Organisational culture and Employee Motivation

AUTHOR’S DELCARATION

I declare that the work in this dissertation was carried out in accordance with the

Regulations of Glyndwr University. The work is original except where indicated by

special reference in the text and no part of the dissertation has been submitted for

any other degree.

Any views expressed in the dissertation are those of the author and in no way

represent those of Glyndwr University.

This dissertation has not been presented to any other university for examination

either in the United Kingdom or overseas.

This dissertation is being submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the

degree of MBA.

I hereby give consent for my dissertation, to be available for photocopying and for

inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside

organizations.

SIGNED: ............................ PRINTNAME: Shabir Ahmad Wani

DATE: ............................. STUDENT NUMBER : S09002737.

Email: [email protected]

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Impact Of Organisational Culture On

Employee Motivation: A case study on

Jammu & Kashmir Bank Ltd.

By:

Shabir Ahmad Wani

(S09002737)

A dissertation submitted to Glyndŵr University in accordance with the requirements of the degree of

Master of Business Administration

January, 2011

Word count: 21527

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of organizational culture on employee

motivation. The domains of organizational culture (organizational values, individual beliefs,

working environment, and employee relationships) and the employee motivation were

investigated by the researcher in this study. In order to find the culture-motivation link, mixed

method approach for data collection has been used to collect data required to complete this

study. The researcher, by the help of Pearson’s and Spearman’s Correlation methods has

been able to find a positive correlation between the two. The results of this study were that

organizational culture has its impact on employee motivation and indirectly on the

organizational performance as well. The better the organizational culture higher will be the

motivational level of employees.

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Chapter 1: Introduction([email protected])

1.1introduction

In this contemporary corporate world, every organisation aims to get the best possible

performance from its employees. Human Resource Management is one of the important

assets of an organisation as it deals with the people working over there (Griffin, 2007). By

implementing suitable motivational policies and principles, HRM buys the commitment of

employees. In order to achieve the organisational goals, employees of that very organisation

need to be motivated properly to get the optimum results out of them. The topic of this

research is ‘Impact of Organisational Culture on Employee Motivation’ of Jammu and

Kashmir bank ltd. (Brown, 1998) states that there is an essentially important link between

organisational culture and motivational factors and thus both of them are responsible for the

performance level of an organisation. Brown further described motivation as an important

element to be present for better performance of an organisation.

1.2 Company Overview

J&K bank has been founded before the independence of India in 1938. The Bank is owned

partly by government and partly by private sector. After the partition of India in 1947, the

state of Jammu and Kashmir emerged as a disputed territory between India and Pakistan.

Those circumstances hit the functioning of the bank as some of its major branches were in

the regions that were occupied by Pakistan. The J&K bank along with the other

organisations in the state suffered since the partition because of the political disturbance and

the wars fought between India and Pakistan over the issue of Kashmir. According to

Business India (vol: 642-647), the bank is currently in a developing stage with over 500

branches all over India, most of which are in Jammu & Kashmir. The bank employs over

7000 employees in whole. The Bank is also a member of National Stock Exchange (NSE)

and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Besides the basic function like lending and accepting

the deposits of money from people, the Bank has also made its ties with MET Life India

insurance and Bajaj Allianz insurance Co. Ltd. Because of its semi-government ownership,

the bank helps its customers to accrue tax benefits by offering desired investing schemes.

In its annual reports 2006-2007, the J&K bank reiterates its commitment to making the bank

a model employer and ensuring that the bank provides a work place, work culture, and work

environment that engages the intellectual and emotional commitment of all employees

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(Kazmi, 2008). As per the survey conducted in 2007, employees were not generally happy

with the work culture and the developmental climate; they were dissatisfied with the reward

system. Most of the employees felt that creativity was discouraged and complained that

senior managers adopted a secretive attitude. In addition, it was felt that the bank adopts a

reactive culture, there was a lack of autonomy, inadequate training and career planning, and

computerisation was introduced haphazardly. Whole of the survey resulted in the conclusion

that the HR climate was not motivating (Kazmi, A 2008).

1.3 Background

According to Ricky (2007), culture is an important part of internal environment of an

organisation. Organisational culture is the set of values, beliefs, behaviours, customs, and

attitudes that helps the members of the organisation understand what it stands for, how it

does things, and what it considers important.

In 1997, Hofstede while researching on organisational culture stated that culture of

organisations is the collective programming of mind that distinguishes the members of one

organisation from another. According to Hofstede, organisational cultures are different from

that of national culture. Unlike national cultures, people are conscious of organisational

cultures and they learn this culture later in their life at workplace (cited from Hofstede, 2005).

Schneider (2004) proposed that an organisation’s culture establishes the rules within which

people act in addition to the ways and methods in which people communicate. Through an

understanding of group culture, employees know exactly what is required of them in any

given situation (Deal and Kennedy, 2000) and it also replaces the need to enforce rigid

procedures or control mechanisms through rigorously explicit supervision because it

functions as an internal control mechanism that coordinates employee efforts (Lee-Ross and

Lashley, 2003).

As culture is ‘the way things are done within a group’ it sets priorities and expectations,

enabling people to learn and understand what is important, subsequently identifying those

actions that lead to punishment and those that lead to reward. Besides, Brown, 1998 stated

that there is a link between culture and motivational factors which are essential for the

organisation’s performance.

As per Schein (2009), it is tempting to emphasize the significance of corporate cultures for

performance, growth, and success. In the beginning of 1980’s, books identifying the

characteristics of excellent companies in USA (Peters and Waterman, 1982) and the secrets

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behind the at the time successful Japanese companies (e.g. Ouchi 1981), highlighted

organisational culture.

According to Boddy 2002, many organisations have been seen emerging with great success

while achieving the organisational goals, then after a few years, these organisations fail to

demonstrate consistency in performance and hence fail to produce goods and services in

the way they used to. Boddy blames organisational culture for such outcome. According to

him, organisational culture has an important and direct influence on behaviour of the people

of an organisation. He believes that organisation culture can either encourage an employee

to give out his best for the sake of organisational goals or it can discourage or demoralize

people and can be dangerous for the performance of the organisation.

Geert Hofstede started researching on national culture in 1970’s and later he researched on

organisational culture (Hofstede, 2005). In his primary research, he found that national

culture is revealed in several ways. He described these ways as symbols and these are;

Heroes, Rituals, and Values.

1.4 Research question

Critically examine and analyse the impact of organisational culture on employee motivation.

1.5 Aims and objective

Is organisational culture strong enough to motivate or de-motivate employees?

Analyze the impact of organisational culture on company performance.

1.6 Justification of the topic

Alvesson, M (2002), describes organisational culture as an issue in management practise,

organisation theory, and in academic research as well. He has stated many reasons for this:

the cultural dimensions are central in all aspects of organisational life. Even in those

organisations where cultural issues receive little explicit attention, how people think, feel,

value and act are guided by ideas, meaning and beliefs of a cultural nature. Whether

managers think that culture is too soft or too complicated to bother about, or whether there is

no unique corporate culture, does not reduce the significance of culture. Senior

organisational members are always, in one way or another managing culture. Culture is as

significant and complex as it is difficult to understand and use it in a thoughtful way. Even in

this contemporary business world, there is often a lack of deeper understanding of how

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people and organisations function in terms of culture so as to achieve the organisational

goals. Davenport and Prusak (2000) suggest that culture is highly significant for how

companies and other organisations function: from strategic change to everyday leadership

and how managers and employees relate to and interact with customers as well as to how

knowledge is created, shared, maintained, and utilized.

1.7 Research limitations

According to Gray et al (2007), research by its nature is limited to a range of either individual

or group behaviour. Secondly, a research is not capable of generating a broad range of data

about the characteristics of large populations. Patton (2000) argues that no research is

perfect, there are always limitations. Moreover, this research has many limitations:-

Researcher had limited time to conduct this research due to time constraint.

Sample size is not too large which makes research limited to few thoughts.

Research was conducted on particular branches which restricts researcher to cover a

broader area.

1.8 Dissertation structure

This research will be based on six chapters. In chapter one, author has presented the

background and introduction, research question, aims and objectives and the justification of

the topic.

Chapter two is literature review, which identifies and discusses some relevant literature that

is already available on the subject matter. This chapter is to establish a solid background of

information required to complete the research area.

Third chapter is research methodology which describes how the research was conducted on

the basis of questionnaires and interviews etc. There will be a detailed explanation of the

usage of these methods.

Chapter four will be based on summary of the results obtained from the research

methodology. By analysing data, it will be possible to present the findings of the research.

In chapter five, author will draw a suitable conclusion from the findings and relate them to the

primary objectives in order to determine whether the research has met its objectives.

Chapter six will be based on the number of suitable and realistic recommendations given to

the organisation, on methods to improve the organisational culture to achieve a totally

motivated team of employees.

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Chapter 2: Literature Review2.1 introduction

This part of the research is very essential and is regarded as the back bone for this

dissertation. This will help in the establishment of solid background that is essential to

investigate the impact of organisational culture on employee motivation. Different school of

thoughts would be reviewed to understand the core concept about the topic. Relevant

theories and models will be discussed and analysed in order to provide an insight to what is

already known on the subject matter.

2.2 Organisational culture

A glance at just a few works that use the term ‘organisational culture’ reveal enormous

variation in the definitions of this term and even more in the use of the term ‘culture’.

‘Culture’ has no fixed or broadly agreed meaning even in anthropology (Junge, 2008), but

variations in its use is especially noticeable in the literature on organisational culture. The

broad variations of scientific disciplines and research orientations involved in ‘organisational

culture’ studies makes the field very heterogeneous. The concept of culture seems to lend

itself to very different uses as collectively shared forms for example, ideas and cognition,

symbols and meanings, values and ideologies, rules and norms, emotions and

expressiveness, as the collective unconscious, as behaviour patterns, structures and

practices etc. (Alvesson 2002). Moving on to the other definition, ‘talking about

organisational culture seems to mean talking about the importance of people of symbolism-

of rituals, myths, stories, and legends, and about interpretations of events, ideas, and

experiences that are influenced and shaped by the groups within which they live.

Organisational culture has an important role in the understanding of organisational

behaviour’ (Alvesson, 2002; p3). However, Robbins (2006) described culture as a

descriptive term, in that it is concerned with how employees perceive the characteristics of

an organisation’s culture, not with whether or not they like them. Research on organisation

seeks to measure how employees see their organisation. He further backed the definition of

Alvesson (2002) and explained that organisational culture refers to a system of shared

meaning held by members of an organisation, distinguishing the organisation from other

organisations. This system of shared meanings is, upon closer examination, a set of key

characteristics that the organisation values. According to Kumar (2001) and Robbins (2006),

research suggested seven characteristics that, in aggregate, capture the essence of

organisational culture. These are as follows:-

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2.3 Characteristics of organisational Culture

Innovation and risk taking: the degree to which employees in an

organisation are encouraged to be innovative and risk taking.

Attention to detail: the degree to which employees are expected to

exhibit precision, analysis, and attention to detail or task.

Outcome orientation: the degree to which management focuses on

results or outcomes rather than on the techniques and processes

used to achieve these outcomes.

People orientation: the degree to which management decisions take

into consideration the effect of outcomes on people within the

organisation.

Team orientation: the degree to which work activities are organised

around teams rather than individuals.

Aggressiveness: the degree to which the people are aggressive and

competitive regarding their work rather than easy going.

Stability: the degree to which organisational activities emphasise

maintaining the status quo in contrast to growth.

2.4 Organisational culture guiding employee behaviours

Culture serves as a sense-making and control mechanism that guides and shapes the

attitudes and behaviours of employees (Kumar, N 2001). Culture by definition is elusive,

implicit, and taken for granted. But every organisation develops a core set of

understandings, assumptions, and implicit rules that govern day-today behaviour at work

place. Until new comers learn the rules, they are not accepted as full-fledged members of

the organisation. Transgressions of the rules on the part of high level executives or front line

employees result in universal disapproval and powerful penalties (Jex, S 2002). The role of

organisational culture in influencing employee behaviour appears to be increasingly

important since last two decades. As organisations have widened spans of control, flattened

structures, introduced teams, reduced formalisation, and empowered employees, the shared

meaning provided by a strong culture ensures that everyone is pointed in the same direction

(Borowsky 1994).

Organisational culture is responsible for creating the high level of commitment and

performance as per suggested by the results of the global research (Martin 2000).

Organisational culture is directly proportional to the performance of the organisation.

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Organisational culture is a significant tool for the managers to create a desired enthusiasm

among the employees for the betterment of the organisational outcome. In this case, Brown

(1998) suggests that managers and employees do not behave in a value free vacuum. They

are governed, directed, and tempered by the organisation’s culture.

This research will go through approaches of different dimensions of culture like gender,

religion, and ethnicity in order to investigate the impact of organisation’s culture on employee

motivation, resulting in the better performance of the organisation. There is no universal

culture that could be adopted by the organisations. So, every organisation comes up with its

own unique culture consisting of gender, religion, ethnicity, leadership style, communication

methods and etc Wilson et al (2005).

Gender is one of the significant factors having its impact on employee behaviour. There

have been many cases found where men are being provided higher and better positions

than women. According to Wilson et al (2005), although there are organisations who claim to

be providing equal rights for both genders, but they fail to put that in practise. According to

Schoenberger (1997), if the women are not given proper recognition and suitable promotion,

it can cause lack of job satisfaction and resentment towards their job resulting in a big loss to

an organisation. In order to get the best out of them, organisations need to reward women in

the same way as they reward men.

We live in a multi-cultural society and ethnical differences are too much apparent and should

be accepted by the people of different ethnical backgrounds. However, Martin (2000) gave

stress on ethnicity by mentioning it as a big issue for the organisations.

Good communication is regarded as one of the significant factors to be present in an

organisation so as to achieve the desired goals in an effective manner. Moorhead and Griffin

(1995), however, stated that managers, nowadays, often fail to deliver the message to

employees in a clear and precise manner. Poor communication will result in a disturbed and

poor organisational behaviour and employees present there would be left in a confused

environment where goals, tasks, and objectives are unclear. Hienigan (2002) stated that

poor communication results in an unstable working environment and can become a cause

for employee de-motivation.

One of the important dimensions of culture is leadership. According to Schein (1992), there

is no best style of leadership. What may work effectively in one company, may not work in

other. Leadership is the heart and soul of an organisational culture. The type of leadership

style management wishes to use will effect an organisation either positively or negatively.

According to McNeil (2007), an effective leadership should take into consideration the all the

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factors leading to the positive influence on employee behaviour. These include the factors

leading to the motivation by providing training, offering incentives, providing promotion and

recognition to the employees. These kinds of approaches would obviously make employees

work harder for the success of the organisation. Dominant culture expresses the core values

that are shared by the majority of the organisation’s members. According to Jain (2005),

strong cultures have a great impact on employee behaviour and are more directly related to

the reduced turnover. It is because of the strength of the culture that the core values of

organisation are intensely held and widely shared. The more the members accepting the

core values, the more they turn committed to those values.

2.5 Aspects of culture

Definitions of culture abound in the literature and the elements of culture have been widely

analysed and discussed. This research takes its starting from a definition of Hofstede.

However, there is a general agreement that culture is reflected in the way things are done by

a group and most researchers concur on the six aspects of culture identified by Cameron

and Quinn (2005), these are as under:-

Cultures are the property of groups and not individuals.

Cultures engage the emotions as well as the intellect.

Cultures are based on shared experiences and thus on the histories of groups of

people. Cultural development takes time.

Cultures are infused with symbols and symbolism.

Cultures continually change circumstances force people to change.

Cultures are inherently fuzzy in that they incorporate contradictions, paradoxes,

ambiguities, and confusion.

2.6 Cultural variability theory

This is the most widely cited set of cultural dimensions. This model came from studies of

IBM and was first published in 1980 (Black, 2003). Geert Hofstede (1980, 1984, 1991, 2001,

and 2003) examined work attitudes across 40 cultures. His work revealed that four

dimensions of cultural values were held by more than 100,000 corporate managers and

employees. Power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity-femininity, and

individualism-collectivism are the said four cultural dimensions observed by Hofstede from

his studies and these four dimensions comprise cultural variability theory.

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2.6.1 Power distance

According to Schein (1992), the allocation of influence, power, and authority is the major

issue in any group or team. He further described in 2010 that all groups and cultures have

the issue of how to manage aggression and that is why broad surveys of cultures such as

Hofsted’s identified the dimension of power distance. Black (2003) described power distance

as a dimension showing the extent to which the less powerful members of society accept

that power is unequally shared. According to Hofstede (2001), power distance depends

heavily on management style, willingness of subordinates to disagree with superiors, and the

educational level and status accruing to particular roles. Child and Keiser (2000), in their

study about organizational culture found power distance as a significant factor affecting

organizational culture. Hofstede (2001) explained further that communication is affected due

to large power distance, in that it is formalized, challenged, and always appropriate with the

proper protocol. On the contrary, communication gets informal and with less prescribed

behaviour with small power distance (Schoenberger, 1997).

2.6.2 Uncertainty avoidance

According to West and Turner (2008), it can be tricky to understand uncertainty avoidance.

They described that this concept refers to how tolerant or intolerant a person is of

uncertainty. They further explained that the cultures that resist change and have high levels

of anxiety associated with change are said to have high level of uncertainty avoidance.

However, Black (2003) explained this concept as a tool to measure the extent to which

people feel threatened by the uncertain or unknown happenings. Cultures with high degree

of uncertainty avoidance desire predictability and need special laws to guide behavior and

personal conduct. West and turner (2008) mentioned that cultures of USA, Denmark, Britain,

and Switzerland have got low degree of uncertainty avoidance. They take risks comfortably

and are less aggressive and less emotional. On the other hand, Greece, Chile, Portugal,

Japan, and India tolerate only little uncertainty. Risky decisions are discouraged in these

cultures as they increase uncertainty.

2.6.3 Masculinity-Femininity

Hofstede (2001) identifies the dimensions of masculinity and femininity as the extent to

which cultures represent masculine and feminine traits in their society. West and Turner

(2008) suggest that this concept should not be treated like masculine as ‘male’ and feminine

as ‘female’, although these terms still reinforce stereotypical notions of how men and women

should behave. According to Wilson (2004), masculine culture focuses on achievement,

competitiveness, strength, and material success. He described the importance of money in

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masculine cultures. On the other hand, feminine cultures emphasize on sexual equality,

nurturance, quality of life, supportiveness, and affection. Compassion for the less fortune

also characterizes feminine culture (West and Turner, 2008).

2.6.4 Individualism-collectivism

When a culture values individualism, it prefers competition over cooperation, the individual

over the group and private over the public West and Turner, 2008). Buchanan and

Huczynski in their study in (2004) observed that individualism and collectivism were the most

important cultural value that affected the behavior of employees to either respond positively

or negatively to the team work. Individualism refers to the culture where people take care of

themselves and their immediate families while in case of collectivism; a tight social

framework is formed in which people distinguish between in-groups and out-groups (Deal

and Kennedy, 1990, West and Turner, 2008). However, Black (2003) describes this concept

as a difference between societies where a few ties beyond those of the nuclear family and

those where people are in favour of cohesiveness and collective team work.

2.7 Motivation

Since 1960, researchers have started showing great interest in motivation. Along with the

research in the areas like HRM and organisational behaviour, employee motivation has

become a fascinating topic (Gunkel, 2006). The researchers have been placing focus on the

process of employee motivation as well as on the factors like rewards, work

culture/environment responsible for their motivation.

It is not possible for an organisation to achieve desired results without a motivated staff. Staff

motivation is critical in order to get the optimum outcome from the employees for the sake of

organisational goals. Incentives (intrinsic/extrinsic), rewards, leadership style and more

importantly the organisational culture need to be paid strong attention in order to create an

environment where the employees are committed to give their best for the sake of

organisational goals (Armstrong, 2005). Ambrose and Kulik, (1999) suggested motivation as

the force (both internal and external) that initiate work related behaviour. According to Khan

(1997), in this contemporary corporate world, organisations have been experiencing a

speedy change regarding their outcomes and performance. Companies must ensure the

motivation of their employees so as to make them committed for best outcomes, in order to

compete in the global competition. Flick et al. (1998) backed this view and suggested that

human factors are equally responsible as others for the excellence of an organisation. He

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stated that it is in the essence of the companies to understand the behaviour of their staff

and provide the motivating factors in order to achieve success. In this regard, Riskin, (2002)

came with the strong empirical support to state that effective people management and

behaviour is a strong factor for an organisation to operate profitably.

There is a psychological and behavioural uniqueness present in humans and that is why

people tend to choose and get engaged in desired pattern of behaviours. In this regard,

Mitchell (1982) has suggested four characteristics of motivation that help in the

understanding of the employee motivation;

Every person consists of uniqueness and different attributes; hence the major

theories of motivation are based on the theme to demonstrate that uniqueness.

Motivation is of versatile nature or multifaceted. Willingness of an individual to get

started or activated and the force that engages him in the given behaviour are the

two important factors for this multifaceted nature of motivation.

To predict human behaviour is the basic purpose of motivational theories. Motivation

is directly concerned with the acts and the forces (internal and external) that have its

influence on an individual’s choice of action. Motivation is neither behaviour nor a

performance itself.

Motivation, in an organisation doesn’t come itself; rather it is an intentional effort. It is

assumed to be under the control of the people who are influenced by it.

It is now clearly understandable that in order to determine the performance of the operations

of an organisation, it is essential to determine how motivated their employees are. But on the

other hand, Mullins (1999) came with a different concept. According to him an employee

gets motivated because of certain forces that drive him to perform a task so as to fulfil his

needs and expectations. An organisations culture and philosophy of employee development

determine whether the organisation treats its employees as assets or merely as resources to

meet immediate business needs (London and Mone, 1987).

2.8 Motivational theories

Motivation is the desire within a person causing him/her to act. People usually work to

achieve any desired goal. Thus motivation is a goal-directed drive, and it seldom occurs in

void. The words need, want, desire, and drive are all similar to motive, from which the word

motivation is derived. There have been various approaches to understand motivation

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because different theorists have developed their own views and models in order to

understand motivation (Mathis and Jackson, 2007).

Maslow (in his book ‘motivation and personality’, 1954) suggested that man has a hierarchy

of five needs beginning with the basic need of physiological well being and goes up to

realization of one’s potential (see fig. 2.1) (Rosdahl and Kowalski, 2007). The nature

hierarchy of needs given forward by Maslow lay down a systematic approach that a manager

can apply to motivate his subordinates (Kondalkar, 2009). According to Smoke (2005),

Maslow’s hierarchy theory suggest that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs

and that certain lower level needs need to be satisfied before higher needs can be satisfied.

He further mentioned that physiological, safety, love and esteem are the four general types

of needs that must be satisfied before a person can act unselfishly. Maslow’s Hierarchy

theory has been described in detail in appendix 3. However this theory has been criticized by

some authors for lying down needs in particular order (Kondalkar, 2009). This is because in

reality, it may not be so.

Fig.2.1: showing Maslow’s Hierarchy theory (Landy and conty, 2009; p369)

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In contrast to Maslow, Fredrick Herzberg theorized that motivation in the work place is

influenced by nonexclusive factors of job satisfaction. Herzberg surveyed workers to

determine what they appreciated about their jobs as well as what frustrated them about their

employment. His findings resulted in his two-factor theory (Davies and Hertig, 2007).

According to Herzberg’s suggestions, there are certain forces that collectively can provide

motivation for employees. Herzberg called these motivating factors as ‘motivators’.

Conversely when other factors are absent, employees become frustrated and unsatisfied.

Herzberg refers to these factors as hygiene factors (Lingard and Rowlinson, 2005). These

motivators and hygiene factors are shown in Fig 2.2 below;

Fig.2.2: showing ‘Herzberg’s two-factor theory’ (Davies, 2007; p81)

According to Mukherjee (2009), two-factor theory argues that managers must reduce job

dissatisfaction by providing employees with hygiene factors. These factors tend to relate to

the environment in which one works and the context of that work. By providing safe working

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conditions, reasonable wages/salary, and benefits, employers meet the hygiene needs of

their employees. However, in order to engage and motivate employees in true senses

requires that motivators must be implemented to encourage employee loyalty and growth.

Motivators include factors related to employee self-esteem and actualization. Commonly

known motivators are responsibility, advancement, and recognition etc (Henry et al, 2000).

Most of the authors have stated the similarities between Herzberg’s two-factor theory and

Maslow’s Hierarchy theory. In effect, Herzberg’s theory may be readily combined with the

ideas presented by Maslow. Where Maslow would argue that fundamental needs must be

met in the first place, Herzberg would see hygiene factors that require satisfaction (Beel,

2007). This concept is backed by Kondalkar (2009) by suggesting that certain similarities

have been found between the two theories. In his study, he found that maintenance factors

propagated by Herzberg are identical to the lower level needs of Maslow. The higher level

needs in the hierarchy of needs of Maslow are identical to motivation factors suggested by

Herzberg.

In order to discuss the importance of other factors related to the motivation it is important to

discuss Vroom’s Expectancy theory. According to Brooks (2007), Vroom (1964) developed

expectancy theory from the original work of Tolman and Honzik (1930). Vroom argues that

the motivation to behave in a particular way is determined by an individual’s expectation that

behaviour will lead to a particular outcome, multiplied by the preference or valence that

person has for that outcome. Brooks (2007) further explained that humans act according to

their conscious expectations that a particular behaviour will lead to specific desirable goals.

The theory, with all its consequent refinements, provides a popular explanatory framework

for a range of employee behaviours including, levels of motivation, performance, employee

turnover, and absenteeism, in addition to leadership effectiveness and career choice. For

example, if by working diligently and for long hours an employee expects to receive

promotion at some future date and he does value promotion highly (the worker is said to

have valence) then, rationally, we might expect that employee to show that behaviour.

Vroom argues that human behaviour is directed by subjective probability, that is, the

individual’s expectation that his or her behaviour will lead to a particular outcome. The

expectancy theory equation is as below;

Motivation (M) = Expectation (E) * Valence (V)

It is assumed that the level of motivation in individual displays results from his or her

conscious decision-making process. The theory also considers the value that each individual

places on the estimated outcome. The basic theory recognizes the individual differences:

that we are all unlikely to value the same outcomes equally. The theory also attempts to

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measure, via a simple calculation, the strength of motivation by multiplying the individual’s

estimated probability (E*V as above) of an expected outcome by the value or valence that

individual places on that outcome.

According to the theories discussed above, it is obvious that an individual’s behaviour is

determined by what motivates him or her. After analyzing the motivational theories, it can be

summed up that the performance of employees is subjected to their motivational level. The

managers must, therefore encourage their staff to direct their efforts (driving forces)

positively towards the attainment of the desired goals. According to Naylor (2004), managers

need to provide both intrinsic and extrinsic benefits so as to create a motivated group of

staff. Extrinsic rewards consist of job security, increase in pay, promotion, benefits,

responsibilities and so on. Although a manager frequently provides extrinsic rewards,

colleagues can offer them through their appreciation. On the other hand, intrinsic rewards

are related to the psychological behaviour such as opportunity to use one’s ability, a sense

of challenge and achievement, being appreciated. Psychological rewards refer to those that

can usually be determined by the actions and behaviour of individual managers.

However, Bennett (1981) (cited from Ager, 2001), suggested a broad three-fold classification

for the motivation to work. Primarily, he refers to economic rewards like, pay, fringe benefits,

pension rights, material goods and security. Bennett called them as instrumental orientation

to work and is concerned with ‘other things’. Secondly, he suggested intrinsic satisfaction

which is derived from the nature of the work itself. He regarded them as concerned with ‘one

self’ and is known as personal orientation to work. Finally he took into consideration the

social relationships such as friendship, group working, and the desire for affiliation and

dependency. He called this type of orientation to work as relational and is concerned with

other people.

Within the same context, Cartwright (1999) suggests that the will or motivation to work is

mostly influenced by the concept of psychological contract which involves a series of

expectations between the employees and the organisation. Although these expectations

cannot be defined formally and both the parties may not be aware of the contract, but they

still have an impact on the relationships between an individual and the organisation.

Beardewell (2004) states, it is essentially obvious that if the expectations are not met, it will

have a natural impact on the motivation level in specific and on the performance level as a

whole. He further suggests that in order to attain organisational goals successfully,

managers, essentially need to find out what motivates employees at each level and at which

level employee is operating, and emphasized to develop a strategy accordingly.

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However, Rollinson (2005) projected it other way and suggested that people are motivated

by the things that make them feel good at work, but there is a need to avoid the things that

make them feel bad. According to him, it is the condition at the work that is responsible for

the motivation or de-motivation of the staff working. Thus organisations and managers must

adapt new ways and vary their behaviour accordingly as per the situations and the different

needs and the motivations of the employees.

2.9 Factors of motivation

All the motivational theories and models put forward by various scholars, help to understand

the importance of motivation in determining employee behavior as well as the richness of

potential applications that motivational theories have for Human resource development

(Werner and DeSimone, 2008).

2.9.1 Rewards and incentives

According to Cooper (2004), rewards and incentives are essentially to be given to

employees in order to have a better motivated staff and high performance level, in that there

is fair evidence that employee commitment is affected by rewards. Rewards and incentives

are also included in the motivators’ list of two-factor theory given by Herzberg in 1968.

Providing rewards does not only help in increasing the motivational level of employees but it

influences the overall behavior of the employees working within an organization (Thompson,

1996). It is the role of management to create initiatives that will add to the motivational level

of employees in order to achieve the organizational goals smoothly. In this regard, Bogardus

(2009) suggests that organization needs to review the total rewards strategy for selecting the

type of rewards to be offered, in that it is used to determine how the resources available for

reward programs can be used to best advantage in attracting, motivating, and retaining

employees. Organizational culture is rooted in the values and beliefs advocated by an

organization’s leadership and the way in which members of the organization behave

(Bogardus, 2009). He further adds that total reward philosophy reflects these values and

beliefs to reinforce the culture. In addition, Vroom’s expectancy model (1964) emphasizes on

the need of the rewards (extrinsic outcomes/rewards) that must be present so as to make an

employee motivated to put forth his/her best efforts for the sake of organization.

2.9.2 Recognition

At the heart of new management approaches, employee recognition is regarded as an

effective mean to inspire employees and managers of an organization (Marciano, 2010).

Employee recognition means to provide recognition to an employee for his performance or

19

job well done. It is a non monitory incentive and takes many forms ranging from casual

words of encouragement or praise to an employee by his/her boss to presentations before

large audiences of peers and senior management within the organization (Greenberg and

Edwards, 2009). Recognition is one of most important job factors that Herzberg found most

frequently associated with satisfaction (Pride et al, 2009). As stated by Allen and Peter

(2007; p125), ‘A recognition culture has to start at the top. The guy at the top has to believe

in it, has to bring the managers together to create a recognition culture. The key is the

manager of each department, who has to do things that make employees feel important. It is

a basic human need. Most managers do not recognize it’. These thoughts received further

support by Holbeche (2005) arguing that apart from the financial tokens of appreciation, it is

recognition that has the potential to have a dramatic impact on employee motivation and

commitment. She further emphasized on its essence by explaining that it is an area where

employees can be most creative and focus of the management should be to direct the

reward system of the organization where they can be most effective.

2.9.3 Training and development

According to Manning (2002), Broadly, training is the planned process by which staff is

equipped to carry out their existing tasks, and development is the means by which they are

prepared for future roles, for increase or wider responsibilities and to utilize employees’

potential within the organization. He further explains that training and development are

means towards ends, not ends in themselves. Training and development plans must stem

from the needs of the business and be measured by the improved business performance

which they achieve. Pride et al (2009; p264) states that,’ training and development are

extremely important because both are aimed at improving employees’ skills and abilities.

Training has been defined as an activity that changes the behavior of the people (Khan,

1998; p30). He further emphasized that training is not important only to increase productivity

but to inspire and motivate staff by letting them know how important their jobs are and

provide them adequate information required to perform their job. Companies need to

acknowledge the importance of training and development programs to facilitate employee

motivation (laird et al, 2003). They further suggested that motivation is a fundamental

component of performance. Supervisors and managers are responsible for achieving the

goals of the organization through leading the performance or efforts of their employees

which is possible if the employees are motivated. He further adds that

‘performance=ability*motivation’ where as ‘ability=training*resources’.

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2.10 Organisational Culture and Motivation

Motivation is the key component of organisational culture. Organisational culture plays a

significant role in an organisation regarding how people feel about their work, levels of

motivation, commitment, and in turn job satisfaction. A strong culture brings out the positive

energy of people to perform with loyalty and at deeper level while having emotional bonds of

attachment with the organisation (Owens, 2004). The way in which the managers behave

with their employees, shows the strength of culture within that organisation that is enacted

both consciously and subconsciously. These views are further backed by Sempane et al.

2002 by explaining that people are the key factors for the competitiveness and organisations

can demonstrate highly complex social structure because of their cultural strength. There is

a clear mutual interdependence between organisation and its employees, where both the

parties have an impact on each other’s potential so as to achieve success. Such a relation

gives birth to the relation of employee motivation and job satisfaction (Schneider and

Synder, 1975). There are evidences from the researches that motivation and job satisfaction

cannot be treated in isolation. Organisational culture should be prompted to ensure

employee motivation in order to achieve organisational goals (Sempane et al. 2002). So the

starting point according to him is organisational culture. Organisational culture is also

regarded as central theme in organisational psychology and its impact is considered as a

legitimate factor responsible for the achievement of organisational goals (Bagraim, 2001).

From organisational point of view, organisational culture is manifested in employee

behaviour with an existence at both cognitive as well as emotional level. There has to be an

explicit flow of individual objectives within the strategies of an organisation so as to motivate

their employees in the best way (Schein, 1984).

To ensure the motivation of the staff is considered as the key role of the management these

days. Motivated staffs take pride whilst doing their job and thus feel responsible for the

organisational success. But it has been an issue for some managers regarding how to

motivate their employees, Management News (1990). Because of the uniqueness in the

behaviour and needs of the human being, discussed above in the motivational

characteristics, it has been almost impossible for the management to identify a unique

solution for the motivation of the employees. Organisational behaviour is being influenced by

different motives and the collection of the different aspects of organisation’s culture

determines the employee behaviour. According to Hofstede (2001), recognition of the work

done by the employees will make them work harder in future. There would be the

improvement in the performance of the people because of promotions and developmental

steps taken by the management and a growing relation between the peers and subordinates

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will be a strong factor for the motivation of the work force. Hofstede emphasised that such

elements come into being because of the strong organisational culture.

According to Schein (1992), organisational culture has got an amazing characteristic that the

employees never know how much they are influenced through it. Atmosphere of the work

site should be such that the employees feel themselves as part of the team and work harder

so as to achieve the organisational goals. In return of this commitment by the employees,

company must feel it obligatory to reward their employees (both intrinsically and extrinsically)

e.g. home loans, holiday packages, transport facilities, promotions and hike in salary. These

elements will make employees become more loyal towards their employers. Regarding the

type of culture to be present in an organisation, some best known classification schemes are

being suggested by Harrison (1972). These include; Power culture, Role culture, Task

culture, and People culture. Handy (1982), however, reworked Harrisons work and

advocated that this classification has got extreme influence and they play an important role

in order to understand how these organisations work. As per his suggestions, all the

organisations have got at least one of these cultures within their working operations as its

impact on organisational behaviour as well as employee motivation. These types of cultures

are as below:-

2.11 Power Culture

This is the type of organisational culture that depends heavily on trust, communication,

empathy and the central power source with rays of influence from the central figure

throughout the organisation. Strong central leadership style is found in such type of

organisations where people always try to achieve better positions by improving their

performances (Brown, 1998). Mullins (2008) backs these thoughts and stated that there is a

clear centralisation of powers in such organisations and decision-making is governed by a

certain key individuals. This type of culture is also depicted as spider’s web and in this type

of organisational culture, as name suggests, power is vested in the hands of a few

individuals with a little bureaucracy. Often small entrepreneurial or family companies witness

power culture. In such organisations, central powers figure manipulates all the activities of

the organisation. Employees in such an organisation have to be in a well relation with the

central power holder. It is a political organisation with decisions taken largely on the

influential balances. Although this type of culture provides an environment with less

motivational factors, employees are keen to work even harder to gain incentives and

promotions available in such organisations. Organisations having affiliation and high

positions as motivational factors are seen doing well (Torrinton et al 2005).

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2.12 Role Culture

Often stereotyped as a bureaucracy, in this type of culture, role of an individual is given more

preference than an individual himself. Individual behaviours are ruled by logic and reason,

and procedures and impersonal systems. This type of culture is mostly seen in finance,

production, and purchasing companies, like banks and insurance companies. In such kind of

culture, career is linked with logic and length of service and is apparently opposite to the

levels of performance. Certain group of people love to work in such an organisational

culture. These are the people who are looking for stability, clarity of job role and demarcation

of responsibility (Mullins, 2008). Organisational tasks are done with in different departments

with corresponding role heads to which employees are supposed to report. Communication

gap between the staff of these departments is an apparent drawback of such culture. A

research carried by ‘select knowledge’ suggests that the increasing pace in the

organisations has shaken up traditional role cultures. In order to create environment for

adapting the change, they need to provide flexibility in jobs and abandon job descriptions.

2.13 Person Culture

Unlike other types of cultures, central focus is placed on the individual. According to Mullins

(2008), when group of people share same interests to team up and work together for the

organisation’s sake, they share office space, equipments, and clerical assistance and the

result of such an environment is called person culture. A group of barristers, architects,

doctors, and consultants are the examples of such culture. This type of culture is least

common among the four. According to Martin (2002), people in such an organisation work

with full consciousness and are motivated to work together and be part of such organisation.

Marks and Spencer appreciates good relations along with an effective management. Focus

on the people and good human relations has added in the performance of the company. The

organisation believes employee’s commitment behind such policies (Brian heads, 2008).

Therefore, Sieff (1991) states that moral attitude is involved in good human relations.

Employees should be taken care of regardless of their job positions which in turn will make

employees more committed and work harder for the sake of organisational goals. The only

threat to this kind of organisation is growth. Organising systems in such organisations

become more significant because of the substantial growth in the size.

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2.14 Task Culture

This is a job or project oriented culture as it is concerned mainly with the completion of the

task or project. Unlike power culture, power doesn’t come from single source and is often

associated with flexible project-based/ matrix structure. This type of culture is mostly seen in

high technology and engineering companies. The main aim of this culture is to get the best

individuals together for the completion of the task or project. Individual differences are

sacrificed for the commitment of team work. People are adaptable and flexible in accordance

with their expertise. Task culture generates a sense of unity and thus the people are more

positive and committed towards their task for achieving the organisational goal. Hofstede

(2001), suggests that task culture is more successful where there is more competition in

market, short product life span, and the necessity of constant innovation.

Purcell et al (2003) adapted from Armstrong (2003) has given emphasize on the fact that the

intangible assets like culture, skill and competence, motivation, and social interaction

between people, teams and business units are all likely to be the key factors of success for

the organisations which combine people and process together to achieve organisation’s

goals. Trompenaars (1993) has also written as an attempt to show a link between

organisational behaviour and cultural variance. However, according to him there are aspects

present in the organisations that affect the employee’s behaviour. Since the relation between

organisational culture and motivation has been discussed, there will be a discussion on the

link between the organisational culture and performance of the organisation.

2.15 Impact of Organisational Culture on Corporate Performance

According to Ogbonna and Harris (2000) there has been a plenty of literature defining the

link between culture and performance of an organisation. Despite the fact that some authors

have written against the link between the two, but most of the theorists have come up with

sufficient evidences describing the link between the organisation’s culture and performance

of the company. Two years before, Brown (1998) suggested that one of the important

consequences of the strong organisational culture is its impact on the performance of the

company.

Denison (1984) conducted the research on performance-culture link using the data from 34

companies of America in a period of 5 years. Based on the quantitative studies, author,

constantly, examined the cultural characteristics and performance of these companies

throughout the period of 5 years. He used the data of ‘return on investment and sales to

measure performance. Although there were variances among some of the measurement

indicators’ strength to find the relation between the two, but he was successful in finding out

24

a link between the culture and organisational performance. In this research, he found that

long term financial performance is linked with the decision making and work design of an

organisation. Moreover, his research suggested an association between short term financial

performances and leadership styles. Despite the encouraging results of the study, it had its

limitations too. Lim (1995) came up with a strong criticism of Denison’s studies and stated

that study was based on the measurement of organisational climate rather than measuring

organisational culture.

Later, in 1990, Rousseau started researching the link between organisation culture and

performance of that organisation. In order to overcome the limitations present in the study of

Denison (1984), he chose data from 32 voluntary fund-raising service organisations. The

amount of money raised at that time by the organisations was taken into account to measure

performance and for the measurement of organisational culture; organisational culture

inventory promoted by Cook and Lafferty (1983) was taken into consideration. Unfortunately,

Rousseau was not successful to find a significant correlation between organisational culture

and performance.

As mentioned earlier, plenty of studies have been conducted to find the link between the

two. After the Rousseau’s study failed to find any significant link between the two, Kotter and

Heskett conducted an extensive study in 1992 in order to find culture-performance link. Data

was collected from 207 companies over the period of 5 years. Various measures of culture

and economic performance data were taken into consideration to make their study

successful. At the end of the study, only a minor relation was found between strong culture

and long term performance which was their initial objective. However, subsequent

investigations revealed that the organisations having suitable culture in accordance with their

market environment have better performance than those that have not. The study was

backed by Morcoulides and Heck (1993) who analyzed the culture-performance link by using

data from 26 organisations. They carried the study in a slightly different way by proposing a

model, using various latent variables to measure organisational culture. Variables used

were; organisational values, organisational tasks, organisational structure, climate, and

individual values and beliefs. In order to measure performance, capital, market and financial

indicators were taken into consideration.Through their study, it was learnt that all the variabls

used to measure organisational culture have an impact on the organisational performance.

Moreover, worker’s attitude and task organisation were found the most effective variables to

have a direct impact on organisational performance.

Recent studies were conducted by Ogbonna and Harris (2000) in order to investigate the

relation between the organisational culture and company performance. They included

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leadership style as one more variable in their model. Data was used from 1000 registered

British companies. Customer satisfaction, sales growth, market share, competitive

advantage and sales volume were the variables used to measure performance. In order to

measure organisational culture, innovative, competitive, bureaucratic, and community

cultures were taken into account. Their study revealed that all the variables used to measure

organisational culture are having their direct or indirect impact on the organisation’s

performance. Innovative and competitive cultures were found more significant having direct

effect on the performance accounting 25% of organisational performance’s variance. These

two cultures were found externally oriented and responsible for attaining a sustained

competitive advantage. While as community and bureaucratic cultures according to the

results of study are internally orientated having an indirect link with organisation’s

performance. Their study was further extended in 2002 after analyzing the link between

organisational cultures, market orientation, strategic human resource management, and

organisational performance. Research was carried on using the same measures as in their

previous study for the measurement of organisational culture and performance. However,

the results of their further studies were same as in past. Innovative and competitive cultures

were found more significant having direct effect on the performance while as community and

bureaucratic cultures were not found having any link with organisations performance.

Chapter summary

It has been observed from the literature review that organisational culture has a significant

impact on employee behaviour, in that it conveys a sense of identity and unity of purpose to

employees. Culture serves as a sense-making and control mechanism that guides and

shapes the attitudes and behaviours of employees (Kumar, N 2001). As per the motivational

theories discussed, it is apparent that employees’ performance is determined by how

motivated they are at workplace. From the empirical evidences mentioned in the chapter, it

is now easy to understand there is a link between culture and motivation. As discussed in

the chapter, every organisation and society has its own unique culture and employee

behaviour; hence they will depend on the existing norms and values of that culture.

Motivational theories discussed suggest the need for the essential factors that need to be

present for the better motivation of employees. Factors like salary, recognition, rewards and

incentives, training and development, and promotion are the most significant factors

responsible for the motivation of employees. It was also learnt from various studies

mentioned in the literature that organisational culture is also responsible for the performance

of the employees (Ogbonna and Harris, 2000).

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Chapter 3: Research methodology

3.1 Introduction

This is an important chapter of the research, and it aims at providing an overview of the

methodology and research design selected to investigate the impact of organisational culture

on employee motivation. According to Kumar (2008), research is an intensive and purposeful

search for knowledge and understanding of social and physical phenomena. He further

described it as a scientific activity undertaken to establish something, a fact, a theory, a

principle, or an application. According to Hudson (adapted from Kothari, 2008), ‘‘all progress

is born of enquiry. Doubt is often better than overconfidence, for it leads to enquiry, and

enquiry leads to invention’’. This is one of the best quotes that will help to understand the

significance of research.

3.2 Research design and research methodology

According to Creswell (2003), research methodology as a path or set of rules for the

evolution of research claims and the validation of the knowledge gathered by the researcher,

while as the research design is considered as research blueprint. His thoughts were backed

by Sekaran (2003) who stated that research methodology is a regulatory framework

established to collect and evaluate existing knowledge in order to serve the purpose of

arriving at, gain, and validate, new knowledge. Cooper and Schindler (1998) defined

research methodology as one of the important challenges confronted by a researcher. They

further defined the essence of research by mentioned it as consumptive one and maintained

that it must be purposeful. Besides being a simple frame of study, research methodology

serves an important purpose of identifying the research tools and strategies to be applied,

and finally relating their use to the research objectives. Sekaran (2003) has further

mentioned its importance by stating that the significance of research methodology can be

understood by the fact that it can easily define the activity of a specific research, its

procedural methods, and strategies in order to measure progress that is important for the

research success. Research design, on the other hand articulates the tools through which

the empirical data will be collected and analysed (Punch 2000). However, Singh (2008)

defines research design as a mapping strategy and maintained that it is essentially a

statement of the object of the enquiry and the strategies for collecting the evidences,

27

analysing them, and finally reporting the findings. More importantly, Punch (2000) states that

it helps in relating the data collected with the research objectives, hence facilitating the

means to achieve the end results.

Although being different academic constructs, Punch (2000) defines research methodology

as more holistic then research design.

3.3 Research philosophy

According to Bryman and Bell (2003), research philosophy can be divided into two different

views of gaining knowledge. One is the epistemological approach, also known as positivism,

or scientific method (Walliman, 2005). Another one is called interpretivism or

phenomenology (Thornhill, 2000). However, Saunders et al (2009) added pragmatism and

realism as two more research philosophies.

3.3.1 Positivism, as suggested by Walliman (2005), is a critical and objective method. He

further explained that it is mostly used in natural sciences and is based on quantifiable

observations with generalised results. Saunders et al (2009) suggested this approach as

objective and independent as the research is being carried in a value-free and credible data

is provided only by observable phenomena.

3.3.2 Interpretivism, on the other hand stands opposite to that of positivism (Bryman and

bell, 2007). According to Blaikie (2007), this philosophy is originated from Hermeneutics and

phenomenology and is also known as anti-naturalist or anti-positivist approach. He further

described that the fundamental difference between the subject matters of natural and social

sciences is the central tenet of interpretivism. Saunders et al (2009) described it as

subjective and stated the likeliness of the change of viewpoints during the research process.

3.3.3 Pragmatism is the third research philosophy in which a researcher has his/her focus

on the research question(s) in order to adequately answer those (Saunders et al 2009). They

further explained that the researcher takes both internal and external views into

consideration along with the adoption of objective and subjective views as well.

3.3.4 Realism is another research philosophy related to scientific enquiry (Saunders et al

2009). They further stated it similar to that of positivist approach as it applies the structured

data collection methods with the assumption of scientific approach. This philosophy

presumes reality as independent of mind and is always true. Bryman and Bell (2007)

28

critically stated that the researcher with this philosophy might be influenced by the culture or

his/her world view.

After analysing all the four research philosophies, the author has decided to carry this

research with the combination of interpretivist and pragmatist approach. This combination is

supported by the analytical approach to research based on the following applied points

(Saunders et al, 2009).

In order to be able to answer the research question, the external view of reality has been

taken into consideration. The prime focus of the research is on practical applied research.

The author has adopted both objective and subjective views in order to complete the

research successfully. And the qualitative data approach has been taken to collect data.

3.4 Research purpose

According to Saunders et al (2000), there are three main purposes to the research activity;

exploratory, descriptive, and explanatory. However, Patton (1998) adds the fourth purpose

and defines it as prescriptive objective.

3.4.1 Exploratory

According to Saunders et al (2000), exploratory research is concerned with group interviews,

along with the structured and semi-structured conversation with experts and a search of

literature review. Paneerselvam (2004) further explains it as an initial research which

analyzes the data and explores the possibility of obtaining as many relationships as possible

between different variables without knowing their end application. This research provides a

basis for general findings as maintained by Saunders et al (2000) that the purpose of

research is to explore a research problem or phenomena in order to clarify the identified

complexities and composition.

3.4.2 Descriptive

Paneerselvam (2004) states that descriptive research is carried out with specific objectives

and hence it results in definite conclusions. However Punch (2000) states that its purpose is

to collect, organise, and summarize the information regarding the research problem and

issues identified there in. Dane (1990) defines that descriptive research examines the

research thoroughly in order to describe the phenomenon of a specified problem by defining,

measuring, and clearing it. However, Jackson (1994) states that almost all the researches

are partly descriptive.

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3.4.3 Explanatory

The function of explanatory research is to reveal the causality between variables (Moutan

and Marais, 1984, Uys, 1991, Kothari, 2008). This thought is backed by Miles and Huberman

(1994) by stating that explanatory research clarifies the relationship between variables and

componential elements of the research problem. Punch (2000) further expounded upon

these thoughts and suggested that it crystallises the nature of problem under investigation

and helps in explaining the basis for the solution.

3.4.4 Prescriptive

According to Hair et al (2003), prescriptive research aims at proposing a well defined

solution to the investigated research problem. He further emphasized these solution(s) to be

well-defined, comprehensively explained, and implementable blueprint for a specified

solution. According to Patton (1990) maintains that prescriptive research purpose builds

upon other three purposes, but it extends beyond them in one aspect. He further explained

that the other three purposes are based upon the ground facts, but prescriptive research

focuses on ‘what should be’. Most of the research scholars, concurring upon the significance

of prescriptive research purpose have stated that the researches consisting of prescriptive

purpose tend to be more valuable than those who shun it (Patton, 1990; Jackson, 1994;

Punch, 2000; Cooper, 2003; Hair et al, 2003; Ghauri and Gronhaug, 2005).

3.5 Research approach

According to Creswell (2003), it is critically an important decision for a researcher to select

the research approach. He further explains its significance and suggests that research

approach allows a researcher to critically consider various approaches and how those

approaches may, contribute to, limit, his/her research study and eventually allow him/her to

satisfy the objectives of research. After critical analysis of various approaches, researcher is

in a position to design an approach that fits his research requirements. According to hair et

al (2003), research approach embraces the quantitative versus qualitative and deductive

versus inductive approach. He further describes that these sets of approaches are

commonly perceived of as referring to polar opposites. However, Jackson (1994) suggests

that instead of being limited to a particular approach, a researcher should go through various

approaches as needed for the completion of his research.

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3.5.1 Deductive versus Inductive approach

According to Marcoulides (1998), deductive approach is the testing of theories. He stated

that the researcher starts with a set of theories and his/her conceptual perceptions to

formulate hypothesis. Research proceeds with this concept and in the end the proposed

hypothesis are tested. This thought was backed by Saunders (2003) by stating that

deductive approach is leads to the development of a theory that is subjected to a rigorous

test. While as inductive approach proceeds from the collected empirical data and continues

to formulate concepts and theories in accordance with the data collected (Marcoulides,

1998). According to Crowther and Lancaster (2005), inductive research is the reverse of the

process found in deductive approach. Here, the researcher develops hypothesis and

theories with a view to explaining empirical observations of the real world.

3.5.2 Qualitative versus Quantitative approach

According to Creswell (2003), quantitative tools for data analysis are structured in a way so

as to guarantee objectivity, generalisation, and reliability. However according to Lamnek

(2005), quantitative research characterizes a rather inflexible procedure that is best suited to

explanatory, statistical, and theory testing purposes. Accordingly, random and unbiased

selection of respondents, are the research techniques used in this approach. As stated by

Punch (2000) that the quantitative research is focuses more on the numbers. It tends to

decentralize human behaviour, leading to the criticism by the people preferring qualitative

research (Creswell, 2003). Qualitative approach according to Katsirikou and Skiadas (2007)

differs markedly from the quantitative approach and is underpinned by very different

epistemological and ontological foundations. This thought is backed by Johnson and

Christensen (2008) by stating that it stands opposite to the quantitative approach and

suggested that this approach emphasizes the need to understand society as social actors

and interpret it. Consideration of human behaviour and perception is the significant factor for

the reason that researchers adopt this approach (Cresswell, 2003). Cresswell (2003) further

explained that qualitative research helps in understanding a phenomenon more deeply by

analysing the reasons behind it, while as quantitative tools analyse the phenomenon itself,

without bothering about the human perception of reason ‘why’.

3.5.3Mixed method approach

According to Clarke (2007) and Tashakkori and Teddlie (2003), the combination of

quantitative and qualitative approaches has been advocated by researchers to study various

social phenomena in the fields of social and behavioural sciences. The combination of both

these approaches is most commonly known as mixed method approach (Onwuegbuzie and

31

Jiao, 2007). The researcher mixes or combines both quantitative and qualitative research

techniques into a single study and is regarded as the class of research (Tashakkori and

Teddlie, 2003; Creswell and Clarke, 2007). They further defined the researches with mixed

approach as an inquiry, where a researcher links both quantitative and qualitative data so as

to provide a unified understanding of a research problem. Punch (2000) also advocates in

favour of exploiting both the approaches so as to maximise the validation of the research.

Tashakkori (2003) went on further explanation and stated that such a methodology

incorporates multiple approaches in all stages of research from problem identification to

research questions, data collection, data analysis, and final interference. In the last 20 years,

mixed method research has come into its own as a research approach (Cresswell and

Garrett, 2008).

In order to provide more validation to the research, author has decided to choose the

combination of both qualitative and quantitative approaches for data collection. According to

Katsirikou and Skiadas (2009), since 1960’s, various authors have been advocating the

combining of both quantitative and qualitative approaches and this type of research is

known as mixed method research. According to Saunders et al (2000), the quantitative data

is analysed through the use of diagrams and statistics and is based more on numbers. In

order for the completion of this research, it was important to consider the numbers from data

input. This is because author needs to analyze how many employees working in the bank

are motivated by the culture of that bank. More importantly, what is the percentage of

employees who believe that organisational has an impact on employee motivation? In

addition, according to Bryman (2003), quantitative approach is mostly used by the

researcher to establish relationships or links between two or more variables. As the main

objective of the research is to investigate the link between organisational culture and

employee motivation, author finds it convenient to go with qualitative research approach.

However, qualitative research approach was included as well, in order to add the human

perception and behaviour regarding the questions asked to employees of the

organisation. In this regard, Cresswell (2003) stated that this approach helps in

understanding a phenomenon more deeply by analysing the reasons behind it.

Questionnaires and interviews will be used as tools to collect primary data, and books,

journals, past researches, and internet would be used as tools to collect secondary data.

Researcher has used both qualitative and quantitative analysis of data: The Questionnaire

designed by the researcher is comprised of 24 questions having both qualitative (open

ended questions) and quantitative (close ended) questions, within which there are 6

questions, put in the questionnaire as per the likert scale. Questions with likert scale were

essential to be included so as to test the hypothesis after the end of data collection.

32

Questions 8 to 10 determine the factors of employee motivation while as questions 13 to 15

determine the organisational culture in the questionnaire. This method has been chosen

because it meets the requirements as far as the objectives are concerned. Moreover, it

provides more validity to the data analysis. Moreover, telephonic interviews have been

conducted with the employees of the bank as a qualitative approach to collect data. Ten

people were interviewed with total of 9 questions asked to each. This part of the data

collection was also essential for achieving the objectives of the dissertation.

3.6 Qualitative Data collection

A business researcher must focus on to identify the type and nature of data required, instead

of approaching the research with specific method of data collection in his/her mind (Cooper

and Schindler, 2005). However, Ghauri and Gronhaug (2005) suggested that the researcher

must not limit his selection of data collection method to the type of data required, but to the

collection methods available to him.

In order to carry on this research, given the fact that both primary and secondary data are

needed, author has decided to collect data through three data collection methods. These are

discussed below;

3.7 Primary data collection

Primary data are created for the specific purpose of answering the research questions at

hand (Houser, 2007). She further explained that the researcher can determine exactly what

data will be collected and can identify the specific tools to be used.

Author has decided to use questionnaires and telephonic interview as tools to collect primary

data. Questionnaire is the most common tool used to collect primary data (Saunders et al

2009). These are the structured surveys that are self-administered by subjects. In order to

collect the data necessary for this research, questionnaire based on 20 questions has been

sent out to the desired participants. In order to investigate the impact of organisational

culture on employee motivation, most of the questions are asked with an aim to find the link

(if any) between organisational culture and employee motivation. Moreover, telephonic

conversation with about 10 employees of the bank has been planned. The main objective of

telephonic interviews is to gather more knowledge and the perceptions of the employees

regarding the culture of the bank and how they relate it to the work motivation. As stated by

Johnson (2002), questionnaire is mostly based on more close questions and it limits a

participant while answering, within ‘yes’ or ‘no’, while as interviews are more flexible and

they provide room for interviewees to answer in more depth, helping a researcher to gain

33

external knowledge. Although the sample size of interview is small, but it was conducted in

order to gain more and in-depth data to increase the validation of the research.

3.8 Secondary Data Collection

Secondary data is as important as primary data because it helps to provide an insight into

the subject matter of what is already known on it (Creswell, 2003). As suggested by

Lancaster (2005), secondary data collection is of great significance, in that it is used to

define and refine the approach to a research problem. This type of data collection depend on

various factors like, circumstances of the data collection procedure, research objectives,

amount of data available, cost and time considerations, and so on. This research

encompasses ideas and results from past studies on the subject. The author has put in the

relevant literature from books by various authors. Moreover, data has been collected from

various management journals.

3.9 Sampling

According to Powell (2000), sampling is often one of the most crucial steps in research. In

fact, rigorous sampling methods have been developed and used primarily within the context

of survey of research. However, according to Lancaster (2005), the basic logic and many of

the specific techniques of sampling are equally applicable to other research methods such

as content analysis, experimentation, and even field research.

3.9.1 Purposive sampling

According to Sekaran (2003), purposive sampling is confined to specific types of people who

can provide the desired information, either because they are the only ones who have it, or

conform to some criteria set by the researcher. The researcher in this study has used

purposive sampling so as to gain the desired information, in that employees from specific

departments and middle management have been selected such as (sales managers,

insurance department, and customer advisors). In order to investigate the impact of

organisational culture on employee motivation, it was essential to know how motivated

people in different positions are and what their perception about the culture of the Bank is. In

this type of research, purposive sampling has been found best suited to the situation, in that

it makes easier to answer the research question (Sekaran, 2003).

3.10 Research hypothesis

Researcher has claimed that organisational culture is one of the important factors within the

working environment to have an impact on the motivation of the people working within

34

it. Although various authors have stated organisational culture as a main component of

business, most of the companies till date, do not believe that the organisational culture can

influence the behaviour of the employees. To obtain the correlation between employee

motivation and organisational culture researcher has used variables which are represented

by ‘OC’ and ‘EM’. Where OC represents organisation culture and EM is for employee

motivation. The hypothesis is based on six questions (3 from each variable): OC1, OC2,

OC3 for organisation culture and EM1, EM2, EM3 for employee motivation. All the

responses to these six questions were analysed by using SPSS software to get the co-

relation between the two.

3.11 Ethical issues

According Saunders et al (2009), ethical issues are worth consideration in every research.

They further explained that the trust building between the researchers and researched and

the help by the people to gain access to the organisation are the important factors in order

for a good data collection. However Cresswell (2003) states that every care is to be taken in

order to build a good relationship with researched. There are various ethical issues related to

every research like, building a close relationship with researched, researcher must report the

data collected data without any wrong interpretations and so on (Kumar, 2009). According to

Brown (2003), it is of much importance for a researcher to address issues like confidentiality,

anonymity, openness of participants, and feedback to the organisation. According to

Saunders et al (2009), there are some important things to be kept in mind while conducting a

research and these are as below;

It is the primary duty of a researcher to inform a participant, the aims, methods, anticipated

benefits, potential hazards of the study (if any), or any discomfort it might entail.

There has to be no pressure or threat on the researched while collecting information from

him/her.

3.12 Limitations of the research

According to Gray et al (2007), research by its nature is limited to a range of either individual

or group behaviour. Secondly, a research is not capable of generating a broad range of data

about the characteristics of large populations. Patton (2000) argues that no research is

perfect, there are always limitations. Moreover, this research has many limitations:-

Researcher had limited time to conduct this research due to time constraint.

Sample size is not too large which makes research limited to few thoughts.

35

Research was conducted on particular branches which restricts researcher to cover a

broader area.

3.13 Chapter Summary

As may have been deducted from the above, this research will adopt a mixed method

approach by applying both qualitative and quantitative data collection approaches. Although

in the first instance, it was planned to carry a quantitative approach, author found it more

valuable to introduce qualitative approach in order to cover up the limitations of the former

approach. There is no claim that the approach will not be without limitations, but considering

research questions and the nature of the research problem, along with the time and word

constraints, it was decided that the defined methodological approach would best satisfy the

articulated objectives and respond to the research questions.

.

36

Chapter 4: Finding and analysis4.1 introduction

A steady progression of this research was being made, up until the designing of the

questions to ask participants. 40 questionnaires were sent out as a quantitative tool to collect

necessary data however; only 38 got the response from participants. Questionnaires were

sent out to the people with different working backgrounds in order to gain responses from

almost every department of the bank. In this regard, questionnaires were sent out involving

participation from human resource department to sales advisors. Questionnaire consisted of

19 questions and most of the questions were asked with an aim to find link between culture

and motivation. Besides, as mentioned in the last chapter, interviews were conducted as a

qualitative tool to collect data. A small sample of 10 people was interviewed with an idea to

gain more knowledge of how motivated people in different positions and jobs are and to find

an impact of organisational culture on employee motivation. Therefore, below is the

graphical presentation and detailed analysis of the data collected.

37

Question 1: Please select your gender?

Gender Number

Male 21

Female 17

Total 38

Table 4.1

This question was asked to find out the gender proportion of the sample selected. After

receiving the responses, it was learned that out of the total sample of 38 employees, major

portion was male with 21 participants and female were 17. The main purpose of this

question was to find out whether there is the difference of thoughts between genders

regarding impact of organisational culture on employee motivation. As revealed from the

responses given by the participants, it was observed that female employees of the Bank

tend to be more positive towards good employee relationships.

38

Question 2: are you permanent member of the staff, paid on a day rate (agency staff), or

ad hoc (temporary/short time) employee?

2874%

616%

411%

Job status

Permanent staffAgency StaffAd hoc

This question was asked to find out the type of job people are doing. According to the data

collected, it is quite apparent that 28 people i.e. 74% of the employees were working on

permanent bases. However, 16% i.e. 6 people were working temporarily as agency staff,

while as 10% i.e. 4 of them were working on ad hoc bases. Although majority of the

population are working as permanent staff, but it has to be taken into consideration that

around 26% employees are working temporarily. After critically examining the overall

responses by the employees, researcher found that most of the temporary workers do not

believe to be affiliated with the company, hence adversely affecting motivation and

performance of such employees. As explained by Levine (1997) that although temporary

employment, nowadays, is used as a mechanism to reduce costs, but it is the matter of

consideration that most of these employees feel psychologically unrecognized and

unaffiliated and it effects their motivation level as well. Moreover, researcher has related this

issue with Maslow’s motivational model, whereby Maslow suggests that belonging and

affiliation have a direct impact on the motivation of employees (Koontz and Weihrich, 2006)

39

Question 3: How long have you been working in this organisation?

less than 1 year

1 to 3 years

3 to 5 years

more than 5 years

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

10

8

11

9

Job Tenure

Responses for this question reveal that the organisation retains employees. This might be

happening because it provides job security to employees. However, few employees are

working there for less than 1 year and this might be because of the new recruitments made

by the organisation. It was also observed that the responses of the employees differ from

senior employees to freshers. This was due to the fact that most of the employees with less

than 1 year tenure were working on temporary basis.

40

Question 4: What attracts you to the company you are working for?

2053%

718%

1026%

13%

Attracting Factors

Reputation

Job Satisfaction

Package

convenience

This question was asked with an idea to find out what attracts people to work in the

organisation. As shown in the graph above, it is apparent that major portion of the

employees is there because of the reputation of the organisation. 53% of the employees are

attracted by the reputation of the organisation. However 26% are there for the package,

indicating the importance of package for employees. 7% are attracted by job satisfaction

while as a less population of just 3% are attracted by the convenience. After analysing the

responses to this question, it has been observed that the initial factor attracting the

employees to work in the organisation is the company reputation. People prefer to work for

the organisation with high profile or status. After examining the literature and analysing the

data collected, it has been found that it is the primary motivational factor of Herzberg’s

motivational model and the top level of Maslow’s hierarchy theory i.e. ‘status’ which has

been the attracting factor for most of the employees to work in the bank (William et al,

2009). The second most preference has been given to job package/salary. The interesting

issue here is that out of the 10 people who are attracted towards the company for salary, 8

persons were temporary workers (i.e. agency staff or ad hoc employees). As discussed in

question 2 above, this is because temporary employees mostly work in order to get salary at

the end of the month because they work with the mindset that they have to leave the

company immediately as their contract ends. Although according to John (2010), various

41

authors have wrote in favour of job satisfaction as a significant factor for employee

motivation, but in this case only 18% of the sample population was attracted towards the

company because of job satisfaction. The reason for this could be either because the bank is

providing poor job satisfaction or employees prefer other things over job satisfaction.

Question 5: In the last six months, how many times have you been absent from work?

1745%

1129%

616%

411%

Absenteeism

oncetwicethree timesmore than thrice

The main objective of asking this question was to find both the ability and the motivation to

attend. According to Jan and Johannes (2003), absenteeism has been studied from both a

psychological and an economical perspective, and both perspectives focus on the motivation

of employees to attend the work place. As revealed by the graph above, 45% of the total

population has been absent from the work place only once in last 6 months. 29% have been

absent twice, 16% three times, and very less 10% have remained absent for more than three

times.

42

Question 6: How often do you get rewards or incentives for your achievements?

1949%

1333%

615%

13%

Rewards

AlwaysSometimesRarelyNever

This question was asked to employees in order to know how often they get reward for their

performance and whether they are satisfied with the rewards and incentive system. Although

not satisfactory, but majority i.e. 49% of the total participants responded in favour of the

organisation providing them rewards and incentives. 33% responded that they get rewarded

sometimes but not frequently. It is also apparent from the graph that about 18% are not

happy with the rewards and incentives system of the bank. 15% of the total participants have

responded that they rarely get rewards while as 3% have maintained that they never receive

any rewards or incentives. Rewards are the significant element of employee motivation and

it helps in getting a positive behaviour of staff (Thompson, 1996). As mentioned in the

literature review, both, Herzberg and Maslow have emphasized the inclusion of rewards and

incentives so as to develop a motivated workforce. This question received a mixed response

as about 82% of the total participants acknowledge that they receive rewards for their

performance.

43

Question 7: What rewards and incentives should the company provide?

2566%

616%

718%

Rewards 2

Salary IncrementCommissionBonus

This question was asked to find out what types of rewards do employees want from their

employer. This question received the expected response as 66% of the total participants

want increase in their salary as a reward for their performance. 18% want bonus while as

16% would be happy to get commission as rewards and incentives. Analysing the responses

received for this question, it has been observed that most of the employees want salary

increment as their reward for performance. In this regard, bank has to set its reward policy in

a way to have its staff motivated in every aspect. As suggested by Richard and Patrica

(2009), importance of motivation is that it can lead to behaviours that reflect high

performance within organisations. They further emphasized that it is the responsibility of

managers to find the right combination of motivational techniques and rewards to satisfy

employees’ needs and simultaneously encourage high work performance. While deciding

the type of reward to be offered to the staff, it has to be kept in consideration that majority of

the employees want increase in their salary/package. In this regard, Bogardus (2009)

suggests that organisation needs to review the total rewards strategy for selecting the type

of rewards to be offered, in that it is used to determine how the resources available for

rewards programmes can be used to best advantage in attracting, motivating, and retaining

employees. Organisational culture is rooted in the values and beliefs advocated by an

organisation’s leadership and the way in which members of the organisation behave

44

(Bogardus, 2009). It should be noted that total reward philosophy reflects these values and

beliefs to reinforce the culture.

Question 8: Employee motivation affects the overall efficiency of an organization.

25%

411%

1847%

1437%

Organisational Efficiency

strongly disagreedisagreeagreestrongly agree

This question has been asked with an idea to understand the impact of employee motivation

on efficiency of organization. As revealed in the pie chart, 37%strongly agree that employee

motivation fosters the efficiency of an organization while as 47% also agree with the

statement. Less percentage of participants have disagreed with the statement made by the

researcher while as 5% have strongly disagreed with it. General responses reveal that all the

employees believe that organizational efficiency increases with the increase in the

motivational level of employees. These results are similar to the studies of Kumar (2006),

whose study on UCO Bank resulted in the fact that employee motivation and employee

behavior have a positive impact on the efficiency of an organization. This concept is also

backed by Hutchinson (2007) by mentioning that better motivation of employees results in an

efficient workforce and it eventually increases the overall efficiency of an organization.

45

Question 9: The more the employees are motivated the less will be the attrition rate.

13%

38%

2361%

1129%

Employee motivation


This question has been asked with a purpose to know whether or not the increased level of

employee motivation decreases the attrition rate. As shown in the pie chart, 29% of total

participants have strongly agreed while as 60% employees have agree with the statement of

the researcher that better motivation decreases the attrition rate of employees. It was also

found that a less population of participants have not shown consent with this statement, in

that 8% employees have disagreed while as 3% have strongly disagreed with it. As stated by

Andrews, (2009; p65), ‘’attrition rate or the number of employees leaving an organization

reflects the culture of the organization and whether it is a preferred place to work in. an

organization that retains its employees shows that its human resource development

practices and policies are creating a better motivating environment and quality of work life

that is superior to others. Robbins (2009) also backed this thought by suggesting that it is the

obvious consequence of motivation that employees would not leave an organization where

they are motivated to work in. most of the employees have agreed that if they will be

motivated, they will not be leaving the organization.

46

Question 10: Motivation determines the potential employee performance.

13%

38%

1642%

1847%

Employee motivation


This question has been asked to understand the importance of employee motivation in

determining their performance. it has been revealed from the responses that 47% of the

employees believe that full potential of employees can be determined when motivational

level is high while as 42% also agree with the statement. 8% participants disagreed with it

while as 3% strongly disagreed with the statement made by the researcher. According to

Griffin and Moorhead (2009), managers must determine how to motivate people and how to

optimize their performance. The long term key to success in business is to create jobs that

optimize the organization’s requirements for productivity and efficiency while motivating and

satisfying the employees who perform those jobs. This thought has been backed by Robbins

(2009), virtually all employees belong to a work unit, and their work performance depends to

some degree on their ability to effectively interact with their co-workers and their boss. As far

as responses are concerned, the thoughts of the employees are similar to the thoughts of

the authors mentioned above, suggesting that there is a need for high level of motivation in

order to get the best out of them. As discussed in the literature review of this dissertation,

Vroom’s Expectancy model (1964) emphasizes on the factors to be present for the

employees to motivate him or herself to put forth the best effort.

47

Question 11: How important is it for you to have a good relationship with your peers?

3182%

513%

25%

Peer-employee relationship

very importantnot so importantnot important at all

This question is of great significance, in that it deals with the relationship among the

employees. As per the results received, it is apparent that 82% of the total sample

population consider it of great importance to have a good relationship with their peers. 13%

responded that it was not of much importance while as very less people i.e. 5% participants

answered that it is not of any importance to have a good relationship with their peers. These

results indicate that most of the employees believe that it is better to have good relationship

with their peers, hence indicating the willingness for the teamwork and collective approach to

meet organisational targets. Employee relationship is regarded as a measure to determine

culture (Neal et al, 2010). As per the responses received for this question it is apparent that

employees are happy with the relationships with their peers at the workplace, hence happy

with the culture of the organisation. Since the options of responding to this question didn’t

allow the participants to state reasons for their response, but it was learnt with the help of

interviews that there were a few people who were there to get the salary at the end of the

month and had no interest in employee relationship and company profile.

48

Question 12: How important is it for you to have a good relationship with your subordinates?

2874%

718%

38%

Employee-subordinate relationship


This question is having the same importance as above as it also is based on to find out

relationships among employees. The main objective of this question was to find out how

important is it for employees to have a good relationship with their subordinates. As per the

responses received, it is revealed that majority of the staff wanted to have good relationship

with their subordinates in order to achieve desired goals. As shown in the graph above, 74%

of the total participants believe that having good relationship with their subordinates is of

much importance, 18% state that such relationship is not of much importance while as a less

population of participants i.e. 8% believe that the said relationship is not important at all.

Responses for this question indicate that most of the employees are in favour of good

relationship with their subordinates. All the female participants believe that good relations

with their subordinates help in getting desired goals smoothly. Results for both these

questions give a clear indication of decentralisation of powers in the organisation. McPhee

and Poole (2001) have described such an organisational structure as flat structure. Flat

organisational structures that are egalitarian in nature are likely to be conducive to closer

relationships between superiors and subordinates (George and Graen, 2005). More

importantly, it is the organisational culture of an organisation that may affect the initial

development of the superior-subordinate relationship (George and Graen, 2005). As

mentioned in the literature review of this dissertation, organisational culture refers to a

pattern of beliefs and expectations shared by the organisation’s members. These beliefs and

expectations produce norms that powerfully shape the behaviour of individuals and groups in

the organisation (Schwartz and Davis, 1981, p. 33 adopted from Alvesson, 2002).

49

Question 13: Good employee-managerial relationships within the workplace foster the performance of an organization.

25%

616%

2258%

821%

Employee-managerial relationship


This question has been asked with an idea to understand the importance of employee-

managerial relationships from employee perception and how it increases the performance of

an organization. From the responses of the employees shown in this pie chart, it is apparent

that 58% of total participants agree that good employee-managerial relationship fosters the

performance of an organization while as 21% participants strongly agree with it. It has also

been revealed that 16% employees do not believe that employee relationship has any

impact on organizational performance while as 5% strongly disagreed with it. Employee

relationship within a work place is regarded as a measure to determine culture (Neal et al,

2010). As suggested by mathena et al (2008), poor employee-manager relationships in

workplace create hindrances to achieve desired organizational goals. They further explained

that employee-manager relationship is of great importance as it has its impact on employee

motivation and the performance of the organization as well. It was also revealed from the

responses given to question 11 and 12 that the employees of J&K Bank are happy with the

employee/peer/subordinate relationships existing within the organization.

50

Question 14: Better working environment is essential to achieve organizational goals smoothly.

25% 3

8%

1745%

1642%

Working Environment


This question has been asked in order to know essence of good working environment to

achieve organizational goals smoothly. It has to be kept in consideration that working

environment is regarded as a variable of organizational culture. As revealed in the pie chart

above, 45% employees strongly agree with the statement and 42% also showed their

consent with the statement. 8% of the total population disagreed while as 5% strongly

disagreed with the statement made by the researcher. According to Cassidy et al (2009),

motivation comes only from within and is the managers’ job to increase it, in that it is the role

of management to create a working environment where people will motivate themselves. He

further argued that working environment leads to the smooth functioning of the operations

whereby it is easy to achieve organizational goals smoothly. As suggested by the responses

given by the employees of the Bank, majority of the employees are in favor of good working

environment being an essence to achieve organizational goals. In relation to this, Berry

(2007) suggests the importance of good physical environment and explained that employees

are always linked with the physical environment provided to them. Furthermore, Sims (2010)

emphasized that when organisations fail to think about their employees’ working

environment; they are risking the well being of their staff and the organisation.

51

Question 15: Company reputation increases the morale of employees.

411%

1642%

1847%

Company profile


This question was asked to know if the reputation of an organization influences the degree of

employee morale. This question received the responses that were expected by the

researcher. As revealed in the pie chart, 47% have shown the strong belief with the

statement made by the researcher while as 42% also agree with the statement that company

reputation/profile increases the morale of the employees. It has been apparent from the

responses given by the participants that very less i.e. only 11% have disagreed that there is

any impact of company reputation on employee morale. Examining the literature review of

this dissertation, Maslow’s hierarchy model and Herzberg’s two factor theory also reveal the

importance of company profile or status and suggested it as an essential motivator to

improve the motivation of employees in an organization (William et al, 2009). Furthermore,

Morley (2002; p14) stated ‘’employee morale and commitment are generally much better at

companies with good corporate reputation’’. He further explains that high employee morale

in turn, usually, usually leads to high productivity and better performance of an organization.

It was also revealed in the responses given to question 4 that the initial factor chosen by

majority of the employees is company reputation.

52

Questions 16: What kind of development opportunities should the company offer to staff?

2053%

38%

38%

1232%

Development opportunities

Update trainingInternal Knowledge-sharing eventsNew assignments and work experienceJob rotation

This question was asked in order to know about the development opportunities employees

want from their organisation. As revealed by the responses, training has been the main issue

as 53% of the employees responded that they want training to develop their career and

perform better within the workplace. 31% want job rotation as a development opportunity, in

that it would make them multitalented and add in job enrichment. 8% of the participants want

that knowledge-sharing event should be organised in order to acquire more knowledge

about the organisational tasks and ways to achieve goals, while as 8% want their

organisation to offer them new tasks to gain new experience in order to develop their career.

It has become an essence for the organisations to provide developmental opportunities as

employees expect organisations to offer them opportunities to develop a portfolio of skills

that enhances their marketability (Wilderom, 2000). Kozami (2008) mentions that training

has been an issue within J&K bank, in that latest technologies like internet banking etc. are

introduced and employees did not seem to be happy with the training provided to them to

deal with new challenges. In addition, a good number of participants want that job rotation

should be offered to them in order to gain more knowledge and skills as according to Burke

and Moore (2000), the objective of job rotation is to enhance employees’ work experience.

There were a less number of people who do not want training and job rotation as

developmental opportunities and almost all of these are the experienced employees who

have been working there for more than 5 years.

53

Question 17: How important is the level of salary to you?

3487%

410%

13%

Importance of salary


This question is related to the motivation as employees were asked to reply how much the

importance of the salary to them is? As expected 87% of the total participants reported that

salary is of much importance to them while as 10% answered that its importance is not too

much. Only 1 person that is 3% replied that salary doesn’t mean anything for him/her. As

expected by the researcher, it was being learnt from the responses that salary is of much

importance for employees. Although employees preferred employee-relationship and

organisational culture as motivational factors in the first and second place respectively, but

the results for this question reveal that almost all the employees believe that salary is of

great importance for them as it was needed to full fill the basic needs of human beings.

Examining the literature, it is apparent that almost all the motivational theories are in favour

of salary being the most important factor for employee motivation (Ellig, 2007). Employees

seem to be more attracted and concerned regarding salary as most of the employees

responded that company should provide salary increment as reward for their performance

(see Q. 7).

54

Question 18: please number in order of preference, what factors motivate you to work in the

organisation, with 1st the most and 5th the least?

Rank 1

Rank 2

Rank 3

Rank 4

Rank 5

1 3 5 7 9 11 13Rank 1 Rank 2 Rank 3 Rank 4 Rank 5

job satisfaction 7 12 10 7 2

organisational culture 9 11 8 6 4

package 7 13 9 6 3

nature of work 5 9 7 8 9

employee-relationship 10 8 7 6 7

Motivational Preference

This question is of much importance, in that employees were asked to state as per their

preference, what motivated them in the workplace. As revealed in the chart above most of

the employees were motivated because of good employee relationship. 10 people gave first

preference to good employee relationship. 9 people believe that it was the organisational

culture that motivates them to work in the bank. 7 people were motivated by salary/package

while as 7 people were motivated by job satisfaction in the organisation. It was easily

understood by the responses of the participants, that a friendly and decentralised work

culture has been the prime factor for the motivation of employees to work in the bank.

Employees believe that it is the organisational culture of the bank that motivates them to

work there. This question too got a mixed response giving an understanding that employees

believe that organisational culture has an impact on employee motivation. As suggested by

George and Graen (2005), employee-relationship and job satisfaction can be used as

55

variables to measure organisational culture. Thus it is easily understood from the responses

made by participants that there is a link between organisational culture and employee

motivation.

Question 19: Are you happy with the working environment of you organisation? If not,

Please state the reason.

Are you happy Value Percentage

Yes 29 77%

No 9 23%

This question has been asked to understand how people feel about the working environment

of the organisation. As revealed in the previous responses, most of the people were happy

with the employee relationships within the workplace. Therefore this question also got the

same response, in that 77% of the total participants were happy with the working

environment while as 23% of the participants were not happy with the working environment

of their organisation. Since this question was an open ended one and it was learnt from the

reasons stated by some of the employees that there were certain problems with the physical

environment of the bank. One of the employees stated, ‘’even though we are being provided

with good facilities but unfortunately things get worse during cold winters because of

inadequate heating facilities’’. Although majority of the employees are happy with the

working environment of the bank but the need for improvement of physical environment is

essential. In relation to this, Berry (2007) suggests the importance of good physical

environment and explained that employees are always linked with the physical environment

provided to them. Furthermore, Sims (2010) emphasized that when organisations fail to think

about their employees’ working environment; they are risking the well being of their staff and

the organisation.

56

Question 20: To you what is the value of feedback to motivate or de-motivate a person?

In this question, employees were asked to comment about the value of feedback in relation

to the employee motivation. This was an open ended question where most of the employees

didn’t respond either because of time constraint or they intentionally didn’t want to provide

any information regarding the question. However, 18 people responded with almost same

response stating that feedback is and should be considered as a factor of motivation. All the

responses were in favour of good feedback to be linked with the motivation of the

employees.

Question 21: Have you ever complained about anything in your workplace? Who did you

complain to and what was done about it?

Complaints Value

Yes 7

No 31

This question was asked with an idea to find out how management deals with the complaints

of their staff. This was an open ended question and people were asked to state the

complaints they made. Although it was assured that the employee responses will be kept

confidential, but employees didn’t seem to open up. Out of 38, only 7 people answered that

they had complained, but none of them responded what the complaint was for and how it

was dealt by the management?

57

Question 22: How important do you think organisational culture is?

3079%

616%

25%

Importance of organisational culture

very important not so importantnot important at all

This question is the most important one as it was asked to know about how much important

do employees think organisational culture is? As expected by the researcher, 79% i.e.

majority of the sample population believe that organisational culture is of much importance.

16% people didn’t deny its importance however; they replied that it was not of much

importance for them. However, 5% of the total participants believe that organisational culture

is not important at all. These responses give a clear indication that employee believe in

shared beliefs, values and norms that bind them together and help them make sense of the

systems within the organisation. As according to Lewis et al (2006), these beliefs, values,

and norms tell people ‘what is to be done’ and ‘how it is to be done’ and culture develop

within organisations as their people interact and share ways of managing and coping.

58

Question 23: How would you describe the culture of your organisation?

924%

1847%

718%

411%

organisational culture

strongsatisfactoryaveragepoor

This is also a culture related question. It was asked with the main objective to know about

the culture strength of the organisation. 47% employees were happy with the organisational

culture of the bank while as 24% answered that organisational culture was satisfactory. It

should be taken into consideration that 18% were not fully satisfied with the organisational

culture while as 11% think that the culture they had was too poor. Although all the

employees believe that organisational culture has an impact on the motivation but as

compared to such responses, there were less people who believe that the culture of their

organisation is good enough or as expected by them. As mentioned in the literature review

of this dissertation, it is because of the strong culture that core values of organisation are

held strongly and shared widely (Robbins, 2009).

59

Question 24: According to you, organisational culture has a significant influence over

924%

616%21

55%

25%

Impact of organisational culture

Employee motivationPerformanceBothNone

This question, according to researcher is one of the most significant questions in the whole

questionnaire, in that it is related to the primary objective of the dissertation. The main

objective of this study is to find out whether there is any impact of organisational culture on

employee motivation and performance. As revealed by the chart, 55% participants believe

that organisational culture has got an impact on both employee motivation and their

performances. 24% believe that its impact is directly on employee motivation while as 16%

responded that its impact is on employee performance. However, just 2 people i.e. 5% of the

total sample population believe that there is no link between organisational culture and

employee motivation or performance. Examining the overall results for this question, it is

quite apparent that employees firmly believe that organisational culture has an impact on

employee motivation. The objective of this research was to investigate the impact of

organisational culture on employee motivation (if any). As discussed earlier in this

dissertation, Brown (1998) described organisational culture as an important factor for the

motivation of employees. Although all the employees are not satisfied with the culture of the

bank, but employees have explicitly responded in favour of organisational culture being a

factor for motivation.

60

4.2 Testing Hypothesis

Researcher has developed a hypothesis which is to find the relation between employee

motivation and organisation culture, as discussed in chapter four. The researcher has used

the statistical tool (co-relation) to find out the relation between the two factors. Moreover, it

will make the data analysis more valid. Researcher has analysed the responses of the

participants in questionnaire by using SPSS software.

The variables that were used for obtaining co-relation are represented by ‘OC’ and ‘EM’.

Where OC represents organisation culture and EM is for employee motivation. The

hypothesis is based on six questions (3 from each variable): OC1 (Q.13), OC2 (Q.14),

OC3 (Q.15) for organisation culture and EM1 (Q.8), EM2 (Q.9), EM3 (Q10) for employee

motivation. All the responses to these six questions were analysed by using SPSS software

to get the co-relation between the two. The results brought forward by two methods of

obtaining co-relation: Pearson’s and Spearman’s are shown in the table below:

Pearson Correlation

Correlations

@_age @_age_

@_age Pearson

Correlation

1 1.000**

Sig. (2-tailed) .000

N 38 38

@_age_ Pearson

Correlation

1.000** 1

Sig. (2-tailed) .000

N 38 38

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-

tailed).

61

Spearman’s Correlation

Correlations

@_age @_age_

Spearman's

rho

@_age Correlation

Coefficient

1.000 1.000**

Sig. (2-tailed) . .

N 38 38

@_age_ Correlation

Coefficient

1.000** 1.000

Sig. (2-tailed) . .

N 38 38

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

The thing which we need to consider is the direction of the relationship between the

variables. If there is negative sign in front of the correlation coefficient value, this means

there is negative correlation between the two variables. In this research, Pearson correlation

coefficient (1.000) and Spearman rho value (1.000) are positive, indicating a positive

correlation between Organizational Culture (OC) and Employee Motivation (EM). According

to Cohen (1988), the correlation of zero indicates no relationship at all, a correlation of 1.0

indicates a perfect positive correlation and the value of – 1.0 indicates a perfect negative

correlation. In order to interpret values in between 0 to 1, Cohen suggests the following

guidelines:

Small r = .10 to .29

Medium r = .30 to .49

Large r = .50 to 1.0 (Pallant, 2007)

62

Therefore the relation between the given variables culture and motivation is high and they

are directly proportional to each other. And the negative or positive sign refers only to the

direction and the strength of correlation is 1.000 (Pearson) and 1.000 (Spearman).

Therefore, the hypothesis generated by the researcher holds true and “with the increase in

Organizational Culture there is an increase in Employee motivation”. Employees believe that

if the culture of an organisation is employee-driven, there will be high level of motivation

among the employees. All the employees are in favour of good relationship with their peers,

subordinate or superiors. Therefore in order to have an efficient and better motivated team, it

is of great essence for the management to create a culture that takes care of its employees

and organisation as well. Reward system of the organisation needs to be directed towards

the way whereby employees would be satisfied with the rewards provided to them for their

performance. Moreover, factors like training and development, recognition, and promotion of

the employees are essentially to be managed by the organisation so as to manage the

motivational level of their employees.

4.3 Interviews

In order to use qualitative data collection approach, telephonic interviews were conducted

with the employees of the bank. Only the most important questions required for the research,

were put in the interview so as to make it precise and result oriented. In order to understand

how motivated people are in different places and to investigate the link between

organisational culture and motivation, employees from different working backgrounds were

interviewed. All the questions asked in the interviews are attached in appendix. The primary

objective of interviews was to understand the reason behind the responses made by

employees while answering questions in the questionnaire. Although full confidentiality was

assured to the employees, they didn’t seem to open up. Moreover, interviews were

conducted during working hours due to which employees couldn’t explain everything in detail

due to time constraint.

It was revealed from the interviews that the primary factor of employee motivation to work in

the organisation is reputation of Bank. People prefer to work in the high-profile organisation.

However, couple of people clearly said that they were not interested in the reputation or

profile of the company and made it clear that they work in order to get salary at the end of

the month. One employee (customer advisor) was attracted by the part time hours offered by

the Bank while as one employee was still in hunt for seeking a new job.

Besides salary/wages, employees receive rewards and incentives such as discount on

insurance cover, bonus on reaching pre-defined targets. Most of the employees were

63

working on performance related pay. As revealed by the results of the questionnaire,

interviews too showed that employees were in favour of good relationship with their peers,

subordinates and bosses. However, it was observed that female employees seem to be

more positive regarding employee relationships, while as most of the male employees did

indicate that they were there just to earn money. One of the male employees stated that the

available work environment was not good for him. Employees in sales department were

disturbed too, where a sales manager stated ‘’ establishing good employee relationship is

too hard because of the constant management changes, because by the time employee

gets used to the manager’s leadership style, there is a change of management. Too many

changes in management can de-motivate employees, in that they find it difficult to adapt with

the new management constantly’’.

Regardless of the comments made on previous question, when asked about importance of

good relationships with peers and subordinates all the participants replied that it is good

relationship is important in order to work efficiently. One of the participants from insurance

department stated ‘’ I would not give my best if my manager is not good’’. Over all responses

for this question emphasized the need for total commitment and team work in the workplace.

All the people, whether responding to the questionnaire or interviews, spoke in favour of

good employee relationship as an important factor for motivation and performance of the

employees. Such an environment helps in generating team spirit and makes it easier to

solve problems and conflicts within the workplace. As stated by one of the female managers,

‘’ good working relationship with my subordinates make my job easier’’.

Question 3 on the interview got the similar response from all the participants. When asked

how important training for the motivation of employees is, all the participants responded that

training is an important factor to get motivated to work in a workplace. One of the employees

stated ‘’ when your organisation provides you training, you take company interests at heart’’.

Training provides job enrichment and prepares employees to accept new challenges. The

interviewees tend to believe that training will encourage employees to work harder and

achieve desired targets smoothly. These results were similar to the studies examined

previously in the literature review. For example, Hofstede’s study in Amsterdam showed that

unskilled workers were the least motivated people in the workplace while as managers and

other well trained employees were more motivated. Thus participants made it clear that

training is very important as it removes weaknesses and improves efficiency of employees.

One of the employees states, ‘’ training is beneficial for both employees and company, in

that it improves the skills of employees and skilled employees add to the performance of the

organisation’’.

64

When asked about the importance of salary, it was observed that managers and senior

employees give equal importance to salary and job satisfaction. On the contrary, freshers,

temporary employees, and employees with lower positions give much importance to salary

than anything else. One of the senior employee said, ‘’if you are experienced and have

complete skills to do the job, then you deserve a good salary’’. This was a fair comment;

however, temporary employees state that they work to get salary at the end of month and

showed no interest in careers. One of the temporary employee stated, ‘’my contract with the

bank ends within next two months, how come I would be interested in the job satisfaction

here’’. Examining the literature, it was apparent from the study carried by Hofstede (2001) in

Amsterdam, where most of the workers came to earn salary and were completely

dissatisfied with their job.

It was learned from the literature that increased responsibilities add to the motivation of the

employees and make them work harder. This is because responsibilities make them feel

their contribution is of much importance and makes a difference (Bruce and Pepitone, 1998).

However, the responses for this question were different from what was expected by the

researcher. When asked about responsibilities, one of the employee from human resource

department said, ‘’I felt useless when I had less responsibilities and when too many

responsibilities were put on me, I found it difficult to deal with the pressure’’. One of the

employees from insurance department claimed that responsibilities are good as long as

there is someone else to support. It was observed from these responses that issue of

responsibilities depend on the individuals whether he/she can deal with too many

responsibilities and work in pressure.

Question 6 of the interview was vital for the research. Employees were asked to comment

about what motivates them at the workplace and the responses varied from person to

person. One of the employees stated that he gets motivated when he is praised for his work.

He further explained that his manager treats him very well and that was the reason for him to

work even with more interest. One of the sales advisors was motivated by solving customer

queries and was happy in meeting new people every day. It was also observed that

feedback from the managers’ acts as motivator for some employees. Some people were

motivated due to good employee relationships and friendly working environment. By

analysing responses given to both questionnaire and interview, it has been revealed that the

most common motivators for the employees are recognition, high salary, promotion, and

culture of the organisation.

When asked about the culture of their organisation, employees described their culture as

collectivist. As it was also revealed in through the responses to the questionnaire, people

65

seem to be happy working in team and friendly environment. However, one of the

interviewees stated that the culture of the bank is not good enough as there is no

commitment from the managers. People work there in order to get wages at the end of the

month. But this was not the case with other employees as they felt good about the culture of

the company. Most of the interviewees state that senior managers have brought the culture

which is considerate to employees. As discussed in the literature review, it is up to the

management and personal specialists who are in the company for influencing the behaviour

in the desired directions meeting the needs of both enterprise and workforce (Schwalbe,

2009).

As expected by the researcher, all the employees agree that there is a connection between

organisational culture and employee motivation. One of the managers stated, ‘’if the culture

is people oriented and committed, then the motivation is natural at the work place’’.

However, one of the interviewee has been working on the same job position for last 4 years

and was the least motivated. This suggests that organisational culture should be such that it

takes care of both employees and the company’s interests. In this regard, one of the

employees from the sales department said that if culture is creating negative atmosphere

and keeps management detached from staff then employees will feel de-motivated

Employees also commented in favour of organisational culture having its impact on

employee performance. One of the managers from human resource department claimed that

it is the culture of an organisation that motivates employees to work harder. Similar

comments were made by one of the staff members from insurance department by stating

‘’good organisational culture motivates employees and higher motivation always results in

higher performance’’. This comment was of great significance from researcher’s point of

view as it covered both the objectives of this research i.e. to investigate relation between

organisational culture and employee motivation and organisational culture and employee

performance.

4.4 Summary of findings

To sum up the chapter of finding and analysis, it can be said that the primary data collected

through questionnaires and interviews proved to be in favour of the research objectives. It

was learned from the analysis that employees, in the first place, are motivated by high

salary. However recognition and good employee relationships were also chosen as the

factors of motivation by the employees. Majority of the employees feel the importance of

employee-driven culture to be present in order for a better motivated staff. Employees’

beliefs and shared values were keenly observed through the questions asked to them.

Employees did stress that rewards and salary increase is of great importance and agreed

66

that if the culture is employee oriented, the good performance would be a normal day’s work.

In addition, according to the correlation presented above, hypothesis made by the

researcher has been tested true, in that there is a highly positive correlation between

organisational culture and motivation. The better the organisational culture the is higher will

be the motivational level of employees.

67

Chapter 5: Conclusion5.1 Introduction

The primary objective of this research was to investigate the impact of organisational culture

on employee motivation. There have been the issues relating to the assessment of

organisational culture (Maier, 2002). The variables used to measure organisational culture in

this research were similar to the variables used by Morcoulides and Heck (1993) for their

study on organisational culture. These are; individual beliefs and values, organisational

values, climate and tasks, and structure. As revealed from the correlation between

organisational culture (organisational values, working environment, and employee

relationships) and employee motivation, a positive correlation has been found between the

two. This suggests that organisational culture has got a positive impact on employee

motivation. The better the organisational culture is the higher will be the motivational level of

employees.

5.2 Relating findings with hypothesis

In order to show the relation of hypothesis and findings, it is essential to review the proposed

hypothesis. The hypothesis made by the researcher has been that the organisational culture

is one of the important factors within the working environment to have an impact on the

motivation of the people within it. Although various authors have stated organisational

culture as a main component of business, most of the companies till date, do not believe that

the organisational culture can influence the behaviour of the employees.

As revealed from the correlation (presented in finding and analysis) between the variables of

organisational culture and employee motivation, there is a positive correlation between the

two, hence the results of this research are in favour of hypothesis. As analysed from the

findings, it was observed that culture of the organisation influences the behaviour of the

people working within it and has an impact on their motivation to work. As mentioned in the

literature, Brown (1998), Schneider and Synder (1975), Sempane et al. (2002), have

discussed that organisational culture has an essential impact on employee motivation. It is

apparent from the responses made to the initial questions on the questionnaire that all the

employees want to work in the company with high profile/status (see responses to Q. 4 in

findings). Employees agreed that the reputation of the company plays an important role in

working within a company. However, some of the employees made it clear that they were

interested in earning money only, but that does not mean that the employees who were

interested in reputation/profile of the company had no interest in money. Responses to

68

Question 13 on the questionnaire made it clear that all the employees need good salary to

work in an organisation (see Q13 in findings). These results also relate to the factors of

motivation given by Herzberg, Maslow, and Vroom in their motivational theories already

discussed in the literature review of this dissertation.

It was also observed that people are interested in good relationship within the workplace.

Questions related to employee relationship were asked in both questionnaire and interviews

and almost all the employees believe that good employee-relationship leads to higher

motivation, increased performance, and overall success of the organisation (see responses

to Q. 11, 12, and 13 in findings). According to Mullins (2008), in people culture, employees

like to team up and work together for the sake of organisation. People in such an

organisation work with full consciousness and are motivated to work together and be part of

such organisation (Martin, 2002). The overall observation of this research revealed that the

most dominant factors for the motivation of employees were high salary, employee

relationships, and staff development. All the employees gave importance to good salary.

Employees believe that good relationship with peers/subordinates makes their task easier

and interesting. Training has been the issue with most of the employees of the bank.

However, employees believe that company should provide training to its employees in order

to develop their careers and in turn achieve increased literature discussed performance from

them. Analysing the results from the findings and examining the in chapter two of this

dissertation, it is quite apparent that the motivators found within the staff of J&K Bank were

similar to the motivators given by Herzberg in his two-factor theory.

69

Chapter 6: Recommendations6.1 Introduction

As mentioned in the introductory part of this research, every organisation aims at achieving

the pre-defined desired goals. Human resource management of an organisation plays an

important role in managing people in a way so as to achieve those desired goals (Armstrong,

2005). Employee behaviours, the forces that drive them to behave in the way they do, and

the important factors relating to the motivation of these employees have been discussed in

this dissertation. This research is not beneficial to author only, but it also highlights the key

issues needed to be considered by the management of Jammu & Kashmir Bank so as to

manage their work force more efficiently and effectively. This dissertation has thrown light on

some of the critical decisions about how to manage people in an effective manner so as to

achieve organisational goals. These are; making management aware about the factors that

make employees unhappy, satisfying employee values by improving organisational culture,

and creating a better and employee-friendly environment.

In order to work with a better motivated staff, it is essential for the management to

understand the impact of organisational culture on employee motivation. Management needs

to understand the behaviour of the employees and how they feel about the organisation.

Although most of the employees were happy with the employee-relationships within the

workplace but it was identified from the responses of the participants that the problems like

training, management stability, and reward system exist in the organisation. These are

discussed below.

6.2 Training and development

Training and development is one of the main aspects to be improved by the organisation in

order to increase employee motivation and increase performance. This fact has also been

revealed by Kazmi (2008) while mentioning that employees of J&K bank want their

organisation to provide them with proper job training so as to face the new challenges

required to fulfil their day-today tasks. It was also revealed from the responses given by the

employees to question 16 on the questionnaire, where 53% employees want training as a

development opportunity to be offered by the company. One of the interviewee also stated

that ‘when company spends money and time to train you properly so as to perform better

and improve career opportunities, you get more attached to the organisation and feel its

interest at heart’. Training has been defined as an activity that changes the behaviour of the

people (Khan, 1998; p30). He further emphasized that training is not important only to

70

increase productivity but to inspire and motivate staff by letting them know how important

their jobs are and provide them adequate information required to perform their job. So, in

order to carry their operations smoothly and with a motivated workforce, J&K bank needs to

provide the necessary training and development opportunities to its employees.

6.3 Rewards and incentives

Rewards and incentives are the significant elements increasing employee motivation and

help an organisation to make their staff behave in desired manner (Thompson, 1996). As

mentioned in the literature review, both, Herzberg and Maslow have emphasized the

inclusion of rewards and incentives so as to develop a motivated staff. It was revealed from

the findings that only 49% employees were happy with the rewards provided by the

organisation (see question 6 in findings). It was also revealed from the findings that

employees want salary increase as reward to their performance. Management needs to

consider these responses from the employees and select the rewards as per the wishes of

the employees. As discussed earlier, Bogardus (2009) suggests that organisation needs to

review the total rewards strategy for selecting the type of rewards to be offered, in that it is

used to determine how the resources available for rewards programmes can be used to best

advantage in attracting, motivating, and retaining employees.

6.4 Recognition

It has been observed from the research that employees are get satisfied when praised for

their work. This gives an indication that recognition for their work makes employees feel

more satisfied. Moreover, it was also observed that employees like to get positive feedback

for their work. According to Schawrtz (2006; p152), although praise (recognition) is an

undervalued reward, but the expression goes, ‘’a little praise can go a long way’’. There are

so many things to recognize someone for. As commented by one of the interviewees, ‘’I feel

on top when I get praised for my work’’. Schawrtz (2006) further explained that even the

work itself can act as a reward for some people. Some people feel recognized by just getting

more new responsibilities, in that it leads to a new and exciting work experience.

Empowerment or letting an employee take the lead in something can, can be a great reward.

In some cases, promotion is the ultimate recognition for a job well done. Management needs

to consider all these issues so as to improve the culture of the organisation and push the

motivational level of the employees so as to achieve organisational goals efficiently.

71

6.5 Effective management

According to Prokopenko (2000), increasing organisation’s efficiency and productivity starts

at the management level since it is primarily the responsibility of managers. Improving an

organisation’s culture can make an important contribution towards solving specific problems.

As suggested by Armstrong (2005), sound management of attitudes towards human

resources can create a better cultural orientation, resulting in more effective work. Thus, it is

very important to accept that attitudes as well as motivation can be managed. He further

emphasized that abilities and performances can be improved by proper recruitment and

selection, job placement and rotation, training and development. These are all good

management practices and strategies to be applied in order to have a better motivated team

in a good organisational culture.

6.6 Recommendations for further research

As mentioned earlier, due to the limitations of the study like time constraint, small sample

size, and the distance factor, in that the researcher has conducted this research on J&K

Bank (Kashmir, India) while being in UK. Because of these mentioned factors, this research

lacked depth. Therefore it would be beneficial to conduct a much better study that will help in

understanding the subject matter in more depth. Large sample size should be chosen by the

researcher. Moreover, cultural variance in different regions can have an influence on

motivation. Therefore, it would be more interesting to conduct the study on organisational

culture of more than one company in different regions to investigate the impact of

organisational culture on employee motivation in different countries or regions.

72

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Appendix-1

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Research Questionnaire

1. Please select your gender

Male

Female

2. Please identify your job status?

Permanent staff member Temporary staff member

Agency staff

3. How long have you been working in this organisation?

Less than 1 year 1year to 3 years

3 years to 5 years More than 5 years

4. What attracts you to the company you are working for? (please tick)

Reputation Job satisfaction

Benefits/package Convenience

5. In the last six months how many times have you been absent from work?

Once Twice

Three times More than thrice

6. Do you get rewards or incentives for your achievements?

Always Sometimes

Rarely Never

80

7. What rewards and incentives should the company provide?

Increase in salary Commission

Bonuses

8. Employee motivation affects the overall efficiency of organisation.

Strongly Disagree Disagree

Strongly Agree Agree

9. The more the employees are motivated the less will be the attrition rate.



10. Motivation determines the potential employee performance.



11. How important is it for you to have a good relationship with your peers?

Very important Not so important

Not important at all

12. How important is it for you to have a good relationship with your subordinates?



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13. Good employee-manager relationships increase organisational effectiveness.


Agree Strongly Agree

14. Better working environment is essential to achieve organisational goals smoothly.


Agree Strongly Agree

15. Company reputation increases the morale of employees.



16. What kind of development opportunities should the company offer to staff?

Update training Internal knowledge sharing events

New assignments and work experience Job rotation

17. How important is the level of salary to you?



18. Please number in order of preference what factors motivate you, with 1st the most

and 5th the least.

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Job satisfaction Organisational culture

High salary/benefit package Nature of work itself

Good relationship with peers/subordinates

19. Are you happy with the working environment? If NO Please state the reason.

Yes No

............................................ ................................

..............................................................................................................

20. To you what is the value of feedback to motivate or de-motivate a person?

.............................................................................................

.................................................................................................

21. Have you ever complained about anything in your work place?

Yes No

If yes, what was it? .....................................................................................................

What was done about it? .............................................................................................

22. How important do you think organisational culture is?



23. How would you describe the culture of your organisation?

83

Strong Satisfactory

Average Poor

24. Organisational culture has a significant influence over

Employee motivation Performance

Both motivation and performance None of the above.

Thanks for taking part in this questionnaire.

Appendix-2

84

Organizational Culture

Respondents OC1 OC2 OC3 Value

Total Value % age

Positive / Negative

1 3 3 4 10 12 83% pos2 3 3 2 8 12 66.66 neg3 4 3 3 10 12 83.33 pos4 2 4 4 10 12 83.33 pos5 3 3 2 8 12 66.66 neg6 3 2 3 8 12 66.66 neg7 3 3 4 10 12 83.33 pos8 4 4 3 11 12 91.33 pos9 3 3 4 10 12 83.33 pos

10 4 2 2 8 12 66.66 neg11 3 3 4 10 12 83.33 pos12 3 4 3 7 12 83.33 pos13 3 3 4 10 12 83.33 pos14 3 4 3 10 12 83.33 pos15 3 3 2 8 12 66.66 neg16 3 2 3 8 12 66.66 neg17 2 3 3 8 12 66.66 neg18 4 3 3 10 12 83.33 pos19 3 4 4 11 12 91.33 pos20 2 4 4 10 12 83.33 pos21 3 1 3 7 12 58.33 neg22 3 3 3 9 12 75 neg23 3 4 3 10 12 83.33 pos24 1 3 4 8 12 66.66 neg25 3 4 3 10 12 83.33 pos26 4 3 4 5 12 91.33 pos27 3 1 3 7 12 58.33 neg28 3 3 4 10 12 83.33 pos29 3 4 3 10 12 83.33 pos30 4 3 4 11 12 91.33 pos31 4 4 4 12 12 100 pos32 4 3 3 10 12 83.33 pos33 2 4 4 10 12 83.33 pos34 3 4 4 11 12 91.33 pos35 2 4 4 10 12 83.33 pos36 1 4 3 8 12 66.66 neg37 2 4 4 10 12 83.33 pos38 3 4 4 11 12 91.33 pos

85

Employee Motivation

EM1 EM2 EM3 ValueTotal Value % age

Positive / Negative

4 3 3 10 12 83.33 pos4 3 3 10 12 83.33 neg4 3 3 10 12 83.33 pos4 3 4 11 12 91.33 pos4 3 4 11 12 91.33 pos2 3 3 8 12 66.66 neg3 4 4 11 12 91.66 pos4 4 3 11 12 91.33 pos4 4 2 10 12 83.33 pos4 4 3 11 12 91.33 pos3 2 3 8 12 66.66 neg4 4 4 12 12 100 pos4 3 3 10 12 83.33 pos3 1 4 8 12 66.66 neg4 3 3 10 12 83.33 pos2 4 4 10 12 83.33 pos4 3 3 10 12 83.33 pos4 3 4 11 12 91.33 pos4 3 4 11 12 91.33 pos3 4 3 10 12 83.33 pos1 2 4 7 12 58.33 neg3 3 2 8 12 66.66 neg3 3 4 10 12 83.33 pos2 3 2 7 12 58.33 neg3 4 3 10 12 83.33 pos3 3 4 10 12 83.33 pos3 4 4 11 12 91.33 pos2 3 1 6 12 50 neg3 4 3 10 12 83.33 pos4 3 3 10 12 83.33 pos3 2 3 8 12 66.66 pos3 3 4 10 12 83.33 pos3 3 4 10 12 83.33 pos3 3 4 10 12 83.33 pos3 3 4 10 12 83.33 pos3 3 3 9 12 75 neg3 3 4 10 12 83.33 pos3 4 4 11 12 91.33 pos

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