An Appraisal of Motivation Principles in Shipping Companies. Dr. K. Mitroussi Cardiff Business School

Transcription

1 An Appraisal of Motivation Principles in Shipping Companies Dr. K. Mitroussi Cardiff Business School

2 The Human Factor Human factor a means for competitiveness a cause of accidents Shipping industry: expected to go further than simply fulfilling the terms of the employment contract Shipping personnel: need to be also motivated to achieve excellence, embrace corporate values and culture and exhibit company loyalty

3 AIM To provide a critical appraisal of motivation principles that can be applied in shipping firms by presenting an exploratory case study involving shore-based staff in a shipping company based in Taiwan, and engaging in a critical analysis of findings of this research

4 Motivation Defined Explains the initiation, direction, intensity, persistence and quality of behaviour and especially goal-directed behaviour Of interest to managers to direct employees actions towards the accomplishment of organisational goals Intrinsic Extrinsic Associated with reward systems

5 Is motivation relevant to shipping? Shipping relies heavily on its people: Service-sector organisations Non-homogenous business (office ship, multicultural) Inherent complexity of ship operation Social aspect of the staff s s time on board Shortage of qualified seafarers

6 Motivation Principles Maslow s ascending hierarchy of needs: physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualization McGregor s s Theory X (lazy employees) and Theory Y (employees dominated by higher-order needs) Herzberg s two-factor theory of motivation (intrinsic factors connected to job satisfaction and extrinsic factors to job dissatisfaction) ERG theory (rejecting Maslow s strict progression to higher needs)

7 Motivation Principles McClelland s s main needs (need for achievement, for power and for affiliation) Hackman and Oldham job characteristics as motivational factors Adams equity theory Vroom s expectancy theory Contingency factors (cultural, political, economic, individual ability)

8 Research Framework Attention towards discovering a common underlying notion in different motivation theories Idea of returns,, of rewards,, of compensation appears to be present in all the theories Extrinsic or intrinsic, related to personal traits, needs or contingencies, received for the input or the output of individuals, rewards are the tools in the mechanism of motivation provision

9 Research Framework Research objective: exploration of the issue of motivation in shipping firms, in a specific cultural context, Taiwan Case-study study approach 1 public listed container company of more that 1,000 employees Focus on shore-based personnel due to difficulty of access to ship based staff Choice of organizational factors to be explored based on Steers and Porter s s (1991) application of Maslow s need levels Not followed strictly or comprehensively, respondents were given the opportunity to answer open-ended ended questions

10 Steers and Porter s Rewards Framework Needs levels Physiological Safety Social General rewards Food, water, sex, sleep Safety, security, stability, protection Love, attention, belongingness Organisational factors Pay Pleasant working conditions Safe working conditions Company benefits Job security Cohesive work group Friendly supervision Professional associations Esteem Self actualisation Source: Steers and Porter, 1991 Self-esteem, esteem, self-respect, prestige, status Growth, advancement, creativity Social recognition Job title High status job Feedback from the job itself Challenging job Opportunities for creativity Achievement in work Advancement in the organisation

11 Research Findings Relative Importance of Motivating Factors opportunity to learn new skills & higher pay: the 2 most important motivating factors also, friendly working atmosphere, cash bonuses, personal growth/development and chance for promotion half of the ten most important motivating factors refer to intrinsic motivations respondents additionally pointed also: team-work and fairness

12 Research Findings Role of Contingency Factors: Age higher pay: important for all age categories people below the age of thirty exhibit a greater desire to work abroad employees above the age of forty put more emphasis on enhancing their personal ability, such as opportunity to learn new skills or chance for promotion employees below the age of thirty think job security as an unimportant factor

13 Research Findings Role of Contingency Factors: Gender not much difference higher pay and opportunity to learn new skills are most important for both genders other material benefits and flexible working hours are the least critical factors friendly working atmosphere appears to be most important for men rather than for women women also point to women-specific policies, such as welfare for women during pregnancy

14 Research Findings Role of Contingency Factors: Position in company employees without any managerial responsibilities and those entrusted with the very basic ones are more oriented towards receiving some sort of extra pay as an incentive managers higher in the hierarchy are more concerned with enhancing their personal competence and development in the company (gradual increase in intrinsic incentive s s importance with the ascendance to managerial positions) higher pay comes back to the picture as a significant motivating factor in the executive managers category lower rank personnel is esp. concerned with increasing their income in the most concrete form of extra pay, e.g. wages and bonuses # company shares

15 Research Findings Role of Contingency Factors: Marital status no major differences people with their own family seek greater stability and continuity in their jobs, in the form of job security and promotion prospects surprisingly, extra time off work was judged as a least significant incentive for married people and people with children

16 Research Findings Neither the priority nor the hierarchical order given to the categories of needs by Maslow s theory have found here application Employees in the shipping company are concerned more about self-actualisation and physiological needs at the same time, while safety needs appear to be the least important factors to them More than one group of needs can be simultaneously operative for employees in a shipping company s s environment (ERG theory)

17 Research Findings Principles of the job redesign theory have also been reflected in this study as opportunity to learn new skills, opportunity for more responsible and diverse work, praise (i.e. feedback) are factors quite high in the importance ranking of employees The issue of fair treatment equity theory has also been brought to the fore Contingencies have appeared to play some role, too

18 Recommendations Future investigation in motivation in shipping companies can: concentrate on other motivating factors which stem from the general management theory; focus on different cultural contexts employ different research strategies, such as surveys, to increase generalisability of findings; consider the perceptions of ship-based personnel in addition to the shore-based staff; examine the impact of organisational features of shipping companies, such as owner-ship type, size, culture, etc on the motivating factors considered as important by their employees.

19 Conclusion Within twenty motivating factors examined in shipping context, the six most important factors from employees view-points are: opportunity to learn new skills, higher pay, friendly working atmosphere, cash bonuses, personal growth/development, and chance for promotion The results do not show great differences among the different contingencies such as age, gender, position in the company and marital status but some differentiation has been observed along specific parameters.