Impact of Employee Benefits on Motivation

鄭瑢

Abstract：In China， public institutions play a significant role and have a large number of employees. This research focuses on the impact of employee benefits and motivation， targeting public institutions including primary schools， colleges， and public servants to find out the correlation.

Key Word：Employee benefits， motivation， public institutions， relationship

1.Introduction

To date， there are more than 1.3 million public institutions in China， employing about 30 million people with expenditures exceeding 30% of national expenses. It is vital to make clear how to encourage employees in other means. However， only a few Chinese scholars have paid attention to the relationship between organizational benefits and employees motivation， let alone research in public institutions.

So the author is convinced that there is a necessity to delve into the relationship between organizational benefits and employees motivation. The study will pick three main factors including professional title， housing provident fund， and promotion to conduct a survey to figure out the impact of organizational benefits.

2.Literature Review

2.1 Employee benefits

Domestically， Chinese scholars define employee benefits in broad and narrow ways. In narrow ways， employee benefits are defined as “pay compensations， services， or physical articles that an organization gives to its employees in an attempt to strengthen their loyalties and mobilize their efforts.” （Ting Liu， 2003）.

2.2 Motivation

According to Maslow， employees have five levels of needs （Maslow， 1943）： physiological， safety， social， ego， and self- actualizing. Maslow argued that lower level needs had to be satisfied before the next higher level need would motivate employees. Herzberg's work categorized motivation into two factors： motivators and hygienes （Herzberg， Mausner， & Snyderman， 1959）. Motivator or intrinsic factors， such as achievement and recognition， produce job satisfaction. Hygiene or extrinsic factors， such as pay and job security， produce job dissatisfaction.

Overall， above-mentioned has expressed clearly the importance of motivation to an organizations development. But what motivates employees changes constantly （Bowen & Radhakrishna， 1991）. To better mobilize employees effort， it is necessary to find out what benefits have most impact on motivation.

3.Methodology

Questionnaires were distributed to teachers in primary school， public servants working in government， and college teachers through internet and also returned through internet. The participants were mainly the relatives of the author and the colleagues of the relatives. The participants were all from public institutions in Fujian province. There were 28 questionnaires returned， 10 questionnaires were from primary teachers， 7 questionnaires were from college teachers， and 11 questionnaires were from public servants in government.

4.Results and Discussions

Several conclusions can be drawn based on the results. Firstly， for the three factors in this research， professional title matters most to teachers which public servants attach great importance to the promotion in post. Secondly， despite the differences in their desired benefits， employee benefits are relatively hard to obtain in public organizations. Thirdly， there are still a proportion of employees in public institution who conceded they have no enough motivation to make progress in work.

Hence， employee benefits do have a positive impact on employee motivation.

5.Conclusion

Overall， public institutions are of great importance in the society. And its employees are expected to lay solid foundations in the social development. Therefore， by understanding the positive relationship between employee benefits and motivation， decision-makers can better mobilize employees efforts and deliver more fruitful results in the future.

References

[1] Kuvaas B， Buch R， Weibel A， et al. Do Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation relate differently to Employee Outcomes？[J]. Journal of Economic Psychology， 2017.

[2]Lindner J R. Understanding employee motivation[J]. Journal of extension， 1998， （3）.

[3]Schaufeli W B， Salanova M， González-Romá V， et al. The measurement of engagement and burnout： A two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach[J]. Journal of Happiness studies， 2002， （1）.