Description
Motivation has been shown to have roots in physiological, behavioral, cognitive, and social areas. Motivation may be rooted in a basic impulse to optimize well-being, minimize physical pain and maximize pleasure.
BLEKINGE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
School Of Management Master Thesis
EFFECTS OF THE EXTERNAL CONSEQUENCES OF ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES ON EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION
Fashakin, Teniola Abiodun [email protected] Odumade, Adebola Oluwatosin [email protected]
SUPERVISOR:
Gorän Alsen
RONNEBY, 2007
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Our profound gratitude goes to God Almighty for giving us wisdom, knowledge and understanding during the course of our study at Blekinge Institute of Technology.
We will also like to thank our supervisor, Gorän Alsen and our programme manager Anders Nilsson for their valuable help and support during the course of our thesis work.
And lastly, we want to thank our family members and friends who have been of help to us.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
TOPIC: Effects of the External Consequences of Organizational Activities on Employee Motivation
AUTHORS: Fashakin, Teniola Abiodun
Odumade, Adebola Oluwatosin
SUPERVISOR: Alsen, Göran
COURSE: Master Thesis in Business Administration
DEPARTMENT: School of Management, Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden
PROGRAMME:
Master of Science in Business Administration
PURPOSES: The purposes of our thesis include the following: • • • • To know the activities carried out by organization(s) To know the external consequences of these activities To know how these consequences affect employee motivation Identify certain external factors that actually measures employee motivation
RESEARCH QUESTION: How Do the External Consequences of Organizational Activities Affect Employee Motivation?
METHODS: Our thesis involves looking into 3 different but inter-related issuesorganizational activities, external consequences and employee motivation. And so, we collated data using the secondary as well as the primary sources of data. Our secondary data includes a review of the literature which is to enlighten us on what has been studied about our topic while the primary data encompasses gathering data by constructing a questionnaire, conducting interviews, and also organising focus groups; all of these to aid giving answer(s) to our research question.
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FINDINGS: From the research we conducted as well as the analysis we made, we were able to get a proof that there is a strong link between an organization’s activities, the external consequences of such activities as well as how the relationship between these two affects employee motivation. We have been able to establish the fact that employees also look outside their organization for incentives that could enable them to perform their duties properly.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: PROBLEM OVERVIEW ............................................................. 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION......................................................................................... 1 1.2 ILLUSTRATIONS .............................................................................................. 2 1.3 PREVIOUS WORK .......................................................................................... 11 1.4 DEFINITION OF TERMS............................................................................... 14 1.5 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY ........................................................................... 15 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................... 16 2.1 EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION.......................................................................... 16 2.2 MOTIVATION THEORIES ........................................................................... 17 2.3 EXTERNAL CONSEQUENCES .................................................................... 22 2.5 EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION AND EXTERNAL CONSEQUENCES....... 25 2.6 ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES .............................................................. 26 2.7 ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES AND EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION 26 CHAPTER THREE .................................................................................................... 29 CASE STUDY OVERVIEW: BLEKINGE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY .. 29 3.1 ITS ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES, EXTERNAL CONSEQUENCES AND EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION .......................................................................... 29 3.2 ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES .............................................................. 30 3.3 External consequences ...................................................................................... 31 3.4 Employee Motivation ........................................................................................ 33 CHAPTER 4: METHODOLOGY............................................................................. 35 4.1 Methodological Approach ................................................................................ 35 4.2 Data Collection .................................................................................................. 38 4.3 Questionnaire Construct .................................................................................. 39 4.4 Sampling Method .............................................................................................. 42 4.5 Focus Groups..................................................................................................... 43 4.6 Interview ............................................................................................................ 43 4.7 Data Analysis ..................................................................................................... 44 CHAPTER FIVE: DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS ......................................... 45 5.1 QUESTIONNAIRE ANALYSIS ..................................................................... 45 5.2 INTERVIEW ANALYSIS................................................................................ 64 5.3 FOCUS GROUPS ............................................................................................. 66 CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH ................................................................................................................ 69 6.1 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................. 69 6.2 RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................................................. 76 6.3 FUTURE RESEARCH ..................................................................................... 77 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 79 APPENDIX I: COVER LETTER ............................................................................. 82 APPENDIX II: QUESTIONNAIRE ......................................................................... 83 APPENDIX III: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS .......................................................... 87
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure i: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.............................................................................. 18 Figure ii: the motivation-hygiene theory ......................................................................... 20 Figure iii: Equity Theory: balancing the outcomes and inputs in the relationship for comparisons between different individuals ...................................................................... 21 Fig iv: The relationship between organizational activities and employee motivation...... 26 Figure vi: BTH activity chart........................................................................................... 33 Figure vii: sources of primary data ................................................................................... 39 Figure viii: Gender and Location of Respondents ............................................................ 46 Figure ix: Duration of work of Respondents at BTH ....................................................... 47 Figure x: Response to the success of BTH (I) ................................................................. 48 Figure xi: Responses to the success of BTH (II) ............................................................. 49 Figure xii: Responses to the success of BTH (III)............................................................ 50 Figure xiii: Respondents’ Motivation (I) .......................................................................... 51 Figure xiv: Responses of employee motivation (III) ........................................................ 53 Figure xv: Responses on motivation and activities........................................................... 54 Figure xvi: Responses on activities and external consequences....................................... 57 Figure xvii: responses on motivation and external consequences .................................... 59 Figure xviii: responses on activities, consequences and motivation (I)............................ 60 Figure xix: responses on activities, consequences and motivation (II) ............................ 61 Figure xx: This graph depicts the range and the total number of our interviewees......... 65 Figure xxi: Interviewees view of the merger of the three campuses of BTH .................. 66 Figure xxii: An organization’s activities........................................................................... 72 Fig xxiii: BTH activity Chart (b) ...................................................................................... 73
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Gender and Location of Respondents................................................................. 45 Table 2: Duration of work of Respondents at BTH.......................................................... 46 Table 3: Responses to the success of BTH (I) .................................................................. 48 Table 4: Response to the Success of BTH (II).................................................................. 49 Table 5: Responses to the success story of BTH (III) ...................................................... 49 Table 6: Respondents’ Motivation (I)............................................................................... 51 Table 7: Responses on Employee Motivation (III).......................................................... 53 Table 8: Responses on motivation and activities.............................................................. 54 Table 9: Responses on activities and external consequences ........................................... 57 Table 10: responses on motivation and external consequences........................................ 58 Table 11: responses on activities, consequences and motivation (I) ................................ 60 Table 12: responses on activities, consequences and motivation (II)............................... 61
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CHAPTER ONE: PROBLEM OVERVIEW
1.1 INTRODUCTION
There are so many activities that organizations engage in that have consequences on its environment, which could either be a good consequence or a bad one. Organizations engage in activities in their day to day operations and such activities could be in form of the type of strategy adopted by the organization, decisions, management style, functions, customer related activities etc. Since most companies exploit their immediate environment in order to satisfy their customers, like in the case of Shell in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria (see illustration below), we intend to look into how organizational activities that cause certain external consequences affect the way employees perform their required duties. Organizations do not function in a void, it has to operate and react to certain things that occur outside the walls of its office. However, there are certain factors that occur outside the office walls which indirectly or directly affects organizational activities.
The societal environment could be described as the general forces that do not directly affect the short-run activities of an organization in relation to its pay decision, personal task that would be assigned to employees, redistribution of power etc. as regards to employee motivation. These forces include technological, political, economical and socio-cultural factors. A task environment could be described as those elements or groups that directly affect an organization and it includes customers, communities, suppliers, creditors, employees, special interest groups, competitors, governments, stakeholders, labour union etc. Both the societal and task environment must be monitored to detect strategic factors that are likely to have a strong impact on corporate success or failure.
According to Fredrick Hertzberg, certain hygiene and motivation factors affect employee motivation. These factors include the organization, its policies and administration, the kind of supervision, i.e. leadership and management, what people receive while on job, working conditions, interpersonal relations, salary, status, job security, interest in the
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task, the desire to be involved in organizational growth and advancement to higher level task.
Employee motivation is mostly measured with internal factors (as will been seen in our literature review below) that may affect employees to carry out their duties effectively but we decided to measure employee motivation with the external consequences of an organization’s activities which may include economic and policy regulations. However, these consequences could be caused by customer’s negligence, illiteracy, product quality, physical surroundings etc. which could in turn affect an organization’s external reputation as well as its employees’ motivation. Also, some organizations take certain decisions in order to fit into the changing environment in which they operate without taking into consideration the effects of those decisions on their workers. In essence, these decisions might be of great value to the organization but not of much interest and importance to the workers of the organization: this could therefore impede an employees’ performance at work. An example of this is the case of SPDC, Nigeria. (See illustration below). We will like to state here that measuring employee motivation with external consequences which arises as a result of an organization’s activities is a relatively new method to enable one to measure employee motivation and this implies that our thesis is an interesting research area to explore and also a good area to broaden the knowledge of anyone who intends to do some investigation in this area.
1.2 ILLUSTRATIONS
We chose to write about this topic because we are puzzled with the Shell Petroleum Development Company’s operations in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria. This illustration will give our readers proper understanding of our above introduction, as well as get a clearer picture of what our thesis is all about. And so, we choose to make an illustration of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) which is the largest oil and Gas Company in Nigeria. And its operations in this area resulted into external consequences which also affects the company’s employee motivation. Oil revenues account for 90% of Nigeria's export earnings and 80% of the government's total revenue. Shell accounts for
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over half of Nigeria's total oil production. However, in this case, employee motivation is being affected by the following factors:
Political and Economic Instability Business managers name Africa's political instability as a key hindrance to economic development, but many companies continue to invest in Africa. Despite this apparent contradiction, Shell is expanding its investment in the country. Therefore, this political and economic instability of Nigeria affects the activities of the Shell Company in relation to its employees’ motivation and attempts to explain why a specific corporation like Shell may want to make investments in the country despite her political instability. This reveals that political instability does not hinder Shell from operating in Nigeria even when it affects its employee motivation which will automatically affect their performance at work. Shell is attracted to Nigeria because:
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Profits in Nigeria appear to be higher than elsewhere, while Shell occupies a dominant market position unrivalled in most other countries.
•
Secondly, the structural perspective illuminates the interconnectedness of Shell with state structures in Nigeria that may tie the company to Nigeria. Shell established a first mover advantage in the 1950s, since Nigeria was a British colony until 1960 and British oil companies were given preferential treatment. Though, Shell is a Dutch oil company. After independence, Shell managed to penetrate state structures which helped to hedge political risk in the country.
•
Thirdly, the strategic perspective explores how Shell's strategic approaches may make political instability less significant to Shell.
Moreover, this example of SPDC in Nigeria is not only evident in Nigeria but in some other countries of the world. We will therefore like to state here that companies generally, irrespective of the location of a company, especially the profit oriented organizations are established for the main aim of achieving their goals and to make profit, they will do all it
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takes to achieve such goals that is some organizations take certain decisions in order to fit into the changing environment in which they operate without taking into consideration the effects of those decisions on their workers which means that not all their actions are intentional but we will like to state here that whether an action is intentional or not, an action is an action and the cause and effects cannot be overemphasized.
It therefore shows that shell has adapted to political instability. The conclusion that political instability can be conducive to business is significant since one expects political instability to be inherently harmful to business. But, even with the adaptation because of what they derived from Nigeria, it is really affecting their employees’ motivation which is also affecting their activities greatly.
Due to the problem of political and economical instability in the country the workers of shell are not motivated to work due to the following reasons: •
Job Insecurity: In the case of shell, workers could be very insecure of their jobs simply because they do not know if the next political administration will support the activities of their company or not. As a result of this, they are bothered that they could lose their job sometime when the right administration (which the entire people of Nigeria are hoping for) resumes office. This automatically affects their motivation.
•
Apart from the fact that Shell workers earn a lot of money, which implies that shell workers are paid huge salaries, this same workers are not very proud to boast of their working place because the whole country knows that the company is into bad deals with the government. This we think affects the motivation of Shell workers to work.
•
Still on the previous point, political and economical instability in Nigeria, could hinder Shell workers from being satisfied with their career as well as not being able to spend their earnings properly (though they earn a lot) simply because the economy of the country could crumble at any time and the entire policies might stop being in their favor.
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Abduction of Workers This abduction was carried out by individuals working on behalf of groups in the Niger Delta who have in recent days been losing their relevance to the Nigerian government and oil companies. The abduction of shell workers (expatriates) in the Niger Delta is true and this goes a long way to affect the motivation of the employees. This abduction of workers is due to the fact that the Niger Delta people believe that Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) is not doing what they ought to do as a company extracting their natural resources. They claim that instead of shell developing the area of Niger delta, they continued to extract oil and left the place uncatered for. The Niger delta people resulted to the abduction exercise of shell workers (expatriates), thereby requesting for a ransom from the company, after which the workers will be released.
After these workers are released, the abduction automatically affects their motivation to go to work the next day because of the fear of being abducted again, though, these abductees do not by any means hurt the workers but to some extent the abduction affects the employees psychologically because of fear of the unknown which automatically affects their motivation to work. We will like to emphasize here, that this abduction exercise was carried out by angry indigenes of the communities where Shell extracts oil as a way to disrupt the company’s activities which are not in favour of the indigenes of these communities. This abduction was therefore carried out as a result of the external consequences that the actions of Shell had on its immediate society. The citizens of this community were not pleased with activities and so they took this as a measure to attack Shell for hampering their means of livelihood.
Environmental Pollution Pollution occurs in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria as a result of the toxic waste from Shell’s operations. However, various non-governmental organizations are working around the world to underscore the fundamental consequences of these practices and to stipulate environmental fairness. These organizations are not only looking to governments to change but also demanding that corporations be held responsible for the
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environmental abuses which they cause as a result of their activities, which is killing hundreds of people in the area. Quoting Annie Davies of the Nigeria based NGO, DevNet, ‘we want to highlight the need for the multinational oil companies to stop the devastation of the Niger Delta and for the Nigerian government to enact laws that will compel them to respect the people and their environment’.
We decided to illustrate the Shell case in order to allow our readers to get a clearer meaning of what our thesis is about. However, the Shell Company is not the only company with such acts; some other companies exist in this world with the same practices. Another example of organizational activities which could in-turn affect the company’s employee motivation could be seen in the case of H&M where the media has it (January 2004) that the company uses child labour as well as cheap labour in some Asian countries for illegal wages.
Another example is the Coca-Cola Company that has been criticized for its business practices as well as the alleged adverse health effects of its flagship product this in-turn affect workers motivation to work and the legitimacy of the organization. The drink has also aroused criticism for its use of caffeine, due to the possibility of physical dependence. Alleging that the acidity of the drink is dangerous and under normal conditions, scientific evidence indicates that Coca-Cola's acidity causes no immediate harm which means that the effects could be later. There is also some concern regarding the usage of high fructose corn syrup in the production of Coca-Cola. Since 1985 in the U.S., Coke has been made with high fructose corn syrup, instead of sugar glucose or fructose, to reduce costs which by some nutritionists could cause obesity and diabetes.
In India, there exists a major controversy concerning pesticides that can contribute to cancer with a breakdown of the immune system and other harmful chemicals in bottled products including Coca-Cola and others. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) found that the Indian produced Coca-Cola's soft drink was found to have 30 times the permitted amount. After the pesticide allegations were made in 2003, Coca-Cola sales declined by 15%. This 15% decline in sales could also affect investors as well as the
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employees of Coca-Cola because when employees found out that their work is not yielding the necessary returns that it is suppose to, they could not get motivated to do more work since they know that they are not making progress. But on the other hand, this decline in sale could be some form of stimulant for some employees who are aiming solely at attaining success. This group of employees are those that do not perceive the organization has a failure but as one that could reach its goals. In order to buttress this point, the hygiene-motivation factor has more to say on this. This theory therefore stresses the point that there are certain satisfying factors as well as dissatisfying factors in a work place. However, in this case, the 15% decline in sale may be a satisfying factor for some employees while it could also be a dissatisfying factor for some other employees.
The Coca-Cola Company has responded that its plants filter water to remove potential contaminants and that its products are tested for pesticides and must meet minimum health standards before they are distributed which means that the Coca-Cola company have learnt from their mistake to correct it in order to motivate their workers. Just like in the case of BTH when the decision taken will go well with some workers, it will not go well with others and also in the case of BTH just like coca cola, the decision taken by BTH was not taken to harm the workers but to make the organization a better one because organizations like BTH and Coca Cola make such decision basically to make the organization a better place which will not only affect the motivation of the workers but also after the organization’s legitimacy. Due to these number of factors, the reputation of the company will be affected, so also the motivation of the workers due to the effects of the external consequences of the activities of Coca Cola Company.
Another interesting example is Pfizer Inc., a pharmaceutical company that conducted a drug experiment that led to deaths and disabilities among children more than a decade ago, court papers showed in Abuja and Kano (Nigeria). Though, Pfizer has denied the charges in the Kano case which are substantively similar to those in the Abuja-based suit. In the civil suit filed in Kano, authorities alleged that Pfizer illegally conducted a drug experiment on 200 children during a meningitis epidemic in the state's main city, Kano,
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in 1996, resulting in deaths, brain damage, paralysis and slurred speech in many of the children. Pfizer treated 100 meningitis-infected children with an experimental antibiotic, Trovan. Another 100 children, who were control patients in the study, received an approved antibiotic, ceftriaxone - but the dose was lower than recommended, the families' lawyers alleged. Up to 11 children in the study died, while others suffered physical disabilities and brain damage. New York-based Pfizer, the world's largest drug maker, has denied any wrongdoing. A federal court in Manhattan dismissed a 2001 lawsuit by disabled Nigerians who allegedly took part in the study, but the case is under appeal. Authorities in Kano state are blaming the Pfizer controversy for widespread suspicion of government public health policies, particularly the global effort to vaccinate children against polio, which has met strong resistance in northern Nigeria. Basically, the consequences of the organisations decision affects the workers motivation and they are all at the risk of losing their jobs and not getting another one if these problems continues that might damage the reputation that Pfizer have gathered for years. Taking a look at relatively close cases to that of BTH is the case of the Hyundai motor company. The company moved its factory from its Montgomery plant to a new site in the outskirts of Montgomery, Alabama. From the information we were able to gather so far on this, we noticed that the new plant has been making a lot of progress when compared to the old factory of the organization to this end we will like to say that the movement of the Montgomery plant to Alabama has been a good deal for the organization; paying off at the end. We believe that when decisions like this are first implemented, employees and also the society where the company is originally located might not be in favour of the decision because they feel that they have been deprived of their comfort zone. This could therefore lead to employees de-motivation but at the long run, it could turn out to be a motivation tool just like in the case of Hyundai, where the company has succeeded in outsourcing additional work to lower-wage parts suppliers as well as reduce manufacturing and labour costs.
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Amongst many other signals to growth in the organization which was the main motive behind the movement of the factory, Hyundai has yielded some high-tech advances that the company did not possess before the movement and has also incorporated several innovative ways to doing business. Hyundai can therefore boldly say that the Alabama factory has contributed largely to the success of the entire organization, has also paved ways for job opportunities for residents of its society and consumers can boldly say that are proud drivers of Hyundai. We know that all of these go a long way to affect the motivation of the employees of Hyundai. On January 23, 2006, the Ford Motor Company announced that 14 of its factories will be shut down and 30,000 jobs will be cut up over the next six years. We were also able to gather from our readings that the three big automobile companies (Ford, Chrysler Corporation and General Motors) have decided to cut down some jobs as well as shut down some factories. As a result of the actions of the three big auto countries in the USA, the country did not record any net loss in the North American’s automotive jobs in 2005. However, in the case of Ford, the company chose to take these decisions in order to attain corporate success which has been stagnant over the years. To this effect, we read that Ford’s share of the American car market dropt to 17.4% which has been recorded as the lowest. This we think also contributed to the drastic measures the organization has employed. The decision taken by this company has therefore sprung up new jobs and factories in Ontario and Ohio, Canada as well the southern part of the USA including California. Quoting, William Clay Ford Jr., the chief executive of the auto company who called the action “a painful last resort” but who also tagged the decision as “the vision and strategic focus to rebuild the business” as well as “retake the American roadway”. On the hand, The United Automobile Workers Union, a body that represents workers in the USA said that Ford’s actions were “deeply disappointing and devastating”. So far, we have been able to gather that this decision taken to be implemented by Ford soon, has some adverse effects on its employees. To those employees that are to be retrenched, it’s a great loss, to those to be left behind we think that this decision could demotivate them in a situation where their colleagues and/or superiors are being retrenched
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or even when they have to move their place of work just like the BTH case. Also, the case of BTH taking a decision which affects other parts of the communities like Ronneby and Karlshamn negatively is beneficial to Karlskrona residents like in the case of Ford. However, in the case of the companies above, where we explained their activities that led to employee de-motivation, their activities were not accepted by the society where they are located. Relating this to the case of BTH, a similar case could occur where the residents of the communities of the campuses of the university are presently located. This implies that the residents of these communities could be totally against the activities of the university. In order to buttress this point, from the data we were able to collate from our case study BTH, we found out that a number of the residents of these communities are not pleased with the decision of the university. To this end, we believe that the activities of BTH has not really had direct impacts on the entire Blekinge region but on the segments of the region where the campuses are situated, just like in the illustrations in this research work where their immediate society have been affected by the actions of the companies in their vicinity. In the case of Pfizer where the states where the drugs have been tested went wrong, we will also like to state that it is the segment of the society where those activities are being implemented externally that in-turn affects employee motivation. However, it is possible that employee performance is affected by an entire society but for the purpose of our research, we choose to look into those segments of the society that directly and/or indirectly affect employee motivation though some activities could have emanated as a result of companies not complying to the laws of the society where they exist. We will like to state here that we chose to look into different examples in order to allow our readers to have an in-depth knowledge of the different activities of an organization that could have some adverse effects of the motivation of the employees of such an organization. Though the illustration of the Coca-cola and Pfizer are very severe cases which we believe could also help our readers to get a general grasp of the activities of organizations that could cause some consequences in its society and ultimately affect the motivation of its employees.
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Nevertheless, different organizations employ different strategies to carry out their activities as well as reach their goals. It is therefore impossible for us to have the full knowledge of how different organizations in different sectors carry out their activities but we can say to an extent that we have a general overview of how organizations do their businesses which is not enough for us to base our facts on. We can therefore assume from the knowledge we have acquired over the years in the area of Human Resource Management that pay is a strong motivation tool that keeps employees at work even when they are de-motivated like when their society is not pleased with the activities of the organization they work for.
However, there are certain issues that baffle us which we think we should leave for further studies. These issues may include what actually makes employees hang on to their job even when they are de-motivated? Is it really because of the pay they get? Could this be because of their passion for the job? We do not have concrete answers to this as our research does not include that. Though, according to Fredrick Hertzberg, certain hygiene factors like pay affect employee motivation. However, our research includes those societal activities that are triggered by organizational practices and its effects on employee motivation.
1.3 PREVIOUS WORK So far, very little has been said about our area of interest, which makes it challenging to source for information and present something new. A lot has been said about internal factors that affect employee motivation and there are certain theories of motivation and we found out about this by browsing the internet, interviewing people as well reading books, articles and journals that researchers have been able to tackle the issue of employee motivation with the internal factors that may affect it. Examples of such factors could be job satisfaction, job security, pay and much more. Still in the crave for the search on what has been said on employee motivation, we found out that a company’s legitimacy can be affected by the company’s activities which we believe could have an adverse effect on such a company’s employee motivation.
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However, certain theories found that employees are not solely motivated by money but by other motivating factors. Managers therefore changed their ways of thinking about employees and this could be seen in the research conducted by Elton Mayo from 1924 to 1932 called the Hawthorne Studies. The Hawthorne Studies began the human relations approach to management, whereby the needs and motivation of employees became the primary focus of managers (Bedeian, 1993).
These studies made a number of researcher’s to do a further study on what actually motivates employees thereby coming up with motivational approaches. The Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Maslow, 1943) theory has five levels which include physiological, safety, social, ego, and self- actualizing. This theory could be interpreted to mean that people always have needs and once a need has been fulfilled, all other needs will come into place, i.e. once the lowest levels of needs on the hierarchy fall into place, the highest ones will follow. Skinner’s theory states that those employees’ behaviour that lead to positive outcomes will be repeated and behaviour’s that lead to negative outcomes will not be repeated (Skinner, 1953). The Herzberg’s work categorized motivation into two factors: motivators and hygiene (Herzberg, Mausner, & Snyderman, 1959). Motivator or intrinsic factors, such as achievement and recognition, produce job satisfaction. Hygiene or extrinsic factors, such as pay and job security, produce job dissatisfaction.
Vroom’s theory is based on the belief that employee effort will lead to performance and performance will lead to rewards (Vroom, 1964). Rewards may be either positive or negative. The more positive the reward the more likely the employee will be highly motivated. Conversely, the more negative the reward the less likely the employee will be motivated. Adam’s theory states that employees strive for equity between themselves and other workers. Equity is achieved when the ratio of employee outcomes over inputs is equal to other employee outcomes over inputs (Adams, 1965). Managers should positively reinforce employee behaviours that lead to positive outcomes. Managers should negatively reinforce employee behaviour that leads to negative outcomes.
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The following theories are related to our research problem in the sense that our research problem talks about the external consequences of organisational activities that affects employee motivation which is also explained in the Hawthorne Studies whereby the need for employee motivation becomes the primary aim of an organisation, knowing fully well that there are some activities that the organisation engages in that affects employee motivation. So, according to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory (Maslow, 1943), there are five levels of needs which include physiological, safety, social, ego, and self- actualizing. The hierarchy of needs is related to our research problem in the sense that the effects of the external consequences is as a result of the feedbacks from the society which will not merge up with the needs, ego and safety of the employees. So also, the Skinners theory states that the behaviour of the employees that leads to positive outcomes will be repeated and the ones that lead to negative outcomes will not be repeated which means that for the organisation to achieve its aim, the external consequences of their actions on employee motivation exists and if any employee relates to this in a negative way, the actions will be ignored and will be of no use.
The actions that will be ignored due to the effects of the employee motivation leads to Herzberg’s work which talks about motivators such as achievement, recognition and hygiene such as pay and job security all these brings job satisfaction. If as a result of the external consequences of the activities of the organisation, the motivation of the employees are affected and they react in a negative way which means that their action will be ignored that will automatically mean that they will not be recognised which will lead to job insecurity and affect their pay. The Vroom theory talks about the performance which will lead to reward and performance; the performances will be definitely affected by the effects of the activities of organisation on the motivation of their employees which is our problem. This means that the theories we wrote above are related to our problem in relation to our research work.
Though the organisations have their corporate social responsibility which is a concept that organizations have an obligation to consider the interests of customers, employees, shareholders, communities, and ecological consideration in all aspects of their operations.
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The organizations do this but due to the fact that their main aim is to achieve certain objectives and to make profit, they sometimes go against the interests of customers, employees, shareholders, communities and ecological consideration like in the case of Shell, H&M and Coca Cola.
Managers put certain motivating factors in place because motivated employees help organizations to survive and are also more productive, motivated employees perform their duties better than the non- motivated ones. Managers therefore have to find out what actually motivates their subordinates in relation to their job. However, certain developments have been made by recent researchers in order to ensure that workers are motivated to perform their duties properly. According to Peter S. Cohan (2003, 53), ‘valuing human relationships means treating people with respect so that they achieve their full potential consistent with the company’s interests’. He went on to say that when a business is expanding, treating people with esteem is imperative since the business needs to attract as well as encourage the right kinds of people. To some extent, treating people with respect should be a usual attribute of a manager. It is therefore understood by most motivation theorists that motivation is involved in the performance of all learned responses; that is, a learned activity will not transpire unless it is thrilled to do so.
We have been able to explain the link between the organisation and the employee, so also there is a stronger link between the employee and her motivation. The employees do have one thing or the other that they believe could motivate them to work, it might be what they are used to from their previous experience or what triggers the action out of them to work the way they ought to. So therefore, the organisation must be able to notice the factors that trigger the motivation of their employees individually. Some of these could entail personal beliefs that affect ones motivation to work. See chapter 2 for a proper explanation of some motivation theories which we find relevant for our quest.
1.4 DEFINITION OF TERMS 1.4.1 Organizational Activities: This comprises of an organization’s functions in order to attain desired goals. These involve organizational objectives, main direction for
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innovation
and
reform,
policies
and
structures,
areas
of
research.
1.4.2 External Consequences: These are the positive or negative effects of an organization’s activities which could either result into a satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
1.4.3 Motivation: This is a push or mental force to accomplish an action. It could also be defined as a drive that compels one to act because human behavior is directed toward some goal. Motivation is intrinsic (internal); it comes from within based on personal interests, desires, and need for fulfillment. It is also extrinsic (external); factors like rewards, praise, and promotions also influence motivation.
1.4.4 Employee Motivation: According to the encyclopaedia of business, employee motivation could be seen as the level of energy, commitment, and creativity that workers relate to their jobs. Employee motivation could also be described as those factors that strengthen, prolong and direct employee behaviour.
1.5 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
Our thesis is all about how the activities or practices of an organization affect its employee motivation which we intend to discern with our research. However, our work will find out the following: • • • • Know the activities carried out by organization(s) Know the external consequences of those organizational activities Know how these consequences affect employee motivation Identify certain external factors that actually measures employee motivation
We believe that achieving our purposes will give answer(s) to our research question and we intend to do this by gathering the necessary data with the research methods we employ. This can be seen in our chapter three.
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CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
Generally, in our day-to-day activities as individuals, we need to be motivated to perform one duty or the other. Motivation could therefore be described as some kind of incentive that thrills one to carry out the required duties and responsibilities. Some employees get motivated when their organization is of high prestige, when the media reports the good deeds of their organization, or even when the company carries out its social responsibility and the society in which the organization is situated, is pleased with the acts of the organization. This implies that the organization is legitimate that is an organization of genuine and authentic practices.
Nevertheless, some employees are not moved by that but by other means of motivation evident in our case study, BTH. In 2006, due to the quest for creativity and the relationship BTH has with its environment, BTH collaborates with other universities in a strategic alliance one of which is the southeast Sweden University and 83% of the students at the university get employment directly after graduation because BTH is one of the most successful universities in Sweden when it comes to collaboration with industries and societies.. This chapter of our thesis will focus on discussing some findings done by previous researchers concerning our area of research which encompasses employee motivation, organizational practices/activities and its consequences.
2.1 EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION
Employee motivation could be seen as the inner force that drives employee behaviour; this force enables employees to perform their duties as required of them having a particular goal in mind, ‘success’. According to the encyclopaedia of business, employee motivation could also be seen as the level of energy, commitment, and creativity that workers relate to their jobs. And in most cases where we lack this force, we often perform poorly. However, certain factors like job characteristics, individual differences and organizational practices may affect employee motivation to work. Job characteristics may include those aspects of an employee’s position that determines its limitations and challenges. Individual differences are those individual needs, values, and attitudes, 16
interests and abilities that people bring to their jobs. Organizational practices/activities are the rules, human resource polices, managerial practices, and reward systems of an organization.
2.2 MOTIVATION THEORIES
In recent years, the competition in the business environment has increased and this has left managers with finding ways to motivate their employees and also because motivation gives rise to productivity, managers need to know what actually motivates their employees. However, many researchers have come up with different motivation theories which we will be discussing in this section of chapter 2.
2.2.1 Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1943) This is perhaps one of the most popular theories of motivation by a psychologist, Abraham Maslow. According to him, human needs can be seen in a hierarchy which implies that one need has to follow the other according to there level of importance and ascending from the lowest to the highest. Maslow in his theory pointed out that if one level of need is not met, an individual cannot move to the next stage and also when a particular level of need has been met, it seizes to be a need.
•
Physiological needs: this is the lowest of the hierarchy and it includes those basic needs that are essential human sustenance. This includes clothing, food, shelter, water, sleep, education, sex, medicine etc.
•
Safety needs: this level of need deals with protection from physical as well as emotional harm. This need also involves the fear of losing a job, property, food or shelter. Also known as the security need.
•
Belonging needs: Also known as the social needs, it involves the need to belong as well be accepted in a group. Here, individuals try to satisfy their need for friendship, affection and acceptance.
•
Esteem needs: At this level, individuals want to be seen as figures of high esteem which includes both internal (autonomy, self-respect) and external (recognition, attention) esteem factors. Also, individuals get the satisfaction of power, prestige, status and self confidence.
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•
Self-actualization: This is the final and highest level of the hierarchy of human needs where individuals want to be seen as attaining heights, getting fulfilled and accomplished. This includes the thrill to become what one is capable of becoming which may include growth.
Figure i: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
From Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it is essential to discover the level of need an individual needs to fulfil in order to effectively motivate him because when one need is not met, the individual does not move forward thereby affecting his drive to make progress as well reach a desired goal. This defect would affect an employee personally and also the organization as a whole.
2.2.2 Theory ‘X’ AND ‘Y’ Douglas McGregor, in his motivation theory states that employees can be viewed from two angles. After carefully studying employees, making different assumptions on the different group of individuals, he came up with the X and Y theory, X being the negative, and the theory Y being the positive. With the theory X, he came up with certain assumptions like:
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•
Employees not wanting to work and whenever possible, they try to avoid working simply because they do not like to work.
•
As a result of the previous assumption, employees have to be forced to carry out their duties with punishments or threats.
•
Another of McGregor’s assumptions is that employees avoid their duties and do not follow formal instructions.
And from the other angle, he made certain assumptions on the positive side which is the Y theory:
• •
Employees take work as part of them, and so they do the job like it is a hobby. Workers practice self-control and self-direction when they are after attaining success at work.
•
Employees are willing to take responsibility as well as be creative when tackling job-related issues.
2.2.3 Frederick Hertzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory Also known as the two-factor theory or Hygiene theory, the theory implies that at the work place, there are certain satisfiers as well as dissatisfies for employees. He went on to say that the intrinsic factors are related to satisfaction while the extrinsic factors are related to dissatisfaction. Hertzberg developed his theory by finding out what people actually want to get from their work and from this he found out that employees do not really get motivated when dissatisfying factors are eliminated. In essence, some factors are inevitable in an organization which does not mean that the presence of such factors will trigger employees to do their work willingly and as required by the organization and on the other hand, the absence of these factors leads to no motivation to do work.
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Figure ii: the motivation-hygiene theory
However, there are certain factors which their presence does not cause satisfaction and at the same time, their presence has motivational influences on employees. Therefore examples of hygiene factors include salary, security, status, work conditions, company policy and administrations, relationship with subordinates and/or supervisors, personal life while the examples of motivational factors include challenges, recognition, achievements, growth prospectus, responsibility, and job advancement.
2.2.4 Equity Theory This theory, developed by Stacey Adams (1963), explains the fact that workers want to be treated fairly as regards their level of skill, hard work, passion, lenience etc. He went further to say that workers have the tendency to compare their rewards with other workers and when they find out that they are not treated alike, they decrease the quality
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or quantity of their work, increase absenteeism or even leave the organization for another organization where they feel they could be treated better.
Figure iii: Equity Theory: balancing the outcomes and inputs in the relationship for comparisons between different individuals
And on the other hand, when workers notice that they are being treated better than their colleagues, they feel motivated to perform better. Workers compare how diligently they put in their efforts into the job and what they get in return and if there is no tally in these two, they do not feel motivated to work.
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2.2.5 Other Motivation Theories
• • • • • •
The porter and Lawler Model Clayton Alderfer’s ERG Theory Reinforcement Theory Vroom’s Valence and Expectation Theory McClelland’s Theory of Needs Cognitive Evaluation Theory
So far, we have been able to collate the views of different researchers that have been able to come with different theories that address the issue of employee motivation considering practices that occur within the organization. We will like to emphasize here that all these theories go a long way to affect the acts that occur outside the walls of the organization. We call these outdoor occurrences- external consequences and we believe that these occurrences also affect the performances of an organization’s employees. Also, from our readings and what we have been able to gather, we will like to state here that an organization’s reputation needs to be perceived by two groups; its employees as well as its environment.
When employees are motivated to do their work; get incentives for a job well done, get along with superiors, we suppose that an organization that possesses such luxury of having employees that have such characteristics, amongst other characteristics, ought to be perceived well by its employees in terms of its reputation and ultimately legitimacy. And on the other hand, when an organization has a good status outside the offices of the organization, it simply implies that the organization’s environment is pleased with the organization’s activities both within and outside the organization. The following sections of this chapter will be explaining in details those external consequences of an organization’s activities that could affect the organization’s employee.
2.3 EXTERNAL CONSEQUENCES
A consequence could be described as any action that occurs as a result of another action. It could therefore be positive or negative. Certain factors affect the way individuals react
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to present and future situations. However, the positive consequences of an individual’s organizational activities will greatly affect the individual’s manner of approach as regards his job-related issues which will eventually affect his performance to work and on the other hand, negative consequences also affects employee’s performance at work. Since it is impossible for organizations to devote resources to cater specially for the development and management of the consequences that affect different individuals because employees are unique beings with distinct characteristics, it is important for the organization to arrange systems and processes that provide programs to create an environment that is suitable for motivation, engagement and commitment to work. For the purpose of this thesis, we will be considering those external consequences that may affect employee motivation. These external consequences can therefore be interpreted differently by individuals considering the individual’s orientation and personal circumstances.
2.4 TYPES OF EXTERNAL CONSEQUENCES
We will consider the positive external consequences of organizational activities that could boost an employee’s drive to perform his/her duties appropriately as well as the negative external consequences of organizational activities that often militates an individual’s performance to work.
2.4.1 Positive External Consequences • Vocal/societal: This could be in the form of comments made, actions displayed or things communicated by people about the activities of an organization. This type of consequence is the most common and direct type of consequence because it is conveyed at the time the action occurs. This could be conveyed by a person(s) reputation showing gratitude for a particular action. Thus, a statement of gratitude often triggers one to perform better. • Work-related: This involves acquiring awards in appreciation of an individual or team’s role in a particular exercise, contribution in resolutions or authority exercised. This could also mean an incentive normally based on job performances.
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•
Tangible/symbolic: This includes the awards and trophies that people receive for extraordinary accomplishments. This type of reward for a job well done is often associated with recognition and it may also include a banquet.
•
Good will: This could be described as an intangible asset that gives a company a competitive advantage over other companies. This competitive advantage could be in the form of reputation, good relationship with customers, and high employee morale e.t.c. and it often boosts workers performance at work.
2.4.2 Negative External Consequences • • Bad publicity. This occurs when workers find out that the media is actually communicating wrong information to the general public. Bad reputation. Often, when companies make errors in their products/services either by omission or commission and also when company products/services do not meet up with the promises that have been communicated to the public about the products, such companies would get a bad reputation. A company’s bad reputation depreciates an existing good relationship between a company and its customers and this consequently affects employee motivation to work in the sense that such employees do not see any success in their performance at work. • Social responsibility: Quoting Lord Holme and Richard Watts in their publication at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development titled “Making Good Business Sense”, they defined Corporate Social Responsibility as “the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large”. So, when companies fail to take up their social responsibilities, which could be as a result of polluting their environment and not making up ways to avoid it or putting into place certain measures that could clear the pollution, not employing citizens from their environment etc. they do not get the approval and support of their immediate society. This may affect workers motivation to work because the company they work for is not taking up its responsibilities. However, there are a number of companies that have been affected by the public opinion of their society that is
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their society does not approve of their acts in the environment where the companies are situated. From the definition of Holme and watts, a company’s social responsibility also goes a long affecting the workforce of the company and so, companies like Shell and BP-Amoco have been trying hard to amend their ways in terms of their corporate social responsibility. These companies are striving to redeem their image which is of bad environmental and social records to ‘energy companies’ that is loyal to taking measures that will fight climate changes.
2.5
EMPLOYEE
MOTIVATION
AND
EXTERNAL
CONSEQUENCES
Often times, the actions caused as a result of an organization’s activities go a long way influencing the organization’s performance to work. These actions could make a positive or negative impact in a worker’s performance to work. This section of the chapter will describe the relationship between the employee motivation and external consequences which could be seen thus: One, consequences could be delivered in several ways either formally or informally and this could be conveyed through the press, stakeholders, managers, peers and these consequences could be seen immediately or over time. The management of an organization could arrange these consequences in order to encourage their workers to perform better as well as persuade good practices of the organizations. Two, since individuals identify their values and not the organization they work for, some consequences are professed as being positive to them. These consequences trigger them the individual’s aspiration to perform better.
Three, an organization’s overall success in most cases triggers its workers incentive to perform better as well as workers actions that are encouraged and rewarded. Four, workers feel fulfilled when valuable consequences occur as a result of their action. It gives the worker a feeling of accomplishment and attainment of success and on the other hand when a worker does not get expected consequences, it makes the worker feel
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unaccomplished. Incentives received as a result of special accomplishments often goes a long way gearing up employees to carry out their duties effectively.
2.6 ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Organizational activities may range from industry to industry. Different organizations involve in different activities depending on their goal and mission and different people in the organization contribute to the achievement of this goal. The level in which a person contributes to the success of an organization depends on their level or position in the organization. Thus, organizational activities could include the production of goods and services, rendering social responsibilities to its environment. It could also be in terms of its structures and processes.
2.7
ORGANIZATIONAL
ACTIVITIES
AND
EMPLOYEE
MOTIVATION
Here, we will make brief explanations of those factors that affect organizational activities as well as employee motivation. The factors could be represented thus: Organizational Activities and Employee Motivation
Organizational Growth
Organizational change
Change in work design
Change in organizational culture
Change in technology
Fig iv: The relationship between organizational activities and employee motivation
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2.7.1 Organizational growth could be seen as an indication of the expansion of organizational activities as well as a way of mitigating the worth of an organization and its current activities. Irrespective of how an organization is growing, growth is an indication to take additional control of its environment, enhance the likelihood of survival as well as profitability. Therefore, employees fill some sense of fulfillment and/or accomplishment when they belong to a growing organization and especially if their contributions to the growing company have been recognized as a part(s) of the growth tactics of the organization. According to Starbucks (1965: 453), growth is a gradual process, it doesn’t just occur within a twinkle of an eye. It is an occurrence that evolves as a result of the consequences of the decisions of an organization.
2.7.2 Organizational change in its approach to doing business can modify the activities of such an organization and also its employee motivation. In most cases, organizations change their strategy or methods of approach in order to improve their production of goods and services as well as boost their employees’ performance and effectiveness in an organization. Organizational changes can therefore be seen in the following categories: • Change in work design: This type of change comes into place when organizations want to maintain and attain organizational efficiency and a sustainable competitive advantage; this is done by approving proper operational methods. For an organization to do this successfully, it is vital to initiate new work designs which could be in the form of team working, job enrichment, job rotation, job enlargement, and flexible working schemes. However, organizations may develop a relationship between the performance of individuals, teams and their incentive; this will enhance employees to adapt easier and faster to the organizational change and subsequently perform better. • Change in organizational culture: Organizational culture can be seen as a the character of an organization, it includes the values, norms, assumptions (e.g. values on money, time, facilities, space and people) that members of an organization hold as important and these members realize (after some time) the culture of the organization they work for and thereafter try to adjust to it in order to fit in. organizational culture thus defer from company to company. Over the
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years, organizations have realized that people are to be seen as assets and not liabilities and so, the perception of top managers about people have shifted from being seen as costs to human resources. Further more, team leaders and/or managers are being held responsible for the actions of their human resources and therefore have the control over the incentives of their resources. All of these are as a result of organizational culture change which when understood well by employees in an organization, may drive them to perform better. • Change in technology: For decades now, there have been serious transformations in the use of technology in organizations. New technologies are invented virtually every day and even beginning to take over the jobs that used to be done by individuals. As a result of these, employees are somewhat scared of their jobs and in some cases, management of organizations have to invest in training employees to use new technologies so as to be able to meet the requirements of their customers and also be able to stand tall in the midst of competing faces. Nevertheless, new technology can also give rise to improved employee performance and most likely, overall organizational performance which could also result into enhancing incentives to execute duties better.
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CHAPTER THREE CASE STUDY OVERVIEW: BLEKINGE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
3.1 ITS ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES, EXTERNAL CONSEQUENCES AND EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION
We chose to do a case study of BTH because of the mails we received and the news going around on the merger of the three campuses of BTH. This implies that the three present campuses of the university (Karlskrona, Ronneby and Karlshamn) will be moved to Karlskrona come 2010. We believe that this merger will affect the teaching staffs of BTH, the non-teaching staffs of BTH, students, and the various communities where the campuses have been originally situated. To a great extent, we will consider how the decision of the management of BTH will affect the employees of BTH. We will also look into how the communities will be affected as well as students but as we stated earlier, what we are concerned about in this thesis is how this decision may affect the motivation of the employees of BTH.
This case study is therefore suitable for us because we sense that the residents of the communities where BTH is presently located might not be in accordance with the decision and this could jeopardise the image of the university especially in the Ronneby and Karlshamn communities where the campuses will be moved from. The communities where the campuses of BTH will be moved from might not get the full support of BTH in the sense that the communities might think that BTH has just succeeded in exploiting them. This exploitation could be seen from the angle that BTH used the communities (Ronneby and Karlshamn) as a starting point to attain their goals and suddenly move away just like in the case of Shell where the residents of the Niger Delta area of Nigeria believe that the Shell Petroleum Development Company succeeded in getting crude oil from their community and decided not to return anything to them like in the form of some other means of crude oil because their activities prevented the fishermen in that area from carrying out their fishing activities which is their means of survival. However, the decision of the management of BTH could hamper some activities in the affected cities
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just like in the case of Shell. The case of BTH could affect to some extent, the motivation of the company’s employees because some employees are really concerned about what their activities may cause of the society in which they work and if they find out that the society is being affected positively or negatively, this could affect their motivation to work either positively or negatively. The following sub-sections of this chapter will describe the organizational activities, possible external consequences of such activities as well as the motivation of its workers.
3.2 ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Figure V: BTH organizational Chart
The diagram above represents the organizational chart of our case study which is Blekinge Institute of Technology. The organizational activities of this institution are
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carried out by the different departments on the chart above. The activities of BTH are affected by decisions made by the employees of the university that occupy the offices in the management section of the chart.
In an educational institute where decisions are made to be effected by subordinates and/or other members of the institute, a committee is formed to that effect. This committee represents the total population of staffs in that organization. Also, students could be represented in the committee especially when the situation at hand will affect the students of the institute. In the case of the unification of the three campuses of BTH, which is the main activity of BTH that we are looking into, decisions are made as well as influenced to a great extent by staffs of the university and those that fall under the category of decision makers. Here, these decision makers include the board of governors, vice chancellor (provost, pro-vice chancellor), faculty board, board of education, board of staff recruitment and appointment, and the student union. Some of the many activities of BTH include: • • • • • • Undergraduate studies Masters’ studies Admission of international students Research studies Collaboration with industries and societies Collaboration with other universities
All of the activities above are carried out by the employees of BTH who occupy the offices in the organizational chart see figure v. As a result of these activities, certain consequences occur in the outside environment of the university. As explained earlier in this chapter, these consequences could be positive or negative; consequences include those actions that occur as a result of another action.
3.3 External consequences A lot of activities take place outside the walls of BTH as a result of the activities of BTH and these activities may include the following:
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• Good Reputation: BTH has a good reputation when it comes to collaborating with industries and its society. The products of BTH i.e. graduates, are known to be amongst the students that get employments directly after graduation. This implies that employers trust the services of the university, in terms of providing students with a standard education. • Publicity: BTH has a good publicity in the sense that the media often portrays the university to be a good and standard one. Also, the good publicity of BTH often aids its international reputation. Present as well as past international students of BTH have good experiences with the university and often times recommend the university to friends in their home countries. This is unlikely to occur if the activities of the school are not accepted by its students. • Residents of the communities where BTH campuses are presently located are glad that the university is located in their vicinity. An indication to this could be the springing of restaurants, tourist attractions, students accommodation etc. which to some extents, decreases the unemployment rates of these communities. • Media: The media i.e. newspaper sometimes portrays the not-so-good side of the university which in some cases portrays the university well and in some cases the university is being portrayed well.
All that has been said above, among many other external consequences (which is what we intend to find out) of BTH affect the motivation of the employees of BTH. These effects could be good or bad.
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Management
Operative units
Supporting units
External Consequences
Motivation of the employees in the operative and supportive units
Figure vi: BTH activity chart
From figure vi, it could be denoted that the decisions made by the management of the school are carried out by the other employees of BTH who have been classified as the operative and supportive units of the university. The activities carried out by these units go a long way to make some impacts in the external environments of BTH which could be referred to the external consequences of the activities of BTH. This consequences inturn affects the motivation of employees which is what our thesis is all about.
3.4 Employee Motivation As stated in chapter one, what we intend to measure in our research work is the motivation of the employees of BTH. Many researchers have done this looking into the organization to actually see what could affect the motivation of employees. We decide to take the bold step to measure employee motivation with those factors that may occur as a result of the external consequences of the activities of an organization.
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Our findings in the next chapter will give us a clue as to how employee motivation is being affected by external consequences. We will like to state here that our thesis is all about finding out how the external consequences of organizational activities affect employee motivation which is our research question. Our next chapter will give a detailed explanation of how we intend to go about deriving at an answer to our research question.
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CHAPTER 4: METHODOLOGY
4.1 Methodological Approach
We chose to do a case study of BTH regarding our thesis work. This was because of the news going around on the merger of the three campuses of the university in the following locations:
• • •
Karlskrona Ronneby Karlshamn
This news as been going on for sometime now, that the school has decided to shift all these campuses to the Gräsvik campus in Karlskrona. This decision which was recently made to be executed in the nearest future (2010) would affect to a great extent the following categories of people:
• • • •
The teaching staffs of BTH The non-teaching staffs of BTH Students The various communities where the campuses have been originally situated
What we intend to consider here, is how the merger of these campuses would affect the motivation of the above listed categories of people but to a great extent, we will consider the employees of BTH because our thesis work restricts us to doing that. We will like to state here that the major reason why we will be considering the other categories is because all the above listed categories of people work hand in hand in order to achieve a collective success.
This chapter however, covers the research methodology taken to answer the research question how do the external consequences of organizational activities affect employee motivation? It includes the data collection, method of data collection, methodological approach, sampling method, and method of analysis. When conducting a research, it is necessary to use past data that is, review the literature on the topic of interest. This is to say that the researcher related past existing knowledge into his/her area of interest which is what we have done in the previous chapters. However, this chapter of our thesis will
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give a vivid description of how we will go about gathering data to answer the research question.
Also, we decided to study BTH because we know that it will be a good case study and our empirical understanding of BTH goes thus; BTH (formally called
Ronneby/Karlskrona university) was founded in 1989 which happens to be one of the three independent universities of technology, one of the country’s most distinctly profiled universities with applied IT which encourages sustainable development of society. In 1999, BTH merged with the Baltic International School of Public Health and the university status for engineering was introduced. In 2000 a campus was established in Karlshamn and the university was renamed Blekinge Institute of Technology. In 20012002, BTH was given the general right to run MSc programmes with the issuance of award for MSc degrees and the same year Lars Haikola became the Vice –Chancellor. In 2006, due to the quest for creativity and the relationship BTH has with its environment, BTH collaborates with other universities in a strategic alliance one of which is the southeast Sweden University.
The success story of the university shows the reason why employees will be more interested in working for BTH than any other university because BTH operates PhD programmes within twelve subject areas with 96 PhD students and 32 professors(5 adjunct and 5 visiting), higher proportion of research, 83% of the students at the university get an employment directly after graduation because BTH is one of the most successful universities in Sweden when it comes to collaboration with industries and societies , there is an increase of 200 full equivalents compared to 2004 and the number of students with disability increased with 24%.
Every autumn there is always one new improvement or the other in the university. For example, in autumn 2006 the following programmes were introduced- sound and system engineering, telecommunications and data communications and bachelor of science in Business Administration. Nevertheless, BTH has around 40 undergraduate programmes and 395 independent courses which include 3329 full time students (45% are women).
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And, the international students in BTH as at 2005 amounted to 549 which are increasing every year.
Moreover, the debates in the media (BLT newspaper, SSD newspaper and television programmes) over the years have been in favour of BTH because they have been improving overtime based on the records available. So therefore, these entire factors make employees to be motivated and feel like being a part of such an organisation as BTH. The chapter will also give an insight into how to relate the organizational activities of BTH which are performed by the different departments of BTH which we have explained in our chapter two with the external consequences which these activities may cause and how all of these affect employee motivation. As stated earlier, all of these should give an answer to our research question
According to Hussey and Hussey, all research processes have primary phases through which they must pass through. These phases include the following: • • • • • • Identifying the research purpose and topic Defining the research problem Determining the concept of the research Collecting the necessary data for the research Analyzing and interpreting the research data Stating the findings and recommendations
The first two phases have been covered by chapters one and two, the third and fourth will be covered by this chapter, chapter three and the last two phases of the thesis will be covered by chapters four and five. However, to test the hypothesis developed in the chapters above, a quantitative research method is engaged in this study. A quantitative method uses a relatively large number of subjects and anything that is measurable. It also enables one to develop conceptual frameworks and models and also to recognize certain important variables and analyze the relationships between them. When using a quantitative method, a literature review helps one to get a proper understanding of the topic which is what we have done in chapter two. Therefore, the most appropriate method
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in this case, where the purpose of our thesis is to know how the external consequences of organizational activities affect the motivation of workers, is a quantitative research method. According to the free encyclopaedia, quantitative research is common
approached using the scientific method, which is a body of procedures suitable for finding facts and getting new knowledge. It could also be used for correcting and incorporating previous knowledge.
4.2 Data Collection
When collecting data for research purposes, there are two methods of data collection that could be considered. These data collection types include the following: • • Secondary data Primary data
For the purpose of our thesis, we shall be making use of both the secondary and the primary data.
4.2.1 Secondary Data. This could be described as information collected by others for certain purposes that could be different from that of a researcher who intends to use the same information (Ghauri and Gronhaug 2005, 91). This method of data collection is also referred to as a second-hand data simply because the data is not gathered solely for a purpose but could be useful to different researchers at different times. Ghauri and Gronhaug (2005, 100) states that secondary data could be gathered from both internal and external sources. The internal sources being collecting data from customers, employees, suppliers etc. and the external sources including the collection of data from published articles, books, research reports etc. as well as commercial; panel research, reports etc. This type of data could also be gathered from online sources which may include web pages of government organizations, companies, etc. Secondary data therefore saves time as well as money because it is an already existing data that could be used almost at any time it is needed. And so, for this thesis, secondary data were gathered from books, journal and articles using the university library as well as the internet.
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4.2.2 Primary Data. This is also referred to as the first-hand data collection method because information is gathered here mainly for the intended purpose of the research. This type of data often helps to give appropriate answers to research questions. According to Ghauri and Gronhaug (2005, 102), the sources of primary data could be seen in the figure below:
Figure vii: sources of primary data
For the purpose of this thesis, primary data shall be gathered using communication which includes the use of surveys i.e. questionnaires which will be distributed personally and/or through electronic-mail, an interview will also be conducted to get the necessary data.
4.3 Questionnaire Construct
A structured questionnaire is constructed to measure the effects of the external consequences of organizational activities on the motivation of workers. The independent variable in this research is the organizational activities that cause some external consequences which in-turn affects the motivation of the workers which is the dependent variable. The purpose of the questionnaire is to measure the external activities carried out by the organization as well as its effects on workers and so our data collection and analysis will not be directed to the top management of the university in any way, but to those members of the staff whom the decision of the top management affect in one way or the other.
The questionnaire will be constructed in a particular sequence in which a dichotomous question that is, a question that will be answered with a YES or No response may be
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followed with an opened ended question. The reason why we decided to use the dichotomous type of question is to get a genuine and accurate answer from the respondent and to also make sure that they are specific in their answers while the main reason of adding an open ended question is for them to be able to express themselves from their personal points of view. Since our thesis is considering 3 areas that is, external consequences, organizational activities and employee motivation. The questionnaire will be constructed in such a way that the teaching as well as the non-teaching staffs of BTH will tackle the questions that relate to the organizational activities and employee motivation, in order to gather some information from students will also organise a focus group that will address the issue of the organizational activities of BTH in relation to the students. The interview will help tackle the other part of our thesis.
The questions are constructed to answer our research question, how do the external consequences of organizational activities affect employee motivation? And the questions are also constructed in relation to the motivation principles in our chapter two. So question 1 was basically constructed to know the gender of the respondent for the purpose of gender equality in relation to the theory, developed by Stacey Adams (1963), explains the fact that workers want to be treated fairly as regards their level of skill, hard work, passion, lenience etc. It went further to say that workers have the tendency to compare their rewards with other workers and when they find out that they are not treated alike, they decrease the quality or quantity of their work, increase absenteeism or even leave the organization for another organization where they feel they could be treated better and it is either you are a male or female to know the percentage of each, questions 2 and 3 was constructed to know which of the campuses and department of the university the respondent works while 4 was constructed to know how long the employee has been working for the institution.
Question 5 was however constructed to know if the respondent feels like he/she is involved in the good deeds of the university. This is in relation to the theory explained in our chapter two which is the motivation theory of Douglas McGregor. In his motivation theory, he states that employees can be viewed from two angles. After carefully studying
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employees, making different assumptions on the different group of individuals, he came up with the X and Y theory, X being the negative, and the theory Y being the positive. With the theory X, he came up with certain assumptions like: employees not wanting to work and whenever possible, they try to avoid working simply because they do not like to work. As a result of this, employees have to be forced to carry out their duties with punishments or threats. And so, employees avoid their duties and do not follow formal instructions. And from the other angle, he made certain assumptions on the positive side which is the Y theory which states that: employees take work as part of them, and so they do the job like it is a hobby, workers practice self-control and self-direction when they are after attaining success at work and employees are willing to take responsibility as well as be creative when tackling job-related issues.
And, question 6 and 7 is to test the factors that stimulate employees to work and this is related to the theory in chapter 2 which states that employees will like to receive a form of incentive to enable them to perform their duties diligently. They want to look forward to something tangible or intangible which serves as a form of appreciation for their performances. As a result of this, different organizations adopt different methods of rewarding their employees’ performances. These methods are salary/wages, performance bonus, management bonuses, promotion, and employee recognition and equity-Related programs. All the methods are explained in chapter two.
Question 8, 9, 10, 11 and 18 is to test whether the respondents are part of the decision making process in the university and this is basically to test the principle in chapter two of our work which is based on the Frederick Hertzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory also known as the two-factor theory or Hygiene theory. This theory implies that at the work place, there are certain satisfiers as well as dissatisfiers for employees. He went on to say that the intrinsic factors are related to satisfaction while the extrinsic factors are related to dissatisfaction. Hertzberg developed his theory by finding out what people actually want to get from their work and from this he found out that employees do not really get motivated when dissatisfying factors are eliminated. In essence, some factors are inevitable in an organization which does not mean that the presence of such factors
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will trigger employees to do their work willingly and as required by the organization and on the other hand, the absence of these factors leads to no motivation to do work.
Questions 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23 will allow the employees of BTH to make brief explanations of those organizational activities that could affect their external environment as well as their motivation. The following are there the factors: Organizational growth and Organizational changes. Organizational changes can therefore be seen in the following categories: Change in work design, Change in organizational culture and Change in technology. All these factors are explained in our chapter two.
Finally, question 24 is to get the personal opinion of the staff in respect to organizational change.
4.4 Sampling Method
Teaching and non-teaching staffs of BTH The questionnaire shall be distributed among a total population of the staffs of BTH in various departments of the university such as school of engineering, school of management, school of health science and School of Techno culture, Humanities and Planning, Administration, Advances in Lie Group Analysis, Blekinge College and Vocational School, Centre for Spatial Development and Planning, Computer Services, External Relations Office, Library. 110 questionnaires will be selected randomly to be analysed in the next chapter of this thesis. The reason why we decided to choose the teaching staff and non –teaching staff is because the impact of the university decision to merge all the three campuses together will be felt by them. Apart from the issue of job, for the mere fact that the university is taking such decision, this will greatly affect their motivation to work.
Another reason why we chose the teaching staff, non-teaching staff and students is because they all form a very important part of the university. The main reason why the university is still in existence today is because the staffs (teaching and non-teaching staff)
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are still working maybe for the pay or for the main reason of service in the university and the students are still studying in the university to learn or probably for the mere fact that they are being patriotic and have a passion for what they do. Also, the staffs, which are the teaching staffs and the non-teaching staffs do at one time take part in the decision making process which will later affect them individually and as a group. The reason for choosing them for this research work is for them to know the impact of such decisions on them and their colleagues.
4.5 Focus Groups
We recognise the fact that focus groups are a powerful means to evaluate services or test new ideas, which is the main reason why a focus group will be organised among the students of BTH to get their responses on how they feel about the merger of the three campuses of the university.
To do this, we are going to identify the major objective of the meeting which is to enable us to gather several opinions of the students in relation to the unification of the three campuses of the university. We will organise 3 different focus groups in which each group shall be made up of 6-10 students. The main reason why we decided to organize a focus group to gather data from students is because in an open discussion like that of a focus group, the idea given by an individual might trigger another bright idea from another individual. Focus groups give participants the opportunity to express themselves, it will encourage new ideas and we know we can get a great deal of information during a focus group session.
4.6 Interview
An interview will be conducted directly to the residents of the communities where the three campuses of BTH are situated, this means that the people in the community that we are going to interview will be those people that have a complete knowledge about the existence of the university in that area because some people staying in these communities might not have a good knowledge of the university which is what we require for our thesis. This will be solely conducted to address the area of the external consequences
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which the activities of an organization may cause. In our case, we will look into those consequences which the merger of the three campuses (Karlskrona, Ronneby and Karlshamn) of BTH may cause as well as other external consequences that may be triggered by the activities of BTH. We will therefore conduct an interview for the members of the communities of BTH at the three campuses.
A total of 15 residents of the communities shall be interviewed of which 5 residents shall be from each of the Karlskrona, Ronneby and Karlshamn communities where the campuses of the university are presently situated which means that the 5 residents each from the three campuses must have the required knowledge about the university in question. We intend to interview these residents by approaching them on the streets. We will ask them questions like, do you live here? How long have you been living here? in order to find out if they have the basic knowledge that we require before we ask the proper questions for the interview. The responses of the interviewee shall be analysed in chapter four.
4.7 Data Analysis
The analysis of the data that will be collected through the questionnaire and interview will be done critically in the next chapter of this thesis work.
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CHAPTER FIVE: DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
This chapter of our thesis aims at analyzing the data we have been able to collate from our respondents with the use of a questionnaire, interviews and focus groups. This analysis will be based solely on comparing responses from our respondents. The reasons for using three different methods of collecting data is to enable us gather information from three different categories of people namely; the teaching and non- teaching staffs of BTH, residents of the community where BTH campuses are situated and the students. This is to enable us get the necessary information we need to provide answers to our research question as well as tackle the three different areas of our thesis work: organizational activities, external consequences and employee motivation as explained in the previous chapters of this research work. The analysis can therefore be seen below.
5.1 QUESTIONNAIRE ANALYSIS In chapter four, we made a vivid explanation of the questions in our questionnaire and why we chose to ask such questions. This section of the questionnaire will therefore analyze the questionnaire in respect to the data we have been able to gather from our respondents. This will therefore be done in the subsections below:
5.1.1 BACKGROUND DATA Questions 1, 2 and 3
KARLSKRONA
RONNEBY
KARLSHAMN
FIGURES PERCENTAGE FIGURES PERCENTAGE FIGURES PERCENTAGE MALE 28 62 % 38 % 100 % 20 35 55 36 % 64 % 100 % 4 6 10 40 % 60 % 100 %
FEMALE 17 TOTAL 45
Table 1: Gender and Location of Respondents
From the table above, we got all our 110 responses from the three campuses of the university and that the female gender dominates the highest number of respondents we have. 45
Figure viii: Gender and Location of Respondents
Also, we got a little number of respondents from the Karlshamn campus. All our respondents encompass the various departments of the university as we can see in the BTH organizational chart in chapter 2.
5.1.2 EMPLOYEE WORK DURATION Question 4: How long have you been a staff at BTH? The responses of our respondents can be illustrated below:
Years Below 5 years 5 – 10 years Above 10 years TOTAL
Figures 50 20 40 110
Percentage 46 % 18 % 36 % 100 %
Table 2: Duration of work of Respondents at BTH
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Figure ix: Duration of work of Respondents at BTH
From the above table and figure, it could be denoted that BTH has a number of newly employed staffs. The first description is about the respondent and where they stay in the 3 communities where the university is situated. The male respondent in karlskrona (62 %) happens to be the highest followed by Karlshamn (40 %) and Ronneby (36%), but for the female respondent Ronneby (64%) got the highest followed by Karlshamn (60%) then karlskrona (38%) which shows clearly that the 3 communities were all represented. Karlskrona got the highest respondent in male, while Ronneby got the highest in female.
The recognition of the fact about where the 3 communities where the campuses are situated leads us to the next question of how long have they been a staff in BTH. The percentage of staff who have been working with BTH for less than 5 years got the highest percentage (46 %) followed by the staff with above 10years experience with (36%) and finally the staff with 5-10 years experience got the lowest with (18%), this shows that most of the staffs have only worked for below 5 years and above 10 years. Respondents work duration could explain their experience with the university which could actually be used as a yardstick to measure whether BTH is a success story or not which leads us to the next question. Many of the staffs believes that BTH is a success story as a university with 87% saying YES and just 21% saying NO which means that a larger percentage believes that they are part of the success story of the school.
5.1.3 Corporate Success This subsection of chapter 4 will analyze questions 5, 6 and 7 which talks about the how our respondents view the success of their organization. Another reason why we chose to 47
ask this set of questions (apart from the reason highlighted in chapter 3) is because we believe that an organization that attains corporate success is likely to also attain success in all its ways be it; employee motivation, its society, and its activities.
Question 5: Is BTH a success story? This question was a YES/NO question and a total of 87 respondents answered with a YES while the other 23 answered with a NO and this is illustrated thus:
No. of Respondents Responses Yes No TOTAL Figures 87 23 110 Percentage 79 % 21 % 100 %
Table 3: Responses to the success of BTH (I)
Figure x: Response to the success of BTH (I)
Questions 6: If yes, are you a part of the success story? For this question, we got 87 responses from those that answered YES to question 4 with 79 answering YES and 10 respondents that answered with NO. This could be diagrammatically illustrated below:
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No. of Respondents Responses Yes No TOTAL Figures 79 10 87 Percentage 91 % 9% 100 %
Table 4: Response to the Success of BTH (II)
Figure xi: Responses to the success of BTH (II)
Question 7: If no, are you a part of what you think it is? For this question, we got 23 responses from those that answered NO to question 4. However, only 18 responded with NO while the other 5 left the question blank and so we assume that the respondents that left it blank are indifferent on either they are a part of what they think BTH is since to them; it is not a success story.
No. Of Respondents Responses Yes No Indifferent TOTAL Figures 18 5 23 Percentage 78 % 22 % 100 %
Table 5: Responses to the success story of BTH (III)
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Figure xii: Responses to the success of BTH (III)
This sub-section of chapter 4 analyses three different but inter-related questions that aims at tackling the issue of the success story of BTH- from the responses we got, we found out that a large number of member of staff of the university believe that the university is is at a verge of attaining success in its operations. This could also be explained to mean that this group of staff, with a positive mindset of the university, believes that the university is aiming towards achieving its goals and objectives and by so doing; they think the university is on the right track. On the other hand, the other group of staff does not think that the university is making a progress. We assume that this group thinks that the university has a lot to adjust in its operations in order to be on a better track which could mean attaining heights. There is a fact that larger percentage believes that BTH is a success story, which now leads to the next question- are they part of such success story? Many of the staffs believes that they are part of the success story of the university with 91% and 9% believes that they are not part of the success story, for those people that responded with NO, we asked a further question to know if they are a Part of what they think they the university is if it is not a success story. None of our respondents responded with Yes but 78% responded with NO and 5 being indifferent. The fact that whether they are part of the success story or not leads to the point of if they are motivated to work or not with 100% saying YES which means any staff that does not feel as a part of the success story of the university might have other reasons which we are not aware of in this research.
5.1.4 Motivation This subsection shall be analyzing questions that we asked our respondents in order to measure their level of motivation to work and so we chose to do this with questions 8, 9, and 10. 50
Question 8: Are you in anyway encouraged to do your work? For this question, all the respondents answered with a YES which implies that for our case study, BTH, these staffs are encouraged in diverse ways to carry out the duties that is required of them. This could be diagrammatically represented below:
No. Of Respondents Responses Yes No TOTAL Figures 110 110 Percentage 100 % 100 %
Table 6: Respondents’ Motivation (I)
Figure xiii: Respondents’ Motivation (I)
Question 9: what kind of incentive stimulates you to work? We chose not to construct a dichotomous question for this number of the questionnaire because we want to be able to gather different incentives that stimulate workers. From our respondents, we were able to gather this information on what actually makes workers want to perform their duties: ? A large number of employees find it appealing when their colleagues at work show appreciation to their work, when they work with nice people, as well as a conducive environment that is supportive and competitive with a superior one that is understanding and encouraging. ? We found out that people get stimulated to work by doing what they love to do career wise; working with a right purpose and tasks.
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? Our respondents get stimulated to do their jobs when they know that they are making good contributions to either the entire university and/or students, who are their customers. ? A couple of respondents feel stimulated to work when the effects of their work is felt by the society in which they work as well as when their customers are satisfied. In this case, when students are satisfied. ? Also, most of our respondents feel good when they belong to a part of a national and international evolution. This could be in the form being asked to participate in different groups internally, nationally and internationally. ? Some feel stimulated when regular evaluations are performed by students and colleagues. ? A number of respondents also get stimulated to work when they can get a certain amount of space/choice concerning what actions to take in order to move ahead on the job (planning and implementing concerning both teaching and research); challenging questions and innovative ideas from students (and sometimes from colleagues); peer reviews as well as getting feedbacks concerning conference papers etc. Also, sharing ideas and experiences with other researchers within their field is a good stimulant for them. ? Since our case study is an institution of learning, some of our respondents feel stimulated to work when there is European cooperation in Research and Development. This could also mean attaining success in matters relating to applications for funding of research. ? Some also feel stimulated when the effects of their activities are felt in the market (Swedish market). ? Finally, we found out that some get stimulated when they get challenging questions and innovative ideas from students (and sometimes from colleagues). Peer reviews. Feedback concerning conference papers etc. Sharing ideas and experiences with other researchers within their field.
Question 10: Do you think you have gained anything more than when you just joined the company? This question was a dichotomous question that gave the respondent an
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opportunity to provide the answer either with a YES or a NO. With this question, out of the 110 questionnaires we selected randomly to analyse, we got 96 YES and 14 NO. The responses could be diagrammatically represented below:
No. of Responses Responses YES NO TOTAL Figures 96 14 110 Percentage 87 % 13 % 100 %
Table 7: Responses on Employee Motivation (III)
YES NO
Figure xiv: Responses of employee motivation (III)
So far in this sub-section, we have been able to describe our responses diagrammatically. Also, from the responses, we can denote that respondents, who are members of staff of our case study, are in one way or another motivated to do their work which gives us a good signal that the university is a conducive environment for them to work even though it is not a common phenomenon. Some staffs claim not to have gained anything new since they joined the university which we think could hamper the goals of the organization. Nevertheless, we will like to analyse these questions with the theory propounded by Frederick Herzberg, which is known as the Motivation-Hygiene Theory. In this theory, Herzberg claims that there are certain satisfiers as well as dissatisfiers at the work place. He went further to say that the presence or absence of these two factors does not motivate employees to work either positively or negatively but they are those factors that are always present in a work place.
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5.1. 5 Employee Motivation and Organizational Activities Here, we shall be analyzing question 11, 12, 13 and 14. These questions are questions that relate to how employees are motivated to their work in relation to the activities of the organization they work for. Question 11: Are you in anyway part of the decision making process of the university? Like some other questions, this is a dichotomous question and the responses could be represented thus: No. of Responses Responses YES NO TOTAL Figures 77 33 110 Percentage 70 % 30 % 100%
Table 8: Responses on motivation and activities
YES NO
Figure xv: Responses on motivation and activities
Question 12: If yes, please explain how to take part in the decision making process of the university. We made this question an opened ended question so we will not restrict our respondents to giving us answers as to how they participate in the decision making of the university. The following are the responses we got for this question: ? Some respondents affirm that they contribute to the overall direction and idea of the university. ? A number of our respondents have been members of the top management as well as the executive body of the institution.
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? Also, some respondents stated that all the members of staffs are always invited to discuss the certain issues in BTH. ? Some claim not to be members of the decision making team but still participate in the process of making decisions at different levels. ? Finally, we got to know that some staffs get to be involved in the decision making process only when it directly affects them. This could be in the form of making decisions in a particular department.
Question 13: If no, please explain why you are not a member of the decision making process of the university. The responses include the following: ? Some respondents made it clear that they are not interested in being a member of the decision making team while some claim that they are relatively new to the job and have not been able to join or participate in any form of decision making in the university. ? Some members of staff said that they used to be a member of the executive body responsible for making decision and are therefore not any more at positions to make important decisions for the university. ? Some claim not to work directly for the university which in some ways hamper their opportunity of being a member of the decision making team. ? On the other hand, some respondents claim to make decisions at their departmental levels and not at the entire university executive level. ? We finally found out that some members of staff believe that the university’s decision making process or team is too hierarchical and ‘old-fashioned’ and as a result of this, they will not like to be a member of such a group.
Question 14: what are the possible effects of the activities of BTH on your attitude to work? With this question, we were able to gather diverse views of people and the responses could be seen thus: ? Some respondents feel that only the good activities of BTH drive them to work and so the ‘bad’ activities discourage them from doing their job well.
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? Some respondents feel that their demands and available resources do not tally and so such activities make them have a sense of hopelessness which in-turn affects their willingness to work. ? To some respondents, when BTH makes moves in directions that they feel is good and beneficial for the society as a whole, such activities enhance their positive attitude to do their work. ? Some respondents claim that they are not satisfied with the activities of BTH in respect to their specific department which affects their motivation to work. ? For some respondents, engaging in international collaboration with other universities, aiming for high quality, being nationally and internationally renowned in research areas keeps them glued to the university. ? Whereas, activities like lack of transparency and feedback from decision processes are seen as a form of threat to respondents’ quality of performances at work.
Since we intend to collate data to tackle issues relating to employee motivation and organizational activities from the responses we were able to gather different types of information. One, from question 11, we can see that a number of workers feel that they belong to the decision making team of the university either directly or indirectly. While from questions 12, 13 and 14, we found out that the activities of BTH, to a very great extent, affect the motivation of its workers. Some workers are satisfied while some workers can still see the loop holes in the organization.
5.1.6 Organizational Activities and External Consequences For this sub-section we shall be considering questions 15, 16 and 17. The analyses are as follows; Question 15: Do you think that the activities of BTH have any effect on the residents of the communities where the campuses of the university are presently situated? This was a dichotomous question so we got 100 responses for YES and 10m responses for NO. This could be diagrammatically represented below:
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No. of Responses Responses YES NO TOTAL Figures 108 2 110 Percentage 98 % 2% 100 %
Table 9: Responses on activities and external consequences
YES NO
Figure xvi: Responses on activities and external consequences
From this responses, we can denote that a large number of workers believe that their activities at the university (activities here could be at the administrative or departmental levels) have effects on the residents on these communities where BTH is presently located.
Question 16: If yes, how do the activities of BTH affect the residents of these communities? The following are the responses we got. ? BTH makes it possible for residents of these communities to run one business or the other thereby creating job opportunities, generating tax incomes which raise the strength of the region (Blekinge) as well as having some effects on the culture as a whole. ? Still in the business area, some respondents feel that students, staffs and university guests generate a certain amount of local income for shop owners, hotels, and also sport related businesses. Residents who rent out apartments or sell houses get better prices because of higher demand.
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? Some respondents stated it that BTH has been the major reason for growth in the communities since the inception of the university and so, the communities need the school in almost every aspect. ? The university creates a more lively and cultural environment with more opportunities for entertainment and relaxation. ? The university gives more opportunities for establishment of collaborations between the communities and companies. ? Some respondents believe that research and student projects in collaboration with local partners support networking and long-term cooperation spawns both practical and theoretical knowledge of use in the local context.
Question 17: If no, why do you think that the activities of BTH do not have any effect on the residents of the communities of BTH? From the table above, just 2 of our respondents gave an answer to this question. From their responses, we found out that these respondents believe that BTH is just a university that exist in this region saying that the university is just a ‘cultural’ border between the residents of these communities where the campuses are presently located and the academic world.
5.1.7 Employee Motivation and External Consequences We shall be analysing questions 18, and 19. Question 18: Does the feeling of the residents of this community (where you are located), in relation to the activities of BTH affect you in anyway? This was a dichotomous question and so the responses can be seen below: No. of Responses Responses YES NO TOTAL Figures 40 70 110 Percentage 36 % 64 % 100 %
Table 10: responses on motivation and external consequences
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YES NO
Figure xvii: responses on motivation and external consequences
From this, we can see that a lot of workers are not really affected by the feeling of the residents of these communities. For respondents who answered this question with a YES, question 19 was constructed for them to explain how they are affected by the feelings of the residents of these communities.
Question 19: If yes, please explain how it affects you. There responses are as follows: ? For some respondents, when the residents of these communities feel good about the activities of the university, they get some sort of drive to do their work and on the other hand, when these residents do not have a positive mind towards the university; it affects their motivation to work. ? In the case of this unification of campuses, the Ronneby community is not happy with the decision to move the campus and does not wish to cooperate in R&D or co-finance R&D since they got to know about this decision. ? However, different departments have different arrangements with these cities and so it affects these departments negatively.
From the analysis made in this subsection, we found out that there is a strong link between an employee’s level of motivation and the external consequences of the activities of the employee’s organization. Though, from the responses we got to question 18, respondents in our case study do not show much concern to what actually happens from outside their immediately. Also, from responses we got from question 19, we found out that employees are affected either directly or indirectly by what happens in their
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outside the walls of their organization especially when their work requires some close relationships with their outside environment.
5.1.8 Organizational Activities, External Consequences and Employee Motivation In this last subsection of the section of chapter four, we shall be evaluating questions 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24. These questions were constructed to tackle the three areas of this thesis: organizational activities, external consequences and employee motivation.
Question 20: Your position here as a BTH staff involves relating directly/indirectly to the students, does it affect you in any way when students are dissatisfied with the decisions of the university? The analysis can be seen thus:
No. of Responses Responses YES NO TOTAL Figures 93 17 110 Percentage 85 % 15 % 100 %
Table 11: responses on activities, consequences and motivation (I)
YES NO
Figure xviii: responses on activities, consequences and motivation (I)
From this responses, we understand that quite a number of staffs have at heart the interest of their ‘customers’ i.e. the students of BTH and who are also in one way or another, members of the external environment and also the end products of the university.
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Question 21: The BTH management has taken the decision to merge the 3 campuses in the nearest future; does this affect you in any way? For this question, we got 80 responses for YES and 30 for NO which implies that a number of BTH staffs will be affected by the decision made by the management of the university. This could therefore be represented below:
No. of Responses Responses YES NO TOTAL Figures 80 30 110 Percentage 73 % 27 % 100 %
Table 12: responses on activities, consequences and motivation (II)
YES NO
Figure xix: responses on activities, consequences and motivation (II)
Question 22: If yes, please explain how this decision affects you. We were able to gather the following: ? For a number of staffs, merging three campuses will mean moving offices from one location to the other, travelling a farther journey to work. Also, to some staffs, this merger will make their work a lot easier since they have been shuttling between the campuses while for some workers, it reduces their travelling distance to work since they already live in Karlskrona but work in the other campuses. ? A great number of workers feel that the merger of the three campuses is a very good idea because it will make the staffs of BTH have a feeling of oneness as well as make it easier for them to attend meetings and get familiar with one another.
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? For some respondents. Merging the campuses will enhance their punctuality to work. ? Some respondents think that the merger of the three campuses will affect some specific programmes that have special arrangements with the communities where the programmes originally started.
Question 23: If no, please explain why this does not affect you. We got a very low number of responses for this number when compared to the number of respondents that checked the NO box question 21. However, we were able to gather this. Some respondents claim that this merger does not affect them because they presently work and live in Karlskrona. Apart from the fact the university in Karlskrona will have more staffs, which is not a problem from them; they believe that the merger of the campuses does not affect them. And then we got this other response from a respondent who asserts that either the management chooses to merge the campuses or not, what really matters is the fact that pension will not be affected by any of the decisions of the university
Question 24: If you had an opportunity to make some changes at BTH, what will you change about it? This happens to be the last question of the questionnaire we constructed and as explained earlier in chapter 3; we constructed this question to give our respondents the opportunity to give their views on what they will like to change in the university. Also, as explained in chapter 2, organizational change affects organizational activities as well as employees’ motivation at work and as a result of this; we decided to give room to our respondents to state what they will like to change at their place of work. ? Some respondents believe that the university does not have a unified department; this they will like to change. ? Some also think that the Ronneby campus has a relatively new structure and so, they think the campus in Ronneby should be retained. ? Some will like to incorporate transparent methods to measure employee performance at every level. This should however be integrated at every level; teachers, researchers and administration.
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? For some, decisions should not be made with politics but the benefits of the decision should be felt by everyone; students and the entire group of staffs. ? Improve the quality of education as well as restructure the institution to give room for more research. ? Increase industry collaboration for both students and research as well as stronger collaborations with the southeast universities; Växjö University and Kalmar University. ? Establish more co operations with small as well as large companies. ? Redefine the already existing hierarchical structure of decision making. Making general assumptions, we will like to state that from the data we were able to gather, we found out that certain factors, as analysed above; location of respondents, gender of respondents, and the duration of work of respondents affects their attitude to work as well as their views to certain issues at their work place. For those respondents that have spent above 10 years working as staffs of BTH, especially those that are situated in Karlskrona, they have been members of one management board or the other and so they see the university’s management board as a good one, they are more interested in university collaborations, investing hugely in research, gaining recognition for the school and much more. This we think is triggered by their level of experience at the university. This could also be because they have been working at BTH for a while, they know how things are done in the university and so the decisions made by the university management do not really affect their work apart from those that handle programmes and/or courses that have collaborations with the communities where BTH will be moving from.
On the other hand, we also found out a few general facts about some respondents, especially those that have been working at BTH for the period of 5-10 years. This group of respondents feel that they are being left out in the decision making process of the university, though some of them claim that they have been participating in one meeting or the other where ideas are shared with them. Also, a large number of them get stimulated when they are being appreciated by their colleagues, good working
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environment, nice students and understanding superior ones. These stimulating factors could also be associated with other respondents in other categories but it is rampant amongst those that fall into the category of not too long work experience with BTH. Another interesting fact here is this; a large number of those that fall into this category do not leave in Karlskrona and so they think that the university’s decision is not a favourable one.
And finally, for the last broad category which is for respondents that are relatively new at BTH. This category is somewhat close to the previous one. The respondents here are more concerned about what their customers think about them than others. They look out to satisfy their customers and immediate society more than those that have been working at BTH for a while. Those in this category are also less interested in participating in the decision making process of the university. This we think is because this group of respondents are somewhat new to the university system and are yet to understand the structure of the university to the extent that it will interest them to belong to the executive body. They bother more about satisfying their ‘customer’, students. 5.2 INTERVIEW ANALYSIS We conducted an interview in the three communities of Blekinge where the three campuses of BTH are presently located in order to tackle our part of research that entails knowing the external consequences of the decision of the management of the university. The interviewees in this interview include 5 residents from each of this communities and it was conducted to get the opinion of the residents of these communities as regards the unification of the three campuses of BTH. These interviewees are anonymous as we did not consider it necessary to know their names because this could hamper them from being sincere. The responses of the interviewees and a graphical illustration of their responses include the following:
5.2.1 Karlskrona This is the largest of these communities and also the future home of BTH. For 2 residents of Karlskrona, the idea of the university on merging the three campuses is not a very
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good one saying that it is unfair for residents of other communities who are use to having university students around. But for the other 3 residents of Karlskrona who are business oriented people and have the opportunity to sell their goods and/or services to students feel that it is a good concept for the campuses to be together. These residents feel that it is quite stressful for students to travel a long distance to receive lectures and ultimately when there are more students around the town of Karlskrona, their business will boom.
Number and Age Range of Residents 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 020yrs 21 40yrs 41 60yrs 61yrs and Above Number and Age Range of Residents
Figure xx: This graph depicts the range and the total number of our interviewees
5.2.2 Ronneby Getting to Ronneby, we found out that 2 of our interviewees are not aware of the future merger of the university but know that a university exist in their community. For all our interviewees here, they strongly believe that BTH has a great impact on the Ronneby community and as a result of that, the campuses should be retained. One of the interviewees said that some companies are present in Ronneby just because of the existence of the university and so when the university moves, the community might be left with nothing and the entire market of the community could be affected. Also, some other interviewees feel that the community is used to having people in the community and that the presence of the university in the community is a nice one.
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6 5 4 3 2 1 0 kalskrona ronneby karlshamn Good Decision Bad Decision
Figure xxi: Interviewees view of the merger of the three campuses of BTH
This graph implies that most residents of these campuses do not agree with the decision of the management of the university which is to merge the three campuses of the university together.
5.2.3 Karlshamn For this community, 2 of the interviewees believe that the university is doing a good job and so they should keep up the good work which involves the merger of the three campuses. They think that the university has made the right decision but one of the three residents think, not withstanding the good decision, the school could start a new programme that will be in Karlshamn. The other 3 interviewees are not in terms with the decision of the university. This group think that the Karlshamn community will turn out to be a dull and quiet area when the university leaves and so some advice to the school is to change the decision if possible.
5.3 FOCUS GROUPS We recognise the fact that focus groups are a powerful means to evaluate services or test new ideas, which is the main reason why a focus group was organised among the students
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of BTH to get their responses on how they feel about the merger of the three campuses of the university.
To do this, we are able to organise a forum to gather several opinions of the students in relation to the unification of the three campuses of the university. We spoke with 3 focus groups in which each group was made up of 6-10 students and we gave participants the opportunity to express themselves in order to get the proper ideas to tackle our part of research that entails knowing the external consequences of the decision of the management of the university.
The question for the focus groups goes thus; what do you think about the merging of the three campuses in BTH? The 3 focus groups came up with the following suggestions: • Some of the students said that if the school should merge the three campuses together, the other campuses like Karlshamn and Ronneby will have a bad experience in relation to development, companies around the two campuses will not get the required profit (which was the initial purpose of establishing such companies because they have seen students around there) that was usually made before from the inception of the company. • Some of the students believe that bringing the three campuses together to one campus will automatically jeopardise the ability of the students to experience other parts of the Blekinge community and will make them novice even when they have finished their program. • While some of the students believe that merging all the three campuses together will not only make BTH a good citadel of learning but it will also make BTH a place where both international students and the Swedish students will see each other and feel the impact of being a member of a society (university). • Some of the students also believe that bringing the three campuses together will make Karlskrona to be over populated which might endanger the lives and property of the Karlskrona community.
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• •
Some believe that bringing them together will make Karlskrona to be more popular and it will make the school to increase in good will. Some believe that it is a very good idea because it saves the students the stress of travelling from one city to the other to learn like the students that were unable to get accommodation in Ronneby and decided to stay in Karlskrona so many of them travel to Ronneby everyday to receive lectures which is stressful and might affect their performance in their exams.
•
Some of the students are indifferent about the whole issue they say that either the three campuses merge together or not, BTH will still remain BTH and that the merger will not in any way affect the school.
•
Some of the students believe that the idea will bring development to Karlskrona and many of the companies in Karlshamn and Ronneby will move to Karlskrona will eventually boast the economy of Karlskrona.
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CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH This is the concluding chapter of our thesis which will bring our purpose of writing this thesis into context. This chapter also aims at providing recommendations to our case study, Blekinge Institute of Technology. However, we will like to emphasize here that our research is applicable to all industries and not subjected to the academic world and so we will like to say that we did not chose to do a case study of BTH because we perceive the university as a problem but because we wanted to find out if there are actually external factors which are initiated by the organization through its activities that could inturn affect the motivation of the employees of such an organization and we find BTH as an interesting case to study. Therefore, as we will be making recommendations to our case study, we will also be doing the same for organizations generally. These general recommendations will be based on the research we have made on our case study, readings on similar cases like in the case of Shell, H&M, Ford Motors, Hyundai Motors, Coca-cola, Pfizer, BP Amoco and much more which we have not stated in this thesis report.
6.1 CONCLUSION Our research was carried out and we are able to gather data through the distribution of questionnaires which was distributed among the staffs of BTH, conducting interviews for residents of the three communities where BTH campuses are presently situated, as well as organizing focus groups. The research was based on the effects of the external consequences of organizational activities on workers motivation using BTH as a case study.
From our data collection and analysis, we have been able to achieve our objectives. In chapter one, we were to establish the fact that this thesis research will tackle four different areas which we hope will provide suitable answer(s) to our research question. However, we found out from the research we carried out that employees are generally
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affected by how those outside the walls of their office perceive the legitimacy of their organization. The effect this legitimacy has on the employees could be positive or negative. From our questionnaire, we found out that some people are bothered by what their actions in the organization actually does outside the organization while a great number also feel that the thoughts of those outside the organization does not affect them in any way. We think our respondents responded to this question the way they did because they do not usually have close university relationships with these residents. We will like to state here that, according to the responses we collated from the questionnaire, we found out that a large number of those that are affected by the feelings of the residents of the communities, where they are located have some close relationships and /or collaboration with these communities. This is not to say that respondents are completely blind to what actually happens in their environment, we think that they are less bothered with what happens there as long as it does not affect them directly. However, in other cases like Shell and other illustrations, we found out that these companies try to make several adjustments when they find out that their organizations are not being perceived well by outsiders as well as some members of their staff. They employed several measures to correct the issue because they are aware that such acts could impede their employees’ attitude to work.
Also, we have been able to confirm certain theories from the research we conducted. Starting with the hierarchy needs of Abraham Maslow, we found out that employees have got several levels of needs. We were made to understand that some employees want to be associated with the success of the university, which is our case study, while for some, it is essential for them to be seen by other employees as those actually doing the work. They want to be appreciated by both colleagues and superiors. Looking at equity theory, we found out that a number of employees strive to belong to spectacular groups at the workplace. In the case of the responses we got from our case study and other readings, we can make the general assumptions that employees like to be involved in the decision making process of their organization. They like to be given the opportunity to take in productive activities that encourages corporate success. This participation therefore gives the participant who is the employee some form of ego as a member of a body that
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achieves its goals and aims. In order to buttress this point, we could consider the Fredrick Herzberg’s motivation hygiene theory which says that a sense of recognition, achievement, etc. stimulates individuals to perform their duties. As explained in the previous chapters of this work, recognition and achievement, amongst other motivational factors, could be either inwardly or outwardly obtained. Inwardly in the sense that an employee gains some level of recognition amongst his/her colleagues and superior while outwardly implies that an employee could be motivated by how the general public views his/her achievement. This could be in the form of how the media portrays the employee’s character.
In order to explain one of the responses of the respondent in respect of their actions being taken into consideration during decision making process and in relation to the consequences of such decisions, Skinners Theory explains that by stating clearly that organisations due to the effects of the consequences of their activities take into consideration only the positive reactions from the employees and ignore the negative reactions. Going back to the main purposes of this thesis which we stated in our chapter one, we will like to say that we have been able to accomplish our aims. We have been able to provide our curiosity with answers which follows by stating our purposes again as well as explaining what we have achieved so far concerning it.
6.1.1 KNOW THE ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY ORGANIZATION(S) Here, in the case of our subject; BTH, we were able to come up with the activities of the university which we listed in chapter two. Also, we know that organizational activities could encompass a lot of practices in the organization. This we believe we have been able to tackle in bits in the previous chapters of this thesis and thus diagrammatically represented below:
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Organizational Activities
Organization’s Decisions
Organization’s Strategies
Social Responsibilities in the organization’s immediate environment
Targeted Customers
Management Style
Policies and Structures
Figure xxii: An organization’s activities
6.1.2
KNOW
THE
EXTERNAL
CONSEQUENCES
OF
THOSE
ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES From the data we collated, we found out that organizational activities have several consequences outside the walls of the office of the organization which we believe could have effects on the organization itself. However, in the case of BTH, the external consequences of the university’s activities include the following: • • • Collaboration between schools for student and/or teacher exchange, research purposes. Cooperation with industries to ensure student employments after graduation. Socially, BTH has improved the lives of the residents of these communities by the effecting the establishment of new succeeded in changing the lives of the residents of the communities where the campuses of the university are located. • And economically, the activities of BTH which includes educating students as well as employing staffs that will provide tuition to students and also do other activities in the university, has succeeded in generating income and taxes for these communities. This has been as a result of students and workers apartments, etc renting
From the illustrations we made as well as several readings we made relating to this thesis, we noticed that external consequences could also include the following:
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•
When organisations have a negative reputation on its external environment, the share capital of the organisation could be affected because the people might not have the trust to invest in such organisation.
•
On the other hand, when an organisation as a good reputation. The people in the environment will promote the company even when they are not asked to do so. This is because they have had a good encounter with the company and they have a good story to tell.
6.1.3
KNOW
HOW
THESE
CONSEQUENCES
AFFECT
EMPLOYEE
MOTIVATION The external consequences of organizational activities affect the workers motivation negatively when the motives behind such activities are not in accordance with the actual plan of the organization.
Management
Operative units
Supporting units
External Consequences
Motivation of the employees in the operative and supportive units
Fig xxiii: BTH activity Chart (b)
Explaining with figure xxiii in order to know how external consequences affect employee motivation, we believe that when decisions are made at the top management, these
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decisions are effected by both the operative and supportive units of the university which causes directly or indirectly, some external consequences in the outside environment of the university which could in-turn affect the motivation of employees negatively when: : • Workers are not carried along in the decision making process. This implies that when employees are not well-informed of the procedures of the organization in matters relating to how decisions are made in the organization. We chose to point this out from the responses we got from our case study which means that workers are not pleased with their organization when they do not how decisions are made. Also, according to Fredrick Hertzberg, certain hygiene and motivation factors affect employee motivation. These factors could be made glaring when employees’ interest in organizational task, the desire to be involved in organizational growth and advancement to higher level task is hampered with. Which is to say that employees are not given the full support to take part in the entire activities of the organization • The workers do not see the use of such activities. This is to say that employees’ motivation is affected when they do not know why the organization they work for is carrying out one activity or the other in its environment. This could be explained better in the case of shell Nigeria, the employees of the oil company do not know why they company is not catering for the society especially when they destroyed the means of the society’s livelihood; fishing. Though the company has the capability of catering for these people but the organization does not see any usefulness in spending money on that and at the same time, the employees cannot see any good reason in this particular activity of the organization which in-turn affects their motivation to work. • The workers are not given a role to play. This point could also be likened to the first point here. When employees do not see themselves as a part of an organization as well as when they are given specific tasks, they do feel motivated to work. From the analysis we carried out on the responses we got from our questionnaire, we found out that a number of employees in our case study as well
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as employees generally, like to be challenged. Employees like it when they are given specific tasks to carry out and with that they perform such tasks with their might because they are aware that they may get a reward at the end of it all; a reward they will not like to share with others as well as a reward that will not only be noticed by the internal environment of the organization but also the external environment. Apparently, there are also positive ways in which the external consequences of an organization’s activities can affect the motivation of its workers. We believe strongly that when the 3 points explained above are corrected as well as taken into consideration, along side other points that we have been able to explain in the previous chapters of this thesis; employees will be motivated to carry out their duties. This implies that when employees are involved in the decision making process of their organization, when they are fully in support of the activities of their organization, and finally, amongst other points, they are given specific roles to play, they will be eager and also stimulated to perform their duties.
6.1.4 IDENTIFY CERTAIN EXTERNAL FACTORS THAT ACTUALLY MEASURES EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION In the case of BTH, we were able to identify certain external factors that affect employee motivation. This could be seen in the situation where employees have direct relationships with the communities where they are presently located; these employees might find it difficult to adjust when they are moved away from such a community where they used to find solace.
Another external factor that affects employee motivation is how the legitimacy of their organization is being perceived by the public. This point of legitimacy cannot be overemphasized because it does affect the motivation of employees to a great extent.
From the interviews we conducted, almost all the residents of Ronneby and Karlshamn believe that the decision taken will not do any good to the school and its environment. Also for the focus groups, about 50% of the students that participated in the focus group 75
believe that the decision was right while the other 50% believe that the decision was not a perfect one. The decision has been made but to a very large extent, as far as our thesis work is concerned in relation to the information we were able to gather, the decision will affect the motivation of the workers of BTH. We will also like to state that the points we raised in the previous subsections 6.1.2 and 6.1.3 of this chapter are also factors that measure employee motivation either positive or negatively.
Furthermore, we stated in the earlier chapters of this thesis that our analysis will help provide answers to our main purposes of writing this thesis work and achieving our purposes will eventually give answer(s) to our research question which is how do the external consequences of organizational activities affect employee motivation? As can be seen above, we strongly believe that we have been able to achieve our aims and ultimately give answer(s) to our research question. The conclusion of the matter is that for there to be a change not everyone will be satisfied with it but while they are all grumbling, we need to make them see reasons to it to do what they ought to do, to make employees know that at the long run the decision will pay off, that is why we have the following recommendations.
6.2 RECOMMENDATIONS • The newly employed staffs should be included at some level of the decision making process of the university. We think this will do good to the university because we found out from our research that, a number of the newly employed members of staff seem to be unaware of the procedures of the university in terms of its decisions. •
Another point we will like to raise here is that a lot of these staffs that will be moving from their various locations, are used to the environment which could affect their motivation to work. Also, we found out that one of the factors that stimulate the university’s employees is a good environment and if the university will like to maintain that, the new campus in Karlskrona should be made conducive for all.
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•
For the university to make good decisions that will affect the motivation of workers positively, the university needs to carryout a survey among the staffs regularly to know their views and to know what to put in place before such activities or any decision is taken.
•
And finally, we noticed that some employees feel that they are not appreciated enough. They feel that the university does not really appreciate those that deserve the necessary rewards. We are therefore addressing this issue because some employees feel dissatisfied in this area and this could lead to the resignation of such employees if the issue is not tackled. We believe that every worker should be happy at work; they all deserve that.
To this end, we will like to stress the point that organizational activities, the external consequences of such activities and the motivation of the employees of an organization are all inter-related factors that need to work hand-in-hand in order to achieve a corporate success which we think is the sole aim of any establishment. Achieving corporate success could mean that the legitimacy of such an organization is being perceived positively which also goes a long way to affect the entire organization.
Corporate success could also mean that the organization is carrying out its social responsibility properly which could enable the organization to gain the interest of its environment both internally and externally. And finally, we think that corporate success could mean that both the employer and the members of staff are happy to do their work, in terms with the activities of the organization as well as eager to go to work to play their part in achieving this success.
6.3 FUTURE RESEARCH We think it would be of interest for researchers to look into other areas that could affect employee motivation. This could involve measuring employee motivation with
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government laws that could obstruct or aid organizational activities. This could be in the form of political or economic laws.
As explained earlier, a further research could also be done on how the entire society views an organization as well as how this view may affect employee motivation as well as what keeps employees going at work even when they are de-motivated. Finally, we think that employee motivation could be measured with some mathematical models. This we think would be interesting for future studies.
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APPENDIX I: COVER LETTER Dear Respondents,
We are students of the school of management writing our masters’ thesis on the topic: EFFECTS OF THE EXTERNAL CONSEQUENCES OF ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES ON EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION.
Find attached here, a copy of the questionnaire we designed to get your response on issues related to our topic. We will appreciate it if you spend a few minutes of your time filling this questionnaire.
Your responses will enable us to make a proper analysis of our research. Your responses shall be treated confidentially and anonymously. We kindly request you to complete this questionnaire honestly.
Thank you for your assistance as we anticipate your response.
Best Regards,
Fashakin Teniola Abiodun Odumade Adebola Oluwatosin
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APPENDIX II: QUESTIONNAIRE
Note To select your options, double-click on the inserted box. This opens the Check Box Form Field Options menu. Select "Checked", if you want a box checked. This inserts a check mark in the box.
1. SEX:
FEMALE
MALE
2. WHICH OF THE CAMPUSES DO YOU WORK? KARLSKRONA RONNEBY KARLSHAMN
3. WHICH OF THE DEPARTMENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY DO YOU WORK?
4. HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN A STAFF AT BTH? BELOW 5YRS 5- 10YRS ABOVE 10YRS
5. IS BTH A SUCCESS STORY? YES NO
6. IF YES, ARE YOU A PART OF THE SUCCESS STORY? YES NO
7. IF NO, ARE YOU A PART OF WHAT YOU THINK IT IS? YES NO
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8. ARE YOU IN ANYWAY ENCOURAGED TO DO YOUR WORK? YES NO
9. WHAT TYPE OF INCENTIVE STIMULATES YOU TO WORK?
10. DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE GAINED ANYTHING MORE THAN WHEN YOU JUST JOINED THE COMPANY? YES NO
11. ARE YOU A PART OF THE DECISION MAKING PROCESS OF THE UNIVERSITY? YES NO
12. IF YES, PLEASE EXPLAIN HOW YOU TAKE PART IN THE DECISION MAKING PROCESS OF THE UNIVERSITY.
13. IF NO, PLEASE EXPLAIN WHY YOU ARE NOT A PART OF THE DECISION MAKING PROCESS OF THE UNIVERSITY.
14. WHAT ARE THE POSSIBLE EFFECTS OF THE ACTIVITIES OF BTH ON YOUR ATTITUDE TO WORK?
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15. DO YOU THINK THAT THE ACTIVITIES OF BTH HAVE ANY EFFECT ON THE RESIDENTS OF THE COMMUNITIES WHERE THE CAMPUSES OF THE UNIVERSITY ARE PRESENTLY SITUATED? YES NO
16. IF YES, HOW DOES THE ACTIVITIES OF BTH AFFECT THE RESIDENTS OF THESE COMMUNITIES?
17. IF NO, WHY DO YOU THINK THAT THE ACTIVITIES OF BTH DOES NOT HAVE ANY EFFECT ON THE RESIDENTS OF THE COMMUNITIES OF BTH?
18. DOES THE FEELING OF THE RESIDENTS OF THIS COMMUNITY (WHERE YOU ARE LOCATED), IN RELATION TO THE ACTIVITIES OF BTH AFFECT YOU IN ANY WAY? YES NO
19. IF YES, PLEASE EXPLAIN HOW IT AFFECTS YOU?
20. YOUR POSITION HERE AS A BTH STAFF INVOLVES RELATING DIRECTLY/INDIRECTLY TO THE STUDENTS, DOES IT AFFECT YOU IN ANYWAY WHEN STUDENTS ARE DISSATISFIED WITH THE DECISIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY? YES NO
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21. THE BTH MANAGEMENT HAS TAKEN THE DECISION TO MERGE THE 3 CAMPUSES TOGETHER IN THE NEAREST FUTURE; DOES THIS AFFECT YOU IN ANY WAY? YES NO
22. IF YES, PLEASE EXPLAIN HOW THIS DECISION AFFECTS YOU
23. IF NO, PLEASE EXPLAIN WHY THIS DECISION DOES NOT AFFECT YOU
24. IF YOU HAD AN OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE SOME CHANGES AT BTH, WHAT WILL YOU CHANGE ABOUT IT?
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APPENDIX III: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 1. Do you live here? 2. How long have you been resident here? 3. What do you know about BTH? 4. As a resident of the community where BTH is situated, have you been affected in any way? 5. Are you aware that the 3 campuses of BTH will merge in Karlskrona in the nearest future? 6. What will be the possible effects of merger of the 3 campuses of BTH on you as a resident of the community? 7. What is your advice to the school authority on the merging of the three campuses?
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doc_894316138.pdf
Motivation has been shown to have roots in physiological, behavioral, cognitive, and social areas. Motivation may be rooted in a basic impulse to optimize well-being, minimize physical pain and maximize pleasure.
BLEKINGE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
School Of Management Master Thesis
EFFECTS OF THE EXTERNAL CONSEQUENCES OF ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES ON EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION
Fashakin, Teniola Abiodun [email protected] Odumade, Adebola Oluwatosin [email protected]
SUPERVISOR:
Gorän Alsen
RONNEBY, 2007
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Our profound gratitude goes to God Almighty for giving us wisdom, knowledge and understanding during the course of our study at Blekinge Institute of Technology.
We will also like to thank our supervisor, Gorän Alsen and our programme manager Anders Nilsson for their valuable help and support during the course of our thesis work.
And lastly, we want to thank our family members and friends who have been of help to us.
ii
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
TOPIC: Effects of the External Consequences of Organizational Activities on Employee Motivation
AUTHORS: Fashakin, Teniola Abiodun
Odumade, Adebola Oluwatosin
SUPERVISOR: Alsen, Göran
COURSE: Master Thesis in Business Administration
DEPARTMENT: School of Management, Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden
PROGRAMME:
Master of Science in Business Administration
PURPOSES: The purposes of our thesis include the following: • • • • To know the activities carried out by organization(s) To know the external consequences of these activities To know how these consequences affect employee motivation Identify certain external factors that actually measures employee motivation
RESEARCH QUESTION: How Do the External Consequences of Organizational Activities Affect Employee Motivation?
METHODS: Our thesis involves looking into 3 different but inter-related issuesorganizational activities, external consequences and employee motivation. And so, we collated data using the secondary as well as the primary sources of data. Our secondary data includes a review of the literature which is to enlighten us on what has been studied about our topic while the primary data encompasses gathering data by constructing a questionnaire, conducting interviews, and also organising focus groups; all of these to aid giving answer(s) to our research question.
iii
FINDINGS: From the research we conducted as well as the analysis we made, we were able to get a proof that there is a strong link between an organization’s activities, the external consequences of such activities as well as how the relationship between these two affects employee motivation. We have been able to establish the fact that employees also look outside their organization for incentives that could enable them to perform their duties properly.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: PROBLEM OVERVIEW ............................................................. 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION......................................................................................... 1 1.2 ILLUSTRATIONS .............................................................................................. 2 1.3 PREVIOUS WORK .......................................................................................... 11 1.4 DEFINITION OF TERMS............................................................................... 14 1.5 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY ........................................................................... 15 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................... 16 2.1 EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION.......................................................................... 16 2.2 MOTIVATION THEORIES ........................................................................... 17 2.3 EXTERNAL CONSEQUENCES .................................................................... 22 2.5 EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION AND EXTERNAL CONSEQUENCES....... 25 2.6 ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES .............................................................. 26 2.7 ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES AND EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION 26 CHAPTER THREE .................................................................................................... 29 CASE STUDY OVERVIEW: BLEKINGE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY .. 29 3.1 ITS ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES, EXTERNAL CONSEQUENCES AND EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION .......................................................................... 29 3.2 ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES .............................................................. 30 3.3 External consequences ...................................................................................... 31 3.4 Employee Motivation ........................................................................................ 33 CHAPTER 4: METHODOLOGY............................................................................. 35 4.1 Methodological Approach ................................................................................ 35 4.2 Data Collection .................................................................................................. 38 4.3 Questionnaire Construct .................................................................................. 39 4.4 Sampling Method .............................................................................................. 42 4.5 Focus Groups..................................................................................................... 43 4.6 Interview ............................................................................................................ 43 4.7 Data Analysis ..................................................................................................... 44 CHAPTER FIVE: DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS ......................................... 45 5.1 QUESTIONNAIRE ANALYSIS ..................................................................... 45 5.2 INTERVIEW ANALYSIS................................................................................ 64 5.3 FOCUS GROUPS ............................................................................................. 66 CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH ................................................................................................................ 69 6.1 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................. 69 6.2 RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................................................. 76 6.3 FUTURE RESEARCH ..................................................................................... 77 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 79 APPENDIX I: COVER LETTER ............................................................................. 82 APPENDIX II: QUESTIONNAIRE ......................................................................... 83 APPENDIX III: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS .......................................................... 87
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure i: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.............................................................................. 18 Figure ii: the motivation-hygiene theory ......................................................................... 20 Figure iii: Equity Theory: balancing the outcomes and inputs in the relationship for comparisons between different individuals ...................................................................... 21 Fig iv: The relationship between organizational activities and employee motivation...... 26 Figure vi: BTH activity chart........................................................................................... 33 Figure vii: sources of primary data ................................................................................... 39 Figure viii: Gender and Location of Respondents ............................................................ 46 Figure ix: Duration of work of Respondents at BTH ....................................................... 47 Figure x: Response to the success of BTH (I) ................................................................. 48 Figure xi: Responses to the success of BTH (II) ............................................................. 49 Figure xii: Responses to the success of BTH (III)............................................................ 50 Figure xiii: Respondents’ Motivation (I) .......................................................................... 51 Figure xiv: Responses of employee motivation (III) ........................................................ 53 Figure xv: Responses on motivation and activities........................................................... 54 Figure xvi: Responses on activities and external consequences....................................... 57 Figure xvii: responses on motivation and external consequences .................................... 59 Figure xviii: responses on activities, consequences and motivation (I)............................ 60 Figure xix: responses on activities, consequences and motivation (II) ............................ 61 Figure xx: This graph depicts the range and the total number of our interviewees......... 65 Figure xxi: Interviewees view of the merger of the three campuses of BTH .................. 66 Figure xxii: An organization’s activities........................................................................... 72 Fig xxiii: BTH activity Chart (b) ...................................................................................... 73
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Gender and Location of Respondents................................................................. 45 Table 2: Duration of work of Respondents at BTH.......................................................... 46 Table 3: Responses to the success of BTH (I) .................................................................. 48 Table 4: Response to the Success of BTH (II).................................................................. 49 Table 5: Responses to the success story of BTH (III) ...................................................... 49 Table 6: Respondents’ Motivation (I)............................................................................... 51 Table 7: Responses on Employee Motivation (III).......................................................... 53 Table 8: Responses on motivation and activities.............................................................. 54 Table 9: Responses on activities and external consequences ........................................... 57 Table 10: responses on motivation and external consequences........................................ 58 Table 11: responses on activities, consequences and motivation (I) ................................ 60 Table 12: responses on activities, consequences and motivation (II)............................... 61
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CHAPTER ONE: PROBLEM OVERVIEW
1.1 INTRODUCTION
There are so many activities that organizations engage in that have consequences on its environment, which could either be a good consequence or a bad one. Organizations engage in activities in their day to day operations and such activities could be in form of the type of strategy adopted by the organization, decisions, management style, functions, customer related activities etc. Since most companies exploit their immediate environment in order to satisfy their customers, like in the case of Shell in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria (see illustration below), we intend to look into how organizational activities that cause certain external consequences affect the way employees perform their required duties. Organizations do not function in a void, it has to operate and react to certain things that occur outside the walls of its office. However, there are certain factors that occur outside the office walls which indirectly or directly affects organizational activities.
The societal environment could be described as the general forces that do not directly affect the short-run activities of an organization in relation to its pay decision, personal task that would be assigned to employees, redistribution of power etc. as regards to employee motivation. These forces include technological, political, economical and socio-cultural factors. A task environment could be described as those elements or groups that directly affect an organization and it includes customers, communities, suppliers, creditors, employees, special interest groups, competitors, governments, stakeholders, labour union etc. Both the societal and task environment must be monitored to detect strategic factors that are likely to have a strong impact on corporate success or failure.
According to Fredrick Hertzberg, certain hygiene and motivation factors affect employee motivation. These factors include the organization, its policies and administration, the kind of supervision, i.e. leadership and management, what people receive while on job, working conditions, interpersonal relations, salary, status, job security, interest in the
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task, the desire to be involved in organizational growth and advancement to higher level task.
Employee motivation is mostly measured with internal factors (as will been seen in our literature review below) that may affect employees to carry out their duties effectively but we decided to measure employee motivation with the external consequences of an organization’s activities which may include economic and policy regulations. However, these consequences could be caused by customer’s negligence, illiteracy, product quality, physical surroundings etc. which could in turn affect an organization’s external reputation as well as its employees’ motivation. Also, some organizations take certain decisions in order to fit into the changing environment in which they operate without taking into consideration the effects of those decisions on their workers. In essence, these decisions might be of great value to the organization but not of much interest and importance to the workers of the organization: this could therefore impede an employees’ performance at work. An example of this is the case of SPDC, Nigeria. (See illustration below). We will like to state here that measuring employee motivation with external consequences which arises as a result of an organization’s activities is a relatively new method to enable one to measure employee motivation and this implies that our thesis is an interesting research area to explore and also a good area to broaden the knowledge of anyone who intends to do some investigation in this area.
1.2 ILLUSTRATIONS
We chose to write about this topic because we are puzzled with the Shell Petroleum Development Company’s operations in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria. This illustration will give our readers proper understanding of our above introduction, as well as get a clearer picture of what our thesis is all about. And so, we choose to make an illustration of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) which is the largest oil and Gas Company in Nigeria. And its operations in this area resulted into external consequences which also affects the company’s employee motivation. Oil revenues account for 90% of Nigeria's export earnings and 80% of the government's total revenue. Shell accounts for
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over half of Nigeria's total oil production. However, in this case, employee motivation is being affected by the following factors:
Political and Economic Instability Business managers name Africa's political instability as a key hindrance to economic development, but many companies continue to invest in Africa. Despite this apparent contradiction, Shell is expanding its investment in the country. Therefore, this political and economic instability of Nigeria affects the activities of the Shell Company in relation to its employees’ motivation and attempts to explain why a specific corporation like Shell may want to make investments in the country despite her political instability. This reveals that political instability does not hinder Shell from operating in Nigeria even when it affects its employee motivation which will automatically affect their performance at work. Shell is attracted to Nigeria because:
•
Profits in Nigeria appear to be higher than elsewhere, while Shell occupies a dominant market position unrivalled in most other countries.
•
Secondly, the structural perspective illuminates the interconnectedness of Shell with state structures in Nigeria that may tie the company to Nigeria. Shell established a first mover advantage in the 1950s, since Nigeria was a British colony until 1960 and British oil companies were given preferential treatment. Though, Shell is a Dutch oil company. After independence, Shell managed to penetrate state structures which helped to hedge political risk in the country.
•
Thirdly, the strategic perspective explores how Shell's strategic approaches may make political instability less significant to Shell.
Moreover, this example of SPDC in Nigeria is not only evident in Nigeria but in some other countries of the world. We will therefore like to state here that companies generally, irrespective of the location of a company, especially the profit oriented organizations are established for the main aim of achieving their goals and to make profit, they will do all it
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takes to achieve such goals that is some organizations take certain decisions in order to fit into the changing environment in which they operate without taking into consideration the effects of those decisions on their workers which means that not all their actions are intentional but we will like to state here that whether an action is intentional or not, an action is an action and the cause and effects cannot be overemphasized.
It therefore shows that shell has adapted to political instability. The conclusion that political instability can be conducive to business is significant since one expects political instability to be inherently harmful to business. But, even with the adaptation because of what they derived from Nigeria, it is really affecting their employees’ motivation which is also affecting their activities greatly.
Due to the problem of political and economical instability in the country the workers of shell are not motivated to work due to the following reasons: •
Job Insecurity: In the case of shell, workers could be very insecure of their jobs simply because they do not know if the next political administration will support the activities of their company or not. As a result of this, they are bothered that they could lose their job sometime when the right administration (which the entire people of Nigeria are hoping for) resumes office. This automatically affects their motivation.
•
Apart from the fact that Shell workers earn a lot of money, which implies that shell workers are paid huge salaries, this same workers are not very proud to boast of their working place because the whole country knows that the company is into bad deals with the government. This we think affects the motivation of Shell workers to work.
•
Still on the previous point, political and economical instability in Nigeria, could hinder Shell workers from being satisfied with their career as well as not being able to spend their earnings properly (though they earn a lot) simply because the economy of the country could crumble at any time and the entire policies might stop being in their favor.
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Abduction of Workers This abduction was carried out by individuals working on behalf of groups in the Niger Delta who have in recent days been losing their relevance to the Nigerian government and oil companies. The abduction of shell workers (expatriates) in the Niger Delta is true and this goes a long way to affect the motivation of the employees. This abduction of workers is due to the fact that the Niger Delta people believe that Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) is not doing what they ought to do as a company extracting their natural resources. They claim that instead of shell developing the area of Niger delta, they continued to extract oil and left the place uncatered for. The Niger delta people resulted to the abduction exercise of shell workers (expatriates), thereby requesting for a ransom from the company, after which the workers will be released.
After these workers are released, the abduction automatically affects their motivation to go to work the next day because of the fear of being abducted again, though, these abductees do not by any means hurt the workers but to some extent the abduction affects the employees psychologically because of fear of the unknown which automatically affects their motivation to work. We will like to emphasize here, that this abduction exercise was carried out by angry indigenes of the communities where Shell extracts oil as a way to disrupt the company’s activities which are not in favour of the indigenes of these communities. This abduction was therefore carried out as a result of the external consequences that the actions of Shell had on its immediate society. The citizens of this community were not pleased with activities and so they took this as a measure to attack Shell for hampering their means of livelihood.
Environmental Pollution Pollution occurs in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria as a result of the toxic waste from Shell’s operations. However, various non-governmental organizations are working around the world to underscore the fundamental consequences of these practices and to stipulate environmental fairness. These organizations are not only looking to governments to change but also demanding that corporations be held responsible for the
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environmental abuses which they cause as a result of their activities, which is killing hundreds of people in the area. Quoting Annie Davies of the Nigeria based NGO, DevNet, ‘we want to highlight the need for the multinational oil companies to stop the devastation of the Niger Delta and for the Nigerian government to enact laws that will compel them to respect the people and their environment’.
We decided to illustrate the Shell case in order to allow our readers to get a clearer meaning of what our thesis is about. However, the Shell Company is not the only company with such acts; some other companies exist in this world with the same practices. Another example of organizational activities which could in-turn affect the company’s employee motivation could be seen in the case of H&M where the media has it (January 2004) that the company uses child labour as well as cheap labour in some Asian countries for illegal wages.
Another example is the Coca-Cola Company that has been criticized for its business practices as well as the alleged adverse health effects of its flagship product this in-turn affect workers motivation to work and the legitimacy of the organization. The drink has also aroused criticism for its use of caffeine, due to the possibility of physical dependence. Alleging that the acidity of the drink is dangerous and under normal conditions, scientific evidence indicates that Coca-Cola's acidity causes no immediate harm which means that the effects could be later. There is also some concern regarding the usage of high fructose corn syrup in the production of Coca-Cola. Since 1985 in the U.S., Coke has been made with high fructose corn syrup, instead of sugar glucose or fructose, to reduce costs which by some nutritionists could cause obesity and diabetes.
In India, there exists a major controversy concerning pesticides that can contribute to cancer with a breakdown of the immune system and other harmful chemicals in bottled products including Coca-Cola and others. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) found that the Indian produced Coca-Cola's soft drink was found to have 30 times the permitted amount. After the pesticide allegations were made in 2003, Coca-Cola sales declined by 15%. This 15% decline in sales could also affect investors as well as the
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employees of Coca-Cola because when employees found out that their work is not yielding the necessary returns that it is suppose to, they could not get motivated to do more work since they know that they are not making progress. But on the other hand, this decline in sale could be some form of stimulant for some employees who are aiming solely at attaining success. This group of employees are those that do not perceive the organization has a failure but as one that could reach its goals. In order to buttress this point, the hygiene-motivation factor has more to say on this. This theory therefore stresses the point that there are certain satisfying factors as well as dissatisfying factors in a work place. However, in this case, the 15% decline in sale may be a satisfying factor for some employees while it could also be a dissatisfying factor for some other employees.
The Coca-Cola Company has responded that its plants filter water to remove potential contaminants and that its products are tested for pesticides and must meet minimum health standards before they are distributed which means that the Coca-Cola company have learnt from their mistake to correct it in order to motivate their workers. Just like in the case of BTH when the decision taken will go well with some workers, it will not go well with others and also in the case of BTH just like coca cola, the decision taken by BTH was not taken to harm the workers but to make the organization a better one because organizations like BTH and Coca Cola make such decision basically to make the organization a better place which will not only affect the motivation of the workers but also after the organization’s legitimacy. Due to these number of factors, the reputation of the company will be affected, so also the motivation of the workers due to the effects of the external consequences of the activities of Coca Cola Company.
Another interesting example is Pfizer Inc., a pharmaceutical company that conducted a drug experiment that led to deaths and disabilities among children more than a decade ago, court papers showed in Abuja and Kano (Nigeria). Though, Pfizer has denied the charges in the Kano case which are substantively similar to those in the Abuja-based suit. In the civil suit filed in Kano, authorities alleged that Pfizer illegally conducted a drug experiment on 200 children during a meningitis epidemic in the state's main city, Kano,
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in 1996, resulting in deaths, brain damage, paralysis and slurred speech in many of the children. Pfizer treated 100 meningitis-infected children with an experimental antibiotic, Trovan. Another 100 children, who were control patients in the study, received an approved antibiotic, ceftriaxone - but the dose was lower than recommended, the families' lawyers alleged. Up to 11 children in the study died, while others suffered physical disabilities and brain damage. New York-based Pfizer, the world's largest drug maker, has denied any wrongdoing. A federal court in Manhattan dismissed a 2001 lawsuit by disabled Nigerians who allegedly took part in the study, but the case is under appeal. Authorities in Kano state are blaming the Pfizer controversy for widespread suspicion of government public health policies, particularly the global effort to vaccinate children against polio, which has met strong resistance in northern Nigeria. Basically, the consequences of the organisations decision affects the workers motivation and they are all at the risk of losing their jobs and not getting another one if these problems continues that might damage the reputation that Pfizer have gathered for years. Taking a look at relatively close cases to that of BTH is the case of the Hyundai motor company. The company moved its factory from its Montgomery plant to a new site in the outskirts of Montgomery, Alabama. From the information we were able to gather so far on this, we noticed that the new plant has been making a lot of progress when compared to the old factory of the organization to this end we will like to say that the movement of the Montgomery plant to Alabama has been a good deal for the organization; paying off at the end. We believe that when decisions like this are first implemented, employees and also the society where the company is originally located might not be in favour of the decision because they feel that they have been deprived of their comfort zone. This could therefore lead to employees de-motivation but at the long run, it could turn out to be a motivation tool just like in the case of Hyundai, where the company has succeeded in outsourcing additional work to lower-wage parts suppliers as well as reduce manufacturing and labour costs.
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Amongst many other signals to growth in the organization which was the main motive behind the movement of the factory, Hyundai has yielded some high-tech advances that the company did not possess before the movement and has also incorporated several innovative ways to doing business. Hyundai can therefore boldly say that the Alabama factory has contributed largely to the success of the entire organization, has also paved ways for job opportunities for residents of its society and consumers can boldly say that are proud drivers of Hyundai. We know that all of these go a long way to affect the motivation of the employees of Hyundai. On January 23, 2006, the Ford Motor Company announced that 14 of its factories will be shut down and 30,000 jobs will be cut up over the next six years. We were also able to gather from our readings that the three big automobile companies (Ford, Chrysler Corporation and General Motors) have decided to cut down some jobs as well as shut down some factories. As a result of the actions of the three big auto countries in the USA, the country did not record any net loss in the North American’s automotive jobs in 2005. However, in the case of Ford, the company chose to take these decisions in order to attain corporate success which has been stagnant over the years. To this effect, we read that Ford’s share of the American car market dropt to 17.4% which has been recorded as the lowest. This we think also contributed to the drastic measures the organization has employed. The decision taken by this company has therefore sprung up new jobs and factories in Ontario and Ohio, Canada as well the southern part of the USA including California. Quoting, William Clay Ford Jr., the chief executive of the auto company who called the action “a painful last resort” but who also tagged the decision as “the vision and strategic focus to rebuild the business” as well as “retake the American roadway”. On the hand, The United Automobile Workers Union, a body that represents workers in the USA said that Ford’s actions were “deeply disappointing and devastating”. So far, we have been able to gather that this decision taken to be implemented by Ford soon, has some adverse effects on its employees. To those employees that are to be retrenched, it’s a great loss, to those to be left behind we think that this decision could demotivate them in a situation where their colleagues and/or superiors are being retrenched
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or even when they have to move their place of work just like the BTH case. Also, the case of BTH taking a decision which affects other parts of the communities like Ronneby and Karlshamn negatively is beneficial to Karlskrona residents like in the case of Ford. However, in the case of the companies above, where we explained their activities that led to employee de-motivation, their activities were not accepted by the society where they are located. Relating this to the case of BTH, a similar case could occur where the residents of the communities of the campuses of the university are presently located. This implies that the residents of these communities could be totally against the activities of the university. In order to buttress this point, from the data we were able to collate from our case study BTH, we found out that a number of the residents of these communities are not pleased with the decision of the university. To this end, we believe that the activities of BTH has not really had direct impacts on the entire Blekinge region but on the segments of the region where the campuses are situated, just like in the illustrations in this research work where their immediate society have been affected by the actions of the companies in their vicinity. In the case of Pfizer where the states where the drugs have been tested went wrong, we will also like to state that it is the segment of the society where those activities are being implemented externally that in-turn affects employee motivation. However, it is possible that employee performance is affected by an entire society but for the purpose of our research, we choose to look into those segments of the society that directly and/or indirectly affect employee motivation though some activities could have emanated as a result of companies not complying to the laws of the society where they exist. We will like to state here that we chose to look into different examples in order to allow our readers to have an in-depth knowledge of the different activities of an organization that could have some adverse effects of the motivation of the employees of such an organization. Though the illustration of the Coca-cola and Pfizer are very severe cases which we believe could also help our readers to get a general grasp of the activities of organizations that could cause some consequences in its society and ultimately affect the motivation of its employees.
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Nevertheless, different organizations employ different strategies to carry out their activities as well as reach their goals. It is therefore impossible for us to have the full knowledge of how different organizations in different sectors carry out their activities but we can say to an extent that we have a general overview of how organizations do their businesses which is not enough for us to base our facts on. We can therefore assume from the knowledge we have acquired over the years in the area of Human Resource Management that pay is a strong motivation tool that keeps employees at work even when they are de-motivated like when their society is not pleased with the activities of the organization they work for.
However, there are certain issues that baffle us which we think we should leave for further studies. These issues may include what actually makes employees hang on to their job even when they are de-motivated? Is it really because of the pay they get? Could this be because of their passion for the job? We do not have concrete answers to this as our research does not include that. Though, according to Fredrick Hertzberg, certain hygiene factors like pay affect employee motivation. However, our research includes those societal activities that are triggered by organizational practices and its effects on employee motivation.
1.3 PREVIOUS WORK So far, very little has been said about our area of interest, which makes it challenging to source for information and present something new. A lot has been said about internal factors that affect employee motivation and there are certain theories of motivation and we found out about this by browsing the internet, interviewing people as well reading books, articles and journals that researchers have been able to tackle the issue of employee motivation with the internal factors that may affect it. Examples of such factors could be job satisfaction, job security, pay and much more. Still in the crave for the search on what has been said on employee motivation, we found out that a company’s legitimacy can be affected by the company’s activities which we believe could have an adverse effect on such a company’s employee motivation.
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However, certain theories found that employees are not solely motivated by money but by other motivating factors. Managers therefore changed their ways of thinking about employees and this could be seen in the research conducted by Elton Mayo from 1924 to 1932 called the Hawthorne Studies. The Hawthorne Studies began the human relations approach to management, whereby the needs and motivation of employees became the primary focus of managers (Bedeian, 1993).
These studies made a number of researcher’s to do a further study on what actually motivates employees thereby coming up with motivational approaches. The Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Maslow, 1943) theory has five levels which include physiological, safety, social, ego, and self- actualizing. This theory could be interpreted to mean that people always have needs and once a need has been fulfilled, all other needs will come into place, i.e. once the lowest levels of needs on the hierarchy fall into place, the highest ones will follow. Skinner’s theory states that those employees’ behaviour that lead to positive outcomes will be repeated and behaviour’s that lead to negative outcomes will not be repeated (Skinner, 1953). The Herzberg’s work categorized motivation into two factors: motivators and hygiene (Herzberg, Mausner, & Snyderman, 1959). Motivator or intrinsic factors, such as achievement and recognition, produce job satisfaction. Hygiene or extrinsic factors, such as pay and job security, produce job dissatisfaction.
Vroom’s theory is based on the belief that employee effort will lead to performance and performance will lead to rewards (Vroom, 1964). Rewards may be either positive or negative. The more positive the reward the more likely the employee will be highly motivated. Conversely, the more negative the reward the less likely the employee will be motivated. Adam’s theory states that employees strive for equity between themselves and other workers. Equity is achieved when the ratio of employee outcomes over inputs is equal to other employee outcomes over inputs (Adams, 1965). Managers should positively reinforce employee behaviours that lead to positive outcomes. Managers should negatively reinforce employee behaviour that leads to negative outcomes.
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The following theories are related to our research problem in the sense that our research problem talks about the external consequences of organisational activities that affects employee motivation which is also explained in the Hawthorne Studies whereby the need for employee motivation becomes the primary aim of an organisation, knowing fully well that there are some activities that the organisation engages in that affects employee motivation. So, according to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory (Maslow, 1943), there are five levels of needs which include physiological, safety, social, ego, and self- actualizing. The hierarchy of needs is related to our research problem in the sense that the effects of the external consequences is as a result of the feedbacks from the society which will not merge up with the needs, ego and safety of the employees. So also, the Skinners theory states that the behaviour of the employees that leads to positive outcomes will be repeated and the ones that lead to negative outcomes will not be repeated which means that for the organisation to achieve its aim, the external consequences of their actions on employee motivation exists and if any employee relates to this in a negative way, the actions will be ignored and will be of no use.
The actions that will be ignored due to the effects of the employee motivation leads to Herzberg’s work which talks about motivators such as achievement, recognition and hygiene such as pay and job security all these brings job satisfaction. If as a result of the external consequences of the activities of the organisation, the motivation of the employees are affected and they react in a negative way which means that their action will be ignored that will automatically mean that they will not be recognised which will lead to job insecurity and affect their pay. The Vroom theory talks about the performance which will lead to reward and performance; the performances will be definitely affected by the effects of the activities of organisation on the motivation of their employees which is our problem. This means that the theories we wrote above are related to our problem in relation to our research work.
Though the organisations have their corporate social responsibility which is a concept that organizations have an obligation to consider the interests of customers, employees, shareholders, communities, and ecological consideration in all aspects of their operations.
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The organizations do this but due to the fact that their main aim is to achieve certain objectives and to make profit, they sometimes go against the interests of customers, employees, shareholders, communities and ecological consideration like in the case of Shell, H&M and Coca Cola.
Managers put certain motivating factors in place because motivated employees help organizations to survive and are also more productive, motivated employees perform their duties better than the non- motivated ones. Managers therefore have to find out what actually motivates their subordinates in relation to their job. However, certain developments have been made by recent researchers in order to ensure that workers are motivated to perform their duties properly. According to Peter S. Cohan (2003, 53), ‘valuing human relationships means treating people with respect so that they achieve their full potential consistent with the company’s interests’. He went on to say that when a business is expanding, treating people with esteem is imperative since the business needs to attract as well as encourage the right kinds of people. To some extent, treating people with respect should be a usual attribute of a manager. It is therefore understood by most motivation theorists that motivation is involved in the performance of all learned responses; that is, a learned activity will not transpire unless it is thrilled to do so.
We have been able to explain the link between the organisation and the employee, so also there is a stronger link between the employee and her motivation. The employees do have one thing or the other that they believe could motivate them to work, it might be what they are used to from their previous experience or what triggers the action out of them to work the way they ought to. So therefore, the organisation must be able to notice the factors that trigger the motivation of their employees individually. Some of these could entail personal beliefs that affect ones motivation to work. See chapter 2 for a proper explanation of some motivation theories which we find relevant for our quest.
1.4 DEFINITION OF TERMS 1.4.1 Organizational Activities: This comprises of an organization’s functions in order to attain desired goals. These involve organizational objectives, main direction for
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innovation
and
reform,
policies
and
structures,
areas
of
research.
1.4.2 External Consequences: These are the positive or negative effects of an organization’s activities which could either result into a satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
1.4.3 Motivation: This is a push or mental force to accomplish an action. It could also be defined as a drive that compels one to act because human behavior is directed toward some goal. Motivation is intrinsic (internal); it comes from within based on personal interests, desires, and need for fulfillment. It is also extrinsic (external); factors like rewards, praise, and promotions also influence motivation.
1.4.4 Employee Motivation: According to the encyclopaedia of business, employee motivation could be seen as the level of energy, commitment, and creativity that workers relate to their jobs. Employee motivation could also be described as those factors that strengthen, prolong and direct employee behaviour.
1.5 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
Our thesis is all about how the activities or practices of an organization affect its employee motivation which we intend to discern with our research. However, our work will find out the following: • • • • Know the activities carried out by organization(s) Know the external consequences of those organizational activities Know how these consequences affect employee motivation Identify certain external factors that actually measures employee motivation
We believe that achieving our purposes will give answer(s) to our research question and we intend to do this by gathering the necessary data with the research methods we employ. This can be seen in our chapter three.
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CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
Generally, in our day-to-day activities as individuals, we need to be motivated to perform one duty or the other. Motivation could therefore be described as some kind of incentive that thrills one to carry out the required duties and responsibilities. Some employees get motivated when their organization is of high prestige, when the media reports the good deeds of their organization, or even when the company carries out its social responsibility and the society in which the organization is situated, is pleased with the acts of the organization. This implies that the organization is legitimate that is an organization of genuine and authentic practices.
Nevertheless, some employees are not moved by that but by other means of motivation evident in our case study, BTH. In 2006, due to the quest for creativity and the relationship BTH has with its environment, BTH collaborates with other universities in a strategic alliance one of which is the southeast Sweden University and 83% of the students at the university get employment directly after graduation because BTH is one of the most successful universities in Sweden when it comes to collaboration with industries and societies.. This chapter of our thesis will focus on discussing some findings done by previous researchers concerning our area of research which encompasses employee motivation, organizational practices/activities and its consequences.
2.1 EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION
Employee motivation could be seen as the inner force that drives employee behaviour; this force enables employees to perform their duties as required of them having a particular goal in mind, ‘success’. According to the encyclopaedia of business, employee motivation could also be seen as the level of energy, commitment, and creativity that workers relate to their jobs. And in most cases where we lack this force, we often perform poorly. However, certain factors like job characteristics, individual differences and organizational practices may affect employee motivation to work. Job characteristics may include those aspects of an employee’s position that determines its limitations and challenges. Individual differences are those individual needs, values, and attitudes, 16
interests and abilities that people bring to their jobs. Organizational practices/activities are the rules, human resource polices, managerial practices, and reward systems of an organization.
2.2 MOTIVATION THEORIES
In recent years, the competition in the business environment has increased and this has left managers with finding ways to motivate their employees and also because motivation gives rise to productivity, managers need to know what actually motivates their employees. However, many researchers have come up with different motivation theories which we will be discussing in this section of chapter 2.
2.2.1 Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1943) This is perhaps one of the most popular theories of motivation by a psychologist, Abraham Maslow. According to him, human needs can be seen in a hierarchy which implies that one need has to follow the other according to there level of importance and ascending from the lowest to the highest. Maslow in his theory pointed out that if one level of need is not met, an individual cannot move to the next stage and also when a particular level of need has been met, it seizes to be a need.
•
Physiological needs: this is the lowest of the hierarchy and it includes those basic needs that are essential human sustenance. This includes clothing, food, shelter, water, sleep, education, sex, medicine etc.
•
Safety needs: this level of need deals with protection from physical as well as emotional harm. This need also involves the fear of losing a job, property, food or shelter. Also known as the security need.
•
Belonging needs: Also known as the social needs, it involves the need to belong as well be accepted in a group. Here, individuals try to satisfy their need for friendship, affection and acceptance.
•
Esteem needs: At this level, individuals want to be seen as figures of high esteem which includes both internal (autonomy, self-respect) and external (recognition, attention) esteem factors. Also, individuals get the satisfaction of power, prestige, status and self confidence.
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•
Self-actualization: This is the final and highest level of the hierarchy of human needs where individuals want to be seen as attaining heights, getting fulfilled and accomplished. This includes the thrill to become what one is capable of becoming which may include growth.
Figure i: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
From Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it is essential to discover the level of need an individual needs to fulfil in order to effectively motivate him because when one need is not met, the individual does not move forward thereby affecting his drive to make progress as well reach a desired goal. This defect would affect an employee personally and also the organization as a whole.
2.2.2 Theory ‘X’ AND ‘Y’ Douglas McGregor, in his motivation theory states that employees can be viewed from two angles. After carefully studying employees, making different assumptions on the different group of individuals, he came up with the X and Y theory, X being the negative, and the theory Y being the positive. With the theory X, he came up with certain assumptions like:
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•
Employees not wanting to work and whenever possible, they try to avoid working simply because they do not like to work.
•
As a result of the previous assumption, employees have to be forced to carry out their duties with punishments or threats.
•
Another of McGregor’s assumptions is that employees avoid their duties and do not follow formal instructions.
And from the other angle, he made certain assumptions on the positive side which is the Y theory:
• •
Employees take work as part of them, and so they do the job like it is a hobby. Workers practice self-control and self-direction when they are after attaining success at work.
•
Employees are willing to take responsibility as well as be creative when tackling job-related issues.
2.2.3 Frederick Hertzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory Also known as the two-factor theory or Hygiene theory, the theory implies that at the work place, there are certain satisfiers as well as dissatisfies for employees. He went on to say that the intrinsic factors are related to satisfaction while the extrinsic factors are related to dissatisfaction. Hertzberg developed his theory by finding out what people actually want to get from their work and from this he found out that employees do not really get motivated when dissatisfying factors are eliminated. In essence, some factors are inevitable in an organization which does not mean that the presence of such factors will trigger employees to do their work willingly and as required by the organization and on the other hand, the absence of these factors leads to no motivation to do work.
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Figure ii: the motivation-hygiene theory
However, there are certain factors which their presence does not cause satisfaction and at the same time, their presence has motivational influences on employees. Therefore examples of hygiene factors include salary, security, status, work conditions, company policy and administrations, relationship with subordinates and/or supervisors, personal life while the examples of motivational factors include challenges, recognition, achievements, growth prospectus, responsibility, and job advancement.
2.2.4 Equity Theory This theory, developed by Stacey Adams (1963), explains the fact that workers want to be treated fairly as regards their level of skill, hard work, passion, lenience etc. He went further to say that workers have the tendency to compare their rewards with other workers and when they find out that they are not treated alike, they decrease the quality
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or quantity of their work, increase absenteeism or even leave the organization for another organization where they feel they could be treated better.
Figure iii: Equity Theory: balancing the outcomes and inputs in the relationship for comparisons between different individuals
And on the other hand, when workers notice that they are being treated better than their colleagues, they feel motivated to perform better. Workers compare how diligently they put in their efforts into the job and what they get in return and if there is no tally in these two, they do not feel motivated to work.
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2.2.5 Other Motivation Theories
• • • • • •
The porter and Lawler Model Clayton Alderfer’s ERG Theory Reinforcement Theory Vroom’s Valence and Expectation Theory McClelland’s Theory of Needs Cognitive Evaluation Theory
So far, we have been able to collate the views of different researchers that have been able to come with different theories that address the issue of employee motivation considering practices that occur within the organization. We will like to emphasize here that all these theories go a long way to affect the acts that occur outside the walls of the organization. We call these outdoor occurrences- external consequences and we believe that these occurrences also affect the performances of an organization’s employees. Also, from our readings and what we have been able to gather, we will like to state here that an organization’s reputation needs to be perceived by two groups; its employees as well as its environment.
When employees are motivated to do their work; get incentives for a job well done, get along with superiors, we suppose that an organization that possesses such luxury of having employees that have such characteristics, amongst other characteristics, ought to be perceived well by its employees in terms of its reputation and ultimately legitimacy. And on the other hand, when an organization has a good status outside the offices of the organization, it simply implies that the organization’s environment is pleased with the organization’s activities both within and outside the organization. The following sections of this chapter will be explaining in details those external consequences of an organization’s activities that could affect the organization’s employee.
2.3 EXTERNAL CONSEQUENCES
A consequence could be described as any action that occurs as a result of another action. It could therefore be positive or negative. Certain factors affect the way individuals react
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to present and future situations. However, the positive consequences of an individual’s organizational activities will greatly affect the individual’s manner of approach as regards his job-related issues which will eventually affect his performance to work and on the other hand, negative consequences also affects employee’s performance at work. Since it is impossible for organizations to devote resources to cater specially for the development and management of the consequences that affect different individuals because employees are unique beings with distinct characteristics, it is important for the organization to arrange systems and processes that provide programs to create an environment that is suitable for motivation, engagement and commitment to work. For the purpose of this thesis, we will be considering those external consequences that may affect employee motivation. These external consequences can therefore be interpreted differently by individuals considering the individual’s orientation and personal circumstances.
2.4 TYPES OF EXTERNAL CONSEQUENCES
We will consider the positive external consequences of organizational activities that could boost an employee’s drive to perform his/her duties appropriately as well as the negative external consequences of organizational activities that often militates an individual’s performance to work.
2.4.1 Positive External Consequences • Vocal/societal: This could be in the form of comments made, actions displayed or things communicated by people about the activities of an organization. This type of consequence is the most common and direct type of consequence because it is conveyed at the time the action occurs. This could be conveyed by a person(s) reputation showing gratitude for a particular action. Thus, a statement of gratitude often triggers one to perform better. • Work-related: This involves acquiring awards in appreciation of an individual or team’s role in a particular exercise, contribution in resolutions or authority exercised. This could also mean an incentive normally based on job performances.
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•
Tangible/symbolic: This includes the awards and trophies that people receive for extraordinary accomplishments. This type of reward for a job well done is often associated with recognition and it may also include a banquet.
•
Good will: This could be described as an intangible asset that gives a company a competitive advantage over other companies. This competitive advantage could be in the form of reputation, good relationship with customers, and high employee morale e.t.c. and it often boosts workers performance at work.
2.4.2 Negative External Consequences • • Bad publicity. This occurs when workers find out that the media is actually communicating wrong information to the general public. Bad reputation. Often, when companies make errors in their products/services either by omission or commission and also when company products/services do not meet up with the promises that have been communicated to the public about the products, such companies would get a bad reputation. A company’s bad reputation depreciates an existing good relationship between a company and its customers and this consequently affects employee motivation to work in the sense that such employees do not see any success in their performance at work. • Social responsibility: Quoting Lord Holme and Richard Watts in their publication at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development titled “Making Good Business Sense”, they defined Corporate Social Responsibility as “the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large”. So, when companies fail to take up their social responsibilities, which could be as a result of polluting their environment and not making up ways to avoid it or putting into place certain measures that could clear the pollution, not employing citizens from their environment etc. they do not get the approval and support of their immediate society. This may affect workers motivation to work because the company they work for is not taking up its responsibilities. However, there are a number of companies that have been affected by the public opinion of their society that is
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their society does not approve of their acts in the environment where the companies are situated. From the definition of Holme and watts, a company’s social responsibility also goes a long affecting the workforce of the company and so, companies like Shell and BP-Amoco have been trying hard to amend their ways in terms of their corporate social responsibility. These companies are striving to redeem their image which is of bad environmental and social records to ‘energy companies’ that is loyal to taking measures that will fight climate changes.
2.5
EMPLOYEE
MOTIVATION
AND
EXTERNAL
CONSEQUENCES
Often times, the actions caused as a result of an organization’s activities go a long way influencing the organization’s performance to work. These actions could make a positive or negative impact in a worker’s performance to work. This section of the chapter will describe the relationship between the employee motivation and external consequences which could be seen thus: One, consequences could be delivered in several ways either formally or informally and this could be conveyed through the press, stakeholders, managers, peers and these consequences could be seen immediately or over time. The management of an organization could arrange these consequences in order to encourage their workers to perform better as well as persuade good practices of the organizations. Two, since individuals identify their values and not the organization they work for, some consequences are professed as being positive to them. These consequences trigger them the individual’s aspiration to perform better.
Three, an organization’s overall success in most cases triggers its workers incentive to perform better as well as workers actions that are encouraged and rewarded. Four, workers feel fulfilled when valuable consequences occur as a result of their action. It gives the worker a feeling of accomplishment and attainment of success and on the other hand when a worker does not get expected consequences, it makes the worker feel
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unaccomplished. Incentives received as a result of special accomplishments often goes a long way gearing up employees to carry out their duties effectively.
2.6 ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Organizational activities may range from industry to industry. Different organizations involve in different activities depending on their goal and mission and different people in the organization contribute to the achievement of this goal. The level in which a person contributes to the success of an organization depends on their level or position in the organization. Thus, organizational activities could include the production of goods and services, rendering social responsibilities to its environment. It could also be in terms of its structures and processes.
2.7
ORGANIZATIONAL
ACTIVITIES
AND
EMPLOYEE
MOTIVATION
Here, we will make brief explanations of those factors that affect organizational activities as well as employee motivation. The factors could be represented thus: Organizational Activities and Employee Motivation
Organizational Growth
Organizational change
Change in work design
Change in organizational culture
Change in technology
Fig iv: The relationship between organizational activities and employee motivation
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2.7.1 Organizational growth could be seen as an indication of the expansion of organizational activities as well as a way of mitigating the worth of an organization and its current activities. Irrespective of how an organization is growing, growth is an indication to take additional control of its environment, enhance the likelihood of survival as well as profitability. Therefore, employees fill some sense of fulfillment and/or accomplishment when they belong to a growing organization and especially if their contributions to the growing company have been recognized as a part(s) of the growth tactics of the organization. According to Starbucks (1965: 453), growth is a gradual process, it doesn’t just occur within a twinkle of an eye. It is an occurrence that evolves as a result of the consequences of the decisions of an organization.
2.7.2 Organizational change in its approach to doing business can modify the activities of such an organization and also its employee motivation. In most cases, organizations change their strategy or methods of approach in order to improve their production of goods and services as well as boost their employees’ performance and effectiveness in an organization. Organizational changes can therefore be seen in the following categories: • Change in work design: This type of change comes into place when organizations want to maintain and attain organizational efficiency and a sustainable competitive advantage; this is done by approving proper operational methods. For an organization to do this successfully, it is vital to initiate new work designs which could be in the form of team working, job enrichment, job rotation, job enlargement, and flexible working schemes. However, organizations may develop a relationship between the performance of individuals, teams and their incentive; this will enhance employees to adapt easier and faster to the organizational change and subsequently perform better. • Change in organizational culture: Organizational culture can be seen as a the character of an organization, it includes the values, norms, assumptions (e.g. values on money, time, facilities, space and people) that members of an organization hold as important and these members realize (after some time) the culture of the organization they work for and thereafter try to adjust to it in order to fit in. organizational culture thus defer from company to company. Over the
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years, organizations have realized that people are to be seen as assets and not liabilities and so, the perception of top managers about people have shifted from being seen as costs to human resources. Further more, team leaders and/or managers are being held responsible for the actions of their human resources and therefore have the control over the incentives of their resources. All of these are as a result of organizational culture change which when understood well by employees in an organization, may drive them to perform better. • Change in technology: For decades now, there have been serious transformations in the use of technology in organizations. New technologies are invented virtually every day and even beginning to take over the jobs that used to be done by individuals. As a result of these, employees are somewhat scared of their jobs and in some cases, management of organizations have to invest in training employees to use new technologies so as to be able to meet the requirements of their customers and also be able to stand tall in the midst of competing faces. Nevertheless, new technology can also give rise to improved employee performance and most likely, overall organizational performance which could also result into enhancing incentives to execute duties better.
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CHAPTER THREE CASE STUDY OVERVIEW: BLEKINGE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
3.1 ITS ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES, EXTERNAL CONSEQUENCES AND EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION
We chose to do a case study of BTH because of the mails we received and the news going around on the merger of the three campuses of BTH. This implies that the three present campuses of the university (Karlskrona, Ronneby and Karlshamn) will be moved to Karlskrona come 2010. We believe that this merger will affect the teaching staffs of BTH, the non-teaching staffs of BTH, students, and the various communities where the campuses have been originally situated. To a great extent, we will consider how the decision of the management of BTH will affect the employees of BTH. We will also look into how the communities will be affected as well as students but as we stated earlier, what we are concerned about in this thesis is how this decision may affect the motivation of the employees of BTH.
This case study is therefore suitable for us because we sense that the residents of the communities where BTH is presently located might not be in accordance with the decision and this could jeopardise the image of the university especially in the Ronneby and Karlshamn communities where the campuses will be moved from. The communities where the campuses of BTH will be moved from might not get the full support of BTH in the sense that the communities might think that BTH has just succeeded in exploiting them. This exploitation could be seen from the angle that BTH used the communities (Ronneby and Karlshamn) as a starting point to attain their goals and suddenly move away just like in the case of Shell where the residents of the Niger Delta area of Nigeria believe that the Shell Petroleum Development Company succeeded in getting crude oil from their community and decided not to return anything to them like in the form of some other means of crude oil because their activities prevented the fishermen in that area from carrying out their fishing activities which is their means of survival. However, the decision of the management of BTH could hamper some activities in the affected cities
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just like in the case of Shell. The case of BTH could affect to some extent, the motivation of the company’s employees because some employees are really concerned about what their activities may cause of the society in which they work and if they find out that the society is being affected positively or negatively, this could affect their motivation to work either positively or negatively. The following sub-sections of this chapter will describe the organizational activities, possible external consequences of such activities as well as the motivation of its workers.
3.2 ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Figure V: BTH organizational Chart
The diagram above represents the organizational chart of our case study which is Blekinge Institute of Technology. The organizational activities of this institution are
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carried out by the different departments on the chart above. The activities of BTH are affected by decisions made by the employees of the university that occupy the offices in the management section of the chart.
In an educational institute where decisions are made to be effected by subordinates and/or other members of the institute, a committee is formed to that effect. This committee represents the total population of staffs in that organization. Also, students could be represented in the committee especially when the situation at hand will affect the students of the institute. In the case of the unification of the three campuses of BTH, which is the main activity of BTH that we are looking into, decisions are made as well as influenced to a great extent by staffs of the university and those that fall under the category of decision makers. Here, these decision makers include the board of governors, vice chancellor (provost, pro-vice chancellor), faculty board, board of education, board of staff recruitment and appointment, and the student union. Some of the many activities of BTH include: • • • • • • Undergraduate studies Masters’ studies Admission of international students Research studies Collaboration with industries and societies Collaboration with other universities
All of the activities above are carried out by the employees of BTH who occupy the offices in the organizational chart see figure v. As a result of these activities, certain consequences occur in the outside environment of the university. As explained earlier in this chapter, these consequences could be positive or negative; consequences include those actions that occur as a result of another action.
3.3 External consequences A lot of activities take place outside the walls of BTH as a result of the activities of BTH and these activities may include the following:
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• Good Reputation: BTH has a good reputation when it comes to collaborating with industries and its society. The products of BTH i.e. graduates, are known to be amongst the students that get employments directly after graduation. This implies that employers trust the services of the university, in terms of providing students with a standard education. • Publicity: BTH has a good publicity in the sense that the media often portrays the university to be a good and standard one. Also, the good publicity of BTH often aids its international reputation. Present as well as past international students of BTH have good experiences with the university and often times recommend the university to friends in their home countries. This is unlikely to occur if the activities of the school are not accepted by its students. • Residents of the communities where BTH campuses are presently located are glad that the university is located in their vicinity. An indication to this could be the springing of restaurants, tourist attractions, students accommodation etc. which to some extents, decreases the unemployment rates of these communities. • Media: The media i.e. newspaper sometimes portrays the not-so-good side of the university which in some cases portrays the university well and in some cases the university is being portrayed well.
All that has been said above, among many other external consequences (which is what we intend to find out) of BTH affect the motivation of the employees of BTH. These effects could be good or bad.
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Management
Operative units
Supporting units
External Consequences
Motivation of the employees in the operative and supportive units
Figure vi: BTH activity chart
From figure vi, it could be denoted that the decisions made by the management of the school are carried out by the other employees of BTH who have been classified as the operative and supportive units of the university. The activities carried out by these units go a long way to make some impacts in the external environments of BTH which could be referred to the external consequences of the activities of BTH. This consequences inturn affects the motivation of employees which is what our thesis is all about.
3.4 Employee Motivation As stated in chapter one, what we intend to measure in our research work is the motivation of the employees of BTH. Many researchers have done this looking into the organization to actually see what could affect the motivation of employees. We decide to take the bold step to measure employee motivation with those factors that may occur as a result of the external consequences of the activities of an organization.
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Our findings in the next chapter will give us a clue as to how employee motivation is being affected by external consequences. We will like to state here that our thesis is all about finding out how the external consequences of organizational activities affect employee motivation which is our research question. Our next chapter will give a detailed explanation of how we intend to go about deriving at an answer to our research question.
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CHAPTER 4: METHODOLOGY
4.1 Methodological Approach
We chose to do a case study of BTH regarding our thesis work. This was because of the news going around on the merger of the three campuses of the university in the following locations:
• • •
Karlskrona Ronneby Karlshamn
This news as been going on for sometime now, that the school has decided to shift all these campuses to the Gräsvik campus in Karlskrona. This decision which was recently made to be executed in the nearest future (2010) would affect to a great extent the following categories of people:
• • • •
The teaching staffs of BTH The non-teaching staffs of BTH Students The various communities where the campuses have been originally situated
What we intend to consider here, is how the merger of these campuses would affect the motivation of the above listed categories of people but to a great extent, we will consider the employees of BTH because our thesis work restricts us to doing that. We will like to state here that the major reason why we will be considering the other categories is because all the above listed categories of people work hand in hand in order to achieve a collective success.
This chapter however, covers the research methodology taken to answer the research question how do the external consequences of organizational activities affect employee motivation? It includes the data collection, method of data collection, methodological approach, sampling method, and method of analysis. When conducting a research, it is necessary to use past data that is, review the literature on the topic of interest. This is to say that the researcher related past existing knowledge into his/her area of interest which is what we have done in the previous chapters. However, this chapter of our thesis will
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give a vivid description of how we will go about gathering data to answer the research question.
Also, we decided to study BTH because we know that it will be a good case study and our empirical understanding of BTH goes thus; BTH (formally called
Ronneby/Karlskrona university) was founded in 1989 which happens to be one of the three independent universities of technology, one of the country’s most distinctly profiled universities with applied IT which encourages sustainable development of society. In 1999, BTH merged with the Baltic International School of Public Health and the university status for engineering was introduced. In 2000 a campus was established in Karlshamn and the university was renamed Blekinge Institute of Technology. In 20012002, BTH was given the general right to run MSc programmes with the issuance of award for MSc degrees and the same year Lars Haikola became the Vice –Chancellor. In 2006, due to the quest for creativity and the relationship BTH has with its environment, BTH collaborates with other universities in a strategic alliance one of which is the southeast Sweden University.
The success story of the university shows the reason why employees will be more interested in working for BTH than any other university because BTH operates PhD programmes within twelve subject areas with 96 PhD students and 32 professors(5 adjunct and 5 visiting), higher proportion of research, 83% of the students at the university get an employment directly after graduation because BTH is one of the most successful universities in Sweden when it comes to collaboration with industries and societies , there is an increase of 200 full equivalents compared to 2004 and the number of students with disability increased with 24%.
Every autumn there is always one new improvement or the other in the university. For example, in autumn 2006 the following programmes were introduced- sound and system engineering, telecommunications and data communications and bachelor of science in Business Administration. Nevertheless, BTH has around 40 undergraduate programmes and 395 independent courses which include 3329 full time students (45% are women).
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And, the international students in BTH as at 2005 amounted to 549 which are increasing every year.
Moreover, the debates in the media (BLT newspaper, SSD newspaper and television programmes) over the years have been in favour of BTH because they have been improving overtime based on the records available. So therefore, these entire factors make employees to be motivated and feel like being a part of such an organisation as BTH. The chapter will also give an insight into how to relate the organizational activities of BTH which are performed by the different departments of BTH which we have explained in our chapter two with the external consequences which these activities may cause and how all of these affect employee motivation. As stated earlier, all of these should give an answer to our research question
According to Hussey and Hussey, all research processes have primary phases through which they must pass through. These phases include the following: • • • • • • Identifying the research purpose and topic Defining the research problem Determining the concept of the research Collecting the necessary data for the research Analyzing and interpreting the research data Stating the findings and recommendations
The first two phases have been covered by chapters one and two, the third and fourth will be covered by this chapter, chapter three and the last two phases of the thesis will be covered by chapters four and five. However, to test the hypothesis developed in the chapters above, a quantitative research method is engaged in this study. A quantitative method uses a relatively large number of subjects and anything that is measurable. It also enables one to develop conceptual frameworks and models and also to recognize certain important variables and analyze the relationships between them. When using a quantitative method, a literature review helps one to get a proper understanding of the topic which is what we have done in chapter two. Therefore, the most appropriate method
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in this case, where the purpose of our thesis is to know how the external consequences of organizational activities affect the motivation of workers, is a quantitative research method. According to the free encyclopaedia, quantitative research is common
approached using the scientific method, which is a body of procedures suitable for finding facts and getting new knowledge. It could also be used for correcting and incorporating previous knowledge.
4.2 Data Collection
When collecting data for research purposes, there are two methods of data collection that could be considered. These data collection types include the following: • • Secondary data Primary data
For the purpose of our thesis, we shall be making use of both the secondary and the primary data.
4.2.1 Secondary Data. This could be described as information collected by others for certain purposes that could be different from that of a researcher who intends to use the same information (Ghauri and Gronhaug 2005, 91). This method of data collection is also referred to as a second-hand data simply because the data is not gathered solely for a purpose but could be useful to different researchers at different times. Ghauri and Gronhaug (2005, 100) states that secondary data could be gathered from both internal and external sources. The internal sources being collecting data from customers, employees, suppliers etc. and the external sources including the collection of data from published articles, books, research reports etc. as well as commercial; panel research, reports etc. This type of data could also be gathered from online sources which may include web pages of government organizations, companies, etc. Secondary data therefore saves time as well as money because it is an already existing data that could be used almost at any time it is needed. And so, for this thesis, secondary data were gathered from books, journal and articles using the university library as well as the internet.
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4.2.2 Primary Data. This is also referred to as the first-hand data collection method because information is gathered here mainly for the intended purpose of the research. This type of data often helps to give appropriate answers to research questions. According to Ghauri and Gronhaug (2005, 102), the sources of primary data could be seen in the figure below:
Figure vii: sources of primary data
For the purpose of this thesis, primary data shall be gathered using communication which includes the use of surveys i.e. questionnaires which will be distributed personally and/or through electronic-mail, an interview will also be conducted to get the necessary data.
4.3 Questionnaire Construct
A structured questionnaire is constructed to measure the effects of the external consequences of organizational activities on the motivation of workers. The independent variable in this research is the organizational activities that cause some external consequences which in-turn affects the motivation of the workers which is the dependent variable. The purpose of the questionnaire is to measure the external activities carried out by the organization as well as its effects on workers and so our data collection and analysis will not be directed to the top management of the university in any way, but to those members of the staff whom the decision of the top management affect in one way or the other.
The questionnaire will be constructed in a particular sequence in which a dichotomous question that is, a question that will be answered with a YES or No response may be
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followed with an opened ended question. The reason why we decided to use the dichotomous type of question is to get a genuine and accurate answer from the respondent and to also make sure that they are specific in their answers while the main reason of adding an open ended question is for them to be able to express themselves from their personal points of view. Since our thesis is considering 3 areas that is, external consequences, organizational activities and employee motivation. The questionnaire will be constructed in such a way that the teaching as well as the non-teaching staffs of BTH will tackle the questions that relate to the organizational activities and employee motivation, in order to gather some information from students will also organise a focus group that will address the issue of the organizational activities of BTH in relation to the students. The interview will help tackle the other part of our thesis.
The questions are constructed to answer our research question, how do the external consequences of organizational activities affect employee motivation? And the questions are also constructed in relation to the motivation principles in our chapter two. So question 1 was basically constructed to know the gender of the respondent for the purpose of gender equality in relation to the theory, developed by Stacey Adams (1963), explains the fact that workers want to be treated fairly as regards their level of skill, hard work, passion, lenience etc. It went further to say that workers have the tendency to compare their rewards with other workers and when they find out that they are not treated alike, they decrease the quality or quantity of their work, increase absenteeism or even leave the organization for another organization where they feel they could be treated better and it is either you are a male or female to know the percentage of each, questions 2 and 3 was constructed to know which of the campuses and department of the university the respondent works while 4 was constructed to know how long the employee has been working for the institution.
Question 5 was however constructed to know if the respondent feels like he/she is involved in the good deeds of the university. This is in relation to the theory explained in our chapter two which is the motivation theory of Douglas McGregor. In his motivation theory, he states that employees can be viewed from two angles. After carefully studying
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employees, making different assumptions on the different group of individuals, he came up with the X and Y theory, X being the negative, and the theory Y being the positive. With the theory X, he came up with certain assumptions like: employees not wanting to work and whenever possible, they try to avoid working simply because they do not like to work. As a result of this, employees have to be forced to carry out their duties with punishments or threats. And so, employees avoid their duties and do not follow formal instructions. And from the other angle, he made certain assumptions on the positive side which is the Y theory which states that: employees take work as part of them, and so they do the job like it is a hobby, workers practice self-control and self-direction when they are after attaining success at work and employees are willing to take responsibility as well as be creative when tackling job-related issues.
And, question 6 and 7 is to test the factors that stimulate employees to work and this is related to the theory in chapter 2 which states that employees will like to receive a form of incentive to enable them to perform their duties diligently. They want to look forward to something tangible or intangible which serves as a form of appreciation for their performances. As a result of this, different organizations adopt different methods of rewarding their employees’ performances. These methods are salary/wages, performance bonus, management bonuses, promotion, and employee recognition and equity-Related programs. All the methods are explained in chapter two.
Question 8, 9, 10, 11 and 18 is to test whether the respondents are part of the decision making process in the university and this is basically to test the principle in chapter two of our work which is based on the Frederick Hertzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory also known as the two-factor theory or Hygiene theory. This theory implies that at the work place, there are certain satisfiers as well as dissatisfiers for employees. He went on to say that the intrinsic factors are related to satisfaction while the extrinsic factors are related to dissatisfaction. Hertzberg developed his theory by finding out what people actually want to get from their work and from this he found out that employees do not really get motivated when dissatisfying factors are eliminated. In essence, some factors are inevitable in an organization which does not mean that the presence of such factors
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will trigger employees to do their work willingly and as required by the organization and on the other hand, the absence of these factors leads to no motivation to do work.
Questions 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23 will allow the employees of BTH to make brief explanations of those organizational activities that could affect their external environment as well as their motivation. The following are there the factors: Organizational growth and Organizational changes. Organizational changes can therefore be seen in the following categories: Change in work design, Change in organizational culture and Change in technology. All these factors are explained in our chapter two.
Finally, question 24 is to get the personal opinion of the staff in respect to organizational change.
4.4 Sampling Method
Teaching and non-teaching staffs of BTH The questionnaire shall be distributed among a total population of the staffs of BTH in various departments of the university such as school of engineering, school of management, school of health science and School of Techno culture, Humanities and Planning, Administration, Advances in Lie Group Analysis, Blekinge College and Vocational School, Centre for Spatial Development and Planning, Computer Services, External Relations Office, Library. 110 questionnaires will be selected randomly to be analysed in the next chapter of this thesis. The reason why we decided to choose the teaching staff and non –teaching staff is because the impact of the university decision to merge all the three campuses together will be felt by them. Apart from the issue of job, for the mere fact that the university is taking such decision, this will greatly affect their motivation to work.
Another reason why we chose the teaching staff, non-teaching staff and students is because they all form a very important part of the university. The main reason why the university is still in existence today is because the staffs (teaching and non-teaching staff)
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are still working maybe for the pay or for the main reason of service in the university and the students are still studying in the university to learn or probably for the mere fact that they are being patriotic and have a passion for what they do. Also, the staffs, which are the teaching staffs and the non-teaching staffs do at one time take part in the decision making process which will later affect them individually and as a group. The reason for choosing them for this research work is for them to know the impact of such decisions on them and their colleagues.
4.5 Focus Groups
We recognise the fact that focus groups are a powerful means to evaluate services or test new ideas, which is the main reason why a focus group will be organised among the students of BTH to get their responses on how they feel about the merger of the three campuses of the university.
To do this, we are going to identify the major objective of the meeting which is to enable us to gather several opinions of the students in relation to the unification of the three campuses of the university. We will organise 3 different focus groups in which each group shall be made up of 6-10 students. The main reason why we decided to organize a focus group to gather data from students is because in an open discussion like that of a focus group, the idea given by an individual might trigger another bright idea from another individual. Focus groups give participants the opportunity to express themselves, it will encourage new ideas and we know we can get a great deal of information during a focus group session.
4.6 Interview
An interview will be conducted directly to the residents of the communities where the three campuses of BTH are situated, this means that the people in the community that we are going to interview will be those people that have a complete knowledge about the existence of the university in that area because some people staying in these communities might not have a good knowledge of the university which is what we require for our thesis. This will be solely conducted to address the area of the external consequences
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which the activities of an organization may cause. In our case, we will look into those consequences which the merger of the three campuses (Karlskrona, Ronneby and Karlshamn) of BTH may cause as well as other external consequences that may be triggered by the activities of BTH. We will therefore conduct an interview for the members of the communities of BTH at the three campuses.
A total of 15 residents of the communities shall be interviewed of which 5 residents shall be from each of the Karlskrona, Ronneby and Karlshamn communities where the campuses of the university are presently situated which means that the 5 residents each from the three campuses must have the required knowledge about the university in question. We intend to interview these residents by approaching them on the streets. We will ask them questions like, do you live here? How long have you been living here? in order to find out if they have the basic knowledge that we require before we ask the proper questions for the interview. The responses of the interviewee shall be analysed in chapter four.
4.7 Data Analysis
The analysis of the data that will be collected through the questionnaire and interview will be done critically in the next chapter of this thesis work.
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CHAPTER FIVE: DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
This chapter of our thesis aims at analyzing the data we have been able to collate from our respondents with the use of a questionnaire, interviews and focus groups. This analysis will be based solely on comparing responses from our respondents. The reasons for using three different methods of collecting data is to enable us gather information from three different categories of people namely; the teaching and non- teaching staffs of BTH, residents of the community where BTH campuses are situated and the students. This is to enable us get the necessary information we need to provide answers to our research question as well as tackle the three different areas of our thesis work: organizational activities, external consequences and employee motivation as explained in the previous chapters of this research work. The analysis can therefore be seen below.
5.1 QUESTIONNAIRE ANALYSIS In chapter four, we made a vivid explanation of the questions in our questionnaire and why we chose to ask such questions. This section of the questionnaire will therefore analyze the questionnaire in respect to the data we have been able to gather from our respondents. This will therefore be done in the subsections below:
5.1.1 BACKGROUND DATA Questions 1, 2 and 3
KARLSKRONA
RONNEBY
KARLSHAMN
FIGURES PERCENTAGE FIGURES PERCENTAGE FIGURES PERCENTAGE MALE 28 62 % 38 % 100 % 20 35 55 36 % 64 % 100 % 4 6 10 40 % 60 % 100 %
FEMALE 17 TOTAL 45
Table 1: Gender and Location of Respondents
From the table above, we got all our 110 responses from the three campuses of the university and that the female gender dominates the highest number of respondents we have. 45
Figure viii: Gender and Location of Respondents
Also, we got a little number of respondents from the Karlshamn campus. All our respondents encompass the various departments of the university as we can see in the BTH organizational chart in chapter 2.
5.1.2 EMPLOYEE WORK DURATION Question 4: How long have you been a staff at BTH? The responses of our respondents can be illustrated below:
Years Below 5 years 5 – 10 years Above 10 years TOTAL
Figures 50 20 40 110
Percentage 46 % 18 % 36 % 100 %
Table 2: Duration of work of Respondents at BTH
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Figure ix: Duration of work of Respondents at BTH
From the above table and figure, it could be denoted that BTH has a number of newly employed staffs. The first description is about the respondent and where they stay in the 3 communities where the university is situated. The male respondent in karlskrona (62 %) happens to be the highest followed by Karlshamn (40 %) and Ronneby (36%), but for the female respondent Ronneby (64%) got the highest followed by Karlshamn (60%) then karlskrona (38%) which shows clearly that the 3 communities were all represented. Karlskrona got the highest respondent in male, while Ronneby got the highest in female.
The recognition of the fact about where the 3 communities where the campuses are situated leads us to the next question of how long have they been a staff in BTH. The percentage of staff who have been working with BTH for less than 5 years got the highest percentage (46 %) followed by the staff with above 10years experience with (36%) and finally the staff with 5-10 years experience got the lowest with (18%), this shows that most of the staffs have only worked for below 5 years and above 10 years. Respondents work duration could explain their experience with the university which could actually be used as a yardstick to measure whether BTH is a success story or not which leads us to the next question. Many of the staffs believes that BTH is a success story as a university with 87% saying YES and just 21% saying NO which means that a larger percentage believes that they are part of the success story of the school.
5.1.3 Corporate Success This subsection of chapter 4 will analyze questions 5, 6 and 7 which talks about the how our respondents view the success of their organization. Another reason why we chose to 47
ask this set of questions (apart from the reason highlighted in chapter 3) is because we believe that an organization that attains corporate success is likely to also attain success in all its ways be it; employee motivation, its society, and its activities.
Question 5: Is BTH a success story? This question was a YES/NO question and a total of 87 respondents answered with a YES while the other 23 answered with a NO and this is illustrated thus:
No. of Respondents Responses Yes No TOTAL Figures 87 23 110 Percentage 79 % 21 % 100 %
Table 3: Responses to the success of BTH (I)
Figure x: Response to the success of BTH (I)
Questions 6: If yes, are you a part of the success story? For this question, we got 87 responses from those that answered YES to question 4 with 79 answering YES and 10 respondents that answered with NO. This could be diagrammatically illustrated below:
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No. of Respondents Responses Yes No TOTAL Figures 79 10 87 Percentage 91 % 9% 100 %
Table 4: Response to the Success of BTH (II)
Figure xi: Responses to the success of BTH (II)
Question 7: If no, are you a part of what you think it is? For this question, we got 23 responses from those that answered NO to question 4. However, only 18 responded with NO while the other 5 left the question blank and so we assume that the respondents that left it blank are indifferent on either they are a part of what they think BTH is since to them; it is not a success story.
No. Of Respondents Responses Yes No Indifferent TOTAL Figures 18 5 23 Percentage 78 % 22 % 100 %
Table 5: Responses to the success story of BTH (III)
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Figure xii: Responses to the success of BTH (III)
This sub-section of chapter 4 analyses three different but inter-related questions that aims at tackling the issue of the success story of BTH- from the responses we got, we found out that a large number of member of staff of the university believe that the university is is at a verge of attaining success in its operations. This could also be explained to mean that this group of staff, with a positive mindset of the university, believes that the university is aiming towards achieving its goals and objectives and by so doing; they think the university is on the right track. On the other hand, the other group of staff does not think that the university is making a progress. We assume that this group thinks that the university has a lot to adjust in its operations in order to be on a better track which could mean attaining heights. There is a fact that larger percentage believes that BTH is a success story, which now leads to the next question- are they part of such success story? Many of the staffs believes that they are part of the success story of the university with 91% and 9% believes that they are not part of the success story, for those people that responded with NO, we asked a further question to know if they are a Part of what they think they the university is if it is not a success story. None of our respondents responded with Yes but 78% responded with NO and 5 being indifferent. The fact that whether they are part of the success story or not leads to the point of if they are motivated to work or not with 100% saying YES which means any staff that does not feel as a part of the success story of the university might have other reasons which we are not aware of in this research.
5.1.4 Motivation This subsection shall be analyzing questions that we asked our respondents in order to measure their level of motivation to work and so we chose to do this with questions 8, 9, and 10. 50
Question 8: Are you in anyway encouraged to do your work? For this question, all the respondents answered with a YES which implies that for our case study, BTH, these staffs are encouraged in diverse ways to carry out the duties that is required of them. This could be diagrammatically represented below:
No. Of Respondents Responses Yes No TOTAL Figures 110 110 Percentage 100 % 100 %
Table 6: Respondents’ Motivation (I)
Figure xiii: Respondents’ Motivation (I)
Question 9: what kind of incentive stimulates you to work? We chose not to construct a dichotomous question for this number of the questionnaire because we want to be able to gather different incentives that stimulate workers. From our respondents, we were able to gather this information on what actually makes workers want to perform their duties: ? A large number of employees find it appealing when their colleagues at work show appreciation to their work, when they work with nice people, as well as a conducive environment that is supportive and competitive with a superior one that is understanding and encouraging. ? We found out that people get stimulated to work by doing what they love to do career wise; working with a right purpose and tasks.
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? Our respondents get stimulated to do their jobs when they know that they are making good contributions to either the entire university and/or students, who are their customers. ? A couple of respondents feel stimulated to work when the effects of their work is felt by the society in which they work as well as when their customers are satisfied. In this case, when students are satisfied. ? Also, most of our respondents feel good when they belong to a part of a national and international evolution. This could be in the form being asked to participate in different groups internally, nationally and internationally. ? Some feel stimulated when regular evaluations are performed by students and colleagues. ? A number of respondents also get stimulated to work when they can get a certain amount of space/choice concerning what actions to take in order to move ahead on the job (planning and implementing concerning both teaching and research); challenging questions and innovative ideas from students (and sometimes from colleagues); peer reviews as well as getting feedbacks concerning conference papers etc. Also, sharing ideas and experiences with other researchers within their field is a good stimulant for them. ? Since our case study is an institution of learning, some of our respondents feel stimulated to work when there is European cooperation in Research and Development. This could also mean attaining success in matters relating to applications for funding of research. ? Some also feel stimulated when the effects of their activities are felt in the market (Swedish market). ? Finally, we found out that some get stimulated when they get challenging questions and innovative ideas from students (and sometimes from colleagues). Peer reviews. Feedback concerning conference papers etc. Sharing ideas and experiences with other researchers within their field.
Question 10: Do you think you have gained anything more than when you just joined the company? This question was a dichotomous question that gave the respondent an
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opportunity to provide the answer either with a YES or a NO. With this question, out of the 110 questionnaires we selected randomly to analyse, we got 96 YES and 14 NO. The responses could be diagrammatically represented below:
No. of Responses Responses YES NO TOTAL Figures 96 14 110 Percentage 87 % 13 % 100 %
Table 7: Responses on Employee Motivation (III)
YES NO
Figure xiv: Responses of employee motivation (III)
So far in this sub-section, we have been able to describe our responses diagrammatically. Also, from the responses, we can denote that respondents, who are members of staff of our case study, are in one way or another motivated to do their work which gives us a good signal that the university is a conducive environment for them to work even though it is not a common phenomenon. Some staffs claim not to have gained anything new since they joined the university which we think could hamper the goals of the organization. Nevertheless, we will like to analyse these questions with the theory propounded by Frederick Herzberg, which is known as the Motivation-Hygiene Theory. In this theory, Herzberg claims that there are certain satisfiers as well as dissatisfiers at the work place. He went further to say that the presence or absence of these two factors does not motivate employees to work either positively or negatively but they are those factors that are always present in a work place.
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5.1. 5 Employee Motivation and Organizational Activities Here, we shall be analyzing question 11, 12, 13 and 14. These questions are questions that relate to how employees are motivated to their work in relation to the activities of the organization they work for. Question 11: Are you in anyway part of the decision making process of the university? Like some other questions, this is a dichotomous question and the responses could be represented thus: No. of Responses Responses YES NO TOTAL Figures 77 33 110 Percentage 70 % 30 % 100%
Table 8: Responses on motivation and activities
YES NO
Figure xv: Responses on motivation and activities
Question 12: If yes, please explain how to take part in the decision making process of the university. We made this question an opened ended question so we will not restrict our respondents to giving us answers as to how they participate in the decision making of the university. The following are the responses we got for this question: ? Some respondents affirm that they contribute to the overall direction and idea of the university. ? A number of our respondents have been members of the top management as well as the executive body of the institution.
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? Also, some respondents stated that all the members of staffs are always invited to discuss the certain issues in BTH. ? Some claim not to be members of the decision making team but still participate in the process of making decisions at different levels. ? Finally, we got to know that some staffs get to be involved in the decision making process only when it directly affects them. This could be in the form of making decisions in a particular department.
Question 13: If no, please explain why you are not a member of the decision making process of the university. The responses include the following: ? Some respondents made it clear that they are not interested in being a member of the decision making team while some claim that they are relatively new to the job and have not been able to join or participate in any form of decision making in the university. ? Some members of staff said that they used to be a member of the executive body responsible for making decision and are therefore not any more at positions to make important decisions for the university. ? Some claim not to work directly for the university which in some ways hamper their opportunity of being a member of the decision making team. ? On the other hand, some respondents claim to make decisions at their departmental levels and not at the entire university executive level. ? We finally found out that some members of staff believe that the university’s decision making process or team is too hierarchical and ‘old-fashioned’ and as a result of this, they will not like to be a member of such a group.
Question 14: what are the possible effects of the activities of BTH on your attitude to work? With this question, we were able to gather diverse views of people and the responses could be seen thus: ? Some respondents feel that only the good activities of BTH drive them to work and so the ‘bad’ activities discourage them from doing their job well.
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? Some respondents feel that their demands and available resources do not tally and so such activities make them have a sense of hopelessness which in-turn affects their willingness to work. ? To some respondents, when BTH makes moves in directions that they feel is good and beneficial for the society as a whole, such activities enhance their positive attitude to do their work. ? Some respondents claim that they are not satisfied with the activities of BTH in respect to their specific department which affects their motivation to work. ? For some respondents, engaging in international collaboration with other universities, aiming for high quality, being nationally and internationally renowned in research areas keeps them glued to the university. ? Whereas, activities like lack of transparency and feedback from decision processes are seen as a form of threat to respondents’ quality of performances at work.
Since we intend to collate data to tackle issues relating to employee motivation and organizational activities from the responses we were able to gather different types of information. One, from question 11, we can see that a number of workers feel that they belong to the decision making team of the university either directly or indirectly. While from questions 12, 13 and 14, we found out that the activities of BTH, to a very great extent, affect the motivation of its workers. Some workers are satisfied while some workers can still see the loop holes in the organization.
5.1.6 Organizational Activities and External Consequences For this sub-section we shall be considering questions 15, 16 and 17. The analyses are as follows; Question 15: Do you think that the activities of BTH have any effect on the residents of the communities where the campuses of the university are presently situated? This was a dichotomous question so we got 100 responses for YES and 10m responses for NO. This could be diagrammatically represented below:
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No. of Responses Responses YES NO TOTAL Figures 108 2 110 Percentage 98 % 2% 100 %
Table 9: Responses on activities and external consequences
YES NO
Figure xvi: Responses on activities and external consequences
From this responses, we can denote that a large number of workers believe that their activities at the university (activities here could be at the administrative or departmental levels) have effects on the residents on these communities where BTH is presently located.
Question 16: If yes, how do the activities of BTH affect the residents of these communities? The following are the responses we got. ? BTH makes it possible for residents of these communities to run one business or the other thereby creating job opportunities, generating tax incomes which raise the strength of the region (Blekinge) as well as having some effects on the culture as a whole. ? Still in the business area, some respondents feel that students, staffs and university guests generate a certain amount of local income for shop owners, hotels, and also sport related businesses. Residents who rent out apartments or sell houses get better prices because of higher demand.
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? Some respondents stated it that BTH has been the major reason for growth in the communities since the inception of the university and so, the communities need the school in almost every aspect. ? The university creates a more lively and cultural environment with more opportunities for entertainment and relaxation. ? The university gives more opportunities for establishment of collaborations between the communities and companies. ? Some respondents believe that research and student projects in collaboration with local partners support networking and long-term cooperation spawns both practical and theoretical knowledge of use in the local context.
Question 17: If no, why do you think that the activities of BTH do not have any effect on the residents of the communities of BTH? From the table above, just 2 of our respondents gave an answer to this question. From their responses, we found out that these respondents believe that BTH is just a university that exist in this region saying that the university is just a ‘cultural’ border between the residents of these communities where the campuses are presently located and the academic world.
5.1.7 Employee Motivation and External Consequences We shall be analysing questions 18, and 19. Question 18: Does the feeling of the residents of this community (where you are located), in relation to the activities of BTH affect you in anyway? This was a dichotomous question and so the responses can be seen below: No. of Responses Responses YES NO TOTAL Figures 40 70 110 Percentage 36 % 64 % 100 %
Table 10: responses on motivation and external consequences
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YES NO
Figure xvii: responses on motivation and external consequences
From this, we can see that a lot of workers are not really affected by the feeling of the residents of these communities. For respondents who answered this question with a YES, question 19 was constructed for them to explain how they are affected by the feelings of the residents of these communities.
Question 19: If yes, please explain how it affects you. There responses are as follows: ? For some respondents, when the residents of these communities feel good about the activities of the university, they get some sort of drive to do their work and on the other hand, when these residents do not have a positive mind towards the university; it affects their motivation to work. ? In the case of this unification of campuses, the Ronneby community is not happy with the decision to move the campus and does not wish to cooperate in R&D or co-finance R&D since they got to know about this decision. ? However, different departments have different arrangements with these cities and so it affects these departments negatively.
From the analysis made in this subsection, we found out that there is a strong link between an employee’s level of motivation and the external consequences of the activities of the employee’s organization. Though, from the responses we got to question 18, respondents in our case study do not show much concern to what actually happens from outside their immediately. Also, from responses we got from question 19, we found out that employees are affected either directly or indirectly by what happens in their
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outside the walls of their organization especially when their work requires some close relationships with their outside environment.
5.1.8 Organizational Activities, External Consequences and Employee Motivation In this last subsection of the section of chapter four, we shall be evaluating questions 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24. These questions were constructed to tackle the three areas of this thesis: organizational activities, external consequences and employee motivation.
Question 20: Your position here as a BTH staff involves relating directly/indirectly to the students, does it affect you in any way when students are dissatisfied with the decisions of the university? The analysis can be seen thus:
No. of Responses Responses YES NO TOTAL Figures 93 17 110 Percentage 85 % 15 % 100 %
Table 11: responses on activities, consequences and motivation (I)
YES NO
Figure xviii: responses on activities, consequences and motivation (I)
From this responses, we understand that quite a number of staffs have at heart the interest of their ‘customers’ i.e. the students of BTH and who are also in one way or another, members of the external environment and also the end products of the university.
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Question 21: The BTH management has taken the decision to merge the 3 campuses in the nearest future; does this affect you in any way? For this question, we got 80 responses for YES and 30 for NO which implies that a number of BTH staffs will be affected by the decision made by the management of the university. This could therefore be represented below:
No. of Responses Responses YES NO TOTAL Figures 80 30 110 Percentage 73 % 27 % 100 %
Table 12: responses on activities, consequences and motivation (II)
YES NO
Figure xix: responses on activities, consequences and motivation (II)
Question 22: If yes, please explain how this decision affects you. We were able to gather the following: ? For a number of staffs, merging three campuses will mean moving offices from one location to the other, travelling a farther journey to work. Also, to some staffs, this merger will make their work a lot easier since they have been shuttling between the campuses while for some workers, it reduces their travelling distance to work since they already live in Karlskrona but work in the other campuses. ? A great number of workers feel that the merger of the three campuses is a very good idea because it will make the staffs of BTH have a feeling of oneness as well as make it easier for them to attend meetings and get familiar with one another.
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? For some respondents. Merging the campuses will enhance their punctuality to work. ? Some respondents think that the merger of the three campuses will affect some specific programmes that have special arrangements with the communities where the programmes originally started.
Question 23: If no, please explain why this does not affect you. We got a very low number of responses for this number when compared to the number of respondents that checked the NO box question 21. However, we were able to gather this. Some respondents claim that this merger does not affect them because they presently work and live in Karlskrona. Apart from the fact the university in Karlskrona will have more staffs, which is not a problem from them; they believe that the merger of the campuses does not affect them. And then we got this other response from a respondent who asserts that either the management chooses to merge the campuses or not, what really matters is the fact that pension will not be affected by any of the decisions of the university
Question 24: If you had an opportunity to make some changes at BTH, what will you change about it? This happens to be the last question of the questionnaire we constructed and as explained earlier in chapter 3; we constructed this question to give our respondents the opportunity to give their views on what they will like to change in the university. Also, as explained in chapter 2, organizational change affects organizational activities as well as employees’ motivation at work and as a result of this; we decided to give room to our respondents to state what they will like to change at their place of work. ? Some respondents believe that the university does not have a unified department; this they will like to change. ? Some also think that the Ronneby campus has a relatively new structure and so, they think the campus in Ronneby should be retained. ? Some will like to incorporate transparent methods to measure employee performance at every level. This should however be integrated at every level; teachers, researchers and administration.
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? For some, decisions should not be made with politics but the benefits of the decision should be felt by everyone; students and the entire group of staffs. ? Improve the quality of education as well as restructure the institution to give room for more research. ? Increase industry collaboration for both students and research as well as stronger collaborations with the southeast universities; Växjö University and Kalmar University. ? Establish more co operations with small as well as large companies. ? Redefine the already existing hierarchical structure of decision making. Making general assumptions, we will like to state that from the data we were able to gather, we found out that certain factors, as analysed above; location of respondents, gender of respondents, and the duration of work of respondents affects their attitude to work as well as their views to certain issues at their work place. For those respondents that have spent above 10 years working as staffs of BTH, especially those that are situated in Karlskrona, they have been members of one management board or the other and so they see the university’s management board as a good one, they are more interested in university collaborations, investing hugely in research, gaining recognition for the school and much more. This we think is triggered by their level of experience at the university. This could also be because they have been working at BTH for a while, they know how things are done in the university and so the decisions made by the university management do not really affect their work apart from those that handle programmes and/or courses that have collaborations with the communities where BTH will be moving from.
On the other hand, we also found out a few general facts about some respondents, especially those that have been working at BTH for the period of 5-10 years. This group of respondents feel that they are being left out in the decision making process of the university, though some of them claim that they have been participating in one meeting or the other where ideas are shared with them. Also, a large number of them get stimulated when they are being appreciated by their colleagues, good working
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environment, nice students and understanding superior ones. These stimulating factors could also be associated with other respondents in other categories but it is rampant amongst those that fall into the category of not too long work experience with BTH. Another interesting fact here is this; a large number of those that fall into this category do not leave in Karlskrona and so they think that the university’s decision is not a favourable one.
And finally, for the last broad category which is for respondents that are relatively new at BTH. This category is somewhat close to the previous one. The respondents here are more concerned about what their customers think about them than others. They look out to satisfy their customers and immediate society more than those that have been working at BTH for a while. Those in this category are also less interested in participating in the decision making process of the university. This we think is because this group of respondents are somewhat new to the university system and are yet to understand the structure of the university to the extent that it will interest them to belong to the executive body. They bother more about satisfying their ‘customer’, students. 5.2 INTERVIEW ANALYSIS We conducted an interview in the three communities of Blekinge where the three campuses of BTH are presently located in order to tackle our part of research that entails knowing the external consequences of the decision of the management of the university. The interviewees in this interview include 5 residents from each of this communities and it was conducted to get the opinion of the residents of these communities as regards the unification of the three campuses of BTH. These interviewees are anonymous as we did not consider it necessary to know their names because this could hamper them from being sincere. The responses of the interviewees and a graphical illustration of their responses include the following:
5.2.1 Karlskrona This is the largest of these communities and also the future home of BTH. For 2 residents of Karlskrona, the idea of the university on merging the three campuses is not a very
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good one saying that it is unfair for residents of other communities who are use to having university students around. But for the other 3 residents of Karlskrona who are business oriented people and have the opportunity to sell their goods and/or services to students feel that it is a good concept for the campuses to be together. These residents feel that it is quite stressful for students to travel a long distance to receive lectures and ultimately when there are more students around the town of Karlskrona, their business will boom.
Number and Age Range of Residents 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 020yrs 21 40yrs 41 60yrs 61yrs and Above Number and Age Range of Residents
Figure xx: This graph depicts the range and the total number of our interviewees
5.2.2 Ronneby Getting to Ronneby, we found out that 2 of our interviewees are not aware of the future merger of the university but know that a university exist in their community. For all our interviewees here, they strongly believe that BTH has a great impact on the Ronneby community and as a result of that, the campuses should be retained. One of the interviewees said that some companies are present in Ronneby just because of the existence of the university and so when the university moves, the community might be left with nothing and the entire market of the community could be affected. Also, some other interviewees feel that the community is used to having people in the community and that the presence of the university in the community is a nice one.
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6 5 4 3 2 1 0 kalskrona ronneby karlshamn Good Decision Bad Decision
Figure xxi: Interviewees view of the merger of the three campuses of BTH
This graph implies that most residents of these campuses do not agree with the decision of the management of the university which is to merge the three campuses of the university together.
5.2.3 Karlshamn For this community, 2 of the interviewees believe that the university is doing a good job and so they should keep up the good work which involves the merger of the three campuses. They think that the university has made the right decision but one of the three residents think, not withstanding the good decision, the school could start a new programme that will be in Karlshamn. The other 3 interviewees are not in terms with the decision of the university. This group think that the Karlshamn community will turn out to be a dull and quiet area when the university leaves and so some advice to the school is to change the decision if possible.
5.3 FOCUS GROUPS We recognise the fact that focus groups are a powerful means to evaluate services or test new ideas, which is the main reason why a focus group was organised among the students
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of BTH to get their responses on how they feel about the merger of the three campuses of the university.
To do this, we are able to organise a forum to gather several opinions of the students in relation to the unification of the three campuses of the university. We spoke with 3 focus groups in which each group was made up of 6-10 students and we gave participants the opportunity to express themselves in order to get the proper ideas to tackle our part of research that entails knowing the external consequences of the decision of the management of the university.
The question for the focus groups goes thus; what do you think about the merging of the three campuses in BTH? The 3 focus groups came up with the following suggestions: • Some of the students said that if the school should merge the three campuses together, the other campuses like Karlshamn and Ronneby will have a bad experience in relation to development, companies around the two campuses will not get the required profit (which was the initial purpose of establishing such companies because they have seen students around there) that was usually made before from the inception of the company. • Some of the students believe that bringing the three campuses together to one campus will automatically jeopardise the ability of the students to experience other parts of the Blekinge community and will make them novice even when they have finished their program. • While some of the students believe that merging all the three campuses together will not only make BTH a good citadel of learning but it will also make BTH a place where both international students and the Swedish students will see each other and feel the impact of being a member of a society (university). • Some of the students also believe that bringing the three campuses together will make Karlskrona to be over populated which might endanger the lives and property of the Karlskrona community.
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• •
Some believe that bringing them together will make Karlskrona to be more popular and it will make the school to increase in good will. Some believe that it is a very good idea because it saves the students the stress of travelling from one city to the other to learn like the students that were unable to get accommodation in Ronneby and decided to stay in Karlskrona so many of them travel to Ronneby everyday to receive lectures which is stressful and might affect their performance in their exams.
•
Some of the students are indifferent about the whole issue they say that either the three campuses merge together or not, BTH will still remain BTH and that the merger will not in any way affect the school.
•
Some of the students believe that the idea will bring development to Karlskrona and many of the companies in Karlshamn and Ronneby will move to Karlskrona will eventually boast the economy of Karlskrona.
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CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH This is the concluding chapter of our thesis which will bring our purpose of writing this thesis into context. This chapter also aims at providing recommendations to our case study, Blekinge Institute of Technology. However, we will like to emphasize here that our research is applicable to all industries and not subjected to the academic world and so we will like to say that we did not chose to do a case study of BTH because we perceive the university as a problem but because we wanted to find out if there are actually external factors which are initiated by the organization through its activities that could inturn affect the motivation of the employees of such an organization and we find BTH as an interesting case to study. Therefore, as we will be making recommendations to our case study, we will also be doing the same for organizations generally. These general recommendations will be based on the research we have made on our case study, readings on similar cases like in the case of Shell, H&M, Ford Motors, Hyundai Motors, Coca-cola, Pfizer, BP Amoco and much more which we have not stated in this thesis report.
6.1 CONCLUSION Our research was carried out and we are able to gather data through the distribution of questionnaires which was distributed among the staffs of BTH, conducting interviews for residents of the three communities where BTH campuses are presently situated, as well as organizing focus groups. The research was based on the effects of the external consequences of organizational activities on workers motivation using BTH as a case study.
From our data collection and analysis, we have been able to achieve our objectives. In chapter one, we were to establish the fact that this thesis research will tackle four different areas which we hope will provide suitable answer(s) to our research question. However, we found out from the research we carried out that employees are generally
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affected by how those outside the walls of their office perceive the legitimacy of their organization. The effect this legitimacy has on the employees could be positive or negative. From our questionnaire, we found out that some people are bothered by what their actions in the organization actually does outside the organization while a great number also feel that the thoughts of those outside the organization does not affect them in any way. We think our respondents responded to this question the way they did because they do not usually have close university relationships with these residents. We will like to state here that, according to the responses we collated from the questionnaire, we found out that a large number of those that are affected by the feelings of the residents of the communities, where they are located have some close relationships and /or collaboration with these communities. This is not to say that respondents are completely blind to what actually happens in their environment, we think that they are less bothered with what happens there as long as it does not affect them directly. However, in other cases like Shell and other illustrations, we found out that these companies try to make several adjustments when they find out that their organizations are not being perceived well by outsiders as well as some members of their staff. They employed several measures to correct the issue because they are aware that such acts could impede their employees’ attitude to work.
Also, we have been able to confirm certain theories from the research we conducted. Starting with the hierarchy needs of Abraham Maslow, we found out that employees have got several levels of needs. We were made to understand that some employees want to be associated with the success of the university, which is our case study, while for some, it is essential for them to be seen by other employees as those actually doing the work. They want to be appreciated by both colleagues and superiors. Looking at equity theory, we found out that a number of employees strive to belong to spectacular groups at the workplace. In the case of the responses we got from our case study and other readings, we can make the general assumptions that employees like to be involved in the decision making process of their organization. They like to be given the opportunity to take in productive activities that encourages corporate success. This participation therefore gives the participant who is the employee some form of ego as a member of a body that
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achieves its goals and aims. In order to buttress this point, we could consider the Fredrick Herzberg’s motivation hygiene theory which says that a sense of recognition, achievement, etc. stimulates individuals to perform their duties. As explained in the previous chapters of this work, recognition and achievement, amongst other motivational factors, could be either inwardly or outwardly obtained. Inwardly in the sense that an employee gains some level of recognition amongst his/her colleagues and superior while outwardly implies that an employee could be motivated by how the general public views his/her achievement. This could be in the form of how the media portrays the employee’s character.
In order to explain one of the responses of the respondent in respect of their actions being taken into consideration during decision making process and in relation to the consequences of such decisions, Skinners Theory explains that by stating clearly that organisations due to the effects of the consequences of their activities take into consideration only the positive reactions from the employees and ignore the negative reactions. Going back to the main purposes of this thesis which we stated in our chapter one, we will like to say that we have been able to accomplish our aims. We have been able to provide our curiosity with answers which follows by stating our purposes again as well as explaining what we have achieved so far concerning it.
6.1.1 KNOW THE ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY ORGANIZATION(S) Here, in the case of our subject; BTH, we were able to come up with the activities of the university which we listed in chapter two. Also, we know that organizational activities could encompass a lot of practices in the organization. This we believe we have been able to tackle in bits in the previous chapters of this thesis and thus diagrammatically represented below:
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Organizational Activities
Organization’s Decisions
Organization’s Strategies
Social Responsibilities in the organization’s immediate environment
Targeted Customers
Management Style
Policies and Structures
Figure xxii: An organization’s activities
6.1.2
KNOW
THE
EXTERNAL
CONSEQUENCES
OF
THOSE
ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES From the data we collated, we found out that organizational activities have several consequences outside the walls of the office of the organization which we believe could have effects on the organization itself. However, in the case of BTH, the external consequences of the university’s activities include the following: • • • Collaboration between schools for student and/or teacher exchange, research purposes. Cooperation with industries to ensure student employments after graduation. Socially, BTH has improved the lives of the residents of these communities by the effecting the establishment of new succeeded in changing the lives of the residents of the communities where the campuses of the university are located. • And economically, the activities of BTH which includes educating students as well as employing staffs that will provide tuition to students and also do other activities in the university, has succeeded in generating income and taxes for these communities. This has been as a result of students and workers apartments, etc renting
From the illustrations we made as well as several readings we made relating to this thesis, we noticed that external consequences could also include the following:
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•
When organisations have a negative reputation on its external environment, the share capital of the organisation could be affected because the people might not have the trust to invest in such organisation.
•
On the other hand, when an organisation as a good reputation. The people in the environment will promote the company even when they are not asked to do so. This is because they have had a good encounter with the company and they have a good story to tell.
6.1.3
KNOW
HOW
THESE
CONSEQUENCES
AFFECT
EMPLOYEE
MOTIVATION The external consequences of organizational activities affect the workers motivation negatively when the motives behind such activities are not in accordance with the actual plan of the organization.
Management
Operative units
Supporting units
External Consequences
Motivation of the employees in the operative and supportive units
Fig xxiii: BTH activity Chart (b)
Explaining with figure xxiii in order to know how external consequences affect employee motivation, we believe that when decisions are made at the top management, these
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decisions are effected by both the operative and supportive units of the university which causes directly or indirectly, some external consequences in the outside environment of the university which could in-turn affect the motivation of employees negatively when: : • Workers are not carried along in the decision making process. This implies that when employees are not well-informed of the procedures of the organization in matters relating to how decisions are made in the organization. We chose to point this out from the responses we got from our case study which means that workers are not pleased with their organization when they do not how decisions are made. Also, according to Fredrick Hertzberg, certain hygiene and motivation factors affect employee motivation. These factors could be made glaring when employees’ interest in organizational task, the desire to be involved in organizational growth and advancement to higher level task is hampered with. Which is to say that employees are not given the full support to take part in the entire activities of the organization • The workers do not see the use of such activities. This is to say that employees’ motivation is affected when they do not know why the organization they work for is carrying out one activity or the other in its environment. This could be explained better in the case of shell Nigeria, the employees of the oil company do not know why they company is not catering for the society especially when they destroyed the means of the society’s livelihood; fishing. Though the company has the capability of catering for these people but the organization does not see any usefulness in spending money on that and at the same time, the employees cannot see any good reason in this particular activity of the organization which in-turn affects their motivation to work. • The workers are not given a role to play. This point could also be likened to the first point here. When employees do not see themselves as a part of an organization as well as when they are given specific tasks, they do feel motivated to work. From the analysis we carried out on the responses we got from our questionnaire, we found out that a number of employees in our case study as well
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as employees generally, like to be challenged. Employees like it when they are given specific tasks to carry out and with that they perform such tasks with their might because they are aware that they may get a reward at the end of it all; a reward they will not like to share with others as well as a reward that will not only be noticed by the internal environment of the organization but also the external environment. Apparently, there are also positive ways in which the external consequences of an organization’s activities can affect the motivation of its workers. We believe strongly that when the 3 points explained above are corrected as well as taken into consideration, along side other points that we have been able to explain in the previous chapters of this thesis; employees will be motivated to carry out their duties. This implies that when employees are involved in the decision making process of their organization, when they are fully in support of the activities of their organization, and finally, amongst other points, they are given specific roles to play, they will be eager and also stimulated to perform their duties.
6.1.4 IDENTIFY CERTAIN EXTERNAL FACTORS THAT ACTUALLY MEASURES EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION In the case of BTH, we were able to identify certain external factors that affect employee motivation. This could be seen in the situation where employees have direct relationships with the communities where they are presently located; these employees might find it difficult to adjust when they are moved away from such a community where they used to find solace.
Another external factor that affects employee motivation is how the legitimacy of their organization is being perceived by the public. This point of legitimacy cannot be overemphasized because it does affect the motivation of employees to a great extent.
From the interviews we conducted, almost all the residents of Ronneby and Karlshamn believe that the decision taken will not do any good to the school and its environment. Also for the focus groups, about 50% of the students that participated in the focus group 75
believe that the decision was right while the other 50% believe that the decision was not a perfect one. The decision has been made but to a very large extent, as far as our thesis work is concerned in relation to the information we were able to gather, the decision will affect the motivation of the workers of BTH. We will also like to state that the points we raised in the previous subsections 6.1.2 and 6.1.3 of this chapter are also factors that measure employee motivation either positive or negatively.
Furthermore, we stated in the earlier chapters of this thesis that our analysis will help provide answers to our main purposes of writing this thesis work and achieving our purposes will eventually give answer(s) to our research question which is how do the external consequences of organizational activities affect employee motivation? As can be seen above, we strongly believe that we have been able to achieve our aims and ultimately give answer(s) to our research question. The conclusion of the matter is that for there to be a change not everyone will be satisfied with it but while they are all grumbling, we need to make them see reasons to it to do what they ought to do, to make employees know that at the long run the decision will pay off, that is why we have the following recommendations.
6.2 RECOMMENDATIONS • The newly employed staffs should be included at some level of the decision making process of the university. We think this will do good to the university because we found out from our research that, a number of the newly employed members of staff seem to be unaware of the procedures of the university in terms of its decisions. •
Another point we will like to raise here is that a lot of these staffs that will be moving from their various locations, are used to the environment which could affect their motivation to work. Also, we found out that one of the factors that stimulate the university’s employees is a good environment and if the university will like to maintain that, the new campus in Karlskrona should be made conducive for all.
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•
For the university to make good decisions that will affect the motivation of workers positively, the university needs to carryout a survey among the staffs regularly to know their views and to know what to put in place before such activities or any decision is taken.
•
And finally, we noticed that some employees feel that they are not appreciated enough. They feel that the university does not really appreciate those that deserve the necessary rewards. We are therefore addressing this issue because some employees feel dissatisfied in this area and this could lead to the resignation of such employees if the issue is not tackled. We believe that every worker should be happy at work; they all deserve that.
To this end, we will like to stress the point that organizational activities, the external consequences of such activities and the motivation of the employees of an organization are all inter-related factors that need to work hand-in-hand in order to achieve a corporate success which we think is the sole aim of any establishment. Achieving corporate success could mean that the legitimacy of such an organization is being perceived positively which also goes a long way to affect the entire organization.
Corporate success could also mean that the organization is carrying out its social responsibility properly which could enable the organization to gain the interest of its environment both internally and externally. And finally, we think that corporate success could mean that both the employer and the members of staff are happy to do their work, in terms with the activities of the organization as well as eager to go to work to play their part in achieving this success.
6.3 FUTURE RESEARCH We think it would be of interest for researchers to look into other areas that could affect employee motivation. This could involve measuring employee motivation with
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government laws that could obstruct or aid organizational activities. This could be in the form of political or economic laws.
As explained earlier, a further research could also be done on how the entire society views an organization as well as how this view may affect employee motivation as well as what keeps employees going at work even when they are de-motivated. Finally, we think that employee motivation could be measured with some mathematical models. This we think would be interesting for future studies.
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APPENDIX I: COVER LETTER Dear Respondents,
We are students of the school of management writing our masters’ thesis on the topic: EFFECTS OF THE EXTERNAL CONSEQUENCES OF ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES ON EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION.
Find attached here, a copy of the questionnaire we designed to get your response on issues related to our topic. We will appreciate it if you spend a few minutes of your time filling this questionnaire.
Your responses will enable us to make a proper analysis of our research. Your responses shall be treated confidentially and anonymously. We kindly request you to complete this questionnaire honestly.
Thank you for your assistance as we anticipate your response.
Best Regards,
Fashakin Teniola Abiodun Odumade Adebola Oluwatosin
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APPENDIX II: QUESTIONNAIRE
Note To select your options, double-click on the inserted box. This opens the Check Box Form Field Options menu. Select "Checked", if you want a box checked. This inserts a check mark in the box.
1. SEX:
FEMALE
MALE
2. WHICH OF THE CAMPUSES DO YOU WORK? KARLSKRONA RONNEBY KARLSHAMN
3. WHICH OF THE DEPARTMENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY DO YOU WORK?
4. HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN A STAFF AT BTH? BELOW 5YRS 5- 10YRS ABOVE 10YRS
5. IS BTH A SUCCESS STORY? YES NO
6. IF YES, ARE YOU A PART OF THE SUCCESS STORY? YES NO
7. IF NO, ARE YOU A PART OF WHAT YOU THINK IT IS? YES NO
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8. ARE YOU IN ANYWAY ENCOURAGED TO DO YOUR WORK? YES NO
9. WHAT TYPE OF INCENTIVE STIMULATES YOU TO WORK?
10. DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE GAINED ANYTHING MORE THAN WHEN YOU JUST JOINED THE COMPANY? YES NO
11. ARE YOU A PART OF THE DECISION MAKING PROCESS OF THE UNIVERSITY? YES NO
12. IF YES, PLEASE EXPLAIN HOW YOU TAKE PART IN THE DECISION MAKING PROCESS OF THE UNIVERSITY.
13. IF NO, PLEASE EXPLAIN WHY YOU ARE NOT A PART OF THE DECISION MAKING PROCESS OF THE UNIVERSITY.
14. WHAT ARE THE POSSIBLE EFFECTS OF THE ACTIVITIES OF BTH ON YOUR ATTITUDE TO WORK?
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15. DO YOU THINK THAT THE ACTIVITIES OF BTH HAVE ANY EFFECT ON THE RESIDENTS OF THE COMMUNITIES WHERE THE CAMPUSES OF THE UNIVERSITY ARE PRESENTLY SITUATED? YES NO
16. IF YES, HOW DOES THE ACTIVITIES OF BTH AFFECT THE RESIDENTS OF THESE COMMUNITIES?
17. IF NO, WHY DO YOU THINK THAT THE ACTIVITIES OF BTH DOES NOT HAVE ANY EFFECT ON THE RESIDENTS OF THE COMMUNITIES OF BTH?
18. DOES THE FEELING OF THE RESIDENTS OF THIS COMMUNITY (WHERE YOU ARE LOCATED), IN RELATION TO THE ACTIVITIES OF BTH AFFECT YOU IN ANY WAY? YES NO
19. IF YES, PLEASE EXPLAIN HOW IT AFFECTS YOU?
20. YOUR POSITION HERE AS A BTH STAFF INVOLVES RELATING DIRECTLY/INDIRECTLY TO THE STUDENTS, DOES IT AFFECT YOU IN ANYWAY WHEN STUDENTS ARE DISSATISFIED WITH THE DECISIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY? YES NO
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21. THE BTH MANAGEMENT HAS TAKEN THE DECISION TO MERGE THE 3 CAMPUSES TOGETHER IN THE NEAREST FUTURE; DOES THIS AFFECT YOU IN ANY WAY? YES NO
22. IF YES, PLEASE EXPLAIN HOW THIS DECISION AFFECTS YOU
23. IF NO, PLEASE EXPLAIN WHY THIS DECISION DOES NOT AFFECT YOU
24. IF YOU HAD AN OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE SOME CHANGES AT BTH, WHAT WILL YOU CHANGE ABOUT IT?
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APPENDIX III: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 1. Do you live here? 2. How long have you been resident here? 3. What do you know about BTH? 4. As a resident of the community where BTH is situated, have you been affected in any way? 5. Are you aware that the 3 campuses of BTH will merge in Karlskrona in the nearest future? 6. What will be the possible effects of merger of the 3 campuses of BTH on you as a resident of the community? 7. What is your advice to the school authority on the merging of the three campuses?
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