The Motivation of Employees in Non-Appealing Jobs

RM 215

The purpose of this study is to explore how an individual’s motivation could be affected by working a job with limited enrichment. Individuals will be given a job scenario that varies in level of physical work and then asked to answer questions regarding how he or she would feel working that job. Participants will be given one of three scenarios: carton loader (most physical), inductor (moderately physical), and equipment auditor (limited physical) with all three jobs predicted to have roughly comparable cognitive demands. It is hypothesized that individuals who are assigned the “inductor” scenario will be more motivated than the ones assigned the “carton loader” scenario, but less motivated than the ones assigned the “equipment auditor” scenario. I will conduct ANOVA by job description using as dependent variables the Motivation at Work Scale scores and answers to questions developed by the researcher to assess interest in the job. In addition, an ANCOVA, using the Work Preference Inventory as a covariate, will be conducted to control for individual needs to be fulfilled by a job. This study is important because it will allow us to see how much physical labor influences motivation in particular and more generally, how individual preferences for fulfilling work affect that motivation.