The Impact of Culture on Employee Motivation in Public Sector Organization

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This post is a thesis review.

Researcher: C. B.

Abstract/Summary

This research aimed at investigating the impact of culture on employee motivation in Public Sector Organizations (PSOs) in Ghana. Its specific objectives were to determine employees’ perception of motivation in terms of financial and non-financial motivation in PSOs; the impact of organisational culture on employee motivation in PSOs and  the impact of national culture on employee motivation in PSOs.

The research employed a survey research design. Five PSOs with a total sample size of 250 employees were used; 50 from each PSO. More than fifty percent (65.6 %) of respondents were less than 41 years old, indicating a youthful human resource structure in PSOs, based on the sample. The study used Microsoft Excel 2010 and SPSS Version 16.0 in analysing the responses gathered from the respondents. Analysis of employee perception of employee motivation in PSOs revealed that, in general, employees of PSOs appear not to be really motivated by salaries, but rather by benefits, followed by incentives, and provision of training and development. Training and development may trigger either a passive or aggressive behavioural style within PSOs because they are significantly associated with those behavioural styles.  

The organizational culture in PSOs was largely characterized by an expectation of constructive behavioural style which is the most expectant dominant style in PSOs and it was moderately expected and has positive association with employee motivation, but this association is not significant. Power distance, uncertainty avoidance had a negative association with organizational culture. As power distance index within PSOs heightened, the greater the significance in reduction of employee motivation by co-workers and present job. There is therefore the need to properly “re-engineer” certain attributes of employee motivation, organizational and national culture for maximum impact and productivity within PSOs.

Background

Against the background of increasing local and global competitiveness, it is crucial for any organisation, particularly for those in developing countries with limited skilled resources such as Ghana, to understand the impact of culture on employee motivation. This is because organisational effectiveness depends on how organisations manage their employees (Moynihan & Pandey, 2007).

Thus, in fulfilling managerial responsibilities, it should be recognized that people are no longer willing to work as they once did. The worker today is far different from that of twenty years ago. He is probably better educated. More than likely there are two bread-winners in the family. Women no longer see life and career in terms of their husbands; men are no longer the lords and masters of their households. The family continuity binding a worker to the same career his father had has ceased to exist (Sagar, 2013).

Motivation has been a problem with organizations, institutions and their employees since time immemorial (Ampofo, 2012). Motivating employees is a dilemma as culture plays a significant role in providing a framework where different motivational issues can act.  The process of motivation is not a straightforward one due to the diversity of individual’s needs. The task has been made even more difficult by the fact that personalized needs have altered in recent years. Thus, getting people to do their best work, even in trying circumstances, is one of managers’ most enduring and slippery challenges. Indeed, deciphering what motivates us as human beings is a centuries-old puzzle. It is hard to argue with the accepted wisdom, backed by empirical evidence, that a motivated workforce means better corporate performance (Lee, 2008).

Employee motivation is therefore a major factor in the success or failure of an organisation. Without a motivated workforce, productivity, morale, profits, product and service delivery suffers. To stay competitive, organizations must invest in effective strategies to motivate staff. Different factors motivate individuals and teams differently. Some people are motivated by money, others by opportunity for professional development, flexible schedules or a sense of accomplishment. From line managers to top executives, understanding what factors motivate employees is key to gaining human resource advantage that leads to success in our challenging marketplace (Javitch Associates, 2013).

Main Objective

To investigate the impact of culture on employee motivation in PSOs in Ghana.

Key Findings

Analysis of employee perception of employee motivation in PSOs reveal that, in general, employees of PSOs appear not to be really motivated by salaries, but rather firstly by benefits, followed by incentives, and provision of training and development. Training and development may trigger either a passive or aggressive behavioural style within PSOs because they are significantly associated with those behavioural styles. The giving of benefits may initiate aggressiveness in employees in PSOs because it is significantly negatively associated with this aggressive behavioural style, whereas recognition may probably lead to a passive behavioural style within the organization.

The organizational culture in state owned enterprises is largely characterized by an expectation of constructive behavioural style which is the most expectant dominant style in PSOs and it is moderately expected and has positive association with employee motivation, but this association is not significant. It is almost like, employees in state owned enterprises do not see constructive behavioural style as an advantage to them and so a very weak association between employee motivation and constructive behavioural style was observed.

Nonetheless, a stronger degree of positive association was found between employee motivation and expectation of passive organizational behavioural style, suggesting that employees within SOEs where passiveness is expected have a greater degree of motivation to work as compared to where constructive styles are expected. This positive association was statistically significant for incentives, recognition, and training and development.

Additionally, an expectation of aggressive organizational behavioural style was found to be negatively associated with employee motivation, implying that employees within PSOs where aggressiveness is expected have reduced motivation to work.  This negative association was statistically significant for benefits and training and development, suggesting that increase in these (i.e. benefits and training and development) may trigger competition rather than cooperation, increase propensity of employees to play politics and the like. Moreover, leadership, co-workers and employee’s present job had no significant impact on employee motivation in PSOs.

Power distance, and uncertainty avoidance had a negative association with organizational culture. As power distance index within PSOs heightened, the greater the significance in reduction in employee motivation by co-workers and present job.

Recommendation

Although data collected showed that constructive organizational behavioural style is the most expected behavioural style, this behavioural style is nonetheless weakly and not significantly associated with employee motivation. Perhaps one of the reasons for this situation is that employee motivation, over the years, has not been based on a constructive organizational behavioural style, but rather on a passive style. Whilst a constructive organizational behavioural style is more beneficial to the organization as a whole, a passive behavioural style is more favourable to individual employees. There is therefore the need to set up employee motivation schemes that reward teamwork more than individual work, thus re-orienting employees’ behaviour more towards a constructive organizational behavioural style.