Sitter det i väggarna? : En komparativ teoritestande studie angående organisationskulturens effekter på arbetsmotivation

Sammanfattning: In recent years, various sectors have reported difficulties in recruiting and retaining skilled staff. Recognition of achievements, good leadership and opportunities for personal development are factors that contribute to increased motivation of employees and reduce the need to seek other jobs. These factors are reflected in the organizational culture of a workplace. This study aims to examine how work motivation is maintained in relation to the prevailing organizational culture in two different workplaces based on Herzberg's dual-factor theory and theories of organizational culture. The aim is to gain a deeper understanding of the effects of organizational culture on work motivation while testing Herzberg's theory. Key questions in the study concern hypothesis testing and informants' subjective experiences of how organizational culture satisfies different types of factors that promote or inhibit work motivation. Previous research shows that organizational culture has a central role in how work motivation is achieved in an organization. Further research addresses how different factors influence both positively and negatively employees' work motivation/engagement. This study is based on qualitative interviews with informants from two different workplaces where the hypothesis is that "workplace 1" seems to have more motivated employees than "workplace 2" in relation to how they work with organizational culture and how the outcome of that reflects employees' work motivation. The study confirms the hypothesis and shows that organisational culture in the cases studied is of significant relevance to employees' perceived work motivation. The study thus contributes further knowledge on how active work on organisational culture leads to motivated employees, which in turn to some extent counteracts the employees' need to change their workplace. The study also confirms Herzberg's dual-factor theory as useful for the purpose of the study.