Work motivation among employees of Armenian executive agencies

Abstract

The present study focuses on work motivation among public officials in Armenian executive agencies. Many scholars emphasized the extreme importance of studying motivation as long as nowadays managers deal with increasingly diverse workforce. These characteristics can be important variables that reinforce or alleviate other forces that shape organizational behavior, especially in government agencies. Workforce motivation and government performance are closely related - the ability of governments to function effectively and efficiently is related directly to the motivation of its work force. The current study is concentrated on the attitudes of the public employees toward their job and how they are changed with different incentives used. Various researches have found that public employees give low rating to extrinsic motivation such as financial rewards and are mainly motivated by intrinsic motives such as need for personal growth, self-advancement, recognition and praise from peers and managers. The aim of the research was to explore whether this is true for nowadays-Armenian reality when political and economic changes have occurred during the transition phase to democratic governance and there are changes in the perceptions of the work environment as well. For that, exploratory study has been undertaken in Armenian executive agencies. It was supposed to assess the influence of motivational factors on officials’ attitude toward their work and explore whether extrinsic or intrinsic motives are prevailing in their job satisfaction, commitment to organization, and turnover, especially in transition period with changing supporting environment. The study has found that the most prevailing influence on work motivation among officials of Armenian executive agencies have such intrinsic motives as possibility of personal growth and development, promotion opportunities and recognition from peers and supervisor. They have positive effects on job satisfaction and commitment to organizations. The results supported the proposed hypotheses that intrinsic needs for recognition, self-advancement, and self-realization are dominant over the extrinsic needs for material security and physical comfort and their presence positively influence employees attitude toward their job.