Can employee motivation and company performance be understood by examining organizational factors such as climate, employee involvement and HR policies and practices?

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

My family, my friends and my mentor encouraged and supported me throughout this research and this research became possible only because of their supports. I would like to thank everyone who contributed directly or indirectly to this project.

DECLARATION

I, [type your full first names and surname here], declare that the contents of this dissertation/thesis represent my own unaided work, and that the dissertation/thesis has not previously been submitted for academic examination towards any qualification. Furthermore, it represents my own opinions and not necessarily those of the University.

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ABSTRACT

The researcher conducted this research on whether the employee motivation and company performance be understood by examining organizational factors such as climate, employee involvement and HR policies and practices. The researcher used the mixed research method for this research. This research has been proved very useful as the researcher took the case study of a ground handling company providing ground solutions to London airport.

High Involvement Work Practices (HIWP) involves engaging employees in the work place and encouraging contribution from them. A number of studies have shown such practices to not only improve the quality of the working life for employees but also improve company performance as measured financially. The reason that HIWP succeed is because ultimately the employees are empowered so that they take responsibility of the company and begin to exhibit discretionary behaviors which benefit the company. Such discretionary behaviors include increased effort, overtime work and fellow motivation.

The mode of investigation is literature review and survey. The literature review aims to set the scene with the available literature on HIWP so that one could assess the survey material in light of this framework. There are two surveys which have been conducted both in the same company, the company in question is of special interest because it is based within an airport. Companies within airports are expected to abide by particularly stringent, externally set policies for safety reasons.

The first survey is used as secondary material only and is a quantitative survey conducted in 2009 which looked to assess the working environment during the introduction of lean practices. The survey reveals passive resistance by both the managerial staff and work force to such practices. The next survey was conducted in March 2011 and use sub-structured open questions in order to further investigate the issues flagged in the quantitative survey. The findings reveal a number of issues commonly identified by both general work force employees and managerial staff which have acted to inhibit the take up of high involvement work practices; these have been divided into the categories of skills, empowerment, management and support where the company lacked.

The study is valuable as the best method of integrating HIWP into established work forces is presently unknown, other companies will be able to learn from the errors made within this company. The researcher came to conclusion that the employees who were engaged in ...