Factors of motivation in early career stage-comparison of young people's attitude in Republic of Croatia with the most developed countries of the EU

U suvremenom poslovnom svijetu, ljudski potencijali ne smatraju se više troškom nego inputom koji poduzeću može stvoriti značajnu dodanu vrijednost, ali i konkurentsku prednost, pa kroz 21. stoljeće nastaju razne teorije i tehnike motiviranja sa svrhom povećanja efikasnosti ljudskog rada. S vemenom se razvio koncept menadžmenta ljudskih potencijala čiji je cilj pratiti rad svakog zaposlenika, a strategije nagrađivanja razviti do individualne razine. Danas je sve veći fokus na mladim zaposlenicima pa je u empirijskom dijelu ovog diplomskog rada provedeno istraživanje čiji je cilj bio otkriti što to motivira studente na diplomskom studiju te mlade koji su unazad dvije godine završili studij u Hrvatskoj u ranoj fazi njihove karijere, te učiniti usporedbu s njihovim kolegama iz Francuske, Njemačke i Velike Britanije. Rezultati istraživanja pokazali su da nematerijalni čimbenici imaju daleko veći utjecaj na motivaciju u ranoj fazi karijere u usporedbi s materijalnim čimbenicima.In the modern business world, human resources are no longer considered as costs but rather as inputs which may create significant added value to the company, as well as competitive advantage. Therefore, through 21st century, various motivational theories and tehniques are formed for the purpose of increasing the efficiency of human labour. Eventually, the concept of human resource management was developed, whose aim is to monitor the work of each employee and develop individual reward strategies. Today, the focus is even more on the young employees, so the aim of the research carried out in the empirical part of this thesis, was to discover what motivates Croatian students and young people in an early career stage, and comparison with their colleagues from France, Germany and United Kingdom. The results showed that intangible factors have a far greater impact on motivation in the early stages of career, compared to material factors