%0 Journal Article
%T Meaning of Work and Employee Motivation
%A Winnie Mujah
%A Rose Ruziana Abdul Samad
%A Harpajan Singh
%A Owen Timothy D¡¯Cruz
%J Terengganu International Management and Business Journal
%D 2011
%I Universiti Teknologi MARA, Terengganu
%X The research aim is to discover the meaning of work to employees, how central work is in their lives, their perceived level of motivation at work and factors that would increase their motivation level. The centrality of work is compared against other factors such as leisure, community, religion and family. The factors representing the meaning of work include: (1) work provides needed income; (2) working is interesting and satisfying; (3) working gives opportunity to meet and socialize with other people; (4) working is a useful way to serve society; (5) working gives status, prestige and respect; (6) working is a religious or spiritual obligation; (7) working to stay occupied. The research method used is a quantitative questionnaire distributed to employees, both academics and non-academics at INTI International University. The research concludes that work is of averagely centrality to employees and that their primary motivation to work is to earn an income. The implication of this is that money is a motivator (which contradicts Herzberg¡¯s Two Factor Theory which says that money is not a motivator) and as such, the organisation should thus provide adequate compensation and reward as a means of motivating employees. According to Moncrief (2010), managers may apply to encouraging their employees by monetary awards when they act in the way expected from them. The effect of such awards is still limited like other motivating tools and they may be useless or even become a damaging factor in the case that they are not used carefully and in a fair manner or not individualized sufficiently. The function of economic awarding used by many enterprises today in various ways in motivating people cannot be denied. However it is seen that appeal to the motivating economic tools and expecting from them more than needed does not seem to result in success very much. Therefore, in planning rewarding, encouraging economic tools should be employed in accordance with employees¡¯ needs. In fact, there are ways of increasing employees¡¯ work motivation and satisfaction other than monetary tools.
%K Meaning of work
%K Employee motivation
%K Work centrality
%K Culture
%U http://timbej.uitm.edu.my/images/stories/winnie%20mujah.pdf