An Application of two factor theory and preferred job characteristics : an empirical investigation of IT professional's perception in Sri Lanka

Abstract

IT professional's acting towards software development company goals and having a strong desire to remain in the company are very important for the success of a software development company. In order to generate such organizational commitment of the employees, the knowledge about what motivates and satisfies them is essential. The purpose of this study is to investigate and analyze the factors, which motivate IT professional's in Sri Lanka using Herzberg's two-factor theory and Hackman-Oldman job characteristics model./ The factors examined in this study are analyzed according to the personal demographics factors such as age, gender, civil status, designation, service in the current company and total service in IT field, and number of employees in a company. In the study survey questionnaire was used for data collection. 159 randomly selected IT Professionals who were all graduates working in software companies in Sri Lanka participated in the study. Data was analysed using SPSS 11.5 software and MS Excel./ The study confirmed that the most of the hygiene factors which were defined by Herzberg'stheory, moved towards the motivation direction while most of the motivation factors which were defined by Herzberg's theory, become less important motivation factors./ It implied that order ofthe variables of this study was different from that of the priority order of initial Her/berg's findings. Overall, the achievement was the highest ranked as motivator and advancement was ranked as only hygiene factor.Further, results of the study confirmed that task significance was identified as the most preferred job characteristics factor meanwhile feedback was identified as the least preferred job characteristics factor according to the factors that have been defined in Hackman- Oldman job characteristics model. When comparing two motivational potential score with demographics grouping and number of employees in the company variation patterns were almost similar. Finally the study confirmed that the most effective work motivation factors for IT professionals in Sri l.anka were job characteristic factors rather than their personal needs./