Topic 6 - Motivation

This is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. In fact first you need to get the letter of permission to allow you to use the company signed by a senior named person of the company on the official letter head or via the official company email address. Then you have to forward that to [email protected] to seek permission to use the company name anonymously. Unless you comply with this requirement you have not complied with the necessary ethics [see pages 29 and 31 of the Information Pack) and it could be failed for this.

Trephena, Thanks you for your support. On the appendix 10 of the information pack, it is stated that a spreadsheet in excel format which demonstrate us of appropriate formulae MUST be included during submission. In terms of Topic 6 (Motivation), what can be the the content of the excel sheet considering nature of the topic? Regards, Yamikani.

Yes that's right you MUST submit a spreadsheet demonstrating used of varied formulae. For Topic 6 you would normally use a spreadsheet to show your raw data and from that you can sum the number of respondents and then calculate the percentage who responded to each question. There may also be scope to calculate averages (using the AVERAGE function).

Many thanks for your response Trephena. Regards, Yamikani.

Good day, I almost lost it..... Have no idea exactly what I am to do. However after doing some reading of the topic area I realized its not so hard. I am employed in a rank environment. Can I conduction my research on a particular category of employees instead of the entire organisation? I had received written permission to carry out the research on the organisation.

Very informative.............

I have failed topic 6 in p40. I failed 8 out of nine parts. I think i will fail even in my 2nd and 3rd submissions. I have considered leaving it and join local university for a degree program. I find the project costly and hard to pass and i may fail in all the 3 submissions and end up without getting the degree.

Unfortunately Topic 6 tends to have a,low pass rate -mostly because students carry out poor surveys not designed around the classical theories of motivation. This then means the evaluation is inappropriate and therefore this results in fails for 1,2,3 and 6. If the results are not set out in clear graphs then this would also be a fail for 4 (Presentation of the Data) and if the report is based on inappropriate results then the slides are also unlikely to be suitable (so a fail for 9). Therefore hopefully you now understand how important it is to design and conduct a good questionnaire as without this most of the report will fall to meet the Assessment Criteria.

Hi, after much research I've come across some very interesting questionnaire relating directly to the motivational theories. Can i modify the relevant questions applicable to my organisations and properly reference it in my RAP?

is it not important to give your overall analysis context?. i.e certain age group are more motivated than others in certain areas. example. Younger employees are interested in training opportunities vs older ones

Dianne if you are referring to the motivation questionnaire that appears in Luthans if you choose to do this then you must exercise great caution. From memory I believe it is based on only one motivation theory - whereas you need to explore about 3 theories. Secondly all work is put through Turnitin, the electronic checking program and it will match text that is similar [it is even 'clever' enough to spot efforts at rewording] also Luthans is used as a course textbook so markers will be quite familiar with it. Therefore you need to acknowledge that you have consulted such a questionnaire but have used it to GUIDE your own questionnaire. The operative word is 'guide' you need to ensure that it has only be used to inform your work appropriately and make this absolutely clear. Otherwise you could be failed for bad academic practice as work that demonstrates copying and plagiarism is first failed and then deferred and referred to the Academic Conduct Office Your idea about context in your evaluation is appropriate and also as I may have mentioned in earlier posts, so is looking at modern aspects of the working culture and environment such as flexible working and long-hours culture

Hey I just needed your help to confirm this one thing. If i choose to go for some big organisation like microsoft or apple do I still have to do a questionnaire as there is already a vast amount of research available which i can quote and use to further my own analysis ?

Hi, can we use "google form" to create the survey?

Thank you for your response.

Chasadmunir -you MUST do primary data collection for this topic. You could do Topic 18 (marketing strategies) using just secondary data research for a company such as Microsoft or Apple but definitely NOT Topic 6. If you consult the University mentee resources on their website there is a guidance sheet which informs you what type of data is required for each topic and you will see that primary data is essential for topic 6. How otherwise can you ascertain the motivation level of employees in the organisation without actually putting together a questionnaire to ask them about this?

Google or survey monkey or similar may be used but you need to consider and write up in Part 2 exactly how you designed the questionnaire, how you reached the target audience and how many people actually responded as well as include a copy of the questions in your appendix

Any advice on how to properly use comparative organisation for topic 6 please.

No because a comparator organisation is not required for this topic. The emphasis should be on doing a good analysis of the motivation within the chosen organisation. If there is to be any comparative analysis this would be with previous academic studies amongst similar worker groups or industry sectors

Dear Trephena, Could you elaborate on the point below. i am a bit confused. "If there is to be any comparative analysis this would be with previous academic studies amongst similar worker groups or industry sectors" Thank you.

You asked about using A comparative organisation - the answer is definitely NOT. However at a general level there have been worldwide studies by academics in relation to specific industry sectors e.g. motivation amongst civil servants in Malaysia; hotel workers in Mexico and that sort of thing. These sorts of studies may be BRIEFLY referred to in terms of whether your study findings showed major differences between the theories and aspects studied in such academic papers or similarities IF RELEVANT to your field of study e.g. yours is on civil servants/ government workers or hotel workers or the like. Then one can speak about cross-cultural differences etc.

Hi, For topic 6, what's the best way to structure the research questions?

Do you mean the overall report research questions or the questions in your survey? If the latter they should be mapped to the motivation theories you have chosen

Hi, My question is about the co. current policies. Say you are able to access the companies policies (given permission to do so) but not allowed to share and attached them your project. Kindly advice best way to make reference... or should we state that policies cannot be referred to...

Hi Trephena, I mean the overall report research questions. Is it okay to just have one ? for example, to determine the factors that motivate employees.

First you need to include a copy of the signed permission letter or email (from official company email address) with your submission Do an appendix in which you should set out the name of the document and outline the key points of what the policy covers. Then in Part 2 you should mention the policies in your data gathering and say you have outlined what the policy covers in Appendix XX and that you have not been allowed to give them to 3rd parties because of confidentiality issues In your work you should refer the reader to the relevant appendix (as a reference)

Whilst it is fine to have one objective (which should deal with the topic title), the idea of the research questions is that they are intended to guide your research and through answering them you achieve your report objective(s). So only one question is unlikely to be sufficient. The sorts of things you need to think about are (general examples): Is there evidence that the management style at Company XYZ affects the motivation of employees? Does motivation in company XYZ support Herzberg's theory of motivation? What measures, if any, does Company XYZ take to increase the motivation of its workforce? Does the labour turnover rate at the company indicate that the workforce corroborate the findings from the survey and indicate areas that need to be improved? (the last question would then guide your Recommendations section) Obviously the questionnaire has to be based on the research questions - and mapped to the theories. So the first question here for example would be based on theories from MacGregor and Herzberg. Therefore aspects of these theories should be reflected in appropriately worded questions in the questionnaire you use so that yousubsequently are exploring the application of these theories in your analysis and evaluation

Hi, can likert scale result be quantified to ranked in order of highest motivating factor to least motivating factor. i.e finding the mean there are different views online that says ordinal data cannot be quantified and others are saying its ok. Grateful for some clarity from the experts in this group. Thanks.

You need to relate your findings to the motivation theories. It is not sufficient just to produce bar charts/ graphs / pie charts - it is the implication of the findings in relation to established research on motivation theory which you need to evaluate. It doesn't matter whether your findings agree or disagree with these but the way you have demonstrated appropriate analysis and evaluation which matters. There is no prescriptive layout however you would normally evaluate the theories before the analysis and evaluation of your actual findings remembering to consider the limitations of both those theories and any techniques and sources you have chosen to use. You should also upload a document that shows how you have mapped your survey questions to the various motivation theories

You need to relate your findings to the motivation theories. It is not sufficient just to produce bar charts/ graphs / pie charts - it is the implication of the findings in relation to established research on motivation theory which you need to evaluate. It doesn't matter whether your findings agree or disagree with these but the way you have demonstrated appropriate analysis and evaluation which matters. There is no prescriptive layout however you would normally evaluate the theories before the analysis and evaluation of your actual findings remembering to consider the limitations of both those theories and any techniques and sources you have chosen to use. You should also upload a document that shows how you have mapped your survey questions to the various motivation theories

Hello, I got stuck with the analysis part. 1. one of my objectives is the impact of employee benefit on motivation. i am trying to link the survey result to Maslow's hierarchy of needs. (safety need) and it is just not working in my head. can you please give an illustration on how to link this? i look forward to your response soon. thanks