Motivating employees through incentive programs.

Abstract

Motivated employees are the cornerstone of any successful organization. The objectives of this research are to explore the motivational factors and the effectiveness of these incentive programs pertaining to work motivation. The thesis consists of two main components: theoretical and research. The first part is the theoretical framework, which examines the various motivation theories and the different categories of incentives. Information for the theoretical background was collected from publications, books and internet sources. For the empirical study, a mixed-method research approach was chosen to gather the data. The study was carried out using a questionnaire administered online and the research population consisted of 378 white-collar workers in Singapore. The results from the study showed that incentives do have a very strong motivational potential to influence the employees’ willingness to work harder. The three most motivating factors valued by employees are interpersonal relationship, workplace environment and interesting work, all of which have the potential to motivate employees at higher levels. For long-term motivation, job related factors such as meaningful work, flexible working hours and friendly social gestures were found to be effective motivators while, on the other hand, it was discovered that monetary, social gatherings, tangible items such as award, certificates and gifts are the most effective motivators for the short-term.