Work Motivation Questionnaire

1. Aim-
To assess the work motivation of an individual using the work
motivation questionnaire developed by K.G. Agarwal.

2. Introduction-
The word motivation has been derived from the Latin word “movere”
which means “to move.” Motivation is defined as the process that
initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviours. It involves
the biological, emotional, social, and cognitive forces that activate
behavior. It can be described as goal-directed behaviour. People are
motivated when they expect that a course of action is likely to lead to
the attainment of a goal and a valued reward – one that satisfies their
needs and wants. Work motivation is a psychological process that
directs, energizes, and sustains action, in other words, it is “an inner
desire to make an effort”.
The two types of motivation are intrinsic motivation and extrinsic
motivation-
Intrinsic motivation- It can arise from the self-generated factors that
influence people’s behaviour. It is not created by external incentives.
It can take the form of motivation by the work itself when individuals
feel that their work is important, interesting and challenging and
provides them with a reasonable degree of autonomy (freedom to
act), opportunities to achieve and advance, and scope to use and
develop their skills and abilities. Deci and Ryan (1985) suggested that
intrinsic motivation is based on the needs to be competent and self-
determining (that is, to have a choice). It can be enhanced by job or
role design.
Extrinsic motivation- It occurs when things are done to or for people
to motivate them. These include rewards, such as incentives,
increased pay, praise, or promotion; and punishments, such as
disciplinary action, withholding pay, or criticism. Extrinsic motivators
 can have an immediate and powerful effect, but will not necessarily
last long. The intrinsic motivators, which are concerned with the
‘quality of working life’ (a phrase and movement that emerged from
this concept), are likely to have a deeper and longer-term effect
because they are inherent in individuals and their work and not
imposed from outside in such forms as incentive pay.

Theories of Motivation-
Maslow's Needs hierarchy Theory
The American motivation psychologist Abraham H. Maslow
developed the hierarchy of needs consisting of five hierarchic
classes. According to Maslow, people are motivated by unsatisfied
needs. The needs, listed from basic (lowest-earliest) to most complex
(highest-latest) are as follows:
● Physiology (hunger, thirst, sleep, etc.)
● Safety/Security/Shelter/Health
● Social/Love/Friendship
● Self-esteem/Recognition/Achievement
● Self Actualization/achievement of full potential/can never be
fully accomplished

The basic requirements build upon the first step in the pyramid:
physiology. If there are deficits on this level, all behavior will be oriented to
satisfy this deficit. Essentially, if you have not slept or eaten adequately,
you won't be interested in your self-esteem desires. Subsequently we have
the second level, which awakens a need for security. After securing those
two levels, the motives shift to the social sphere, the third level.
Psychological requirements comprise the fourth level, while the top of the
hierarchy consists of self-realization and self-actualization. Maslow's
hierarchy of needs theory can be summarized as follows:
● Human beings have wants and desires which influence their
behavior. Only unsatisfied needs influence behavior, satisfied needs
do not.
● Needs are arranged in order of importance to human life, from the
basic to the complex.
● The person advances to the next level of needs only after the lower
level need is at least minimally satisfied.
The further the progress up the hierarchy, the more individuality,
humanness and psychological health a person will show.

Herzberg's two-factor (Hygiene –Motivation) theory

Frederick Herzberg's two-factor theory concludes that certain
factors in the workplace result in job satisfaction, but if absent,
they don't lead to dissatisfaction but no satisfaction. He
distinguished between:
● Motivators (e.g. challenging work, recognition, responsibility)
which give positive satisfaction, and
● Hygiene factors (e.g. status, job security, salary and fringe
benefits) that do not motivate if present, but, if absent, result in
demotivation.
Herzberg concluded that job satisfaction and dissatisfaction
were the products of two separate factors: motivating factors
(satisfiers) and hygiene factors (dissatisfiers). Some motivating
factors (satisfiers) were: Achievement, recognition, work itself,
responsibility, advancement, and growth. Some hygiene factors
(dissatisfiers) were: company policy, supervision, working
conditions, interpersonal relations, salary, status, job security,
and personal life. The name hygiene factor is used because,
like hygiene, the presence will not improve health, but absence
can cause health deterioration.

3. Review of Literature-
I. Varma S. in 2015 investigated the relationship between work
motivation and quality of work life among garment sector executive
employees. Quality of work life conditions and feelings were the
independent variables of the study. Autonomy, work speed and
routine, task related interaction, personal growth and opportunity, and
work complexity were the sub factors of quality of work life conditions.
Work motivation was the dependent variable of the study and was
defined in terms of satisfaction in six areas i.e. dependence,
organizational orientation, work group relations, psychological work
incentives, material incentives and job situation. Results indicate that
other than the relationship between few of the sub factors of both
variables total quality of work life condition and feelings are not
related with total work motivation.

II. Kaushik N. in 2017 measured the work motivation and teaching

effectiveness of government and private school teachers at
secondary level. Teachers effectiveness Scale developed by Dr.
Pramod Kumar and Dr D.N. Mutha and Work motivation
questionnaire developed by Dr. K.G. Agarwal was used to measure
the teacher effectiveness and work motivation of secondary teachers.
The results reveal that Government teachers have a positive
significant relationship between work motivation and teacher
effectiveness, while Private teachers have positive insignificant
relationship between work motivation and teacher effectiveness.

III. Sharma G. et. al. in 2017 conducted a study to find out the work
motivation level among college physical education lecturers working
under K.U.K. & P.U.Chd. Work motivation was measured through
work Motivation Questionnaire (WMQ) by K.G. Agarwal (1971). Data
was analyzed through t-test and it was found that lecturers of
P.U.Chd. were highly work motivated than lecturers of K.U.K. in work
group relations, psychological work incentive and material incentives
dimensions of work motivation whereas no significant difference was
found in remaining sub dimensions of work motivation i.e.
dependence, organization orientation and job situation.
 IV. Beri N. et. al. (2019) carried out a study with the aim to compare
the level of workplace happiness, work motivation, commitment and
job satisfaction with respect to gender of secondary schools’ teachers
under Samdrup jongkhar and Trashigang districts of Bhutan. Sample
participated in the study was 225 (Male = 140, female = 85) from 10
secondary schools from two districts (Samdrupjongkhar &
Trashigang) of Bhutan. The result in the present study revealed that
the female teachers are having higher work motivation, organizational
commitment and job satisfaction in comparison to male teachers of
those selected secondary schools in two districts.

V. Singh S.P in 2016 examined the impact of work motivation on job

satisfaction. A sample of 240 teachers was randomly taken from
selected professional Institutions of Western UP in India. The sample
was administered the measures of work motivation and job
satisfaction. Results revealed that Work Motivation had a significant
impact on job satisfaction of teachers in professional Institutions.

4. Method-
I. Description of the test-
WMQ developed by Agarwal K G (1990) is used to measure the
work motivation of the sample. It consists of 26 Likert type
items with 5 alternatives. It is used to measure the work
motivation of employees of different strata in any industry or
organization.

This questionnaire consists of 6 dimensions namely

Dependence, Organizational orientation, Work group relations,
Psychological work incentives, Material incentives and Job
situation.
❖ Reliability-
Internal consistency of the instrument was found out by split
half method. The reliability co- efficient by Spearman Brown
formula was very high i.e. 0.99.
 ❖ Validity-
Face validity, items validity and factorial validity were
established for the scale. Face validity computed by taking the
opinion of22 judges and resulted in high agreement for different
items of ranking.
Item validity was established by correlating each item with total
scores and obtained co-efficient varying from 0.24 to 0.67 (all
are significant beyond 1% level). Factorial validity was
computed by using the principal component method (by
carrying out varimax rotation criteria). Six factors were identified
and these factors were found to measure what intended to
measure.
❖ Applications-
The work motivation can be used to measure several concepts
like-
● The level of work motivation and job satisfaction on
several levels in different sectors in India.
● The correlation between extrinsic or intrinsic motivation
and job satisfaction in people.

II. Material Required-

Work Motivation Questionnaire and WMQ Manual, Pencil,
Paper and Stopwatch.

III. Demographic Information of the participant-

Name - S.S
Age- 26 years old
Educational Qualification- MBA
Gender- Male
Occupation- Human Resource

IV. Administration-
 It is a self-administering scale appropriate for individual and
group testing. Good rapport between testee and tester is
important in administering the test. Instructions to answer the
items are printed on the title cover of the test booklet. There is
no limited time period for completion of the test items. It was
administered on college students.

V. Instructions-
“For the purpose to understand your organisation in a better
perspective, on the following pages 26 statements have been given.
Each statement has five alternatives for an answer. You are to put a ✅
mark in the proper alternative box which is close to your answer for
the statement.
Mark only one alternative for each statement. Answer to all the
26 statements. Though there is no time limit, you can
conveniently do this questionnaire in 15 minutes. Your answer
will be kept confidential.”

VI. Procedure-
The participant entered inside the room and gave the
instructions along with the assurance that their name will not be
disclosed to anyone.
As the rapport was already formed and the participant was
comfortable they were able to attempt it easily while asking
doubts freely whenever faced with one.

VII. Observational Report-

 As the participant was comfortable he was able to attempt the
test and did it within 20 minutes. He had to think and give time
to several statements before marking an option.

VIII. Introspective Report-

“The test didn’t take long to finish so it was not monotonous but the
statements really needed some thinking to do”.

IX. Precautions-
The following precautions were taken while the test was being
conducted-
a. Though, there was no fixed time limit but it was still
made sure that the participant didn’t take that long.
b. The test was being conducted in a room with
minimum noise and distractions.

X. Scoring of the Test:

This scale consists of 5 responses ‘very satisfied’ to ‘very
dissatisfied’. For the positive items the scoring is 5 for ‘very
satisfied’ and ‘very dissatisfied’. But for the negatively keyed
items the scoring is in reverse order i.e. 1 for ‘very satisfied’ and
5 for ‘very dissatisfied’. The possible total raw score for this
scale ranges from 26 to 130.
This scale is multidimensional yielding six dimensions. Further,
dimension wise scores are obtained by adding all the items
scores thus obtained are transformed into standard (T) scores.

5. Results Obtained-

Factor I II III IV V VI Total

Score
Raw 20 23 13 16 12 13 97
Score
Z- score +0.11 +0.78 +0.14 +1.00 +0.85 +1.18 +0.30
Grade D C D D C C D
Work Motivation Level Average/Moderate
Table 1. Result table of WMQ based on six factors.

From table 1 it can be seen that there are six factors based on which work
motivation is being measured. For the first factor the raw score is 20 with z-
score +0.11 and grade D, likewise, factor III and IV have the same grade
with score 13 (+0.14) and 16 (+1.00), respectively. Factor II, V and VI
scored grade C with raw score as 23, 12 and 13 along with z-score being
+0.78, +0.85 and +1.18, respectively. Overall the total score is 97, with z-
score +0.30 and grade D. This shows the work motivation level of the
subject is around Average/Moderate.

6. Discussion and Conclusion-

The aim of the practical was to measure the work level motivation in an
individual with the help of Work Motivation Scale by K.G. Agarwal. This
questionnaire consists of 26 items which are divided into six factors that
measure the motivation of an individual towards their work and what they
think about their organisation. As it can be seen from table 1, the subject
scored 20 with z-score +0.11 and grade D in Factor 1 which is
‘Dependence’, this shows how much an individual depends on others for
cooperation, recognition and, perhaps trust. The II factor is based on
‘Organisational Orientation’ which is about the activities on the work front,
under this the subject scored 23, z-score of +0.78 and grade C. ‘Work
group relations’ determine the kind of work an individual has to do, being
Factor III the participant scored 13 with z-score of +0.14 and grade D.
Factor IV is ‘Intrinsic Motivation’ which refers to internal motivation of an
employee to work like job satisfaction, he scored 16, z-score +1.00 and
grade D. Breaks during work hours, salary and chances of getting
promoted is what can be described as ‘Material Incentives’ of Factor V, the
subject scored 12, z-score of +0.85 and grade C. Lastly, the VI factor which
is ‘Job Situation’ comprises three variables, chances of learning, chances
to use abilities and general pattern of working, in this the score was 13, z-
score +1.18 and grade C. Overall, the total score was 97, z-score as +0.30
and fell in the category of Average/Moderate level of work motivation. From
various studies it can be found that work motivation and engagement level
is higher in females than males, so it might be the reason why the subject
has only an average level of motivation towards work (Beri N. et al. 2019).
This issue can be resolved by letting the employees talk with each other so
that their relations improve, by not interfering in their work but by
encouraging them to give their best, increase their material incentives it is
important that the organisation give them the freedom to take breaks but
also set a limit to it which will directly increase their intrinsic motivation.
Lastly, to improve their job situation, they can be given several
opportunities to learn and apply their skills. All these suggestions can
increase the motivation in an employee for work.

References-
1. Arora, S. (2014). WORK MOTIVATION IN ENTREPRENEURS.
Social Science International, 30(2).
2. Gyeltshen, C., & Beri, N. (2019). COMPARISON ON THE LEVELS
OF WORKPLACE HAPPINESS, JOB SATISFACTION,
ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT AND WORK MOTIVATION
WITH RESPECT TO GENDER.
3. KAUSHIK, D. N., VERMA, D., & STUDENT, M. WORK MOTIVATION
AND TEACHERS EFFECTIVENESS OF GOVERNMENT AND
PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS.
4. Singh, S. P., & Sharma, H. K. (2016). Impact of Work Motivation on
Job Satisfaction of Teachers in Professional Education. The
International Journal of Research Publications. Research Journal of
social science and management, 6(05), 90-96.
5. Varma, S. (2015). Quality of work life and work motivation among
garment sector executive employees. The International Journal of
Indian Psychology, 3(1), 115-123.