety culture, health care workers are more willing to act proactively and voice incidents ( Ancarani, Di Mauro, & Giammanco, 2017 ). This could also explain the observed positive relationship between proactive behavior and reported incidents. Considering this point, we conclude that proactive behavior contributes to the quality and safety of care.

The key policy priority to improve quality of care is to stimulate health care professionals’ autonomous work motivation. Although our review confirms that controlled motivation has its positive sides ( Cerasoli et al., 2014 ), it negatively affects quality perceptions and voicing behavior. Therefore, current efforts to extrinsically motivate health care professionals to improve specific quality outcomes by incentivizing or penalizing need to be revised. It is recommended that these incentive-based interventions are complemented with aspects to simultaneously stimulate autonomous motivation, such as alignment with health care professionals’ drives and values, autonomy, supportive supervision, appreciation, respect and good interpersonal relationships, and growth opportunities ( Berenson & Rice, 2015 ; Keyko et al., 2016 ).

Furthermore, as we observed that motivation based on normative considerations predicts core task behavior well, we suggest that, to increase compliance for specific core task behaviors, such as hand hygiene, one might want to appeal on health care professionals’ sense of professionalism; the internalized professional norms and values to act in the interest of the patient. Health care leaders can set the norm by engaging in exemplary behaviors ( Ancarani et al., 2017 ; Berenson & Rice, 2015 ; Franco et al., 2002 ).

The next recommendation is to facilitate health care professionals’ proactive behaviors. In uncertain contexts, systems awareness, organizational learning, and continuous quality improvement are essential, and acting proactively is “part of the job” (Griffin et al., as cited in Gagné, 2014 ; Hollnagel et al., 2015 ). It is increasingly recognized that establishing quality and safety is no longer merely “avoiding that something goes wrong,” rather, it is “ensuring that as many things as possible go right” ( Hollnagel et al., 2015 ) by acting proactively and raising concerns. In line with this thinking, we state that, to unleash the learning potential of health care organizations and to improve the quality of care, proactive behavior needs to be recognized as a fundamental part of health care professionals’ job requirements and needs to be appreciated and facilitated accordingly, for example, by allocating resources (e.g., time, equipment, training) for quality improvements, normalizing voicing behavior, and establishing a shame- and blame-free environment for raising concerns, learning, and improvement ( Ancarani et al., 2017 ).

This review focused on the hospital setting, and our recommendations might apply beyond this setting as well. Care provision takes place within the clinical microsystem (the team of health care professionals caring for a patient; Fulop & Ramsay, 2019 ), and as these can be found in several settings such as primary care clinics, mental health care, and chronic care, we assume that our findings and recommendations translate to those settings as well. However, the extent to which our research translates to other health care systems outside high-income countries may be limited, as Fritzen (2007) stated that in low- and middle-income countries, there is “often a disjunction between formal responsibilities and the requisite resources to meet minimum specific standards.” In other words, the availability of resources, which varies per system, affects the extent to which health care professionals are able to act upon their motivation to provide and improve care.

It is important to note that achieving high-quality provision in hospitals is complex and influenced by intertwined factors from the organizational context and the broader environmental context. These factors include organizational characteristics (e.g., size, scale, structure, information systems, leadership, and culture) and broader environmental characteristics such as governance, regulation, and finance of the health care system ( Fulop & Ramsay, 2019 ). These factors should be aligned to provide health care workers with the resources, including autonomous motivation, for high-quality care delivery.

Limitations and Future Research

The results of this review need be interpreted in consideration of its limitations. First, the alignment of the motivational concepts along the self-determination theory continuum may reflect an overly simplistic view of these concepts, and the list of aligned concepts might not have been exhaustive. The generalizability of this approach may therefore be limited when investigating other, but related, concepts (e.g., altruism). In addition, some studies may have been overlooked due to publication bias, not incorporating gray literature and because the search string was not exhaustive. Furthermore, we observed a suboptimal interrater agreement regarding the inclusion of the studies, which we resolved by performing the screening of all abstracts and full-text records by two independent reviewers. Future researchers might prevent this issue by stating the inclusion and exclusion criteria more explicitly, especially for ambiguously described studies (e.g., include, unless it is completely clear that an exclusion criterion applies). In addition, the extensive QA, which included questions concerning the risk of bias, may not have completely eliminated the potential influence of bias. Regarding all research questions, it is noted that most studies use self-reported measures of behavior or quality, and therefore, the evidence for the effect of motivation on externally assessed behavior and quality is limited. Finally, most studies based their conclusions on correlations or regression analyses. In the absence of sufficient longitudinal or (quasi-)experimental studies, we cannot unambiguously determine the causality of the relationships we studied.

These limitations should be addressed in future work, as well as the following recommendations. This review shows that autonomous and controlled motivation might influence behavior simultaneously. Building on studies about motivational or commitment profiles (e.g., Gagné, 2014 ), future (quasi-)experimental studies might aim at getting a better understanding of the “right” balance between extrinsic rewards and autonomous motivation for the provision of high-quality care. To conclude, it is strongly recommended that future studies incorporate objective and valid measures to study health care professionals’ motivation, behaviors, and the (externally assessed) quality of care dimensions.

To improve quality of care, policy makers and managers need to support health care professionals’ autonomously motivation and facilitate them to act proactively and “go the extra mile” for their patients. Combining autonomous and controlled motivation holds the potential to boost quality of care, but more insight is needed into how to balance these types of motivation in such a way that it does not thwart voicing behaviors.

Supplementary Material

Acknowledgments.

We would like to express our gratitude to our student assistants Rick Overwijk and Marcel Schmidt for their help in the screening phases of this review. We are thankful to Helena VonVille for providing us with the Excel workbooks and advise. We are grateful to the University Medical Center Groningen and the University of Groningen as the submitted work was undertaken as part of a PhD program funded by these two institutions.

The authors have disclosed that they have no significant relationship with, or financial interest in, any commercial companies pertaining to this article.

Supplemental digital content is available for this article. Direct URL citations appear in the printed text and are provided in the HTML and PDF versions of this article on the journal’s web site ( www.hcmrjournal.com ).

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An Analysis of the Impact of Motivation on Employee Performance: A Case Study of Selected Private Universities in Lusaka

Chipie Phiri
Jacqueline Siwale
Mathew Mwewa
May 15, 2023

Chipie Phiri 1 , Jacqueline Siwale 1* , Mathew Mwewa 2 1 Department of Business and Management Studies – Texila American University 2 Potgraudate Student – University of South Wales, UK

DOI: https://doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2023.7488

Received: 05 April 2023; Accepted: 14 April 2023; Published: 15 May 2023

The purpose of conducting this research was to analyze the impact of Motivation on employee performance. One of the major concerns of organizations is its profitability, hence the need for efficiency. Organizations are in continuous state of competition, and this has increased the need to improve employee’s performance in organizations. The major focus of the study was in the education sector particularly the selected private universities in Lusaka district. A sample of 143 respondents was used which included Professors, Top Admin staff, Lecturers and supporting staff members of the selected private universities of Lusaka district. Distribution tables, pie charts and percentage tables were used to analyse and simplify the primary data that was collected. It is vital for any Organization including the education sector to persistently discover different ways of motivating employees. Retaining their staff is very important for the growth and efficiency of the universities. From the findings it was revealed that, motivation can either increase or decrease performance of employees depending on the form of motivation used. Organisation should understand the motivating need of each employee to improve performance. The study concluded that employee performance in relation to motivation is a vital aspect influencing this research.

Keywords: Motivation and Performance

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND OF STUDY

It is generally agreed that any organization’s greatest asset, is the human resource, it is therefore widely recognized in the human resource literature that promotion of the motivation of workers in both private and public organization leads to a higher quality of human resources and optimum performance (Albrecht eta al, 2015).

One may ask why there is need for managers to spend time on motivating their employees. The answer is simple, “to extend the organization’s existence”. Employees make up an organization and if they do not have organizational commitment, there is no incentive to excel at their jobs.

This section presents the background to the study, statement of the problem, objectives of the study, significance, and scope of the study, etc. The study will focus on, the analysis of the impact of motivation on performance of employees in the selected Private Universities in Lusaka District. The universities under research are Cavendish University, Luitebm University and Zambia Open University.

The importance of employee satisfaction and work motivation is growing all the time in the companies. Many researchers have been made to find out what the effect of job satisfaction and motivation has on the performance and productivity of the organization.

Practically all people are concerned with motivation to some extent, and something all employees have in common is that they are people; and people work best when they are motivated (Whiteley, 2002).

For the company to optimize employee’s performance there is need for employees to be sufficiently motivated. Therefore, successful work performance can arise from a variety of motives, for instance two people doing similar jobs may both be successful for different reasons, one salesperson, may be motivated by the commission earned on sales, while the other may be more concerned with meeting sales targets. This creates a nuance in the subject matter because motivation to enhance performance varies from person to person and from company to company (William, 2010).

The above therefore arouses more critical academic thinking within the subject area. William (2010) further states that contemporary research and observations show that well motivated employees are more productive and creative towards achieving company or organizational goals. On the other hand, less, motivated employees perform less and tend to divert from attaining organizational goals.

One of the biggest problems facing managers in the organizations is how best to get employees committed to their work and put in their best towards the accomplishment of the organization’s objectives. Motivation is concerned with why people do what they do. It answers questions such as why do managers or workers go to work and do a good job. This tries to explain what motivates people to act the way they do, with primary focus on the workplace. It is the primary task of the manager to create and maintain an environment in which employees can work efficiently and realize the objectives of the organization (Maduka & Okafor, 2014).

Statement of the Problem

According to Samsudin (2006: 282), work motivation is something that gives rise to motivation or enthusiasm for work. Motivation moves people to display behavior towards the achievement of a particular goal (Ismet Sulila; 2019).Motivation is the driving force in getting the best out of employees. Low or Lack of motivation affects employees and organization performance. Based on the findings from the selected private universities in Lusaka district, there are a lot of problems associated with employee motivation that affects performance. The problems include lack of resources, low morale, low job satisfaction, lack of recognition and major workload. (Bennell and Akyeampong 2007) Others are low pay, absenteeism, poor quality of leadership, lack of incentives by the said universities, no proper employment contracts, and lack of job security. Well aligned employee motivation will increase morale and loyalty, reduce conflict, and enhance relationships. Highly motivated employees will maximize their time and effort into doing the jobs. Efficient organization goals will be achieved and maximum job satisfaction when employees are highly motivated.

The positive impact of employee motivation on performance includes lower level of absenteeism, low levels of staff turnover, improved performance, and quality of customer service. Having a motivated workforce will enhance productivity. Employees at the selected private universities in Lusaka have different preferences on what motivates them. Some its money while others its recognition. It is the onus of the Human Resource managers to get the best out of the employees. Employees contribute to the success of the organization, hence the need for organizations to realize the importance and value of employees.

Low motivation affects employees and organization performance. Employer should exercise employee motivation through the series of rewards for job well done and better organizational performance (Sevanson 2011). Although some universities have put in place motivation rewards to employees, the gap still need to be bridged. A lot of motivation challenges still exist. High employee turnover is another problem being experienced at these universities in Lusaka district. Because there is nothing that motivate them, they tend to leave and look for greener pastures. They are mostly unhappy, frustrated and nothing inspires them. Nothing challenges them anyone hence the need to leave and find something better. Lack of promotional opportunities, and uncooperative colleagues in s some cases are also a major contributor of low motivation (Lope 2004)

Aim of study

To analyze the impact of motivation on employee performance, on selected private universities in Lusaka province.

Specific Objectives

To analyze the impact of motivation on performance, on selected private universities in Lusaka province.
To examine the effectiveness of the policy on motivation of employees in the selected private universities in Lusaka District.
To determine whether there is a relationship between motivational factors and improved performance in the selected Private Universities in Lusaka District.

LITERATURE REVIEW

INTRODUCTION

Work is an important event, a fact that is inevitable in the life of an individual in whatever forms it is done, it is an activity and source of satisfaction one needs. Employees try to find satisfaction and motivation in what they do and as a result the manager should be able to understand the problems faced by his employees and find a way of satisfying their needs and aspirations. The general assumption is that an adequately motivated worker will in turn give in his or her best towards the attainment of organizational goals. A good number of employees are adequately paid in their jobs to work hard and maintain a high standard of productivity and performance while some even though they work hard do not receive much material gains to show for it. The issue under consideration is how a worker in an organization with a particular set of does needs achieve the reward he desires? This chapter covers a detailed presentation of the information obtained from local and foreign publications on, motivation, job satisfaction and the effect of motivation and employee performance in order to broaden the understanding of the researcher on the subject matter being considered in the study. It is structured in such a way that it starts with the theoretical framework, followed by previous studies and then comparative analysis. The source of information covered in this chapter includes both published and unpublished literature.

Theoretical Framework

In the early 20 th century, money was regarded as the most important input into the production of goods and services. However, after a series of researchers, one known to be the “Hawthorne Studies”, conducted by Elton Mayo from 1924-1932 at the Hawthorne Works of the American Western Electric Company in Chicago, it was observed that employees were not motivated solely by money but that employee behavior was linked to their attitudes. The Hawthorn studies began the human relations approach to management, whereby the needs and motivation of employees become the primary focus of managers. This paved way for other theories and definitions on motivation and performance at the work place (Kuranchie-Mensah & Amponsah-Tawiah, 2015).

The Hawthorne studies were the first real attempt at investigating the influences of performance on the job. The researchers discovered that organizations were not merely economic institutions but composed of many social organizations. People within the organizations form lasting relationship that affect the way they behave at work. These relationships can even affect the effectiveness of the organization. It is these studies that set the stage for research in human behavior in the decades that followed. Though the experiments and the theories involved are criticized today for flaws in the methodologies used and statistical inaccuracies, the Hawthorne studies can be credited with turning management theories away from the simplistic “economic man” model to a more humanistic and realistic view, the “social man” model. The studies that followed reviewed that a human being was complex (Hichibala, 2003).

The term “motivation” derives from the Latin word for movement (movere). A motive is a reason for doing something. Rivai (2011: 837) states motivation is a series of attitudes and values that influence individuals to achieve specific things in accordance with individual goals, Robbins (2010: 458) argues that motivation is a willingness to make high-level efforts to achieve organizational goals, required by the ability of the business to satisfy certain individuals. Motivation is an important concept in the study of individual work performance, Winardi (2004).

Havinal (2009, p. 75) states that a manager gets work done through others. Getting the work done depends mainly on whether a person has been motivated to do it. Motivating an employee is to create a need and a desire on the part of the employee to better his performance. This can be done by creating in him a sense of responsibility and feeling of special interest in his work. Motivation concerns itself with “will to work”. It is a behavioral concept by which a manager tries to understand why people behave as they do. Performance of an employee depends on two factors, ability to work and willingness to work. Mathematically:

Performance – Ability × willingness

Motivation is enhancing the willingness to work which improves the performance (Havinal, 2009). Motivation, as a process, started with a need in human beings which creates a vacuum in a person. In an attempt to fill the vacuum an internal driving force is generated which starts and sustains a chain of action and reaction. It is at that point that the vacuum is also filled. With this background, motivation can be defined as the internal or external driving force that produces the willingness to perform an act to a conclusive end (Maduka & Okafor, 2014). This first aspect of motivation we choose to describe as internal motivation because the driving force comes from within an individual. The second aspect is external motivation, is applied by the organization (Maduka & Okafor, 2014).

Motivation has been an issue of concern in the past and has established itself as an integral part in current organizational settings. Motivation is quite complex to comprehend thus placing awareness to the fact that several factors influence employee performance in a particular organization. Reason being that, what motivates one worker will not definitely motivate the other employee within the same organization. Motivation is a factor that exists in an individual which has the potential to affect the way, strength, and eagerness of behaving towards work (William, 2010).

According to Maduka & Okafor (2014), employee motivation is one of the policies of managers to increase effectual job management amongst employees in organizations. A motivated employee is responsive of the definite goals and objectives he/she must achieve, therefore, motivation formulates an organization more successful because provoked employees are constantly looking for improved practices to do a work, so it is essential for organizations to persuade motivation of their employees.

Theories and Models of Motivation

The fields of employee motivation and employee performance are solidly grounded in literature and research, the theories and module of motivation seek to justify why certain employees act or do things in a certain way rather than others. For the purpose of this research, the following theories and models will be considered to be vital for this study: Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Frederick Herzberg Theory of motivation, and, Porter and Lawler’s Extension of Expectancy Theory. The literature will expand on some of these theories.

Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Different scholars have put forth different explanations on how motivation can be achieved within an organization. Prominent amongst them is Maslow with the theory of “Maslow’s Hierarch of needs”. Consequently, Maslow in 1943 reasoned that human beings have an internal need pushing them towards self-actualization (fulfillment) and personal superiority. Maslow came up with the view that there are five different levels of needs and once we happen to satisfy a need at one stage or level of the hierarchy it has an influence on our behavior. At each level our behavior tends to diminish, we now put forth a more powerful influence on our behavior for the need at the next level up the hierarchy (William, 2010). Kuranchie-Mensah & Amponsah-Tawiah (2015), state that in Maslow’s conclusion, in order to meet the needs of an employee, the employer has to understand the hierarchy of the need to which the employee belongs. Maslow (1954), listed from the lowest level of needs to the top are categorized as follows:

(i) Physiological needs: These are needs that focus on sustaining human life such as the need for oxygen, food, water and sex. Maslow stated that until these basic needs are satisfied to a large extent, no other motivating factor can operate (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).

(ii) Security or safety needs: These are the next in hierarchy and focus on being free of physical danger and the fear of losing a job, property, food or shelter as well as protection against emotional disappointment.

(iii) Social needs : These are the needs that deal with the social aspect of man such as the need to belong and be accepted by others. It is the need for love, affection and acceptance as belonging to a group.

(iv) Esteem needs: Maslow identified that as soon as people satisfy the need to belong and be accepted by others, the next higher level of need is the need to be held in high esteem by themselves and others. It goes on to state that these kinds of need produce satisfaction through power, prestige, status and self-confidence. It includes internal esteem factors such as self-respect, autonomy, achievements, and external factors such as status, recognition and attention.

(v) Self-fulfillment (self-actu a lization ): This is the highest need in the hierarchy. It is the drive to become what one is cable of becoming, to maximize one’s full potential and to accomplish something. It includes needs such as growth, achieving one’s potential and self-fulfillment.

Maslow believed every person had needs that need to be met; he transferred his idea into a triangle design. The following displays Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:

Source: (Havinal, 2009, p. 76)

Before Maslow, most managers assumed that money primarily motivated people. With Maslow’s work, managers can evaluate their own actions, their companies conduct and their individual philosophies about people. Maslow’s needs theory presented a workable motivation framework for managers (Maduka & Okafor, 2014).

Maslow’s needs of hierarchy have an intuitive appeal and has been very popular. But it has not been verified by empirical research and it has been criticized for its rigidity; different people may have different priorities and the underpinning assumption that everyone has the same needs is invalid. It is difficult to accept that needs progress steadily up the hierarchy and Maslow himself expressed doubts about the validity of a strictly ordered hierarchy. But he did emphasize that the higher order needs are more significant (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).

Frederick Herzberg Theory of Motivation (Herzberg’s two-factor model)

The two-factor model of motivation developed by Herzberg (1957, 1966) was based on an investigation into the sources of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction of accountants and engineers who were asked what made them feel exceptionally good or exceptionally bad about their jobs. According to Herzberg, this research established that there were two factors that affected feelings of satisfaction or dissatisfaction (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).

Basically, the theory divides motivating factors into two categories: Motivator factor, which have something to do with the work itself and hygiene factors, which have something to do with the surrounding context (Ganta, 2014).

In one group of needs are such things as company policy and administration, supervision, working conditions, interpersonal relations, salary, and job security. These are called dis-satisfiers and not motivators. If the exist in a work environment, they yield no dissatisfaction. Their existence does not motivate but their absence results in dissatisfaction. Herzberg called these factors as hygiene or maintenance factors. The second group he listed certain satisfiers and therefore motivators, which are related to job content. They include achievement, recognition, challenging work, advancement, and growth in the job. The first group of factors (the dissatisfiers) will not motivate in the organization, yet they must be present otherwise dissatisfaction will arise. The second group or the job content factors are real motivators because they have the potential of yielding a sense of satisfaction. It means managers must give considerable attention to upgrading job content (Havinal, 2009).

Source: (Havinal, 2009, p. 77)

Herzberg’s two-factor theory in effect identifies needs but it has been attacked by, for example, Opsahl and Dunnette (1966). The research method has been criticized because no attempt was made to measure the relationship between satisfaction and performance. It has been claimed that the two-factor nature of the theory is an inevitable result of the questioning method used by the interviewers. It has also been suggested that wide and unwarranted inferences have been drawn from small and specialized samples and that there is no evidence to suggest that the satisfiers do improve productivity (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014, p. 206).

Source: (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014, p. 209)

Porter and Lawler’s Extension of Expectancy Theory

This theory was developed by Porter and Lawler (1968) into a model shown below:

The model follows Vroom’s ideas by suggesting that there are two factors determining the effort that people put into their jobs: first, the value of the rewards to individuals in so far as they satisfy their needs for security, social esteem, autonomy, and self-actualization; second the probability that rewards depend on effort as perceived by individuals, in other words, their expectations about the relationships between effort and reward. Thus, the greater the value of a set or awards and the higher the probability that receiving each of these rewards depend upon effort, the greater the effort will be put forth in a given situation. But as Porter and Lawler emphasized, mere effort is not enough, it must be effective effort if it is to produce the desired performance. The two variables additional to effort that affect task achievement are:

Ability – individual characteristics such as intelligence, knowledge, skills;
Role perceptions – what the individual wants to do or thinks they are required to do. These are good from the viewpoint of the organization if they correspond with what it thinks the individual ought to be doing. They are poor if the views of the individual and the organization do not coincide.

Types of Motivation

Extrinsic Motivation : It is related to tangible rewards such as salary and fringe benefits, security, promotion, contract of service, the work environment, and conditions of service. These are what need to be done to or for people to motivate them. They are often determined at the organizational level and may be largely outside the control of the individual managers. Extrinsic motivators can have immediate and powerful effect but will not necessarily last long (Forson, 2012, p. 34). According to Armstrong & Taylor (2014, p. 204), extrinsic motivators include rewards such as incentives, increased pay, praise, or promotion; and punishments such as disciplinary action, withholding pay, or criticism.

Intrinsic motivation : This is related to psychological rewards such as the opportunity to use one’s ability. A sense of challenge and achievement, receiving appreciation, positive recognition, and being treated in a caring and considerate manner.

Psychological rewards are those that can usually be determined by the actions and behavior of the individual managers (Forson, 2012, p. 37).

Intrinsic motivation takes place when individuals feel that their work is important, interesting and challenging and that it provides them with a reasonable degree of autonomy (freedom to act), opportunities to achieve and advance, and scope to use and develop their skills and abilities. It can be described as motivation by work itself. It is not created by external incentives (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014, p. 204)

Motivation and Job Satisfaction

Over the years, employee satisfaction has been a key area of research among industrial and organizational psychologists. There are important reasons why companies should be concerned with employee job satisfaction, which can be classified according to the focus on the employee or organization. Some people like to work and they find working an important part of their lives. Some people on the other hand find work unpleasant and work only because they have to. Job satisfaction tells how much people like their jobs. In the worker’s point of view it is obvious that people like to be treated fairly. If workers feel respected and satisfied at work, it could be a reflection of good treatment. Satisfied employees are a precondition for increasing productivity, responsiveness, quality, and customer service (Salanova & Kirmanen, 2010). Job satisfaction can be defined as the attitude and feelings people have about their work. Positive and favorable attitudes towards the job indicate job satisfaction. Negative and unfavorable attitudes towards the job indicate job dissatisfaction (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014, p. 211).

Effects of Motivation on Performance

The performance of employees will make or break a company; this is why it is important to find a variety of methods of motivating employees. Motivation is the willingness to do something; it is conditioned by this actions ability to satisfy some need for the individual. The most obvious form of motivation for an employee is money; however, there are other motivating factors that must be considered. Every employee within a company is different and, therefore, is motivated to perform well for different reasons. Due to the differences within an organization, it is important for a manager to get to know her employees and understand what motivates their performance. If you’re going to be successful in motivating people, you have to begin by accepting and trying to understand individual differences (Forson, 2012, p. 41). Ganta (2014) states that’s there is an old saying “you can take a horse to water, but you can not make it drink”; it will only drink only if it is thirsty, so with people. They will do what they want to do or otherwise motivated to do. Are they born with the self-motivation or drive? Yes and no. If no, they can be motivated, for motivation is a skill which can and must be learnt. This is essential for any business to survive and succeed. Performance is considered to be a function of ability and motivation, thus:

Job performance = f(ability)(motivation)

Ability in turn depends on education, experience and training and its improvement is a slow and long process. On the other hand, motivation can be improved quickly (Ganta, 2014). It is a commonly held and not unreasonable belief that an increase in job satisfaction results in improved performance.

This research is based on the belief that productivity could be increased by making workers more satisfied, primarily through pleasant and supportive supervision and by meeting their social needs (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014, p. 214).

Previous Studies

The research by Akah Ndang William on employee motivation and performance case study of Ultimate Companion Limited concluded that people have different needs, and these needs make them to behave in different ways. As an employee the salaries will form the bond that will keep them closer with the company. When this need is achieved, it will trigger another dimension of thinking to realize their achievement. From the findings and psychological state of the employee has a major influence on their motivation. Within this category are collaborations with other employees and frequent meetings. These attributes create a friendly working environment which gives to higher motivation to work (William, 2010, p. 61). Studies conducted by (Forson, 2012) at GT Bank found that money is the most important motivator for employee performance, but it is important for companies to find other ways to motivate. This involves getting to know their employees and what drives them, then making sure managers utilize appropriate motivational techniques with each employee. When appropriate motivation techniques are used, employee performance will improve.

METHODOLOGY

Research Design

The study employed a mixed approach of both qualitative and quantitative methods to gather information and analyze data. Data was collected using both Primary and secondary. Data was collected using. Questionnaires which enabled the researcher to be consistent in asking questions and the data was easy to analyze. Both open-ended and closed questions were designed for this purpose. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 22. The target population of 200 respondents was earmarked for this research, which constituted of lectures, professors, administrative officers and supporting staff from the selected private Universities in Lusaka. Permission to conduct the study was obtained beforehand. A sample size of 143 respondents was used in this research which included professors, top Admin staff, lecturers and supporting staff members of the selected private universities. The Sampling selection used was both simple random sampling and purposive sampling techniques to select the respondents. The random sampling was used to select the private Universities in Lusaka and it gave an equal chance for these Universities to be chosen as a sample. On the other hand, purposive sampling was used to appropriate for selecting employees in these Universities because they provided a rightful response relevant to this study.

DISCUSSIONS OF FINDINGS

The study sought to identify an Analysis of the impact of motivation on employee performance at some selected Private Universities in Lusaka district under study. These being Cavendish, Luitebm and Zambia open universities. The findings are based on the following objectives.

Objective One: Analysis of the impact of motivation on employee performance at some selected private universities under study.

Based on the research findings, most respondents felt that absenteeism and employee turnover affect motivation on employee performance. Absenteeism is a very bad vice that slows productivity and organization’s inefficiency. Employees care less about their jobs; they feel withdrawn and have an “I don’t care” type of attitude towards the organization and their work. Both absenteeism and employee turnover are a detriment to the organization as it breeds low productivity and ineffectiveness. Absenteeism results from job dissatisfaction emanating from other factors such as stressful work situations. (Anderson, 2004)

The study also revealed the positive side of motivation on employee performance. These include increased performance, teamwork, and forms of allowances. Appreciation of work well done also impacts motivation on employee performance. This is achieved through giving employees more feedback on their tasks, recognizing their efforts towards work, rewards, and promotion of employees. Money alone cannot motivate employees (Hughes 2003) Good wages, personal loyalty adds to what influences motivation on employee performance. When employs are motivated, there’s high productivity that is achieved and the growth of the organization. Motivating employees through loyalty can be achieved by sharing information and celebrating success which gives employees a sense of ownership. This can also improve the relationship among staff and management. Other factors that impact motivation on employees is the accessibility to incentives, opportunities for growth, job security, friendly environment, training, and teamwork spirit among others.

Objective Two: Investigate the major causes of lack of motivation among employees at the selected Private Universities in Lusaka District under study .

The study findings revealed that most employees lack motivation due to too much workload. Employees do not know how to plan their daily tasks, and this drains their energy. This was particularly so, among the junior employees. Another source of concern for the lack of motivation among employees is that most employees lack confidence in themselves. Tasks are not completed on time as they doubt their capabilities, lack commitment, and have a bad attitude towards their tasks. Recognition for work well done is only focused on the same employees year in year out. This demotivates other employees that have never received any recognition for work well done despite putting in more effort towards their work. Other findings point to unrealistic workload, short term goals with no career progression, conflict in workplace and poor leadership as factors that causes lack of motivations among employees at the universities under study.

Objective Three: Effectiveness of policy on motivation on employee performance in the selected Private Universities in Lusaka District.

Motivation policy can be understood as a system of thoroughly defined and agreed priorities, principles and rules, the purpose of which is to contribute systematically to the improvement of motivational atmosphere within the Organization and strengthen the motivation of individuals, group, and entire Organization. Enacting motivation policy in Organization is very important as it steers up employees to do more and be more committed towards their tasks. Policy on motivation will empower employees and guides employees on the dos and don’ts with regards to motivation. Motivation policies helps employees to make informed decision more efficiently and creates confidence on how to carry out tasks. Policies also protects staff from acting in a manner that might endanger their employment. Motivational policies that involve compensation are drafted with the accounting team to determine the compensation schedule the company can afford. Some respondents indicated that the policy on motivation was incorporated in the employment manual while others indicated that they have never come across any motivational policies.

Objective Four: Relationship between motivational factors and improved employee performance in the selected private universities under study.

Employees that are motivated are highly needed in rapidly changing workplaces and they help institutions to survive and increase productivity. It is a fact that there is a relationship between motivational factors and improved employee performance. Motivation is expected to have a positive effect on quality employee performance and can increase organization productivity by varying inputs needed to attain their expected outputs.

(i) Job Security and employee performance – investigations have shown that there is a positive relationship between job security as a motivational factor and employee performance (Gabris & Simo, 1995). The lack of job security will contribute to the higher employee turnover. Job security gives employees a sense of belonging and ownership hence the extra efforts towards their tasks. Respondents that have their job secured showed higher performance to the institution. They are happy knowing that their job is secure and they are able to plan ahead.

(ii) Promotion and employee performance – Opportunities for promotion contributes to employee job satisfaction thereby increase job performance. (Herzberg 1986) Promotion and training have been found to be the most motivation factors for employees. Promotion increased employee performance. Respondents that have been recently promoted dedicated their time towards the job hence increasing employee performance.

(iii) Payment and employee performance – Employees that are well paid will be motivated to do more hence increase their performance. In this scenario, money is the greatest motivating factor that increases employee performance.

Motivational factors have an influential function on performance as all organizations opt to increase productivity and growth. Therefore, there is a significant relationship between motivational factors and employee performance.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Regarding the first study objective that sought to analyze the impact of motivation on employee performance on selected private universities in Lusaka district, the findings from the study concludes that there are many factors that impacts motivation on employee performance. This can be either positive or negative impact. These factors include job security, communication processes, salary, company policy and promotion among others. Payment incentives or commissions payment is another high motivator for employee performance. Money is the greatest motivator, but this does not mean that it’s the only motivator. It was however noted that a high number of employees that are well paid are highly motivated.

Motivation can increase or decrease performance depending on the type of motivation used. If the form of motivation used meets the needs of employees their performance will increase. While on the other hand, if the wrong form of motivation is used, it will demotivate employees and decrease performance. It was found that high employee turnover and high absenteeism leads to decreased employee performance while performance is increased when employees have high moral, are committed to work, have great communication and can express themselves better with management. Reduced absenteeism and reduced employee turnover increased employee performance in the selected private universities in Lusaka District. The selected private universities benefited greatly from the increased employee performance as more is achieved including efficiency. The case study also discovered that the process of motivating employees is a challenging process, as the selected private universities did not know the right time for motivating the members of staff. Deciding on the best form of motivation has also been a challenge.

In conclusion, employees that are motivated achieved personal goals, have great employee performance, are satisfied with the job, and showed a lot of zeal to succeed.

Findings on the research study, based on the objective of examining the effectiveness of the policy on motivation of employees in the selected private universities in Lusaka District, concludes that the policy on motivation is not well managed. Policy on motivation should be an effective tool, but from the findings, the policies are not well managed and there is too much bureaucracy with the procedures. It’s not easy to implement the motivation policies in the selected private universities. Some employees do not even know which type of policies exit. Regarding the third study objective which sought to determine whether there is a relationship between motivational factors and improved performance in the selected private universities in Lusaka district, the study concludes that Motivation and employee performance are positively related to each other. Motivation factors such as job security, promotion, training, friendly working environment, salary and recognition for work well done has a positive effect on the quality employee performance.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on this study, the researcher makes the following recommendations:

The government of the Republic of Zambia should get involved in the requirements of employees as far as motivation is concerned. Amendments of the labor laws must be considered.
Organizations must have regular inhouse training or workshops for all staff members to improve on communication skills, and effectively manage employees. People management skills must be introduced to managers.
Basic motivational requirements to employees should be introduced in learning institutions, regardless of the course being pursued.
It is also recommended that stakeholder meet halfway in making sure that there’s a great balance between employee’s needs and organizational needs.
Motivation if implemented rightly, has a positive impact on employee performance.
Unrealistic workloads must to be broken down into manageable sections and the to do list planned daily.
Universities, just like any other organization should see to it that policies on motivation are well managed and communicated to all employees.
Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. London: Ashford Color Press Ltd.
Albrecht, S. L., Bakker, A. B., Gruman, J. A., Macey, W. H., & Saks, A. M. (2015). Employee engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: An integrated approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance.
Forson, J. E. (2012). Impact of Motivation on the Productivity of Employees at GTBank Ghana. Lagos: Kwame Nkrumah University.
Ganta, V. C. (2014). Motivation in the Work Place to Improve Employee Performance. International Journal of Engineering Technology, Management and Applied Sciences , 1-10.
Havinal, V. (2009). Management and Enterpreurship. Bellary: New Age International Publishers.
Hichibala, C. (2003). Motivation Theory X and Y: A Zambia Perspective. Ndola: Copperbelt University.
Kuranchie-Mensah, E. B., & Amponsah-Tawiah, K. (2015). Employee Motivation and Work Performance: A Comparative Study of Mining Companies in Ghana. Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management, 8.
Maduka, E. C., & Okafor, O. (2014). Effect of Motivation on Emploee Productivity: A Study of Manufacturing Companies in Nnewi. International Journal of Managerial Studies and Research , 1-11.
Masaiti, G., & Naluyele, P. N. (2011). Strategies to retain and motivate employees in Africa: Examining the case of the Ministry of Education in Zambia. African Journal of Political Science and International Relations , 1-15.
Salanova, A., & Kirmanen, S. (2010). Employee Satisfaction and Work Motivation: Research in Prisma Mikkeli. Mikkeli: Mikkeli University.
Vanderstoep, S., & Johnston, D. (2009). Research Methods for Everyday Life: Blending Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons.
Whiteley, P. (2002). Motivation. Chichester, U.K.: Capstone Publishing.
William, A. N. (2010). Employee Motivation and Performance; Ultimate Companion Limited. Douala- Cameroon: Mikkeli University of Applied Sciences.

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