The impact of motivation on job satisfaction amongst selected employees at eThekwini Electricity.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Motivation and job satisfaction were the focus of this study that aims to assist the eThekwini Electricity Department in South Africa, with emphasis on engineers, technologists and technicians. The relationship among these two factors determine levels of employee productivity, proposes solutions on how to enhance it and help the municipality gain a corporate advantage over their competition. The objectives were set to grasp an understanding on the factors that motivate job satisfaction, the impact of motivation and the overall level job satisfaction as well as to determine factors that influence job dissatisfaction. Concepts of motivation including the definitions and theories such as Content and Process, McClelland’s Theory of Needs, Alderfers ERG, X and Y, Vroom’s Expectancy and Self-efficacy was extrapolated from literature. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg Two Factor Theory gave rise to the research instrument used in the study which was quantitative in nature. A sample size of 117 employees was asked to provide their views on a Likert-scale questionnaire. The study found that more than 80% of the respondents were male and more than 60% were between the ages of 25-34. The results from the questions addressed revealed that only growth and advancement was a factor that did not motivate job satisfaction. Furthermore, higher order needs that the employees had were deemed to be already satisfied or in the process of being satisfied. The future recommendations would be to include a broader professional sample, compare municipal organizations to corporate ones and factor in employee motivational triggers in the hope that more specific details will be revealed that will allow organizations to experience higher levels of success while fulfilling the job expectations of each employee.