Motivationsfaktorer - Konsult eller anställd, har det någon betydelse?

Abstract

Background: Motivation and job satisfaction have been popular research topics in previous literature, which has resulted in multiple motivation theories such as Maslow and Herzbergs's theory. However we base this study on Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci's Self- Determination Theory (SDT), which treats the internal and external motivators linked to competence, autonomy and relatedness. To develop this, we also take part of the research on the theories Person-Organization fit and Person-Job fit. Objectives: The purpose of our study is to investigate how hired consultants and employees experience their motivation to their work and if the employment form may have a bearing on job satisfaction. This becomes interesting at a time when new forms of employment are taking shape because of the companies need for a more flexible work organization. Previous research points to the difficulty in motivating consultants and therefore we want to find out whether it is the actual form of employment that is behind this or whether there are other affecting factors. Method: Our study was based on interviews with 10 respondents from a large international IT company. In the selection of respondents we used a targeted selection since we needed to get in contact with both external consultants and employees of the company to get answers to our research questions. We chose to conduct a case study and used semi-structured interviews with questions divided into three different categories based on the Self-Determination Theory. We transcribed the information from the interviews and followed up by coding as well as a thematic analysis for which we adopted a deductive approach. Results: According to our results the hired consultants and employees seem to experience their motivation and job satisfaction in a similar way. However it seems that factors such as experience of organizational culture, personality and length of employment affect the employees' sense of job satisfaction to a greater degree than the consultants. Conclusions: We concluded that there is a complexity in understanding and working with motivation and job satisfaction as the factors behind them are multidimensional. The actual form of employment contributes significantly to an attitude in the work situation rather than the influence of motivation and job satisfaction.