Introduction
The methods and techniques to increase employees’ motivation are one of the central topics in staff management. Managers investigate these methods through the thorough reading of different case studies describing businesses’ successful attempts to increase staff motivation. The article “Factors Affecting Motivation of Employees in the Public Sector: Case Study in Erbil, Iraq,” written by Hassoo and Akbay, presents an attempt to understand the “demand” side of this motivation problem. In other words, it touches the perception of public sector staff on the factors that can motivate them in their workplace.
Motivation Factors
To produce relevant results of their study, Hassoo and Akbay needed to understand factors influencing staff motivation. They considered intrinsic variables and extrinsic variables as the main drivers (Hassoo & Akbay, 2020). Intrinsic variables refer to the activities of personal interest and autonomous preferences. For example, interesting work, the possibility of promotion, career perspectives, and so forth. Extrinsic motivation variables mean that the worker is doing something because of a reward or punishment that can follow after that action. Hasoo and Akbay (2020) give examples such as merit bonuses, job security, the social climate, and private office space. One of the drawbacks of that approach is that it is not always clear whether some factor is a self-determined (intrinsic) kind of motivation or an extrinsic one.
Sample and Methodology
The authors of the article created a questionnaire survey to know the attitudes of workers to motivation factors. The survey was conducted in the province Erbil in Iraq during 2019. From this fact, there can be some questions about the validity of the results because of the extremely authoritarian nature of the Iraq state and government. Nevertheless, it is useful to increase knowledge on motivation through the research of unusual cases. Hassoo’s and Akbay’s sample consisted of 250 workers in the private sector. To examine the hypothesis, the authors used binary logistic regression. This type of regression helps to explain the variation of dichotomous dependent variables.
Research findings
Before starting the explanation of binary logistic regression results, the authors comment on the basic results of the survey. According to questionnaire results, the biggest percentage of respondents indicated that they “want their managers to officially identify their job” (Hassoo & Akbay, 2020, p. 417). Other important motivation factors are a well-structured learning process, justice from the managers, a positive working environment, good relationships with the managers, and rewards (Hassoo & Akbay, 2020). Therefore, one of the conclusions is that workers need some positive feedback from their managers to improve job satisfaction and motivation.
The last part of the article was devoted to logit regressions. The authors divided their independent variables on social demographic characteristics and employee characteristics. Variables of social-demographic characteristics showed a statistically significant relationship between motivation and variables “education”, “job status” (Hassoo & Akbay, 2020, p. 418). However, there was no statistically significant relationship with independent variables “gender”, “age”, “marital status”, “salary” and “number of members in the family” (Hassoo & Akbay, 2020, p. 418). As for the second part of variables, a significant relationship was detected with variables “Training and development”, “Justice”, and “Job security” (Hassoo & Akbay, 2020, p. 420). These factors can be added to the list of 2 previous variables that were mentioned.
Conclusion
The topic of motivation presents the substantial ground for conducting case studies. Hassoo and Akbay conducted a questionnaire survey of 250 workers in the private sector in Iran. Using binary logistic regression, the research showed that the level of education, employees’ job status, appropriate training, justice from the managers, and job security are the major drivers of motivation. These findings can help to elaborate a more structured policy to increase the motivation of employees.
References
Hassoo, A. K., & Akbay, C. (2020). Factors affecting motivation of employees in public sector: Case study in Erbil, Iraq. Revista de Management Comparat International, 21(3), 412-422.