AUTHOR’S DELCARATION

I declare that the work in this dissertation was carried out in accordance with the
Regulations of Glyndwr University. The work is original except where indicated by
special reference in the text and no part of the dissertation has been submitted for
any other degree.

Any views expressed in the dissertation are those of the author and in no way
represent those of Glyndwr University.

This dissertation has not been presented to any other university for examination
either in the United Kingdom or overseas.

This dissertation is being submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the
degree of MBA.

I hereby give consent for my dissertation, to be available for photocopying and for
inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside
organizations.

SIGNED: ............................ PRINTNAME: Shabir Ahmad Wani

DATE: ............................. STUDENT NUMBER : S09002737.

Email: shabirwani88@gmail.com

Impact Of Organisational Culture

On Employee Motivation: A case
1
 study on Jammu & Kashmir Bank
Ltd.

By:

Shabir Ahmad Wani

(S09002737)

A dissertation submitted to Glyndŵr University in

accordance with the requirements of the degree of
Master of Business Administration

January, 2011

Word count: 21527

Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of organizational culture on employee
motivation. The domains of organizational culture (organizational values, individual beliefs,
working environment, and employee relationships) and the employee motivation were

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investigated by the researcher in this study. In order to find the culture-motivation link, mixed
method approach for data collection has been used to collect data required to complete this
study. The researcher, by the help of Pearson’s and Spearman’s Correlation methods has
been able to find a positive correlation between the two. The results of this study were that
organizational culture has its impact on employee motivation and indirectly on the
organizational performance as well. The better the organizational culture higher will be the
motivational level of employees.

Chapter 1: Introduction
(shabirwani88@gmail.com)

1.1introduction

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In this contemporary corporate world, every organisation aims to get the best possible
performance from its employees. Human Resource Management is one of the important
assets of an organisation as it deals with the people working over there (Griffin, 2007). By
implementing suitable motivational policies and principles, HRM buys the commitment of
employees. In order to achieve the organisational goals, employees of that very organisation
need to be motivated properly to get the optimum results out of them. The topic of this
research is ‘Impact of Organisational Culture on Employee Motivation’ of Jammu and
Kashmir bank ltd. (Brown, 1998) states that there is an essentially important link between
organisational culture and motivational factors and thus both of them are responsible for the
performance level of an organisation. Brown further described motivation as an important
element to be present for better performance of an organisation.

1.2 Company Overview

J&K bank has been founded before the independence of India in 1938. The Bank is owned
partly by government and partly by private sector. After the partition of India in 1947, the
state of Jammu and Kashmir emerged as a disputed territory between India and Pakistan.
Those circumstances hit the functioning of the bank as some of its major branches were in
the regions that were occupied by Pakistan. The J&K bank along with the other
organisations in the state suffered since the partition because of the political disturbance and
the wars fought between India and Pakistan over the issue of Kashmir. According to
Business India (vol: 642-647), the bank is currently in a developing stage with over 500
branches all over India, most of which are in Jammu & Kashmir. The bank employs over
7000 employees in whole. The Bank is also a member of National Stock Exchange (NSE)
and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Besides the basic function like lending and accepting
the deposits of money from people, the Bank has also made its ties with MET Life India
insurance and Bajaj Allianz insurance Co. Ltd. Because of its semi-government ownership,
the bank helps its customers to accrue tax benefits by offering desired investing schemes.

In its annual reports 2006-2007, the J&K bank reiterates its commitment to making the bank
a model employer and ensuring that the bank provides a work place, work culture, and work
environment that engages the intellectual and emotional commitment of all employees
(Kazmi, 2008). As per the survey conducted in 2007, employees were not generally happy
with the work culture and the developmental climate; they were dissatisfied with the reward
system. Most of the employees felt that creativity was discouraged and complained that
senior managers adopted a secretive attitude. In addition, it was felt that the bank adopts a
reactive culture, there was a lack of autonomy, inadequate training and career planning, and

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computerisation was introduced haphazardly. Whole of the survey resulted in the conclusion
that the HR climate was not motivating (Kazmi, A 2008).

1.3 Background

According to Ricky (2007), culture is an important part of internal environment of an

organisation. Organisational culture is the set of values, beliefs, behaviours, customs, and
attitudes that helps the members of the organisation understand what it stands for, how it
does things, and what it considers important.

In 1997, Hofstede while researching on organisational culture stated that culture of

organisations is the collective programming of mind that distinguishes the members of one
organisation from another. According to Hofstede, organisational cultures are different from
that of national culture. Unlike national cultures, people are conscious of organisational
cultures and they learn this culture later in their life at workplace (cited from Hofstede, 2005).

Schneider (2004) proposed that an organisation’s culture establishes the rules within which
people act in addition to the ways and methods in which people communicate. Through an
understanding of group culture, employees know exactly what is required of them in any
given situation (Deal and Kennedy, 2000) and it also replaces the need to enforce rigid
procedures or control mechanisms through rigorously explicit supervision because it
functions as an internal control mechanism that coordinates employee efforts (Lee-Ross and
Lashley, 2003).

As culture is ‘the way things are done within a group’ it sets priorities and expectations,
enabling people to learn and understand what is important, subsequently identifying those
actions that lead to punishment and those that lead to reward. Besides, Brown, 1998 stated
that there is a link between culture and motivational factors which are essential for the
organisation’s performance.

As per Schein (2009), it is tempting to emphasize the significance of corporate cultures for
performance, growth, and success. In the beginning of 1980’s, books identifying the
characteristics of excellent companies in USA (Peters and Waterman, 1982) and the secrets
behind the at the time successful Japanese companies (e.g. Ouchi 1981), highlighted
organisational culture.

According to Boddy 2002, many organisations have been seen emerging with great success
while achieving the organisational goals, then after a few years, these organisations fail to
demonstrate consistency in performance and hence fail to produce goods and services in
the way they used to. Boddy blames organisational culture for such outcome. According to

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him, organisational culture has an important and direct influence on behaviour of the people
of an organisation. He believes that organisation culture can either encourage an employee
to give out his best for the sake of organisational goals or it can discourage or demoralize
people and can be dangerous for the performance of the organisation.

Geert Hofstede started researching on national culture in 1970’s and later he researched on
organisational culture (Hofstede, 2005). In his primary research, he found that national
culture is revealed in several ways. He described these ways as symbols and these are;
Heroes, Rituals, and Values.

1.4 Research question

Critically examine and analyse the impact of organisational culture on employee motivation.

1.5 Aims and objective

 Is organisational culture strong enough to motivate or de-motivate employees?

 Analyze the impact of organisational culture on company performance.

1.6 Justification of the topic

Alvesson, M (2002), describes organisational culture as an issue in management practise,

organisation theory, and in academic research as well. He has stated many reasons for this:
the cultural dimensions are central in all aspects of organisational life. Even in those
organisations where cultural issues receive little explicit attention, how people think, feel,
value and act are guided by ideas, meaning and beliefs of a cultural nature. Whether
managers think that culture is too soft or too complicated to bother about, or whether there is
no unique corporate culture, does not reduce the significance of culture. Senior
organisational members are always, in one way or another managing culture. Culture is as
significant and complex as it is difficult to understand and use it in a thoughtful way. Even in
this contemporary business world, there is often a lack of deeper understanding of how
people and organisations function in terms of culture so as to achieve the organisational
goals. Davenport and Prusak (2000) suggest that culture is highly significant for how
companies and other organisations function: from strategic change to everyday leadership
and how managers and employees relate to and interact with customers as well as to how
knowledge is created, shared, maintained, and utilized.

1.7 Research limitations

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According to Gray et al (2007), research by its nature is limited to a range of either individual
or group behaviour. Secondly, a research is not capable of generating a broad range of data
about the characteristics of large populations. Patton (2000) argues that no research is
perfect, there are always limitations. Moreover, this research has many limitations:-

• Researcher had limited time to conduct this research due to time constraint.
• Sample size is not too large which makes research limited to few thoughts.
• Research was conducted on particular branches which restricts researcher to cover a
broader area.

1.8 Dissertation structure

This research will be based on six chapters. In chapter one, author has presented the
background and introduction, research question, aims and objectives and the justification of
the topic.

Chapter two is literature review, which identifies and discusses some relevant literature that
is already available on the subject matter. This chapter is to establish a solid background of
information required to complete the research area.

Third chapter is research methodology which describes how the research was conducted on
the basis of questionnaires and interviews etc. There will be a detailed explanation of the
usage of these methods.

Chapter four will be based on summary of the results obtained from the research
methodology. By analysing data, it will be possible to present the findings of the research.

In chapter five, author will draw a suitable conclusion from the findings and relate them to the
primary objectives in order to determine whether the research has met its objectives.

Chapter six will be based on the number of suitable and realistic recommendations given to
the organisation, on methods to improve the organisational culture to achieve a totally
motivated team of employees.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

2.1 introduction

This part of the research is very essential and is regarded as the back bone for this
dissertation. This will help in the establishment of solid background that is essential to
investigate the impact of organisational culture on employee motivation. Different school of
thoughts would be reviewed to understand the core concept about the topic. Relevant

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theories and models will be discussed and analysed in order to provide an insight to what is
already known on the subject matter.

2.2 Organisational culture

A glance at just a few works that use the term ‘organisational culture’ reveal enormous
variation in the definitions of this term and even more in the use of the term ‘culture’.
‘Culture’ has no fixed or broadly agreed meaning even in anthropology (Junge, 2008), but
variations in its use is especially noticeable in the literature on organisational culture. The
broad variations of scientific disciplines and research orientations involved in ‘organisational
culture’ studies makes the field very heterogeneous. The concept of culture seems to lend
itself to very different uses as collectively shared forms for example, ideas and cognition,
symbols and meanings, values and ideologies, rules and norms, emotions and
expressiveness, as the collective unconscious, as behaviour patterns, structures and
practices etc. (Alvesson 2002). Moving on to the other definition, ‘talking about
organisational culture seems to mean talking about the importance of people of symbolism-
of rituals, myths, stories, and legends, and about interpretations of events, ideas, and
experiences that are influenced and shaped by the groups within which they live.
Organisational culture has an important role in the understanding of organisational
behaviour’ (Alvesson, 2002; p3). However, Robbins (2006) described culture as a
descriptive term, in that it is concerned with how employees perceive the characteristics of
an organisation’s culture, not with whether or not they like them. Research on organisation
seeks to measure how employees see their organisation. He further backed the definition of
Alvesson (2002) and explained that organisational culture refers to a system of shared
meaning held by members of an organisation, distinguishing the organisation from other
organisations. This system of shared meanings is, upon closer examination, a set of key
characteristics that the organisation values. According to Kumar (2001) and Robbins (2006),
research suggested seven characteristics that, in aggregate, capture the essence of
organisational culture. These are as follows:-
2.3 Characteristics of organisational Culture

• Innovation and risk taking: the degree to which employees in an

organisation are encouraged to be innovative and risk taking.
• Attention to detail: the degree to which employees are expected to
exhibit precision, analysis, and attention to detail or task.
• Outcome orientation: the degree to which management focuses on
results or outcomes rather than on the techniques and processes
used to achieve these outcomes.

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 • People orientation: the degree to which management decisions take
into consideration the effect of outcomes on people within the
organisation.
• Team orientation: the degree to which work activities are organised
around teams rather than individuals.
• Aggressiveness: the degree to which the people are aggressive and
competitive regarding their work rather than easy going.
• Stability: the degree to which organisational activities emphasise
maintaining the status quo in contrast to growth.

2.4 Organisational culture guiding employee behaviours

Culture serves as a sense-making and control mechanism that guides and shapes the
attitudes and behaviours of employees (Kumar, N 2001). Culture by definition is elusive,
implicit, and taken for granted. But every organisation develops a core set of
understandings, assumptions, and implicit rules that govern day-today behaviour at work
place. Until new comers learn the rules, they are not accepted as full-fledged members of
the organisation. Transgressions of the rules on the part of high level executives or front line
employees result in universal disapproval and powerful penalties (Jex, S 2002). The role of
organisational culture in influencing employee behaviour appears to be increasingly
important since last two decades. As organisations have widened spans of control, flattened
structures, introduced teams, reduced formalisation, and empowered employees, the shared
meaning provided by a strong culture ensures that everyone is pointed in the same direction
(Borowsky 1994).

Organisational culture is responsible for creating the high level of commitment and
performance as per suggested by the results of the global research (Martin 2000).
Organisational culture is directly proportional to the performance of the organisation.
Organisational culture is a significant tool for the managers to create a desired enthusiasm
among the employees for the betterment of the organisational outcome. In this case, Brown
(1998) suggests that managers and employees do not behave in a value free vacuum. They
are governed, directed, and tempered by the organisation’s culture.

This research will go through approaches of different dimensions of culture like gender,
religion, and ethnicity in order to investigate the impact of organisation’s culture on employee
motivation, resulting in the better performance of the organisation. There is no universal
culture that could be adopted by the organisations. So, every organisation comes up with its
own unique culture consisting of gender, religion, ethnicity, leadership style, communication
methods and etc Wilson et al (2005).

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Gender is one of the significant factors having its impact on employee behaviour. There
have been many cases found where men are being provided higher and better positions
than women. According to Wilson et al (2005), although there are organisations who claim to
be providing equal rights for both genders, but they fail to put that in practise. According to
Schoenberger (1997), if the women are not given proper recognition and suitable promotion,
it can cause lack of job satisfaction and resentment towards their job resulting in a big loss to
an organisation. In order to get the best out of them, organisations need to reward women in
the same way as they reward men.

We live in a multi-cultural society and ethnical differences are too much apparent and should
be accepted by the people of different ethnical backgrounds. However, Martin (2000) gave
stress on ethnicity by mentioning it as a big issue for the organisations.

Good communication is regarded as one of the significant factors to be present in an

organisation so as to achieve the desired goals in an effective manner. Moorhead and Griffin
(1995), however, stated that managers, nowadays, often fail to deliver the message to
employees in a clear and precise manner. Poor communication will result in a disturbed and
poor organisational behaviour and employees present there would be left in a confused
environment where goals, tasks, and objectives are unclear. Hienigan (2002) stated that
poor communication results in an unstable working environment and can become a cause
for employee de-motivation.

One of the important dimensions of culture is leadership. According to Schein (1992), there
is no best style of leadership. What may work effectively in one company, may not work in
other. Leadership is the heart and soul of an organisational culture. The type of leadership
style management wishes to use will effect an organisation either positively or negatively.
According to McNeil (2007), an effective leadership should take into consideration the all the
factors leading to the positive influence on employee behaviour. These include the factors
leading to the motivation by providing training, offering incentives, providing promotion and
recognition to the employees. These kinds of approaches would obviously make employees
work harder for the success of the organisation. Dominant culture expresses the core values
that are shared by the majority of the organisation’s members. According to Jain (2005),
strong cultures have a great impact on employee behaviour and are more directly related to
the reduced turnover. It is because of the strength of the culture that the core values of
organisation are intensely held and widely shared. The more the members accepting the
core values, the more they turn committed to those values.

2.5 Aspects of culture

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Definitions of culture abound in the literature and the elements of culture have been widely
analysed and discussed. This research takes its starting from a definition of Hofstede.
However, there is a general agreement that culture is reflected in the way things are done by
a group and most researchers concur on the six aspects of culture identified by Cameron
and Quinn (2005), these are as under:-

• Cultures are the property of groups and not individuals.

• Cultures engage the emotions as well as the intellect.
• Cultures are based on shared experiences and thus on the histories of groups of
people. Cultural development takes time.
• Cultures are infused with symbols and symbolism.
• Cultures continually change circumstances force people to change.
• Cultures are inherently fuzzy in that they incorporate contradictions, paradoxes,
ambiguities, and confusion.

2.6 Cultural variability theory

This is the most widely cited set of cultural dimensions. This model came from studies of
IBM and was first published in 1980 (Black, 2003). Geert Hofstede (1980, 1984, 1991, 2001,
and 2003) examined work attitudes across 40 cultures. His work revealed that four
dimensions of cultural values were held by more than 100,000 corporate managers and
employees. Power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity-femininity, and
individualism-collectivism are the said four cultural dimensions observed by Hofstede from
his studies and these four dimensions comprise cultural variability theory.

2.6.1 Power distance

According to Schein (1992), the allocation of influence, power, and authority is the major
issue in any group or team. He further described in 2010 that all groups and cultures have
the issue of how to manage aggression and that is why broad surveys of cultures such as
Hofsted’s identified the dimension of power distance. Black (2003) described power distance
as a dimension showing the extent to which the less powerful members of society accept
that power is unequally shared. According to Hofstede (2001), power distance depends
heavily on management style, willingness of subordinates to disagree with superiors, and the
educational level and status accruing to particular roles. Child and Keiser (2000), in their
study about organizational culture found power distance as a significant factor affecting
organizational culture. Hofstede (2001) explained further that communication is affected due
to large power distance, in that it is formalized, challenged, and always appropriate with the

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proper protocol. On the contrary, communication gets informal and with less prescribed
behaviour with small power distance (Schoenberger, 1997).

2.6.2 Uncertainty avoidance

According to West and Turner (2008), it can be tricky to understand uncertainty avoidance.
They described that this concept refers to how tolerant or intolerant a person is of
uncertainty. They further explained that the cultures that resist change and have high levels
of anxiety associated with change are said to have high level of uncertainty avoidance.
However, Black (2003) explained this concept as a tool to measure the extent to which
people feel threatened by the uncertain or unknown happenings. Cultures with high degree
of uncertainty avoidance desire predictability and need special laws to guide behavior and
personal conduct. West and turner (2008) mentioned that cultures of USA, Denmark, Britain,
and Switzerland have got low degree of uncertainty avoidance. They take risks comfortably
and are less aggressive and less emotional. On the other hand, Greece, Chile, Portugal,
Japan, and India tolerate only little uncertainty. Risky decisions are discouraged in these
cultures as they increase uncertainty.

2.6.3 Masculinity-Femininity

Hofstede (2001) identifies the dimensions of masculinity and femininity as the extent to
which cultures represent masculine and feminine traits in their society. West and Turner
(2008) suggest that this concept should not be treated like masculine as ‘male’ and feminine
as ‘female’, although these terms still reinforce stereotypical notions of how men and women
should behave. According to Wilson (2004), masculine culture focuses on achievement,
competitiveness, strength, and material success. He described the importance of money in
masculine cultures. On the other hand, feminine cultures emphasize on sexual equality,
nurturance, quality of life, supportiveness, and affection. Compassion for the less fortune
also characterizes feminine culture (West and Turner, 2008).

2.6.4 Individualism-collectivism

When a culture values individualism, it prefers competition over cooperation, the individual
over the group and private over the public West and Turner, 2008). Buchanan and
Huczynski in their study in (2004) observed that individualism and collectivism were the most
important cultural value that affected the behavior of employees to either respond positively
or negatively to the team work. Individualism refers to the culture where people take care of
themselves and their immediate families while in case of collectivism; a tight social
framework is formed in which people distinguish between in-groups and out-groups (Deal

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and Kennedy, 1990, West and Turner, 2008). However, Black (2003) describes this concept
as a difference between societies where a few ties beyond those of the nuclear family and
those where people are in favour of cohesiveness and collective team work.

2.7 Motivation

Since 1960, researchers have started showing great interest in motivation. Along with the
research in the areas like HRM and organisational behaviour, employee motivation has
become a fascinating topic (Gunkel, 2006). The researchers have been placing focus on the
process of employee motivation as well as on the factors like rewards, work
culture/environment responsible for their motivation.

It is not possible for an organisation to achieve desired results without a motivated staff. Staff
motivation is critical in order to get the optimum outcome from the employees for the sake of
organisational goals. Incentives (intrinsic/extrinsic), rewards, leadership style and more
importantly the organisational culture need to be paid strong attention in order to create an
environment where the employees are committed to give their best for the sake of
organisational goals (Armstrong, 2005). Ambrose and Kulik, (1999) suggested motivation as
the force (both internal and external) that initiate work related behaviour. According to Khan
(1997), in this contemporary corporate world, organisations have been experiencing a
speedy change regarding their outcomes and performance. Companies must ensure the
motivation of their employees so as to make them committed for best outcomes, in order to
compete in the global competition. Flick et al. (1998) backed this view and suggested that
human factors are equally responsible as others for the excellence of an organisation. He
stated that it is in the essence of the companies to understand the behaviour of their staff
and provide the motivating factors in order to achieve success. In this regard, Riskin, (2002)
came with the strong empirical support to state that effective people management and
behaviour is a strong factor for an organisation to operate profitably.

There is a psychological and behavioural uniqueness present in humans and that is why
people tend to choose and get engaged in desired pattern of behaviours. In this regard,
Mitchell (1982) has suggested four characteristics of motivation that help in the
understanding of the employee motivation;

➢ Every person consists of uniqueness and different attributes; hence the major
theories of motivation are based on the theme to demonstrate that uniqueness.
➢ Motivation is of versatile nature or multifaceted. Willingness of an individual to get
started or activated and the force that engages him in the given behaviour are the
two important factors for this multifaceted nature of motivation.

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 ➢ To predict human behaviour is the basic purpose of motivational theories. Motivation
is directly concerned with the acts and the forces (internal and external) that have its
influence on an individual’s choice of action. Motivation is neither behaviour nor a
performance itself.
➢ Motivation, in an organisation doesn’t come itself; rather it is an intentional effort. It is
assumed to be under the control of the people who are influenced by it.
It is now clearly understandable that in order to determine the performance of the operations
of an organisation, it is essential to determine how motivated their employees are. But on the
other hand, Mullins (1999) came with a different concept. According to him an employee
gets motivated because of certain forces that drive him to perform a task so as to fulfil his
needs and expectations. An organisations culture and philosophy of employee development
determine whether the organisation treats its employees as assets or merely as resources to
meet immediate business needs (London and Mone, 1987).

2.8 Motivational theories

Motivation is the desire within a person causing him/her to act. People usually work to
achieve any desired goal. Thus motivation is a goal-directed drive, and it seldom occurs in
void. The words need, want, desire, and drive are all similar to motive, from which the word
motivation is derived. There have been various approaches to understand motivation
because different theorists have developed their own views and models in order to
understand motivation (Mathis and Jackson, 2007).

Maslow (in his book ‘motivation and personality’, 1954) suggested that man has a hierarchy
of five needs beginning with the basic need of physiological well being and goes up to
realization of one’s potential (see fig. 2.1) (Rosdahl and Kowalski, 2007). The nature
hierarchy of needs given forward by Maslow lay down a systematic approach that a manager
can apply to motivate his subordinates (Kondalkar, 2009). According to Smoke (2005),
Maslow’s hierarchy theory suggest that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs
and that certain lower level needs need to be satisfied before higher needs can be satisfied.
He further mentioned that physiological, safety, love and esteem are the four general types
of needs that must be satisfied before a person can act unselfishly. Maslow’s Hierarchy
theory has been described in detail in appendix 3. However this theory has been criticized by
some authors for lying down needs in particular order (Kondalkar, 2009). This is because in
reality, it may not be so.

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 Fig.2.1: showing Maslow’s Hierarchy theory (Landy and conty, 2009; p369)

In contrast to Maslow, Fredrick Herzberg theorized that motivation in the work place is
influenced by nonexclusive factors of job satisfaction. Herzberg surveyed workers to
determine what they appreciated about their jobs as well as what frustrated them about their
employment. His findings resulted in his two-factor theory (Davies and Hertig, 2007).
According to Herzberg’s suggestions, there are certain forces that collectively can provide
motivation for employees. Herzberg called these motivating factors as ‘motivators’.
Conversely when other factors are absent, employees become frustrated and unsatisfied.
Herzberg refers to these factors as hygiene factors (Lingard and Rowlinson, 2005). These
motivators and hygiene factors are shown in Fig 2.2 below;

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 Fig.2.2: showing ‘Herzberg’s two-factor theory’ (Davies, 2007; p81)

According to Mukherjee (2009), two-factor theory argues that managers must reduce job
dissatisfaction by providing employees with hygiene factors. These factors tend to relate to
the environment in which one works and the context of that work. By providing safe working
conditions, reasonable wages/salary, and benefits, employers meet the hygiene needs of
their employees. However, in order to engage and motivate employees in true senses
requires that motivators must be implemented to encourage employee loyalty and growth.
Motivators include factors related to employee self-esteem and actualization. Commonly
known motivators are responsibility, advancement, and recognition etc (Henry et al, 2000).

Most of the authors have stated the similarities between Herzberg’s two-factor theory and
Maslow’s Hierarchy theory. In effect, Herzberg’s theory may be readily combined with the
ideas presented by Maslow. Where Maslow would argue that fundamental needs must be
met in the first place, Herzberg would see hygiene factors that require satisfaction (Beel,
2007). This concept is backed by Kondalkar (2009) by suggesting that certain similarities

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have been found between the two theories. In his study, he found that maintenance factors
propagated by Herzberg are identical to the lower level needs of Maslow. The higher level
needs in the hierarchy of needs of Maslow are identical to motivation factors suggested by
Herzberg.

In order to discuss the importance of other factors related to the motivation it is important to
discuss Vroom’s Expectancy theory. According to Brooks (2007), Vroom (1964) developed
expectancy theory from the original work of Tolman and Honzik (1930). Vroom argues that
the motivation to behave in a particular way is determined by an individual’s expectation that
behaviour will lead to a particular outcome, multiplied by the preference or valence that
person has for that outcome. Brooks (2007) further explained that humans act according to
their conscious expectations that a particular behaviour will lead to specific desirable goals.
The theory, with all its consequent refinements, provides a popular explanatory framework
for a range of employee behaviours including, levels of motivation, performance, employee
turnover, and absenteeism, in addition to leadership effectiveness and career choice. For
example, if by working diligently and for long hours an employee expects to receive
promotion at some future date and he does value promotion highly (the worker is said to
have valence) then, rationally, we might expect that employee to show that behaviour.
Vroom argues that human behaviour is directed by subjective probability, that is, the
individual’s expectation that his or her behaviour will lead to a particular outcome. The
expectancy theory equation is as below;

Motivation (M) = Expectation (E) * Valence (V)

It is assumed that the level of motivation in individual displays results from his or her
conscious decision-making process. The theory also considers the value that each individual
places on the estimated outcome. The basic theory recognizes the individual differences:
that we are all unlikely to value the same outcomes equally. The theory also attempts to
measure, via a simple calculation, the strength of motivation by multiplying the individual’s
estimated probability (E*V as above) of an expected outcome by the value or valence that
individual places on that outcome.

According to the theories discussed above, it is obvious that an individual’s behaviour is

determined by what motivates him or her. After analyzing the motivational theories, it can be
summed up that the performance of employees is subjected to their motivational level. The
managers must, therefore encourage their staff to direct their efforts (driving forces)
positively towards the attainment of the desired goals. According to Naylor (2004), managers
need to provide both intrinsic and extrinsic benefits so as to create a motivated group of
staff. Extrinsic rewards consist of job security, increase in pay, promotion, benefits,

2
responsibilities and so on. Although a manager frequently provides extrinsic rewards,
colleagues can offer them through their appreciation. On the other hand, intrinsic rewards
are related to the psychological behaviour such as opportunity to use one’s ability, a sense
of challenge and achievement, being appreciated. Psychological rewards refer to those that
can usually be determined by the actions and behaviour of individual managers.

However, Bennett (1981) (cited from Ager, 2001), suggested a broad three-fold classification
for the motivation to work. Primarily, he refers to economic rewards like, pay, fringe benefits,
pension rights, material goods and security. Bennett called them as instrumental orientation
to work and is concerned with ‘other things’. Secondly, he suggested intrinsic satisfaction
which is derived from the nature of the work itself. He regarded them as concerned with ‘one
self’ and is known as personal orientation to work. Finally he took into consideration the
social relationships such as friendship, group working, and the desire for affiliation and
dependency. He called this type of orientation to work as relational and is concerned with
other people.

Within the same context, Cartwright (1999) suggests that the will or motivation to work is
mostly influenced by the concept of psychological contract which involves a series of
expectations between the employees and the organisation. Although these expectations
cannot be defined formally and both the parties may not be aware of the contract, but they
still have an impact on the relationships between an individual and the organisation.
Beardewell (2004) states, it is essentially obvious that if the expectations are not met, it will
have a natural impact on the motivation level in specific and on the performance level as a
whole. He further suggests that in order to attain organisational goals successfully,
managers, essentially need to find out what motivates employees at each level and at which
level employee is operating, and emphasized to develop a strategy accordingly.

However, Rollinson (2005) projected it other way and suggested that people are motivated
by the things that make them feel good at work, but there is a need to avoid the things that
make them feel bad. According to him, it is the condition at the work that is responsible for
the motivation or de-motivation of the staff working. Thus organisations and managers must
adapt new ways and vary their behaviour accordingly as per the situations and the different
needs and the motivations of the employees.

2.9 Factors of motivation

All the motivational theories and models put forward by various scholars, help to understand
the importance of motivation in determining employee behavior as well as the richness of
potential applications that motivational theories have for Human resource development
(Werner and DeSimone, 2008).

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2.9.1 Rewards and incentives

According to Cooper (2004), rewards and incentives are essentially to be given to

employees in order to have a better motivated staff and high performance level, in that there
is fair evidence that employee commitment is affected by rewards. Rewards and incentives
are also included in the motivators’ list of two-factor theory given by Herzberg in 1968.
Providing rewards does not only help in increasing the motivational level of employees but it
influences the overall behavior of the employees working within an organization (Thompson,
1996). It is the role of management to create initiatives that will add to the motivational level
of employees in order to achieve the organizational goals smoothly. In this regard, Bogardus
(2009) suggests that organization needs to review the total rewards strategy for selecting the
type of rewards to be offered, in that it is used to determine how the resources available for
reward programs can be used to best advantage in attracting, motivating, and retaining
employees. Organizational culture is rooted in the values and beliefs advocated by an
organization’s leadership and the way in which members of the organization behave
(Bogardus, 2009). He further adds that total reward philosophy reflects these values and
beliefs to reinforce the culture. In addition, Vroom’s expectancy model (1964) emphasizes on
the need of the rewards (extrinsic outcomes/rewards) that must be present so as to make an
employee motivated to put forth his/her best efforts for the sake of organization.

2.9.2 Recognition

At the heart of new management approaches, employee recognition is regarded as an

effective mean to inspire employees and managers of an organization (Marciano, 2010).
Employee recognition means to provide recognition to an employee for his performance or
job well done. It is a non monitory incentive and takes many forms ranging from casual
words of encouragement or praise to an employee by his/her boss to presentations before
large audiences of peers and senior management within the organization (Greenberg and
Edwards, 2009). Recognition is one of most important job factors that Herzberg found most
frequently associated with satisfaction (Pride et al, 2009). As stated by Allen and Peter
(2007; p125), ‘A recognition culture has to start at the top. The guy at the top has to believe
in it, has to bring the managers together to create a recognition culture. The key is the
manager of each department, who has to do things that make employees feel important. It is
a basic human need. Most managers do not recognize it’. These thoughts received further
support by Holbeche (2005) arguing that apart from the financial tokens of appreciation, it is
recognition that has the potential to have a dramatic impact on employee motivation and
commitment. She further emphasized on its essence by explaining that it is an area where
employees can be most creative and focus of the management should be to direct the
reward system of the organization where they can be most effective.

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2.9.3 Training and development

According to Manning (2002), Broadly, training is the planned process by which staff is
equipped to carry out their existing tasks, and development is the means by which they are
prepared for future roles, for increase or wider responsibilities and to utilize employees’
potential within the organization. He further explains that training and development are
means towards ends, not ends in themselves. Training and development plans must stem
from the needs of the business and be measured by the improved business performance
which they achieve. Pride et al (2009; p264) states that,’ training and development are
extremely important because both are aimed at improving employees’ skills and abilities.
Training has been defined as an activity that changes the behavior of the people (Khan,
1998; p30). He further emphasized that training is not important only to increase productivity
but to inspire and motivate staff by letting them know how important their jobs are and
provide them adequate information required to perform their job. Companies need to
acknowledge the importance of training and development programs to facilitate employee
motivation (laird et al, 2003). They further suggested that motivation is a fundamental
component of performance. Supervisors and managers are responsible for achieving the
goals of the organization through leading the performance or efforts of their employees
which is possible if the employees are motivated. He further adds that
‘performance=ability*motivation’ where as ‘ability=training*resources’.

2.10 Organisational Culture and Motivation

Motivation is the key component of organisational culture. Organisational culture plays a

significant role in an organisation regarding how people feel about their work, levels of
motivation, commitment, and in turn job satisfaction. A strong culture brings out the positive
energy of people to perform with loyalty and at deeper level while having emotional bonds of
attachment with the organisation (Owens, 2004). The way in which the managers behave
with their employees, shows the strength of culture within that organisation that is enacted
both consciously and subconsciously. These views are further backed by Sempane et al.
2002 by explaining that people are the key factors for the competitiveness and organisations
can demonstrate highly complex social structure because of their cultural strength. There is
a clear mutual interdependence between organisation and its employees, where both the
parties have an impact on each other’s potential so as to achieve success. Such a relation
gives birth to the relation of employee motivation and job satisfaction (Schneider and
Synder, 1975). There are evidences from the researches that motivation and job satisfaction

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cannot be treated in isolation. Organisational culture should be prompted to ensure
employee motivation in order to achieve organisational goals (Sempane et al. 2002). So the
starting point according to him is organisational culture. Organisational culture is also
regarded as central theme in organisational psychology and its impact is considered as a
legitimate factor responsible for the achievement of organisational goals (Bagraim, 2001).
From organisational point of view, organisational culture is manifested in employee
behaviour with an existence at both cognitive as well as emotional level. There has to be an
explicit flow of individual objectives within the strategies of an organisation so as to motivate
their employees in the best way (Schein, 1984).

To ensure the motivation of the staff is considered as the key role of the management these
days. Motivated staffs take pride whilst doing their job and thus feel responsible for the
organisational success. But it has been an issue for some managers regarding how to
motivate their employees, Management News (1990). Because of the uniqueness in the
behaviour and needs of the human being, discussed above in the motivational
characteristics, it has been almost impossible for the management to identify a unique
solution for the motivation of the employees. Organisational behaviour is being influenced by
different motives and the collection of the different aspects of organisation’s culture
determines the employee behaviour. According to Hofstede (2001), recognition of the work
done by the employees will make them work harder in future. There would be the
improvement in the performance of the people because of promotions and developmental
steps taken by the management and a growing relation between the peers and subordinates
will be a strong factor for the motivation of the work force. Hofstede emphasised that such
elements come into being because of the strong organisational culture.

According to Schein (1992), organisational culture has got an amazing characteristic that the
employees never know how much they are influenced through it. Atmosphere of the work
site should be such that the employees feel themselves as part of the team and work harder
so as to achieve the organisational goals. In return of this commitment by the employees,
company must feel it obligatory to reward their employees (both intrinsically and extrinsically)
e.g. home loans, holiday packages, transport facilities, promotions and hike in salary. These
elements will make employees become more loyal towards their employers. Regarding the
type of culture to be present in an organisation, some best known classification schemes are
being suggested by Harrison (1972). These include; Power culture, Role culture, Task
culture, and People culture. Handy (1982), however, reworked Harrisons work and
advocated that this classification has got extreme influence and they play an important role
in order to understand how these organisations work. As per his suggestions, all the
organisations have got at least one of these cultures within their working operations as its

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impact on organisational behaviour as well as employee motivation. These types of cultures
are as below:-

2.11 Power Culture

This is the type of organisational culture that depends heavily on trust, communication,
empathy and the central power source with rays of influence from the central figure
throughout the organisation. Strong central leadership style is found in such type of
organisations where people always try to achieve better positions by improving their
performances (Brown, 1998). Mullins (2008) backs these thoughts and stated that there is a
clear centralisation of powers in such organisations and decision-making is governed by a
certain key individuals. This type of culture is also depicted as spider’s web and in this type
of organisational culture, as name suggests, power is vested in the hands of a few
individuals with a little bureaucracy. Often small entrepreneurial or family companies witness
power culture. In such organisations, central powers figure manipulates all the activities of
the organisation. Employees in such an organisation have to be in a well relation with the
central power holder. It is a political organisation with decisions taken largely on the
influential balances. Although this type of culture provides an environment with less
motivational factors, employees are keen to work even harder to gain incentives and
promotions available in such organisations. Organisations having affiliation and high
positions as motivational factors are seen doing well (Torrinton et al 2005).

2.12 Role Culture

Often stereotyped as a bureaucracy, in this type of culture, role of an individual is given more
preference than an individual himself. Individual behaviours are ruled by logic and reason,
and procedures and impersonal systems. This type of culture is mostly seen in finance,
production, and purchasing companies, like banks and insurance companies. In such kind of
culture, career is linked with logic and length of service and is apparently opposite to the
levels of performance. Certain group of people love to work in such an organisational
culture. These are the people who are looking for stability, clarity of job role and demarcation
of responsibility (Mullins, 2008). Organisational tasks are done with in different departments
with corresponding role heads to which employees are supposed to report. Communication
gap between the staff of these departments is an apparent drawback of such culture. A
research carried by ‘select knowledge’ suggests that the increasing pace in the
organisations has shaken up traditional role cultures. In order to create environment for
adapting the change, they need to provide flexibility in jobs and abandon job descriptions.

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2.13 Person Culture

Unlike other types of cultures, central focus is placed on the individual. According to Mullins
(2008), when group of people share same interests to team up and work together for the
organisation’s sake, they share office space, equipments, and clerical assistance and the
result of such an environment is called person culture. A group of barristers, architects,
doctors, and consultants are the examples of such culture. This type of culture is least
common among the four. According to Martin (2002), people in such an organisation work
with full consciousness and are motivated to work together and be part of such organisation.
Marks and Spencer appreciates good relations along with an effective management. Focus
on the people and good human relations has added in the performance of the company. The
organisation believes employee’s commitment behind such policies (Brian heads, 2008).
Therefore, Sieff (1991) states that moral attitude is involved in good human relations.
Employees should be taken care of regardless of their job positions which in turn will make
employees more committed and work harder for the sake of organisational goals. The only
threat to this kind of organisation is growth. Organising systems in such organisations
become more significant because of the substantial growth in the size.

2.14 Task Culture

This is a job or project oriented culture as it is concerned mainly with the completion of the
task or project. Unlike power culture, power doesn’t come from single source and is often
associated with flexible project-based/ matrix structure. This type of culture is mostly seen in
high technology and engineering companies. The main aim of this culture is to get the best
individuals together for the completion of the task or project. Individual differences are
sacrificed for the commitment of team work. People are adaptable and flexible in accordance
with their expertise. Task culture generates a sense of unity and thus the people are more
positive and committed towards their task for achieving the organisational goal. Hofstede
(2001), suggests that task culture is more successful where there is more competition in
market, short product life span, and the necessity of constant innovation.

Purcell et al (2003) adapted from Armstrong (2003) has given emphasize on the fact that the
intangible assets like culture, skill and competence, motivation, and social interaction
between people, teams and business units are all likely to be the key factors of success for
the organisations which combine people and process together to achieve organisation’s

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goals. Trompenaars (1993) has also written as an attempt to show a link between
organisational behaviour and cultural variance. However, according to him there are aspects
present in the organisations that affect the employee’s behaviour. Since the relation between
organisational culture and motivation has been discussed, there will be a discussion on the
link between the organisational culture and performance of the organisation.

2.15 Impact of Organisational Culture on Corporate Performance

According to Ogbonna and Harris (2000) there has been a plenty of literature defining the
link between culture and performance of an organisation. Despite the fact that some authors
have written against the link between the two, but most of the theorists have come up with
sufficient evidences describing the link between the organisation’s culture and performance
of the company. Two years before, Brown (1998) suggested that one of the important
consequences of the strong organisational culture is its impact on the performance of the
company.

Denison (1984) conducted the research on performance-culture link using the data from 34
companies of America in a period of 5 years. Based on the quantitative studies, author,
constantly, examined the cultural characteristics and performance of these companies
throughout the period of 5 years. He used the data of ‘return on investment and sales to
measure performance. Although there were variances among some of the measurement
indicators’ strength to find the relation between the two, but he was successful in finding out
a link between the culture and organisational performance. In this research, he found that
long term financial performance is linked with the decision making and work design of an
organisation. Moreover, his research suggested an association between short term financial
performances and leadership styles. Despite the encouraging results of the study, it had its
limitations too. Lim (1995) came up with a strong criticism of Denison’s studies and stated
that study was based on the measurement of organisational climate rather than measuring
organisational culture.

Later, in 1990, Rousseau started researching the link between organisation culture and
performance of that organisation. In order to overcome the limitations present in the study of
Denison (1984), he chose data from 32 voluntary fund-raising service organisations. The
amount of money raised at that time by the organisations was taken into account to measure
performance and for the measurement of organisational culture; organisational culture
inventory promoted by Cook and Lafferty (1983) was taken into consideration. Unfortunately,
Rousseau was not successful to find a significant correlation between organisational culture
and performance.

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As mentioned earlier, plenty of studies have been conducted to find the link between the
two. After the Rousseau’s study failed to find any significant link between the two, Kotter and
Heskett conducted an extensive study in 1992 in order to find culture-performance link. Data
was collected from 207 companies over the period of 5 years. Various measures of culture
and economic performance data were taken into consideration to make their study
successful. At the end of the study, only a minor relation was found between strong culture
and long term performance which was their initial objective. However, subsequent
investigations revealed that the organisations having suitable culture in accordance with their
market environment have better performance than those that have not. The study was
backed by Morcoulides and Heck (1993) who analyzed the culture-performance link by using
data from 26 organisations. They carried the study in a slightly different way by proposing a
model, using various latent variables to measure organisational culture. Variables used
were; organisational values, organisational tasks, organisational structure, climate, and
individual values and beliefs. In order to measure performance, capital, market and financial
indicators were taken into consideration.Through their study, it was learnt that all the variabls
used to measure organisational culture have an impact on the organisational performance.
Moreover, worker’s attitude and task organisation were found the most effective variables to
have a direct impact on organisational performance.

Recent studies were conducted by Ogbonna and Harris (2000) in order to investigate the
relation between the organisational culture and company performance. They included
leadership style as one more variable in their model. Data was used from 1000 registered
British companies. Customer satisfaction, sales growth, market share, competitive
advantage and sales volume were the variables used to measure performance. In order to
measure organisational culture, innovative, competitive, bureaucratic, and community
cultures were taken into account. Their study revealed that all the variables used to measure
organisational culture are having their direct or indirect impact on the organisation’s
performance. Innovative and competitive cultures were found more significant having direct
effect on the performance accounting 25% of organisational performance’s variance. These
two cultures were found externally oriented and responsible for attaining a sustained
competitive advantage. While as community and bureaucratic cultures according to the
results of study are internally orientated having an indirect link with organisation’s
performance. Their study was further extended in 2002 after analyzing the link between
organisational cultures, market orientation, strategic human resource management, and
organisational performance. Research was carried on using the same measures as in their
previous study for the measurement of organisational culture and performance. However,
the results of their further studies were same as in past. Innovative and competitive cultures

1
were found more significant having direct effect on the performance while as community and
bureaucratic cultures were not found having any link with organisations performance.

Chapter summary

It has been observed from the literature review that organisational culture has a significant
impact on employee behaviour, in that it conveys a sense of identity and unity of purpose to
employees. Culture serves as a sense-making and control mechanism that guides and
shapes the attitudes and behaviours of employees (Kumar, N 2001). As per the motivational
theories discussed, it is apparent that employees’ performance is determined by how
motivated they are at workplace. From the empirical evidences mentioned in the chapter, it
is now easy to understand there is a link between culture and motivation. As discussed in
the chapter, every organisation and society has its own unique culture and employee
behaviour; hence they will depend on the existing norms and values of that culture.
Motivational theories discussed suggest the need for the essential factors that need to be
present for the better motivation of employees. Factors like salary, recognition, rewards and
incentives, training and development, and promotion are the most significant factors
responsible for the motivation of employees. It was also learnt from various studies
mentioned in the literature that organisational culture is also responsible for the performance
of the employees (Ogbonna and Harris, 2000).

Chapter 3: Research
methodology

3.1 Introduction

This is an important chapter of the research, and it aims at providing an overview of the
methodology and research design selected to investigate the impact of organisational culture
on employee motivation. According to Kumar (2008), research is an intensive and purposeful
search for knowledge and understanding of social and physical phenomena. He further
described it as a scientific activity undertaken to establish something, a fact, a theory, a
principle, or an application. According to Hudson (adapted from Kothari, 2008), ‘‘all progress
is born of enquiry. Doubt is often better than overconfidence, for it leads to enquiry, and
enquiry leads to invention’’. This is one of the best quotes that will help to understand the
significance of research.

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3.2 Research design and research methodology

According to Creswell (2003), research methodology as a path or set of rules for the
evolution of research claims and the validation of the knowledge gathered by the researcher,
while as the research design is considered as research blueprint. His thoughts were backed
by Sekaran (2003) who stated that research methodology is a regulatory framework
established to collect and evaluate existing knowledge in order to serve the purpose of
arriving at, gain, and validate, new knowledge. Cooper and Schindler (1998) defined
research methodology as one of the important challenges confronted by a researcher. They
further defined the essence of research by mentioned it as consumptive one and maintained
that it must be purposeful. Besides being a simple frame of study, research methodology
serves an important purpose of identifying the research tools and strategies to be applied,
and finally relating their use to the research objectives. Sekaran (2003) has further
mentioned its importance by stating that the significance of research methodology can be
understood by the fact that it can easily define the activity of a specific research, its
procedural methods, and strategies in order to measure progress that is important for the
research success. Research design, on the other hand articulates the tools through which
the empirical data will be collected and analysed (Punch 2000). However, Singh (2008)
defines research design as a mapping strategy and maintained that it is essentially a
statement of the object of the enquiry and the strategies for collecting the evidences,
analysing them, and finally reporting the findings. More importantly, Punch (2000) states that
it helps in relating the data collected with the research objectives, hence facilitating the
means to achieve the end results.

Although being different academic constructs, Punch (2000) defines research methodology
as more holistic then research design.

3.3 Research philosophy

According to Bryman and Bell (2003), research philosophy can be divided into two different
views of gaining knowledge. One is the epistemological approach, also known as positivism,
or scientific method (Walliman, 2005). Another one is called interpretivism or
phenomenology (Thornhill, 2000). However, Saunders et al (2009) added pragmatism and
realism as two more research philosophies.

3.3.1 Positivism, as suggested by Walliman (2005), is a critical and objective method. He

further explained that it is mostly used in natural sciences and is based on quantifiable

2
observations with generalised results. Saunders et al (2009) suggested this approach as
objective and independent as the research is being carried in a value-free and credible data
is provided only by observable phenomena.

3.3.2 Interpretivism, on the other hand stands opposite to that of positivism (Bryman and
bell, 2007). According to Blaikie (2007), this philosophy is originated from Hermeneutics and
phenomenology and is also known as anti-naturalist or anti-positivist approach. He further
described that the fundamental difference between the subject matters of natural and social
sciences is the central tenet of interpretivism. Saunders et al (2009) described it as
subjective and stated the likeliness of the change of viewpoints during the research process.

3.3.3 Pragmatism is the third research philosophy in which a researcher has his/her focus
on the research question(s) in order to adequately answer those (Saunders et al 2009). They
further explained that the researcher takes both internal and external views into
consideration along with the adoption of objective and subjective views as well.

3.3.4 Realism is another research philosophy related to scientific enquiry (Saunders et al

2009). They further stated it similar to that of positivist approach as it applies the structured
data collection methods with the assumption of scientific approach. This philosophy
presumes reality as independent of mind and is always true. Bryman and Bell (2007)
critically stated that the researcher with this philosophy might be influenced by the culture or
his/her world view.

After analysing all the four research philosophies, the author has decided to carry this
research with the combination of interpretivist and pragmatist approach. This combination is
supported by the analytical approach to research based on the following applied points
(Saunders et al, 2009).

In order to be able to answer the research question, the external view of reality has been
taken into consideration. The prime focus of the research is on practical applied research.
The author has adopted both objective and subjective views in order to complete the
research successfully. And the qualitative data approach has been taken to collect data.

3.4 Research purpose

According to Saunders et al (2000), there are three main purposes to the research activity;
exploratory, descriptive, and explanatory. However, Patton (1998) adds the fourth purpose
and defines it as prescriptive objective.

3.4.1 Exploratory

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According to Saunders et al (2000), exploratory research is concerned with group interviews,
along with the structured and semi-structured conversation with experts and a search of
literature review. Paneerselvam (2004) further explains it as an initial research which
analyzes the data and explores the possibility of obtaining as many relationships as possible
between different variables without knowing their end application. This research provides a
basis for general findings as maintained by Saunders et al (2000) that the purpose of
research is to explore a research problem or phenomena in order to clarify the identified
complexities and composition.

3.4.2 Descriptive

Paneerselvam (2004) states that descriptive research is carried out with specific objectives
and hence it results in definite conclusions. However Punch (2000) states that its purpose is
to collect, organise, and summarize the information regarding the research problem and
issues identified there in. Dane (1990) defines that descriptive research examines the
research thoroughly in order to describe the phenomenon of a specified problem by defining,
measuring, and clearing it. However, Jackson (1994) states that almost all the researches
are partly descriptive.

3.4.3 Explanatory

The function of explanatory research is to reveal the causality between variables (Moutan
and Marais, 1984, Uys, 1991, Kothari, 2008). This thought is backed by Miles and Huberman
(1994) by stating that explanatory research clarifies the relationship between variables and
componential elements of the research problem. Punch (2000) further expounded upon
these thoughts and suggested that it crystallises the nature of problem under investigation
and helps in explaining the basis for the solution.

3.4.4 Prescriptive

According to Hair et al (2003), prescriptive research aims at proposing a well defined

solution to the investigated research problem. He further emphasized these solution(s) to be
well-defined, comprehensively explained, and implementable blueprint for a specified
solution. According to Patton (1990) maintains that prescriptive research purpose builds
upon other three purposes, but it extends beyond them in one aspect. He further explained
that the other three purposes are based upon the ground facts, but prescriptive research
focuses on ‘what should be’. Most of the research scholars, concurring upon the significance
of prescriptive research purpose have stated that the researches consisting of prescriptive

1
purpose tend to be more valuable than those who shun it (Patton, 1990; Jackson, 1994;
Punch, 2000; Cooper, 2003; Hair et al, 2003; Ghauri and Gronhaug, 2005).

3.5 Research approach

According to Creswell (2003), it is critically an important decision for a researcher to select

the research approach. He further explains its significance and suggests that research
approach allows a researcher to critically consider various approaches and how those
approaches may, contribute to, limit, his/her research study and eventually allow him/her to
satisfy the objectives of research. After critical analysis of various approaches, researcher is
in a position to design an approach that fits his research requirements. According to hair et
al (2003), research approach embraces the quantitative versus qualitative and deductive
versus inductive approach. He further describes that these sets of approaches are
commonly perceived of as referring to polar opposites. However, Jackson (1994) suggests
that instead of being limited to a particular approach, a researcher should go through various
approaches as needed for the completion of his research.

3.5.1 Deductive versus Inductive approach

According to Marcoulides (1998), deductive approach is the testing of theories. He stated

that the researcher starts with a set of theories and his/her conceptual perceptions to
formulate hypothesis. Research proceeds with this concept and in the end the proposed
hypothesis are tested. This thought was backed by Saunders (2003) by stating that
deductive approach is leads to the development of a theory that is subjected to a rigorous
test. While as inductive approach proceeds from the collected empirical data and continues
to formulate concepts and theories in accordance with the data collected (Marcoulides,
1998). According to Crowther and Lancaster (2005), inductive research is the reverse of the
process found in deductive approach. Here, the researcher develops hypothesis and
theories with a view to explaining empirical observations of the real world.

3.5.2 Qualitative versus Quantitative approach

According to Creswell (2003), quantitative tools for data analysis are structured in a way so
as to guarantee objectivity, generalisation, and reliability. However according to Lamnek
(2005), quantitative research characterizes a rather inflexible procedure that is best suited to
explanatory, statistical, and theory testing purposes. Accordingly, random and unbiased
selection of respondents, are the research techniques used in this approach. As stated by

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Punch (2000) that the quantitative research is focuses more on the numbers. It tends to
decentralize human behaviour, leading to the criticism by the people preferring qualitative
research (Creswell, 2003). Qualitative approach according to Katsirikou and Skiadas (2007)
differs markedly from the quantitative approach and is underpinned by very different
epistemological and ontological foundations. This thought is backed by Johnson and
Christensen (2008) by stating that it stands opposite to the quantitative approach and
suggested that this approach emphasizes the need to understand society as social actors
and interpret it. Consideration of human behaviour and perception is the significant factor for
the reason that researchers adopt this approach (Cresswell, 2003). Cresswell (2003) further
explained that qualitative research helps in understanding a phenomenon more deeply by
analysing the reasons behind it, while as quantitative tools analyse the phenomenon itself,
without bothering about the human perception of reason ‘why’.

3.5.3Mixed method approach

According to Clarke (2007) and Tashakkori and Teddlie (2003), the combination of
quantitative and qualitative approaches has been advocated by researchers to study various
social phenomena in the fields of social and behavioural sciences. The combination of both
these approaches is most commonly known as mixed method approach (Onwuegbuzie and
Jiao, 2007). The researcher mixes or combines both quantitative and qualitative research
techniques into a single study and is regarded as the class of research (Tashakkori and
Teddlie, 2003; Creswell and Clarke, 2007). They further defined the researches with mixed
approach as an inquiry, where a researcher links both quantitative and qualitative data so as
to provide a unified understanding of a research problem. Punch (2000) also advocates in
favour of exploiting both the approaches so as to maximise the validation of the research.
Tashakkori (2003) went on further explanation and stated that such a methodology
incorporates multiple approaches in all stages of research from problem identification to
research questions, data collection, data analysis, and final interference. In the last 20 years,
mixed method research has come into its own as a research approach (Cresswell and
Garrett, 2008).

In order to provide more validation to the research, author has decided to choose the
combination of both qualitative and quantitative approaches for data collection. According to
Katsirikou and Skiadas (2009), since 1960’s, various authors have been advocating the
combining of both quantitative and qualitative approaches and this type of research is
known as mixed method research. According to Saunders et al (2000), the quantitative data
is analysed through the use of diagrams and statistics and is based more on numbers. In
order for the completion of this research, it was important to consider the numbers from data
input. This is because author needs to analyze how many employees working in the bank

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are motivated by the culture of that bank. More importantly, what is the percentage of
employees who believe that organisational has an impact on employee motivation? In
addition, according to Bryman (2003), quantitative approach is mostly used by the
researcher to establish relationships or links between two or more variables. As the main
objective of the research is to investigate the link between organisational culture and
employee motivation, author finds it convenient to go with qualitative research approach.
However, qualitative research approach was included as well, in order to add the human
perception and behaviour regarding the questions asked to employees of the
organisation. In this regard, Cresswell (2003) stated that this approach helps in
understanding a phenomenon more deeply by analysing the reasons behind it.

Questionnaires and interviews will be used as tools to collect primary data, and books,
journals, past researches, and internet would be used as tools to collect secondary data.
Researcher has used both qualitative and quantitative analysis of data: The Questionnaire
designed by the researcher is comprised of 24 questions having both qualitative (open
ended questions) and quantitative (close ended) questions, within which there are 6
questions, put in the questionnaire as per the likert scale. Questions with likert scale were
essential to be included so as to test the hypothesis after the end of data collection.
Questions 8 to 10 determine the factors of employee motivation while as questions 13 to 15
determine the organisational culture in the questionnaire. This method has been chosen
because it meets the requirements as far as the objectives are concerned. Moreover, it
provides more validity to the data analysis. Moreover, telephonic interviews have been
conducted with the employees of the bank as a qualitative approach to collect data. Ten
people were interviewed with total of 9 questions asked to each. This part of the data
collection was also essential for achieving the objectives of the dissertation.

3.6 Qualitative Data collection

A business researcher must focus on to identify the type and nature of data required, instead
of approaching the research with specific method of data collection in his/her mind (Cooper
and Schindler, 2005). However, Ghauri and Gronhaug (2005) suggested that the researcher
must not limit his selection of data collection method to the type of data required, but to the
collection methods available to him.

In order to carry on this research, given the fact that both primary and secondary data are
needed, author has decided to collect data through three data collection methods. These are
discussed below;

3.7 Primary data collection

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Primary data are created for the specific purpose of answering the research questions at
hand (Houser, 2007). She further explained that the researcher can determine exactly what
data will be collected and can identify the specific tools to be used.

Author has decided to use questionnaires and telephonic interview as tools to collect primary
data. Questionnaire is the most common tool used to collect primary data (Saunders et al
2009). These are the structured surveys that are self-administered by subjects. In order to
collect the data necessary for this research, questionnaire based on 20 questions has been
sent out to the desired participants. In order to investigate the impact of organisational
culture on employee motivation, most of the questions are asked with an aim to find the link
(if any) between organisational culture and employee motivation. Moreover, telephonic
conversation with about 10 employees of the bank has been planned. The main objective of
telephonic interviews is to gather more knowledge and the perceptions of the employees
regarding the culture of the bank and how they relate it to the work motivation. As stated by
Johnson (2002), questionnaire is mostly based on more close questions and it limits a
participant while answering, within ‘yes’ or ‘no’, while as interviews are more flexible and
they provide room for interviewees to answer in more depth, helping a researcher to gain
external knowledge. Although the sample size of interview is small, but it was conducted in
order to gain more and in-depth data to increase the validation of the research.

3.8 Secondary Data Collection

Secondary data is as important as primary data because it helps to provide an insight into
the subject matter of what is already known on it (Creswell, 2003). As suggested by
Lancaster (2005), secondary data collection is of great significance, in that it is used to
define and refine the approach to a research problem. This type of data collection depend on
various factors like, circumstances of the data collection procedure, research objectives,
amount of data available, cost and time considerations, and so on. This research
encompasses ideas and results from past studies on the subject. The author has put in the
relevant literature from books by various authors. Moreover, data has been collected from
various management journals.

3.9 Sampling

According to Powell (2000), sampling is often one of the most crucial steps in research. In
fact, rigorous sampling methods have been developed and used primarily within the context
of survey of research. However, according to Lancaster (2005), the basic logic and many of
the specific techniques of sampling are equally applicable to other research methods such
as content analysis, experimentation, and even field research.

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3.9.1 Purposive sampling

According to Sekaran (2003), purposive sampling is confined to specific types of people who
can provide the desired information, either because they are the only ones who have it, or
conform to some criteria set by the researcher. The researcher in this study has used
purposive sampling so as to gain the desired information, in that employees from specific
departments and middle management have been selected such as (sales managers,
insurance department, and customer advisors). In order to investigate the impact of
organisational culture on employee motivation, it was essential to know how motivated
people in different positions are and what their perception about the culture of the Bank is. In
this type of research, purposive sampling has been found best suited to the situation, in that
it makes easier to answer the research question (Sekaran, 2003).

3.10 Research hypothesis

Researcher has claimed that organisational culture is one of the important factors within the
working environment to have an impact on the motivation of the people working within
it. Although various authors have stated organisational culture as a main component of
business, most of the companies till date, do not believe that the organisational culture can
influence the behaviour of the employees. To obtain the correlation between employee
motivation and organisational culture researcher has used variables which are represented
by ‘OC’ and ‘EM’. Where OC represents organisation culture and EM is for employee
motivation. The hypothesis is based on six questions (3 from each variable): OC1, OC2,
OC3 for organisation culture and EM1, EM2, EM3 for employee motivation. All the
responses to these six questions were analysed by using SPSS software to get the co-
relation between the two.

3.11 Ethical issues

According Saunders et al (2009), ethical issues are worth consideration in every research.
They further explained that the trust building between the researchers and researched and
the help by the people to gain access to the organisation are the important factors in order
for a good data collection. However Cresswell (2003) states that every care is to be taken in
order to build a good relationship with researched. There are various ethical issues related to
every research like, building a close relationship with researched, researcher must report the
data collected data without any wrong interpretations and so on (Kumar, 2009). According to
Brown (2003), it is of much importance for a researcher to address issues like confidentiality,
anonymity, openness of participants, and feedback to the organisation. According to
Saunders et al (2009), there are some important things to be kept in mind while conducting a
research and these are as below;

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It is the primary duty of a researcher to inform a participant, the aims, methods, anticipated
benefits, potential hazards of the study (if any), or any discomfort it might entail.

There has to be no pressure or threat on the researched while collecting information from
him/her.

3.12 Limitations of the research

According to Gray et al (2007), research by its nature is limited to a range of either individual
or group behaviour. Secondly, a research is not capable of generating a broad range of data
about the characteristics of large populations. Patton (2000) argues that no research is
perfect, there are always limitations. Moreover, this research has many limitations:-

• Researcher had limited time to conduct this research due to time constraint.
• Sample size is not too large which makes research limited to few thoughts.
• Research was conducted on particular branches which restricts researcher to cover a
broader area.

3.13 Chapter Summary

As may have been deducted from the above, this research will adopt a mixed method
approach by applying both qualitative and quantitative data collection approaches. Although
in the first instance, it was planned to carry a quantitative approach, author found it more
valuable to introduce qualitative approach in order to cover up the limitations of the former
approach. There is no claim that the approach will not be without limitations, but considering
research questions and the nature of the research problem, along with the time and word
constraints, it was decided that the defined methodological approach would best satisfy the
articulated objectives and respond to the research questions.

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 Chapter 4: Finding and analysis
4.1 introduction

A steady progression of this research was being made, up until the designing of the
questions to ask participants. 40 questionnaires were sent out as a quantitative tool to collect
necessary data however; only 38 got the response from participants. Questionnaires were
sent out to the people with different working backgrounds in order to gain responses from
almost every department of the bank. In this regard, questionnaires were sent out involving
participation from human resource department to sales advisors. Questionnaire consisted of
19 questions and most of the questions were asked with an aim to find link between culture
and motivation. Besides, as mentioned in the last chapter, interviews were conducted as a
qualitative tool to collect data. A small sample of 10 people was interviewed with an idea to
gain more knowledge of how motivated people in different positions and jobs are and to find
an impact of organisational culture on employee motivation. Therefore, below is the
graphical presentation and detailed analysis of the data collected.

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Question 1: Please select your gender?

Gender Number

Male 21

Female 17

Total 38

Table 4.1

This question was asked to find out the gender proportion of the sample selected. After
receiving the responses, it was learned that out of the total sample of 38 employees, major
portion was male with 21 participants and female were 17. The main purpose of this
question was to find out whether there is the difference of thoughts between genders
regarding impact of organisational culture on employee motivation. As revealed from the
responses given by the participants, it was observed that female employees of the Bank
tend to be more positive towards good employee relationships.

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Question 2: are you permanent member of the staff, paid on a day rate (agency staff), or
ad hoc (temporary/short time) employee?

This question was asked to find out the type of job people are doing. According to the data
collected, it is quite apparent that 28 people i.e. 74% of the employees were working on
permanent bases. However, 16% i.e. 6 people were working temporarily as agency staff,
while as 10% i.e. 4 of them were working on ad hoc bases. Although majority of the
population are working as permanent staff, but it has to be taken into consideration that
around 26% employees are working temporarily. After critically examining the overall
responses by the employees, researcher found that most of the temporary workers do not
believe to be affiliated with the company, hence adversely affecting motivation and
performance of such employees. As explained by Levine (1997) that although temporary
employment, nowadays, is used as a mechanism to reduce costs, but it is the matter of
consideration that most of these employees feel psychologically unrecognized and
unaffiliated and it effects their motivation level as well. Moreover, researcher has related this
issue with Maslow’s motivational model, whereby Maslow suggests that belonging and
affiliation have a direct impact on the motivation of employees (Koontz and Weihrich, 2006)

Question 3: How long have you been working in this organisation?

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Responses for this question reveal that the organisation retains employees. This might be
happening because it provides job security to employees. However, few employees are
working there for less than 1 year and this might be because of the new recruitments made
by the organisation. It was also observed that the responses of the employees differ from
senior employees to freshers. This was due to the fact that most of the employees with less
than 1 year tenure were working on temporary basis.

Question 4: What attracts you to the company you are working for?

This question was asked with an idea to find out what attracts people to work in the
organisation. As shown in the graph above, it is apparent that major portion of the
employees is there because of the reputation of the organisation. 53% of the employees are
attracted by the reputation of the organisation. However 26% are there for the package,
indicating the importance of package for employees. 7% are attracted by job satisfaction
while as a less population of just 3% are attracted by the convenience. After analysing the
responses to this question, it has been observed that the initial factor attracting the
employees to work in the organisation is the company reputation. People prefer to work for
the organisation with high profile or status. After examining the literature and analysing the
data collected, it has been found that it is the primary motivational factor of Herzberg’s
motivational model and the top level of Maslow’s hierarchy theory i.e. ‘status’ which has

1
been the attracting factor for most of the employees to work in the bank (William et al,
2009). The second most preference has been given to job package/salary. The interesting
issue here is that out of the 10 people who are attracted towards the company for salary, 8
persons were temporary workers (i.e. agency staff or ad hoc employees). As discussed in
question 2 above, this is because temporary employees mostly work in order to get salary at
the end of the month because they work with the mindset that they have to leave the
company immediately as their contract ends. Although according to John (2010), various
authors have wrote in favour of job satisfaction as a significant factor for employee
motivation, but in this case only 18% of the sample population was attracted towards the
company because of job satisfaction. The reason for this could be either because the bank is
providing poor job satisfaction or employees prefer other things over job satisfaction.

Question 5: In the last six months, how many times have you been absent from work?

The main objective of asking this question was to find both the ability and the motivation to
attend. According to Jan and Johannes (2003), absenteeism has been studied from both a
psychological and an economical perspective, and both perspectives focus on the motivation
of employees to attend the work place. As revealed by the graph above, 45% of the total
population has been absent from the work place only once in last 6 months. 29% have been
absent twice, 16% three times, and very less 10% have remained absent for more than three
times.

Question 6: How often do you get rewards or incentives for your achievements?

This question was asked to employees in order to know how often they get reward for their
performance and whether they are satisfied with the rewards and incentive system. Although

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not satisfactory, but majority i.e. 49% of the total participants responded in favour of the
organisation providing them rewards and incentives. 33% responded that they get rewarded
sometimes but not frequently. It is also apparent from the graph that about 18% are not
happy with the rewards and incentives system of the bank. 15% of the total participants have
responded that they rarely get rewards while as 3% have maintained that they never receive
any rewards or incentives. Rewards are the significant element of employee motivation and
it helps in getting a positive behaviour of staff (Thompson, 1996). As mentioned in the
literature review, both, Herzberg and Maslow have emphasized the inclusion of rewards and
incentives so as to develop a motivated workforce. This question received a mixed response
as about 82% of the total participants acknowledge that they receive rewards for their
performance.

Question 7: What rewards and incentives should the company provide?

This question was asked to find out what types of rewards do employees want from their
employer. This question received the expected response as 66% of the total participants
want increase in their salary as a reward for their performance. 18% want bonus while as
16% would be happy to get commission as rewards and incentives. Analysing the responses
received for this question, it has been observed that most of the employees want salary
increment as their reward for performance. In this regard, bank has to set its reward policy in
a way to have its staff motivated in every aspect. As suggested by Richard and Patrica
(2009), importance of motivation is that it can lead to behaviours that reflect high
performance within organisations. They further emphasized that it is the responsibility of
managers to find the right combination of motivational techniques and rewards to satisfy
employees’ needs and simultaneously encourage high work performance. While deciding
the type of reward to be offered to the staff, it has to be kept in consideration that majority of
the employees want increase in their salary/package. In this regard, Bogardus (2009)
suggests that organisation needs to review the total rewards strategy for selecting the type

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of rewards to be offered, in that it is used to determine how the resources available for
rewards programmes can be used to best advantage in attracting, motivating, and retaining
employees. Organisational culture is rooted in the values and beliefs advocated by an
organisation’s leadership and the way in which members of the organisation behave
(Bogardus, 2009). It should be noted that total reward philosophy reflects these values and
beliefs to reinforce the culture.

Question 8: Employee motivation affects the overall efficiency of an organization.

This question has been asked with an idea to understand the impact of employee motivation
on efficiency of organization. As revealed in the pie chart, 37%strongly agree that employee
motivation fosters the efficiency of an organization while as 47% also agree with the
statement. Less percentage of participants have disagreed with the statement made by the
researcher while as 5% have strongly disagreed with it. General responses reveal that all
the employees believe that organizational efficiency increases with the increase in the
motivational level of employees. These results are similar to the studies of Kumar (2006),
whose study on UCO Bank resulted in the fact that employee motivation and employee
behavior have a positive impact on the efficiency of an organization. This concept is also
backed by Hutchinson (2007) by mentioning that better motivation of employees results in
an efficient workforce and it eventually increases the overall efficiency of an organization.

Question 9: The more the employees are motivated the less will be the attrition rate.

This question has been asked with a purpose to know whether or not the increased level of
employee motivation decreases the attrition rate. As shown in the pie chart, 29% of total
participants have strongly agreed while as 60% employees have agree with the statement of
the researcher that better motivation decreases the attrition rate of employees. It was also
found that a less population of participants have not shown consent with this statement, in

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that 8% employees have disagreed while as 3% have strongly disagreed with it. As stated by
Andrews, (2009; p65), ‘’attrition rate or the number of employees leaving an organization
reflects the culture of the organization and whether it is a preferred place to work in. an
organization that retains its employees shows that its human resource development
practices and policies are creating a better motivating environment and quality of work life
that is superior to others. Robbins (2009) also backed this thought by suggesting that it is the
obvious consequence of motivation that employees would not leave an organization where
they are motivated to work in. most of the employees have agreed that if they will be
motivated, they will not be leaving the organization.

Question 10: Motivation determines the potential employee performance.

This question has been asked to understand the importance of employee motivation in
determining their performance. it has been revealed from the responses that 47% of the
employees believe that full potential of employees can be determined when motivational
level is high while as 42% also agree with the statement. 8% participants disagreed with it
while as 3% strongly disagreed with the statement made by the researcher. According to
Griffin and Moorhead (2009), managers must determine how to motivate people and how to
optimize their performance. The long term key to success in business is to create jobs that
optimize the organization’s requirements for productivity and efficiency while motivating and
satisfying the employees who perform those jobs. This thought has been backed by Robbins
(2009), virtually all employees belong to a work unit, and their work performance depends to
some degree on their ability to effectively interact with their co-workers and their boss. As far
as responses are concerned, the thoughts of the employees are similar to the thoughts of
the authors mentioned above, suggesting that there is a need for high level of motivation in
order to get the best out of them. As discussed in the literature review of this dissertation,
Vroom’s Expectancy model (1964) emphasizes on the factors to be present for the
employees to motivate him or herself to put forth the best effort.

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Question 11: How important is it for you to have a good relationship with your peers?

This question is of great significance, in that it deals with the relationship among the
employees. As per the results received, it is apparent that 82% of the total sample
population consider it of great importance to have a good relationship with their peers. 13%
responded that it was not of much importance while as very less people i.e. 5% participants
answered that it is not of any importance to have a good relationship with their peers. These
results indicate that most of the employees believe that it is better to have good relationship
with their peers, hence indicating the willingness for the teamwork and collective approach to
meet organisational targets. Employee relationship is regarded as a measure to determine
culture (Neal et al, 2010). As per the responses received for this question it is apparent that
employees are happy with the relationships with their peers at the workplace, hence happy
with the culture of the organisation. Since the options of responding to this question didn’t
allow the participants to state reasons for their response, but it was learnt with the help of
interviews that there were a few people who were there to get the salary at the end of the
month and had no interest in employee relationship and company profile.

Question 12: How important is it for you to have a good relationship with your subordinates?

This question is having the same importance as above as it also is based on to find out
relationships among employees. The main objective of this question was to find out how
important is it for employees to have a good relationship with their subordinates. As per the
responses received, it is revealed that majority of the staff wanted to have good relationship
with their subordinates in order to achieve desired goals. As shown in the graph above, 74%
of the total participants believe that having good relationship with their subordinates is of
much importance, 18% state that such relationship is not of much importance while as a less
population of participants i.e. 8% believe that the said relationship is not important at all.
Responses for this question indicate that most of the employees are in favour of good

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relationship with their subordinates. All the female participants believe that good relations
with their subordinates help in getting desired goals smoothly. Results for both these
questions give a clear indication of decentralisation of powers in the organisation. McPhee
and Poole (2001) have described such an organisational structure as flat structure. Flat
organisational structures that are egalitarian in nature are likely to be conducive to closer
relationships between superiors and subordinates (George and Graen, 2005). More
importantly, it is the organisational culture of an organisation that may affect the initial
development of the superior-subordinate relationship (George and Graen, 2005). As
mentioned in the literature review of this dissertation, organisational culture refers to a
pattern of beliefs and expectations shared by the organisation’s members. These beliefs and
expectations produce norms that powerfully shape the behaviour of individuals and groups in
the organisation (Schwartz and Davis, 1981, p. 33 adopted from Alvesson, 2002).

Question 13: Good employee-managerial relationships within the workplace foster the
performance of an organization.

This question has been asked with an idea to understand the importance of employee-
managerial relationships from employee perception and how it increases the performance of
an organization. From the responses of the employees shown in this pie chart, it is apparent
that 58% of total participants agree that good employee-managerial relationship fosters the
performance of an organization while as 21% participants strongly agree with it. It has also
been revealed that 16% employees do not believe that employee relationship has any
impact on organizational performance while as 5% strongly disagreed with it. Employee
relationship within a work place is regarded as a measure to determine culture (Neal et al,
2010). As suggested by mathena et al (2008), poor employee-manager relationships in
workplace create hindrances to achieve desired organizational goals. They further explained
that employee-manager relationship is of great importance as it has its impact on employee
motivation and the performance of the organization as well. It was also revealed from the
responses given to question 11 and 12 that the employees of J&K Bank are happy with the
employee/peer/subordinate relationships existing within the organization.

Question 14: Better working environment is essential to achieve organizational goals

smoothly.

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This question has been asked in order to know essence of good working environment to
achieve organizational goals smoothly. It has to be kept in consideration that working
environment is regarded as a variable of organizational culture. As revealed in the pie chart
above, 45% employees strongly agree with the statement and 42% also showed their
consent with the statement. 8% of the total population disagreed while as 5% strongly
disagreed with the statement made by the researcher. According to Cassidy et al (2009),
motivation comes only from within and is the managers’ job to increase it, in that it is the role
of management to create a working environment where people will motivate themselves. He
further argued that working environment leads to the smooth functioning of the operations
whereby it is easy to achieve organizational goals smoothly. As suggested by the responses
given by the employees of the Bank, majority of the employees are in favor of good working
environment being an essence to achieve organizational goals. In relation to this, Berry
(2007) suggests the importance of good physical environment and explained that employees
are always linked with the physical environment provided to them. Furthermore, Sims (2010)
emphasized that when organisations fail to think about their employees’ working
environment; they are risking the well being of their staff and the organisation.

Question 15: Company reputation increases the morale of employees.

This question was asked to know if the reputation of an organization influences the degree of
employee morale. This question received the responses that were expected by the
researcher. As revealed in the pie chart, 47% have shown the strong belief with the
statement made by the researcher while as 42% also agree with the statement that company
reputation/profile increases the morale of the employees. It has been apparent from the
responses given by the participants that very less i.e. only 11% have disagreed that there is
any impact of company reputation on employee morale. Examining the literature review of
this dissertation, Maslow’s hierarchy model and Herzberg’s two factor theory also reveal the
importance of company profile or status and suggested it as an essential motivator to
improve the motivation of employees in an organization (William et al, 2009). Furthermore,

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Morley (2002; p14) stated ‘’employee morale and commitment are generally much better at
companies with good corporate reputation’’. He further explains that high employee morale
in turn, usually, usually leads to high productivity and better performance of an organization.
It was also revealed in the responses given to question 4 that the initial factor chosen by
majority of the employees is company reputation.

Questions 16: What kind of development opportunities should the company offer to staff?

This question was asked in order to know about the development opportunities employees
want from their organisation. As revealed by the responses, training has been the main issue
as 53% of the employees responded that they want training to develop their career and
perform better within the workplace. 31% want job rotation as a development opportunity, in
that it would make them multitalented and add in job enrichment. 8% of the participants want
that knowledge-sharing event should be organised in order to acquire more knowledge
about the organisational tasks and ways to achieve goals, while as 8% want their
organisation to offer them new tasks to gain new experience in order to develop their career.
It has become an essence for the organisations to provide developmental opportunities as
employees expect organisations to offer them opportunities to develop a portfolio of skills
that enhances their marketability (Wilderom, 2000). Kozami (2008) mentions that training
has been an issue within J&K bank, in that latest technologies like internet banking etc. are
introduced and employees did not seem to be happy with the training provided to them to
deal with new challenges. In addition, a good number of participants want that job rotation
should be offered to them in order to gain more knowledge and skills as according to Burke
and Moore (2000), the objective of job rotation is to enhance employees’ work experience.
There were a less number of people who do not want training and job rotation as
developmental opportunities and almost all of these are the experienced employees who
have been working there for more than 5 years.

Question 17: How important is the level of salary to you?

This question is related to the motivation as employees were asked to reply how much the
importance of the salary to them is? As expected 87% of the total participants reported that

2
salary is of much importance to them while as 10% answered that its importance is not too
much. Only 1 person that is 3% replied that salary doesn’t mean anything for him/her. As
expected by the researcher, it was being learnt from the responses that salary is of much
importance for employees. Although employees preferred employee-relationship and
organisational culture as motivational factors in the first and second place respectively, but
the results for this question reveal that almost all the employees believe that salary is of
great importance for them as it was needed to full fill the basic needs of human beings.
Examining the literature, it is apparent that almost all the motivational theories are in favour
of salary being the most important factor for employee motivation (Ellig, 2007). Employees
seem to be more attracted and concerned regarding salary as most of the employees
responded that company should provide salary increment as reward for their performance
(see Q. 7).

Question 18: please number in order of preference, what factors motivate you to work in the
organisation, with 1st the most and 5th the least?

This question is of much importance, in that employees were asked to state as per their
preference, what motivated them in the workplace. As revealed in the chart above most of
the employees were motivated because of good employee relationship. 10 people gave first
preference to good employee relationship. 9 people believe that it was the organisational
culture that motivates them to work in the bank. 7 people were motivated by salary/package
while as 7 people were motivated by job satisfaction in the organisation. It was easily
understood by the responses of the participants, that a friendly and decentralised work
culture has been the prime factor for the motivation of employees to work in the bank.
Employees believe that it is the organisational culture of the bank that motivates them to
work there. This question too got a mixed response giving an understanding that employees
believe that organisational culture has an impact on employee motivation. As suggested by
George and Graen (2005), employee-relationship and job satisfaction can be used as
variables to measure organisational culture. Thus it is easily understood from the responses
made by participants that there is a link between organisational culture and employee
motivation.

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Question 19: Are you happy with the working environment of you organisation? If not,
Please state the reason.

Are you happy Value Percentage

Yes 29 77%

No 9 23%

This question has been asked to understand how people feel about the working environment
of the organisation. As revealed in the previous responses, most of the people were happy
with the employee relationships within the workplace. Therefore this question also got the
same response, in that 77% of the total participants were happy with the working
environment while as 23% of the participants were not happy with the working environment
of their organisation. Since this question was an open ended one and it was learnt from the
reasons stated by some of the employees that there were certain problems with the physical
environment of the bank. One of the employees stated, ‘’even though we are being provided
with good facilities but unfortunately things get worse during cold winters because of
inadequate heating facilities’’. Although majority of the employees are happy with the
working environment of the bank but the need for improvement of physical environment is
essential. In relation to this, Berry (2007) suggests the importance of good physical
environment and explained that employees are always linked with the physical environment
provided to them. Furthermore, Sims (2010) emphasized that when organisations fail to think
about their employees’ working environment; they are risking the well being of their staff and
the organisation.

Question 20: To you what is the value of feedback to motivate or de-motivate a person?

In this question, employees were asked to comment about the value of feedback in relation
to the employee motivation. This was an open ended question where most of the employees

1
didn’t respond either because of time constraint or they intentionally didn’t want to provide
any information regarding the question. However, 18 people responded with almost same
response stating that feedback is and should be considered as a factor of motivation. All the
responses were in favour of good feedback to be linked with the motivation of the
employees.

Question 21: Have you ever complained about anything in your workplace? Who did you
complain to and what was done about it?

Complaints Value

Yes 7

No 31

This question was asked with an idea to find out how management deals with the complaints
of their staff. This was an open ended question and people were asked to state the
complaints they made. Although it was assured that the employee responses will be kept
confidential, but employees didn’t seem to open up. Out of 38, only 7 people answered that
they had complained, but none of them responded what the complaint was for and how it
was dealt by the management?

Question 22: How important do you think organisational culture is?

1
This question is the most important one as it was asked to know about how much important
do employees think organisational culture is? As expected by the researcher, 79% i.e.
majority of the sample population believe that organisational culture is of much importance.
16% people didn’t deny its importance however; they replied that it was not of much
importance for them. However, 5% of the total participants believe that organisational culture
is not important at all. These responses give a clear indication that employee believe in
shared beliefs, values and norms that bind them together and help them make sense of the
systems within the organisation. As according to Lewis et al (2006), these beliefs, values,
and norms tell people ‘what is to be done’ and ‘how it is to be done’ and culture develop
within organisations as their people interact and share ways of managing and coping.

Question 23: How would you describe the culture of your organisation?

This is also a culture related question. It was asked with the main objective to know about
the culture strength of the organisation. 47% employees were happy with the organisational
culture of the bank while as 24% answered that organisational culture was satisfactory. It
should be taken into consideration that 18% were not fully satisfied with the organisational
culture while as 11% think that the culture they had was too poor. Although all the
employees believe that organisational culture has an impact on the motivation but as
compared to such responses, there were less people who believe that the culture of their
organisation is good enough or as expected by them. As mentioned in the literature review
of this dissertation, it is because of the strong culture that core values of organisation are
held strongly and shared widely (Robbins, 2009).

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Question 24: According to you, organisational culture has a significant influence over

This question, according to researcher is one of the most significant questions in the whole
questionnaire, in that it is related to the primary objective of the dissertation. The main
objective of this study is to find out whether there is any impact of organisational culture on
employee motivation and performance. As revealed by the chart, 55% participants believe
that organisational culture has got an impact on both employee motivation and their
performances. 24% believe that its impact is directly on employee motivation while as 16%
responded that its impact is on employee performance. However, just 2 people i.e. 5% of the
total sample population believe that there is no link between organisational culture and
employee motivation or performance. Examining the overall results for this question, it is
quite apparent that employees firmly believe that organisational culture has an impact on
employee motivation. The objective of this research was to investigate the impact of
organisational culture on employee motivation (if any). As discussed earlier in this
dissertation, Brown (1998) described organisational culture as an important factor for the
motivation of employees. Although all the employees are not satisfied with the culture of the
bank, but employees have explicitly responded in favour of organisational culture being a
factor for motivation.

4.2 Testing Hypothesis

Researcher has developed a hypothesis which is to find the relation between employee
motivation and organisation culture, as discussed in chapter four. The researcher has used
the statistical tool (co-relation) to find out the relation between the two factors. Moreover, it
will make the data analysis more valid. Researcher has analysed the responses of the
participants in questionnaire by using SPSS software.

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The variables that were used for obtaining co-relation are represented by ‘OC’ and ‘EM’.
Where OC represents organisation culture and EM is for employee motivation. The
hypothesis is based on six questions (3 from each variable): OC1 (Q.13), OC2 (Q.14),
OC3 (Q.15) for organisation culture and EM1 (Q.8), EM2 (Q.9), EM3 (Q10) for employee
motivation. All the responses to these six questions were analysed by using SPSS software
to get the co-relation between the two. The results brought forward by two methods of
obtaining co-relation: Pearson’s and Spearman’s are shown in the table below:

Pearson Correlation
Correlations
@_age @_age_
@_age Pearson 1 1.000**
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 38 38
@_age_ Pearson 1.000** 1
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 38 38
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-
tailed).

Spearman’s Correlation

1
 Correlations
@_age @_age_
Spearman's @_age Correlation 1.000 1.000**
rho Coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed) . .
N 38 38
@_age_ Correlation 1.000** 1.000
Coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed) . .
N 38 38
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

The thing which we need to consider is the direction of the relationship between the
variables. If there is negative sign in front of the correlation coefficient value, this means
there is negative correlation between the two variables. In this research, Pearson correlation
coefficient (1.000) and Spearman rho value (1.000) are positive, indicating a positive
correlation between Organizational Culture (OC) and Employee Motivation (EM). According
to Cohen (1988), the correlation of zero indicates no relationship at all, a correlation of 1.0
indicates a perfect positive correlation and the value of – 1.0 indicates a perfect negative
correlation. In order to interpret values in between 0 to 1, Cohen suggests the following
guidelines:

Small r = .10 to .29

Medium r = .30 to .49

Large r = .50 to 1.0 (Pallant, 2007)

Therefore the relation between the given variables culture and motivation is high and they
are directly proportional to each other. And the negative or positive sign refers only to the
direction and the strength of correlation is 1.000 (Pearson) and 1.000 (Spearman).
Therefore, the hypothesis generated by the researcher holds true and “with the increase in
Organizational Culture there is an increase in Employee motivation”. Employees believe that
if the culture of an organisation is employee-driven, there will be high level of motivation
among the employees. All the employees are in favour of good relationship with their peers,
subordinate or superiors. Therefore in order to have an efficient and better motivated team, it
is of great essence for the management to create a culture that takes care of its employees
and organisation as well. Reward system of the organisation needs to be directed towards
the way whereby employees would be satisfied with the rewards provided to them for their
performance. Moreover, factors like training and development, recognition, and promotion of

1
the employees are essentially to be managed by the organisation so as to manage the
motivational level of their employees.

4.3 Interviews

In order to use qualitative data collection approach, telephonic interviews were conducted
with the employees of the bank. Only the most important questions required for the research,
were put in the interview so as to make it precise and result oriented. In order to understand
how motivated people are in different places and to investigate the link between
organisational culture and motivation, employees from different working backgrounds were
interviewed. All the questions asked in the interviews are attached in appendix. The primary
objective of interviews was to understand the reason behind the responses made by
employees while answering questions in the questionnaire. Although full confidentiality was
assured to the employees, they didn’t seem to open up. Moreover, interviews were
conducted during working hours due to which employees couldn’t explain everything in detail
due to time constraint.

It was revealed from the interviews that the primary factor of employee motivation to work in
the organisation is reputation of Bank. People prefer to work in the high-profile organisation.
However, couple of people clearly said that they were not interested in the reputation or
profile of the company and made it clear that they work in order to get salary at the end of
the month. One employee (customer advisor) was attracted by the part time hours offered by
the Bank while as one employee was still in hunt for seeking a new job.

Besides salary/wages, employees receive rewards and incentives such as discount on

insurance cover, bonus on reaching pre-defined targets. Most of the employees were
working on performance related pay. As revealed by the results of the questionnaire,
interviews too showed that employees were in favour of good relationship with their peers,
subordinates and bosses. However, it was observed that female employees seem to be
more positive regarding employee relationships, while as most of the male employees did
indicate that they were there just to earn money. One of the male employees stated that the
available work environment was not good for him. Employees in sales department were
disturbed too, where a sales manager stated ‘’ establishing good employee relationship is
too hard because of the constant management changes, because by the time employee
gets used to the manager’s leadership style, there is a change of management. Too many
changes in management can de-motivate employees, in that they find it difficult to adapt with
the new management constantly’’.

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Regardless of the comments made on previous question, when asked about importance of
good relationships with peers and subordinates all the participants replied that it is good
relationship is important in order to work efficiently. One of the participants from insurance
department stated ‘’ I would not give my best if my manager is not good’’. Over all responses
for this question emphasized the need for total commitment and team work in the workplace.
All the people, whether responding to the questionnaire or interviews, spoke in favour of
good employee relationship as an important factor for motivation and performance of the
employees. Such an environment helps in generating team spirit and makes it easier to
solve problems and conflicts within the workplace. As stated by one of the female managers,
‘’ good working relationship with my subordinates make my job easier’’.

Question 3 on the interview got the similar response from all the participants. When asked
how important training for the motivation of employees is, all the participants responded that
training is an important factor to get motivated to work in a workplace. One of the employees
stated ‘’ when your organisation provides you training, you take company interests at heart’’.
Training provides job enrichment and prepares employees to accept new challenges. The
interviewees tend to believe that training will encourage employees to work harder and
achieve desired targets smoothly. These results were similar to the studies examined
previously in the literature review. For example, Hofstede’s study in Amsterdam showed that
unskilled workers were the least motivated people in the workplace while as managers and
other well trained employees were more motivated. Thus participants made it clear that
training is very important as it removes weaknesses and improves efficiency of employees.
One of the employees states, ‘’ training is beneficial for both employees and company, in
that it improves the skills of employees and skilled employees add to the performance of the
organisation’’.

When asked about the importance of salary, it was observed that managers and senior
employees give equal importance to salary and job satisfaction. On the contrary, freshers,
temporary employees, and employees with lower positions give much importance to salary
than anything else. One of the senior employee said, ‘’if you are experienced and have
complete skills to do the job, then you deserve a good salary’’. This was a fair comment;
however, temporary employees state that they work to get salary at the end of month and
showed no interest in careers. One of the temporary employee stated, ‘’my contract with the
bank ends within next two months, how come I would be interested in the job satisfaction
here’’. Examining the literature, it was apparent from the study carried by Hofstede (2001) in
Amsterdam, where most of the workers came to earn salary and were completely
dissatisfied with their job.

1
It was learned from the literature that increased responsibilities add to the motivation of the
employees and make them work harder. This is because responsibilities make them feel
their contribution is of much importance and makes a difference (Bruce and Pepitone, 1998).
However, the responses for this question were different from what was expected by the
researcher. When asked about responsibilities, one of the employee from human resource
department said, ‘’I felt useless when I had less responsibilities and when too many
responsibilities were put on me, I found it difficult to deal with the pressure’’. One of the
employees from insurance department claimed that responsibilities are good as long as
there is someone else to support. It was observed from these responses that issue of
responsibilities depend on the individuals whether he/she can deal with too many
responsibilities and work in pressure.

Question 6 of the interview was vital for the research. Employees were asked to comment
about what motivates them at the workplace and the responses varied from person to
person. One of the employees stated that he gets motivated when he is praised for his work.
He further explained that his manager treats him very well and that was the reason for him to
work even with more interest. One of the sales advisors was motivated by solving customer
queries and was happy in meeting new people every day. It was also observed that
feedback from the managers’ acts as motivator for some employees. Some people were
motivated due to good employee relationships and friendly working environment. By
analysing responses given to both questionnaire and interview, it has been revealed that the
most common motivators for the employees are recognition, high salary, promotion, and
culture of the organisation.

When asked about the culture of their organisation, employees described their culture as
collectivist. As it was also revealed in through the responses to the questionnaire, people
seem to be happy working in team and friendly environment. However, one of the
interviewees stated that the culture of the bank is not good enough as there is no
commitment from the managers. People work there in order to get wages at the end of the
month. But this was not the case with other employees as they felt good about the culture of
the company. Most of the interviewees state that senior managers have brought the culture
which is considerate to employees. As discussed in the literature review, it is up to the
management and personal specialists who are in the company for influencing the behaviour
in the desired directions meeting the needs of both enterprise and workforce (Schwalbe,
2009).

As expected by the researcher, all the employees agree that there is a connection between
organisational culture and employee motivation. One of the managers stated, ‘’if the culture
is people oriented and committed, then the motivation is natural at the work place’’.

1
However, one of the interviewee has been working on the same job position for last 4 years
and was the least motivated. This suggests that organisational culture should be such that it
takes care of both employees and the company’s interests. In this regard, one of the
employees from the sales department said that if culture is creating negative atmosphere
and keeps management detached from staff then employees will feel de-motivated

Employees also commented in favour of organisational culture having its impact on

employee performance. One of the managers from human resource department claimed that
it is the culture of an organisation that motivates employees to work harder. Similar
comments were made by one of the staff members from insurance department by stating
‘’good organisational culture motivates employees and higher motivation always results in
higher performance’’. This comment was of great significance from researcher’s point of
view as it covered both the objectives of this research i.e. to investigate relation between
organisational culture and employee motivation and organisational culture and employee
performance.

4.4 Summary of findings

To sum up the chapter of finding and analysis, it can be said that the primary data collected
through questionnaires and interviews proved to be in favour of the research objectives. It
was learned from the analysis that employees, in the first place, are motivated by high
salary. However recognition and good employee relationships were also chosen as the
factors of motivation by the employees. Majority of the employees feel the importance of
employee-driven culture to be present in order for a better motivated staff. Employees’
beliefs and shared values were keenly observed through the questions asked to them.
Employees did stress that rewards and salary increase is of great importance and agreed
that if the culture is employee oriented, the good performance would be a normal day’s work.
In addition, according to the correlation presented above, hypothesis made by the
researcher has been tested true, in that there is a highly positive correlation between
organisational culture and motivation. The better the organisational culture the is higher will
be the motivational level of employees.

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 Chapter 5: Conclusion
5.1 Introduction

The primary objective of this research was to investigate the impact of organisational culture
on employee motivation. There have been the issues relating to the assessment of
organisational culture (Maier, 2002). The variables used to measure organisational culture in
this research were similar to the variables used by Morcoulides and Heck (1993) for their
study on organisational culture. These are; individual beliefs and values, organisational
values, climate and tasks, and structure. As revealed from the correlation between
organisational culture (organisational values, working environment, and employee
relationships) and employee motivation, a positive correlation has been found between the
two. This suggests that organisational culture has got a positive impact on employee

2
motivation. The better the organisational culture is the higher will be the motivational level of
employees.

5.2 Relating findings with hypothesis

In order to show the relation of hypothesis and findings, it is essential to review the proposed
hypothesis. The hypothesis made by the researcher has been that the organisational culture
is one of the important factors within the working environment to have an impact on the
motivation of the people within it. Although various authors have stated organisational
culture as a main component of business, most of the companies till date, do not believe that
the organisational culture can influence the behaviour of the employees.

As revealed from the correlation (presented in finding and analysis) between the variables of
organisational culture and employee motivation, there is a positive correlation between the
two, hence the results of this research are in favour of hypothesis. As analysed from the
findings, it was observed that culture of the organisation influences the behaviour of the
people working within it and has an impact on their motivation to work. As mentioned in the
literature, Brown (1998), Schneider and Synder (1975), Sempane et al. (2002), have
discussed that organisational culture has an essential impact on employee motivation. It is
apparent from the responses made to the initial questions on the questionnaire that all the
employees want to work in the company with high profile/status (see responses to Q. 4 in
findings). Employees agreed that the reputation of the company plays an important role in
working within a company. However, some of the employees made it clear that they were
interested in earning money only, but that does not mean that the employees who were
interested in reputation/profile of the company had no interest in money. Responses to
Question 13 on the questionnaire made it clear that all the employees need good salary to
work in an organisation (see Q13 in findings). These results also relate to the factors of
motivation given by Herzberg, Maslow, and Vroom in their motivational theories already
discussed in the literature review of this dissertation.

It was also observed that people are interested in good relationship within the workplace.
Questions related to employee relationship were asked in both questionnaire and interviews
and almost all the employees believe that good employee-relationship leads to higher
motivation, increased performance, and overall success of the organisation (see responses
to Q. 11, 12, and 13 in findings). According to Mullins (2008), in people culture, employees
like to team up and work together for the sake of organisation. People in such an
organisation work with full consciousness and are motivated to work together and be part of
such organisation (Martin, 2002). The overall observation of this research revealed that the
most dominant factors for the motivation of employees were high salary, employee

3
relationships, and staff development. All the employees gave importance to good salary.
Employees believe that good relationship with peers/subordinates makes their task easier
and interesting. Training has been the issue with most of the employees of the bank.
However, employees believe that company should provide training to its employees in order
to develop their careers and in turn achieve increased literature discussed performance from
them. Analysing the results from the findings and examining the in chapter two of this
dissertation, it is quite apparent that the motivators found within the staff of J&K Bank were
similar to the motivators given by Herzberg in his two-factor theory.

Chapter 6: Recommendations
6.1 Introduction

As mentioned in the introductory part of this research, every organisation aims at achieving
the pre-defined desired goals. Human resource management of an organisation plays an
important role in managing people in a way so as to achieve those desired goals (Armstrong,
2005). Employee behaviours, the forces that drive them to behave in the way they do, and
the important factors relating to the motivation of these employees have been discussed in
this dissertation. This research is not beneficial to author only, but it also highlights the key
issues needed to be considered by the management of Jammu & Kashmir Bank so as to
manage their work force more efficiently and effectively. This dissertation has thrown light on
some of the critical decisions about how to manage people in an effective manner so as to

2
achieve organisational goals. These are; making management aware about the factors that
make employees unhappy, satisfying employee values by improving organisational culture,
and creating a better and employee-friendly environment.

In order to work with a better motivated staff, it is essential for the management to
understand the impact of organisational culture on employee motivation. Management needs
to understand the behaviour of the employees and how they feel about the organisation.
Although most of the employees were happy with the employee-relationships within the
workplace but it was identified from the responses of the participants that the problems like
training, management stability, and reward system exist in the organisation. These are
discussed below.

6.2 Training and development

Training and development is one of the main aspects to be improved by the organisation in
order to increase employee motivation and increase performance. This fact has also been
revealed by Kazmi (2008) while mentioning that employees of J&K bank want their
organisation to provide them with proper job training so as to face the new challenges
required to fulfil their day-today tasks. It was also revealed from the responses given by the
employees to question 16 on the questionnaire, where 53% employees want training as a
development opportunity to be offered by the company. One of the interviewee also stated
that ‘when company spends money and time to train you properly so as to perform better
and improve career opportunities, you get more attached to the organisation and feel its
interest at heart’. Training has been defined as an activity that changes the behaviour of the
people (Khan, 1998; p30). He further emphasized that training is not important only to
increase productivity but to inspire and motivate staff by letting them know how important
their jobs are and provide them adequate information required to perform their job. So, in
order to carry their operations smoothly and with a motivated workforce, J&K bank needs to
provide the necessary training and development opportunities to its employees.

6.3 Rewards and incentives

Rewards and incentives are the significant elements increasing employee motivation and
help an organisation to make their staff behave in desired manner (Thompson, 1996). As
mentioned in the literature review, both, Herzberg and Maslow have emphasized the
inclusion of rewards and incentives so as to develop a motivated staff. It was revealed from
the findings that only 49% employees were happy with the rewards provided by the
organisation (see question 6 in findings). It was also revealed from the findings that
employees want salary increase as reward to their performance. Management needs to
consider these responses from the employees and select the rewards as per the wishes of

2
the employees. As discussed earlier, Bogardus (2009) suggests that organisation needs to
review the total rewards strategy for selecting the type of rewards to be offered, in that it is
used to determine how the resources available for rewards programmes can be used to best
advantage in attracting, motivating, and retaining employees.

6.4 Recognition

It has been observed from the research that employees are get satisfied when praised for
their work. This gives an indication that recognition for their work makes employees feel
more satisfied. Moreover, it was also observed that employees like to get positive feedback
for their work. According to Schawrtz (2006; p152), although praise (recognition) is an
undervalued reward, but the expression goes, ‘’a little praise can go a long way’’. There are
so many things to recognize someone for. As commented by one of the interviewees, ‘’I feel
on top when I get praised for my work’’. Schawrtz (2006) further explained that even the
work itself can act as a reward for some people. Some people feel recognized by just getting
more new responsibilities, in that it leads to a new and exciting work experience.
Empowerment or letting an employee take the lead in something can, can be a great reward.
In some cases, promotion is the ultimate recognition for a job well done. Management needs
to consider all these issues so as to improve the culture of the organisation and push the
motivational level of the employees so as to achieve organisational goals efficiently.

6.5 Effective management

According to Prokopenko (2000), increasing organisation’s efficiency and productivity starts

at the management level since it is primarily the responsibility of managers. Improving an
organisation’s culture can make an important contribution towards solving specific problems.
As suggested by Armstrong (2005), sound management of attitudes towards human
resources can create a better cultural orientation, resulting in more effective work. Thus, it is
very important to accept that attitudes as well as motivation can be managed. He further
emphasized that abilities and performances can be improved by proper recruitment and
selection, job placement and rotation, training and development. These are all good
management practices and strategies to be applied in order to have a better motivated team
in a good organisational culture.

6.6 Recommendations for further research

2
As mentioned earlier, due to the limitations of the study like time constraint, small sample
size, and the distance factor, in that the researcher has conducted this research on J&K
Bank (Kashmir, India) while being in UK. Because of these mentioned factors, this research
lacked depth. Therefore it would be beneficial to conduct a much better study that will help in
understanding the subject matter in more depth. Large sample size should be chosen by the
researcher. Moreover, cultural variance in different regions can have an influence on
motivation. Therefore, it would be more interesting to conduct the study on organisational
culture of more than one company in different regions to investigate the impact of
organisational culture on employee motivation in different countries or regions.

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Appendix-1

Research Questionnaire

1. Please select your gender

Male

Female

2. Please identify your job status?

Permanent staff member Temporary staff member

Agency staff

3. How long have you been working in this organisation?

Less than 1 year 1year to 3 years

3 years to 5 years More than 5 years

2
4. What attracts you to the company you are working for? (please tick)

Reputation Job satisfaction

Benefits/package Convenience

5. In the last six months how many times have you been absent from work?

Once Twice

Three times More than thrice

6. Do you get rewards or incentives for your achievements?

Always Sometimes

Rarely Never

7. What rewards and incentives should the company provide?

Increase in salary Commission

Bonuses

8. Employee motivation affects the overall efficiency of organisation.

Strongly Disagree Disagree

Strongly Agree Agree

9. The more the employees are motivated the less will be the attrition rate.
Strongly Disagree Disagree

Strongly Agree Agree

10. Motivation determines the potential employee performance.

Strongly Disagree Disagree

3
 Strongly Agree Agree

11. How important is it for you to have a good relationship with your peers?

Very important Not so important

Not important at all

12. How important is it for you to have a good relationship with your subordinates?
Very important Not so important

Not important at all

13. Good employee-manager relationships increase organisational effectiveness.

Strongly Disagree Disagree

Agree Strongly Agree

14. Better working environment is essential to achieve organisational goals smoothly.

Strongly Disagree Disagree

Agree Strongly Agree

15. Company reputation increases the morale of employees.

Strongly Disagree Disagree

Strongly Agree Agree

16. What kind of development opportunities should the company offer to staff?

Update training Internal knowledge sharing events

New assignments and work experience Job rotation

17. How important is the level of salary to you?

3
 Very important Not so important

Not important at all

18.Please number in order of preference what factors motivate you, with 1st the most
and 5th the least.

Job satisfaction Organisational culture

High salary/benefit package Nature of work itself

Good relationship with peers/subordinates

19. Are you happy with the working environment? If NO Please state the reason.
Yes No

............................................ ................................

..............................................................................................................

20. To you what is the value of feedback to motivate or de-motivate a person?

.............................................................................................

.................................................................................................

21. Have you ever complained about anything in your work place?

Yes No

If yes, what was it? .....................................................................................................

What was done about it? .............................................................................................

1
 22. How important do you think organisational culture is?

Very important Not so important

Not important at all

23. How would you describe the culture of your organisation?

Strong Satisfactory

Average Poor

24. Organisational culture has a significant influence over

Employee motivation Performance

Both motivation and performance None of the above.

Thanks for taking part in this questionnaire.

1
 Appendix-2

Organizational Culture

Positive
/
Respondent Total Negativ
s OC1 OC2 OC3 Value Value % age e
1 3 3 4 10 12 83% pos
2 3 3 2 8 12 66.66 neg
3 4 3 3 10 12 83.33 pos
4 2 4 4 10 12 83.33 pos
5 3 3 2 8 12 66.66 neg
6 3 2 3 8 12 66.66 neg
7 3 3 4 10 12 83.33 pos
8 4 4 3 11 12 91.33 pos
9 3 3 4 10 12 83.33 pos
10 4 2 2 8 12 66.66 neg
11 3 3 4 10 12 83.33 pos
12 3 4 3 7 12 83.33 pos
13 3 3 4 10 12 83.33 pos
14 3 4 3 10 12 83.33 pos
15 3 3 2 8 12 66.66 neg
16 3 2 3 8 12 66.66 neg
17 2 3 3 8 12 66.66 neg
18 4 3 3 10 12 83.33 pos
19 3 4 4 11 12 91.33 pos
20 2 4 4 10 12 83.33 pos
21 3 1 3 7 12 58.33 neg
22 3 3 3 9 12 75 neg
23 3 4 3 10 12 83.33 pos
24 1 3 4 8 12 66.66 neg
25 3 4 3 10 12 83.33 pos
26 4 3 4 5 12 91.33 pos
27 3 1 3 7 12 58.33 neg

1
 28 3 3 4 10 12 83.33 pos
29 3 4 3 10 12 83.33 pos
30 4 3 4 11 12 91.33 pos
31 4 4 4 12 12 100 pos
32 4 3 3 10 12 83.33 pos
33 2 4 4 10 12 83.33 pos
34 3 4 4 11 12 91.33 pos
35 2 4 4 10 12 83.33 pos
36 1 4 3 8 12 66.66 neg
37 2 4 4 10 12 83.33 pos
38 3 4 4 11 12 91.33 pos

Employee Motivation

Positive
/
Total Negativ
EM1 EM2 EM3 Value Value % age e
4 3 3 10 12 83.33 pos
4 3 3 10 12 83.33 neg
4 3 3 10 12 83.33 pos
4 3 4 11 12 91.33 pos
4 3 4 11 12 91.33 pos
2 3 3 8 12 66.66 neg
3 4 4 11 12 91.66 pos
4 4 3 11 12 91.33 pos
4 4 2 10 12 83.33 pos
4 4 3 11 12 91.33 pos
3 2 3 8 12 66.66 neg
4 4 4 12 12 100 pos
4 3 3 10 12 83.33 pos
3 1 4 8 12 66.66 neg
4 3 3 10 12 83.33 pos
2 4 4 10 12 83.33 pos
4 3 3 10 12 83.33 pos
4 3 4 11 12 91.33 pos
4 3 4 11 12 91.33 pos
3 4 3 10 12 83.33 pos
1 2 4 7 12 58.33 neg
3 3 2 8 12 66.66 neg
3 3 4 10 12 83.33 pos
2 3 2 7 12 58.33 neg
3 4 3 10 12 83.33 pos
3 3 4 10 12 83.33 pos
3 4 4 11 12 91.33 pos

1
2 3 1 6 12 50 neg
3 4 3 10 12 83.33 pos
4 3 3 10 12 83.33 pos
3 2 3 8 12 66.66 pos
3 3 4 10 12 83.33 pos
3 3 4 10 12 83.33 pos
3 3 4 10 12 83.33 pos
3 3 4 10 12 83.33 pos
3 3 3 9 12 75 neg
3 3 4 10 12 83.33 pos
3 4 4 11 12 91.33 pos