Factors for Motivation in Banking Employees

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Research Background

Understanding human behavior in workplace has been one of the most prioritized tasks for any organization. This is due to major changes like globalization and technological advancement that change in the structure of the business done, the workforce behavior and management of employees.

To keep up the business state of the art and become successful, the organizations should acclimatize with these changes (Vercueil, 2001). So, it has become important for employers to know what motivates their employees rather than emphasizing them to increase productivity. The environment, in which the employees work as a team, should be created and sustained so that they are themselves driven towards achieving the common goals.

Hence, motivation is given more attention in the organization to know employees and their behavior. In any organization, every staff is unique and performs the task based on their mental abilities and the extent to which they are applied at work (Mullins, 2007). Some people tend to work really harder than others. If a staff is appreciated for his/her hard work, he/she is more likely to be motivated to high performance.

Herzberg et al 1999 explained that employees show different attitudes depending on the nature of jobs assigned to them at workplace. Furthermore, they argued these attitudes towards their jobs have a significant influence on the survival of the organization. there is a famous saying which is based on Herzberg’s thought that if an organization wants its employees to do a good job, give them a good job to do (Giancola,2010). To illustrate this, during the hard times of the organization, the morality among the workforce determines its success or failure provided that they are made feel as the essential resources of the organization and are given appropriate chances to prove themselves. Thus, motivated employees are more likely to contribute for the success and survival of the organization.

In earlier days, motivation was considered as only a force that drives individuals to become committed in the job of their choice. The early approaches of motivation emphasizes on the needs of the individuals explaining their tendency to be motivated and the efforts exerted in order to satisfy those needs. There were some other approaches which highlighted on the employees’ goal setting. Modern approaches of motivation draws attention towards the values and long term goals set by the employees. Simons and Enz (2006) says now the employees perform the task not only to fulfill the basic needs but also to increase their values, become successful and satisfied from their performance.

Motivation has been one of those areas which gained lots of interests from organizational psychologists and many scholars since 1930s. Yet, the in-depth understanding of motivation has been considered as a tough task (Locke and Latham, 2004). Thus, this research work is aimed to identify what motivates employees of Bank of Kathmandu by applying the concept of existing theories.

1.2 Background of the organization

The organization chosen for research work is Bank of Kathmandu BOK, one of the renowned commercial banks of Nepal. BOK commenced its operation in 1995 with an aim to contribute in the economic development of Nepal. BOK is in a position to become “Bank of Choice” through serving and supporting its customers financially. Considering this vision, the bank has a total of 39 branches, 6 extension counters and 50 ATMs across the country. It has helped not only in promoting economic development but also it reduces unemployment problem to some extent by providing opportunities to local people. The basic reason behind selecting this particular bank is due to its distinct uniqueness and growing success and secondly, the researcher had an easy access to this bank. The research is carried out based on the responses given by the staff working in two branches of the bank.

1.3 The Research Problem

Employee commitment has been a matter of focus for companies to be successful and the committed employees are considered as the most important factors of organizational effectiveness (Robertson, et al. 2007). However, retaining committed employees within organization is not an easy task. The employees of modern era work to satisfy the needs as well as achieve their individual goals (Drake and Kossen, 2002). Gubman (2003) pointed out the increasing trend of employees doing many jobs at a time in their career and have become more mobile. Employees are no more working in organisations for a long term basis. Thus, it needs a proper understanding of what motivates and satisfies them at work to generate such commitments.

1.4 Research Questions

Motivation needs vary on individuals based on their level of needs, backgrounds, expectations and personal traits. In simple words, two different employees working in the same environment may have different level of satisfaction. Furthermore, human needs are always dynamic and change over time becoming sometimes stronger or weaker. According to Simons and Enz (2006), while attempting to motivate the employees, the managers make mistakes assuming wrongly that they understand the employees and their needs and expectations they want from their work. This research work, therefore, focuses on the factors motivating employees and helping managers to understand their employees. In this context, the questions related to the research are:

1. What are the critical factors that motivate and satisfy employees in BOK?
2. How do the factors of motivation influence staff satisfaction in BOK?
3. What are the motivation strategy adopted by BOK for better management and performance of the staff?

1.5 Research aim

The purpose of this research is to investigate the factors that motivate workers and their impact on organizational performances in Bank of Kathmandu (BOK), Nepal.

The study aims to analyse the factors that motivate employees to encourage them to give their best performances in order to increase the organizational effectiveness and achieve its goals. It also aims to know the extent to which BOK is successful in making its employees satisfied and committed.

1.6 Research objectives

The study is an explanation about the employee motivation in Bank of Kathmandu BOK, one of the leading banks in Nepal. Hence, the objectives of this research can be listed as:

1. To investigate factors of motivation and their impact on the performance of BOK.
2. To critically analyse the factors of motivation and its effect on staff satisfaction in BOK.
3. To develop motivation strategy for better management and performance for the staff in BOK.

The research work would be significant to students, other researchers and the bank itself which can be taken as a source of reference.

1.7 Limitations of the research

Motivation is a concept with a broad area of research. It contains a wide range of theories on factors that motivate people (content theories) along with theories that describe how behaviours are initiated, directed and endured (process theories). The research work focuses only content theories which identify the particular needs that drive the human behaviour to perform better or worse.

The researcher has tried to present the impact of motivation and job satisfaction on employees’ mental health, social life, and family life in order to show the significance and scope of the research topic. However, they are only considered in the theory but not clearly shown on the observed part of the research.

Apart from these limitations, there are some other limitations for the research as

1. There was time constraint to complete this research work as the researcher has to complete the work within three months’ period.
2. The budget allocated was less due to the researcher is a student.
3. The data analysis is done based on the employees randomly selected from only two branches.

1.8 Outline of the study

Chapter 1: introduction: The first chapter deals with the research topic, an overview of the company selected for research work followed by statement of problem, purpose of the study and limitations.

Chapter 2: Literature Review: this chapter contains reviews of various theories of motivation and job satisfaction. The researcher has showed the relationship between motivation and variables like rewards, job satisfaction, job performance, trainings, behaviour and conflict. It also explained how positive motivation lead to

Chapter 3: methodology: this chapter deals with the methods, different tools and techniques used in the research work for data collection, analysis and interpretation.

Chapter 4: data analysis: the chapter covers the ways the collected data were compiled and analysed. The analysis is based on the literature review and survey done via questionnaires in order to best serve the purpose of the study.

Chapter 5: conclusions and recommendations: this chapter contains three parts namely findings, recommendations and conclusion.

1.9 Conclusion

In this chapter, the researchers has discussed about the introduction of employee motivation and its importance in organisations. The main reason behind conducting this research work, the problem area, and the limitations are clarified. A brief introduction of organisation is given on the basis of which this study is done. The basic knowledge of the contents of the research work is also discussed.