Motivation and Work -Investigation and Analysis of Motivation Factors at Work

Background: Employees acting towards company goals and having a strong desire to remain in the organisation are very important for the success of a company. In order to generate such organisational commitment of the employees, the knowledge about what motivates and satisfies them is essential. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and analyse the factors which motivate employees, under consideration of individual characteristics. Limitation: Age, gender, marital status, work area, position and the years a person has been working in the company represent the individual characteristics examined in this study. Realisation: Literature research as well as a practical survey consisting of mail questionnaires and personal interviews were carried out in order to best serve the purpose of this thesis. Results: Skills, task identity, task significance, autonomy, feedback, environment, job security, and compensation are important factors for the motivation of employees. Taking into consideration the extent to which these factors are present at work and the employees'satisfaction with this state, differences regarding all examined individual characteristics are recognisable. Moreover, the investigation of the importance attributed to these factors by the employees revealed no differences with regard to the individual characteristics, except for the years an employee has been working in the company. In addition, several factors, which may cause a higher motivation and job satisfaction in the selected company, have been identified in terms of the individual characteristics. Thereby, for all employees, the feedback represents the factor with the highest motivation potential