International Journal of Economics, Commerce and Management

United Kingdom ISSN 2348 0386 Vol. X, Issue 5, May 2022

http://ijecm.co.uk/

MOTIVATION FACTORS’ IMPACT ON CONSTRUCTION

EMPLOYEES’ PERFORMANCE AT A SAUDI COMPANY

Faisal A. Obaied
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Jeddah
Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
[email protected]

Mostafa F. Fawzy, Ph.D.

Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Dar Al-Hekma University
Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
[email protected]

Abstract
This study investigates the effect of motivation on the level of work performed in one of the
Saudi construction companies. The study was conducted in two phases. The first phase led to
determining the level of employees’ performance in the selected company, a focus group was
created to affirm the study’s findings. The group conducted a SWOT analysis and used the
voting technique to understand the company environment from both internal and external
perspectives. In addition, the group discussed the possible root causes of the current
performance problems. The result of this phase shows that the performance level is low based
on the group evaluation. In addition, the result shows that the low motivation of the employees is
the primary cause for this low performance at this Mega Construction Company. The second
phase of this work focused on investigating the effect of motivation on the work performed level.
This phase involved identifying, prioritizing, and studying the motivator and hygiene factors that
motivate employees in the Mega Construction Company. Motivation and hygiene factors were
identified based on their frequency in the literature review. Next, data were collected through an
online survey and then analyzed using Microsoft Excel to study these factors’ impact on the
employees’ performance. The result of this phase shows that the salary has the highest impact

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on employee work performance, followed by career advancement. Therefore, to maximize

employees’ performance, it is recommended that the company provide fair and competitive
salaries and financial benefits. Moreover, developing a career advancement system that leads
to a better salary and a higher position in the company is recommended.
Keywords: Motivation factors, Work Performance, Construction, Herzberg's Motivating and
Hygiene Factors

INTRODUCTION
The construction industry is considered one of the most responsive and dynamic sectors
in any country. Through inter-sectoral linkages between other sectors, the construction sector
plays a great role in fostering economic growth (Durdyev & Ismail, 2012). The construction
industry produces goods and services that all other industrial sectors of the economy depend
on, such as electricity lines, roads, and the construction of buildings (Boadu, Wang, & Sunindijo,
2020). As per the General Authority for Statistics, the annual growth rate of this sector in Saudi
Arabia in 2019 was 8%. In addition, most construction projects create new job opportunities that
help to reduce the unemployment rate in Saudi Arabia. According to the General Authority for
Statistics of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (2022), the number of employees in this sector
reached more than 3.5 million employees in 2018. In general, the most important asset of any
organization in the 21st century is human resources (Hafiza, Shah, Jamsheed, & Zaman, 2011).
Human resource is key to the success of organizations in the current business environment
because of their contribution to organizations’ productivity (Kuranchie-Mensah & Amponsah-
Tawiah, 2015). Therefore, motivation is s considered essential to have maximum positive
performance outcomes.
Recently, the management in one of the mega construction companies in Saudi Arabia
noticed that employees’ work performed is decreasing, causing delays in the work of one of the
company’s megaprojects in Jeddah city than the planned time for deliverables. A slowed work
performance led to the project being delayed and having several other drawbacks. These
delays led the company to incur significant losses. Yet, the performance level is not scientifically
investigated in this company.
Due to the company’s preference and research ethics code by respecting the company’s
privacy, this research will not mention the company’s real name. Instead, the company will be
called “Mega Construction Company” in this study. This research focuses on understanding the
company’s internal and external environments. Then, investigates the root causes of the current
level of employees’ work performance. In detail, this research investigates the effect of several

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motivation factors on employees’ work performance. Several studies have been undertaken on
employee motivation, confirming the importance of employee motivation as a subject. However,
there is still a significant lack of adequate research on the impact of motivation on the
performance of the Saudi-based construction company. This research aims to identify and
prioritize the motivator and hygiene factors influencing employees’ performance in Saudi
construction companies. In addition, this study proposes solutions, and recommendations, that
can enhance employees’ performance in the studied company and similar organizations in the
same industry. Thus, a selected company is used as the case study for this work to determine
the motivator and hygiene factors that affect the employees’ work performance. As mentioned
this company will be called a Mega Construction Company in this research. As a result out of
this work, the effect of the motivation factors on employees’ work performance will be clarified.
Moreover, these motivation factors will be ranked based on the employees’ perspectives.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Baron (1983) defined motivation as an accrual of various practices that direct and affect
behavior to achieve a certain goal. Additionally, motivation can be identified as an internal and
external drive that enhances employee’s energy and desire to be continually committed to their
tasks and to achieve set goals and objectives by exerting constant effort and maintaining their
focus on the desired output (Mathis, Jackson, Valentine, & Meglich, 2012). Depending on the
prevailing circumstances, employees can be positively or negatively motivated, and their
motivation level can be influenced by several factors (Zailani, Ibrahim, & Bahago, 2020).
According to Deci and Ryan (2000), these factors fall into two categories: Extrinsic and Intrinsic
factors. Intrinsic factors are the motivators that emanate from within the employee. It consists of
the desire and passion for performing one’s work effectively to produce great results. Extrinsic
factors are the external motivators such as a reward used to increase the employee’s desire to
work and meet a particular objective (Badubi, 2017). Furthermore, Zailani (2020) elaborates that
extrinsic factors are tangible rewards, such as extra pay and healthcare plan, while intrinsic
factors are the motivation that is emerging within the individual as self-esteem, feelings,
recognition, and accomplishment.
On the other hand, Maslow came up with a five-stage theory based on human beings’
basic physical, biological, social, and psychological needs (Uhl-Bien, Piccolo, & Schermerhorn,
2020). This theory places the needs of the individual in different categories and prioritizes their
attainment. Figure 1 shows the categories of Maslow’s theory: physiological needs, safety and
security needs, social and belonging needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs.

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Maslow’s theory depends on the fact that people desire to increase what they want to achieve in
life, and their needs are prioritized based on their importance to them (Smith & Cronje, 1992).

Figure 1: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Herzberg’s two-factor theory mostly relies on meeting employees’ needs (Amzat, Don,
Fauzee, Hussin, & Raman, 2016). Jones (2011) states that Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
influenced the two-factor model of work motivation and developed the motivation-hygiene theory
by Herzberg, Mausner, and Snyderman. Furthermore, Alshmemri (2017) posits that the core of
the two-factor theory lies in the difference between motivation and hygiene factors or intrinsic
and extrinsic factors. Herzberg considers motivation factors as intrinsic to the job and operates
to only increase and improve job satisfaction. In contrast, extrinsic factors are considered
hygiene, which reduces job dissatisfaction (Alshmemri, Shahwan-Akl, & Maude, 2017).
According to Amzat (2016), for the employees to be productive and satisfied, motivators and
hygiene factors are necessary. Motivator factors encourage employees to work harder. On the
other hand, the absence of hygiene factors contributes to the low work performance and
productivity of employees (Amzat, Don, Fauzee, Hussin, & Raman, 2016). According to
Herzberg (1959), for employees to have great work performance, the company should provide
and enhance the hygiene factors and apply motivator factors to motivate employees to achieve
the highest performance level. Gebremedhin (2017) states that applying the motivational
package from Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory greatly impacts employees’ performance. One of
the advantages of Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory is that it provides integration of persons’
intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factors that can perfectly cover other motivation theories
(Yusoff, Kian, & Idris, 2013). Therefore, this study focuses on applying this theory to the mega
construction company. Especially, none of the Saudi construction companies used this theory
based on the reviewed literature as will be explained in the following section.

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Ong and Mahazan (2020) defined employee performance as the result of

accomplishment arising from employees’ effort to perform work, while job performance can be
described in terms of how the employees allocate the available resources to achieve the task
and how well they perform the work. To find the relation between motivation and performance,
around 26 scientific papers and publications have been reviewed. All these reviewed
publications are about the impact of motivation on employee performance. Also, all the reviewed
works were published between 2003 and 2021. As an initial result of this review, the motivation
factor impacts the performance differently depending on the following:
 Organization's geographic location and activity.
 The employee level of education, gender, age, and status.
The reviewed research related to the construction industry indicates a positive
relationship between motivation and employee productivity. As a review result, Salary and
financial reward take the first as the most motivational fact that influenced the construction
industry employees’ performance as shown in Table 1. However, non-financial factors also have
a positive impact on employees’ performance. Recognition and work condition can be efficient
tools to improve employees’ performance too. Moreover, motivational communication enhances
worker productivity more than functional communication, and both motivator and hygiene factors
are requirements to enhance employees’ productivity.
Yet, none of these papers addressed the motivation and hygiene factors of the
management of engineering staff for construction companies in Saudi Arabia. Thus, this work
aims to fill this gap by applying Herzberg’s two-factor theory to the construction industry in Saudi
Arabia.
As mentioned, 26 scientific research were reviewed. Out of the 26 research, 15
research have mentioned the motivation and hygiene factors and their impact on
performance. The frequency of these factors has been calculated as shown in Table 1.
Some of these factors were identified with different names in the reviewed work. Therefore,
in this research, the factors have been grouped under one factor’s name which refers to the
same meaning. Next, by using Pareto analysis, four factors were identified as the most
important factors which represent around the top 20% based on their frequency as shown in
Table 1. As a result, out of this stage, the top four frequent factors are selected, which are
Salary, Recognition, Advancement, and Work condition. Work condition has a very close
frequency to Recognition and Advancement. Also, it is partially within the top 20%.
Therefore, this research includes the Work condition as a fourth selected factor for future
investigation.

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Table 1: Pareto analysis of the factors’ frequency

# Factor Frequency Pareto
1 Salary 13
2 Recognition 8 Approximately
3 Advancement 8 20%
4 Work condition 7
5 Job Security 6
6 Relationships 6
7 Supervision 5
8 Achievement 5
9 Growth 4
10 Responsibility 3 Approximately
11 The work itself 2 80%
12 Company policies 2
13 Other (Medical insurance) 1
14 Other (Sense of belonging) 1
15 Good Home life 1
16 Status 0
Total 72 100%

As the selected top four factors will be investigated in this research, more literature
reviews and elaboration on each one of those four factors’ details are conducted as follows:
1- Salary: Wages include salaries, bonuses, salary increases, and how it manages
(Khanna, 2017). To have a high work performance and satisfaction, the salary should be
suitable to the employee’s work effort and comparable to the competitors and other
industries (Khanna, 2017). According to Khanna (2017), all employee wages should be
paid on time. Phama (2020) considered money as a scorecard through which workers
can assess their importance to the organization compared to other organizations.
2- Advancement: Individual promotion plays an important role in influencing job
performance (Igbaria & Baroudi, 1995). Career advancement that leads to a better
salary and a higher position income can positively motivate employees to perform better
(Phama & Nguyen, 2020).
3- Recognition: The purpose of recognizing employees in the workplace is to foster
particular behaviors, activities, or practices that result in high work performance (Phama
& Nguyen, 2020). When the employees succeed, supervisors and peers should provide
praise and recognize their effort (Herzberg, 1959). Recognition can motivate the
employees to give their best performance.
4- Work Condition: Involves all surrounding physical factors, including the amount of work,
space, air ventilation, tools, temperature, and safety. A good environment makes
employees perform better (Alshmemri, Shahwan-Akl, & Maude, 2017).

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In summary, this research is based on reviewed 26 scientific papers related to the

impact of motivation on employee performance. Out of the 26 scientific papers, 15 papers have
mentioned the motivation and hygiene factors and their impact on employees’ performance. The
frequency of these factors has been calculated. Then, using Pareto analysis, the top four
frequent factors, which are Salary, Recognition, Advancement, and Work condition have been
selected. As mentioned, the availability of hygiene factors is a necessity in the workplace. Their
absence affects negatively employees’ work performance (Amzat, Don, Fauzee, Hussin, &
Raman, 2016). Therefore, organizations should ensure the availability of these factors.
Furthermore, motivator factors should be practiced in the workplace after the availability of the
hygiene factors to achieve high work performance (Amzat, Don, Fauzee, Hussin, & Raman,
2016). These factors have different effects depending on the geographical location of the
organization, work type, education, and employee in the organization.

METHODOLOGY
This research relays on the literature in the first phase of the work. Thus, the theoretical
framework has been designed based on the selected motivator and hygiene factors from the
literature. Figure 2 shows the designed theoretical framework for this research. As shown in
Figure 2, the research will study the relationship between the motivator and hygiene factors
from one side and employee work performance from the other side. In addition, the research
ranks these motivator and hygiene factors based on employees’ perspectives at the targeted
Saudi construction company.

Figure 2: Research theoretical framework

As noticed by the company’s managers, low work performance has been a significant
problem for the targeted construction company. This research demonstrated the fact of a
significant drop in work performance noticed in 2016 at the targeted company. The company’s
managers claimed that this issue has continued for years without any noticeable improvement in
work performance and scientific analysis of the situation. To have a better understanding of the
actual problem and its root causes of it, this research is conducted in two phases. The first

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phase focuses on understanding the problem and its root courses. Then, the second phase
work on studying the impact of the selected motivator and hygiene factors on the employees’
performance at work.
Phase one studied the problem via the focus group. The group conducted a SWOT
analysis to understand both the internal and external environments of the company. The
analysis for understanding these environments also used the voting technique to nominate the
top important points at each corner of the SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It is a tool that can determine and understand these
aspects of the company. A SWOT analysis consists of Information derived from internal issues
and external issues (Hosseini, Sadighi, Mortazavi, & Farhadian, 2019). The SWOT analysis
identifies what can help the company achieve its objectives and what problems should be
overcome to accomplish the goals (Sabha, 2017).
Phase two, as mentioned, investigated the motivator and hygiene factors that impact the
employees’ performance at the targeted Mega Construction Company in Saudi Arabia. As
mentioned, selected motivator and hygiene factors were based on their frequency in the
reviewed literature. To complete this phase and to study the effect of these factors on the
employees’ work performance, an online survey is distributed to collect data from a calculated
sample of the targeted population.

Phase One: Investigate the performance problems

SWOT Analysis
To understand the problem and to conduct the SWOT analysis for this research, a focus
group from the targeted company is used to gather the required data for this analysis. The goal
of this part of the work was to evaluate the company’s situation and to determine the causes of
the claimed low work performance at the Mega Construction Company. The targeted
participants in this study are the employees from the Mega Construction Company. Specific
employees include administrative staff and engineers from the targeted company. The number
of participants in the focus group was 12 administrative staff and engineers. The discussion
started by asking them some critical thinking questions such as:
 What are the company’s competitive advantages compared to the other construction company?
 What are the required improvements for the company to achieve its goals?
 What are the possible obstacles that the company may face?
 What are the opportunities that the company should focus on?
The focus group session took around one hour. By the end of the session, enough data
were gathered to create the SWOT analysis table and identify the reasons for low work

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performance. The data were then filtered and ranked using the voting technique to present the
top important points in the final SWOT analysis table.

Phase Two: Investigate the motivation effect on the low performed level of work
Population and Sampling
The population can be defined as a complete group of things like people or events that
the researcher desires to investigate (Sekaran, 2003). The target population for this study is the
600 administrative staff and engineers from the Mega Construction Company. Sekaran (2003)
further defined random sampling as the sample where every individual in the population has an
equal chance to be selected. Additionally, Acharya (2013) defined random sampling as the
sample where every individual in the population has an equal chance of being selected to
participate in the study. This method is characterized by high validity, easy to analyze data, and
requires minimum knowledge of the population (Acharya, Prakash, Saxena, & Nigam, 2013).
Therefore, this research used Random Sampling Technique for the second phase of the work
with survey responses. Using the SurveySystem website, the sample size was determined with
a 95% confidence level, as shown in Figure 3. A 95 percent confidence level will help give
dependable results. Also, in research, a 10% margin of error is acceptable (Hashim, 2010).
Therefore, the margin of error of this study was determined to be 10%. Using the determined
confidence level and confidence interval, the sample size for this study is calculated to be 83
employees as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: SurveySystem website calculator

Data Collection and Analysis

According to Sekaran (2003), an online questionnaire is easy to administer and has a
low cost compared to other methods for collecting data. It enables the researcher to access
groups and individuals who would be difficult to reach through other methods in a short amount
of time (Wright, 2017). Therefore, this study used an online questionnaire to collect the needed
data from the calculated sample size. The online survey is designed using Google

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Questionnaire. The questionnaire was divided into two parts. The first part is about questions
related to the employee demography. The second part includes questions related to motivation
and hygiene factors and their relationship with the employee’s work performance.
For the second phase of this research, a pilot study was conducted to test the reliability
and suitability of the questionnaire. Three ex-employees participated in the pilot study. They
were requested to evaluate and identify whether the questions were clear to them. Also, the
time for their response is calculated. As a result, they found that most of the questions were
clear. Minor adjustments were made in some questions’ language to clarify the exact meaning
of the questions. The adjustments were based on the feedback obtained from the participants in
the pilot study. Next, the link to the final version of the questionnaire was distributed to the
employees by using the WhatsApp application and emails. The responses were collected and
then analyzed using Microsoft Excel.

ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

Phase One: The Finding from the SWOT Analysis
As mentioned, as a result of the focus group session, the SWOT analysis table is
completed. Table 2 shows the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Table 2: SWOT Analysis

Strengths Weaknesses
• Technology Advancement • Irregular Salaries Payment
• Skillful and Experienced Employees • Unmotivated Employees and Poor
• Huge Fleet of Equipment Motivations
• Strong Communication System • Contracts conflict
• Huge Number of Employees • Technical Drawing Issues
• Strong Connection With suppliers and • Social Loafing
subcontractors • Economic Problems
Opportunities Threats
• Government Support • Hard to Recruit New Talent
• Rise of New Projects due to the KSA 2030 • Financial Condition
Vision • Information Security
• Approval of The Work
• Competitors

The weaknesses mentioned in the SWOT analysis are considered the reasons for the
claimed low performance. This research then used the score voting method to determine the
impact of each weakness point on the employees’ performance, from the focus group’s
perspective. Score voting can be defined as a voting system where the participants rate the
nominated items on a scale (Electionscience, 2011). Each member in the focus group has been

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assigned a number for each weakness point. The number ranged from one to five, where five is
considered the maximum weight or highest important score. The weight percentage is then
calculated from the averages of these scores. The weights present the impact of each
weakness point on the employee’s performance from the focus group perspective, as shown in
Figure 4.

WEIGHT OF THE WEAKNESS Irregular

POINTS
Economic Salaries
Problems Payment
24% 23%

Social Loafing
8% Unmotivated
Employees and
Poor
Technical Motivations
Drawing Issues Contracts 23%
10% conflict
12%

Figure 4: Percentage / Weight of the Weaknesses

The finding shows that unmotivated employees and the absence of proper motivators
are important factors causing low work performance. Also, economic problems including salary
amounts and financial motivations are other factors causing low work performance. The regular
salary payment can be considered a hygiene factor. Thus, the absence of motivators and
hygiene including the irregular salary payment or instability of payment contributes around 46%
to the low work performance of the employees. This is considered the highest percentage
compared to other causes. Therefore, this study focuses on identifying the factors that should
motivate the employees and increase their work performance. Moreover, this research
determines the suitable motivator and hygiene factors that will have a positive impact on work
performance in phase two of this work.

Phase Two: Results Related to The Motivation Effect on the Employees' Work
Performance
As mentioned, this phase covers two main parts. The first part is about the result of the
demographic information. This part includes information about the employees’ age, education
level, position, work experience, and income. Understanding the norm in these areas enhances

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researchers’ ability to analyze companies’ situations. It also helps in providing better

recommendations.
The second part covers the descriptive statistics. In this part more in-depth analysis
takes place. This part focus on investigating the employees’ perspective on the impact of the
targeted motivation factors on their work performance.

Demographic Information
Age
Figure 5 illustrates the distribution of respondents based on their age. The categories
were selected based on ORASA (2014) research and then modified to suit the situation of the
Mega Construction Company. As shown in Figure 5, the results show that 17% of respondents
are between 18 and 25 years, 34% of respondents are between 36 and 45 years, 31% of
respondents are between 18 and 25 years, 12% of respondents fall between 46 and 55 years,
and 6% of respondents were over 55 years. Thus, the results show 65% of Mega Construction
Company employees, are in their most productive and active age of 26-45 years. Therefore, it is
expected to have the highest performance level of work at this period of age. They would be
expected to perform their work to the fullest.

Over 55 18-25
46-55
6% 17%
12%

36-45 26-35
31% 34%

Figure 5: Age of the Respondents

Education Level
Figure 6 illustrates the distribution of respondents based on education level. The results
show that 6% of respondents have high school degrees, 16% of respondents have Diploma
degrees, 60% of respondents have Bachelor’s degrees, 16% of respondents have Master’s
degrees, and 5% of respondents have Ph.D. degrees. This indicates that most of the Mega
Construction Company employees are well educated to fulfill their job requirements, where
around 80% of the employees have at least a bachelor’s degree.

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PHD degree Highschool

5%
Mater 3% Diploma
degree degree
16% 16%

Bachelor
degree
60%

Figure 6: Education Level

Job Position
Figure 7 illustrates the distribution of respondents based on the job position. The
categories were selected based on the target audience of this research. The results show that
20% of respondents are administration workers, 11% of respondents are construction
managers, 10% of respondents are coordinators, 13% of respondents are documents
controllers, 30% of respondents are engineers, 12% of respondents are Project Managers, and
4% of respondents have other job position. Thus, most of the Mega Construction Company job
positions were occupied by engineers, followed by administration staff. This is why the priority
should be by satisfying these two categories of employees.

Project Other
Manager 4% Administratio
12% n
20%

Construction
Manager
11%
Engineer
30%
Coordinator
10%
Documents
controller
13%

Figure 7: Job Position

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Years of experience
Figure 8 illustrates the distribution of respondents based on working years of experience.
The categories were selected based on ORASA’s research and modified to suit the Mega
Construction Company’s needs (ORASA 2014). As a result, Figure 8 shows that 16% of
respondents have work experience of between 1 and 3 years. 30% of respondents have work
experience between 4 and 10 years. 54% of respondents have work experience above ten
years. Thus, the results show that 84% of Mega Construction Company employees have
outstanding work experience of above four years. So, losing expert employees will be costly for
the company. Moreover, with such an experience the performance is expected to be at its
highest level.

YEARS OF EXPERIENCE
1-3
16%

Above 10
54% 4-10
30%

Figure 8: Years of experience

Monthly Income
Figure 9 illustrates the distribution of respondents based on their monthly income
ranges. The categories were selected based on ORASA (2014) research and modified to suit
the situation of the Mega Construction Company. The results show that 43% of respondents
have income between 3,000-9,999 SAR, 31% of respondents have income between 10,000-
19,999 SAR, 16% of respondents have income between 20,000-30,000 SAR, and 10% of
respondents have income more than 30,000 SAR. These results indicate that most of Mega
Construction Company’s employees are paid at the minimum national monthly salary wage. In
addition, according to the head of the HR department of the mega construction company
(personal communication, December 2021), the employees in this company receive less salary
than other companies in the same industry

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More than
30000 SAR
10%
20000 - 3000 - 9999
30000 SAR SAR
16% 43%

10000 -
19999 SAR
31%

Figure 9: Monthly income distribution

Descriptive Statistics
According to Sekaran (2003), most researchers perform descriptive statistics to know
the frequency of certain phenomena and the mean value of the collected data. In this research,
the questions of motivator and hygiene factors and their impacts on work performance were
investigated. Factors and their relationships with the performance were rated using a 5-point
Likert scale. The mean score is used to determine the work performance and to rank the
targeted motivator and hygiene factors based on the employees’ perspective at the Mega
Construction Company. To give the mean results a verbal description, this research used the
intervals shown in Table 3 which is previously used in the literature (Pimentel, 2010).

Table 3: The Interval of mean results

The Interval of mean results Verbal Description

More than 4.21 - 5.00 Strongly Agree / Strongly motivated

More than 3.41 - 4.20 Agree / Motivated
More than 2.61 - 3.40 Average
More than 1.80 - 2.60 Somewhat Disagree / Unmotivated
Less than 1.80 Strongly Disagree / Strongly unmotivated

Both Table 4 and Table 5 show the frequency of responses and the mean value for each
question related to employees’ motivation status in their work environment, and the motivation
impact on their work performance at the mega construction company. Also, both Table 4 and
Table 5 show the verbal description of the mean values which was explained based on the
interval of mean results in Table 3. As shown in Table 4, employees at the mega construction
company believe that the motivation level at their company is very low. It is almost not available

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from their point of view. The mean value is 2.13 which is verbally described as “Unmotivated”
from the employees’ perspective.

Table 4: Frequency of responses regarding motivation level at work

Strongly Strongly
Motivated Average Unmotivated Verbal
Statement Motivated Unmotivated Mean
Description
5 4 3 2 1
How motivated are
4 11 10 25 33 2.13 Unmotivated
you at work?

Table 5 shows that employees at the mega construction company believe that
motivation is positively correlated to their performance. The mean value is 4.71 which is verbally
described as “Strongly Agree”. It means that from the employees’ point of view, their work
performance will increase if they are motivated more at their work. From the sample employees’
perspective, the relationship between motivation and workers’ performance is a strongly positive
one.

Table 5: Frequency of responses regarding motivation’s impact on work performance

Strongly Somewhat Strongly
Agree Average Verbal
Statement Agree Disagree Disagree Mean
Description
5 4 3 2 1
Do you think your work
performance will
Strongly
increase if you're more 60 22 1 0 0 4.71
Agree
motivated at your
work?

Table 6 shows motivation and hygiene factors’ ranking based on their impact on work
performance from the respondents’ perspectives. To determine the effects of motivation and
hygiene factors on employees’ performance, the participants were requested to answer the
statement about each of the selected motivation factors. The Motivation and hygiene factors
were be ranked according to the mean values as follows: Salary (mean=4.89), Advancement
(mean=4.77), Work Condition (mean=4.39), and Recognition (mean= 4.24).

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The results show that all mean values for the four statements shown in Table 6 are verbally
described as “strongly agreed”. This indicates that each of the four motivation factors, which are
investigated in this study, has a strong positive relationship with the employees’ performance.
Yet, due to the variation of responses, the factors are ranked based on their mean values as
mentioned before.
As shown in Table 6, salary and financial rewards become the first and most important
factor that increases employees’ performance at work from the employees’ perspective. This
result supports the finding of Cong and Van (2013) who found that salary and promotion are the
most motivational factors that positively impact employee performance. This result is also
aligned with Ikechukwu, Hart, Ezeh, Bridget, and Jude-Peters’ (2019) outcome which mentioned
that salary and financial rewards can maintain employee motivation towards higher job
performance. Thus, the strong positive relationship between financial motivators and
employees’ work performance is clear from the response frequency shown in Table 6 as well as
the results of previous research (Okoth and Florah, 2019; Spakovska, Ballarin, Vanek, and
Chlopecky, 2015).
Also, recognition is the second most important factor that increases employees’
performance at work from the employees’ point of view as shown in Table 6. This result
supports the findings of previous research stating that non-financial factors such as recognition
have a positive impact on motivation (Ikechukwu, Hart, Ezeh, Bridget, and Jude-Peters, 2019).
Recognition has positively correlated with employee performance (Okoth and Florah, 2019). So,
recognition has a strong positive relationship with the employees’ work performance.
In addition, working conditions or environment is also one of the important motivation
factors that increase employees’ performance at work from employees’ perspective, as shown
in Table 6. Working conditions affect the employee’s performance but not on the same impact
as salary and promotion (Cong and Van, 2013). The absence of hygiene factors, such as a
good work environment, contributes to employees’ low work performance and productivity
(Amzat, Don, Fauzee, Hussin, and Raman, 2016). Therefore, the impact of working conditions
and the work environment should be considered and improved to increase employees’ work
performance.
In general, these results correspond to the previous research that concludes that the
mentioned motivation factors positively impact work performance. Yet, the ranking of the factors
in this previous research is not the same as in this work. A reason for the different ranking of the
factors could be the difference in work environments and cultures since previous research was
conducted on different organizations outside Saudi Arabia (Zailani, 2020; Phama, 2020).

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Table 6: Frequency of responses and ranking of motivation and

hygiene factors’ impact on work performance
Strongly Somewhat Strongly
Agree Average
Agree Disagree Disagree Verbal
Statement Mean Descriptio Rank
5 4 3 2 1 n
Frequency

Your work performance will increase if you have a suitable salary and Strongly
74 9 0 0 0 4.89 1
financial rewards . (Salary) Agree

Your work performance will increase if your works are recognized and Strongly
41 27 10 4 1 4.24 4
praised by others in the organization. (Recognition) Agree

Your work performance will increase if you have opportunities to grow in Strongly
67 13 3 0 0 4.77 2
your organization. (Advancement ). Agree

Your work performance will increase if your working environment is

Strongly
comfortable and provides a suitable amount of work hours, the tools to 50 24 2 5 2 4.39 3
Agree
perform your tasks, ventilation, safety. (Work Condition)

In addition to the focused motivation factors in this study, the survey despondence asked
for a high level of job security. Job security can be defined as the degree to which an employee
could keep his job for more time (Delery & Doty, 1996). The employees should feel that their job
is secure and not under the continual threat of being laid off. Moreover, the participants in this
study asked for enhancing the medical insurance system. Finally, the participated employees in
this study asked the company to offer several courses to develop their professional and soft
skills.

CONCLUSION
Summary
This study aims to examine selected motivation factors that impact on work
performance of construction company employees. The study recommendations contribute to
enhancing the employees’ performance at the targeted company. A Focus group was
created to understand the problem by using SWOT analysis technique. The goal of the
SWOT analysis was to identify the root causes of the work performance level. The result of
the SWOT analysis shows that the low motivation of the employees was one of the root
causes of the low performance. The data was collected from a sample of employees
working at a mega construction company in Saudi Arabia. The motivator and hygiene factors
were identified based on the literature review. The top motivator and hygiene factors were
selected based on their frequency in the literature review. An online survey was designed
and tested using a pilot study. Then, the survey was distributed, and the data were

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 ©Author(s)

collected. After that, data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel. The findings of this research
are summarized as follows:
- Based on the focused group, the problem is identified as the low work performance.
Also, from the employees’ perspective, the root cause of this problem is the low
motivation level in their company.
- From the literature review, salary, advancement, recognition, and work condition are the
top frequent motivation factors. Thus, these four factors were selected for further
investigation in this research.
- From the perspective of the focus group participants, salary is the most important factor
affecting their work performance.
- The employees strongly agreed that salary, advancement, recognition, and work
conditions positively affect their work performance.

Recommendations
- As shown in the result, salary positively impacts employee performance. Also, the
employees in the targeted company receive less salary than other companies in the
same industry (Head of the HR department, personal communication, December 2021).
Therefore, the company should review its salary and promotion system to provide a fair
and competitive salary and financial benefit to its employees which should increase
employees’ performance. The company should develop a career advancement system
that leads to a better salary and a higher position income for employees. The system
should be clear and applied to all different levels of employees. Moreover, the
employees should be paid on time without any delays.
- The absence of hygiene factors contributes to employees’ low work performance and
productivity (Amzat, Don, Fauzee, Hussin, and Raman, 2016). So, the company should
enhance the work environment and provide their employees with the needed tools to
perform their jobs.
- Recognition motivates employees to perform better at their work. Therefore, supervisors
and peers should praise and recognize employees’ efforts when the employee succeed.
The company should host events to recognize hardworking employees. The purpose of
the event is to motivate successful employees for their hard work and encourage other
employees to work harder to achieve the same recognition their co-workers receive. The
company should initiate a recognition and praise system.
- Job security is one of the hygiene factors mentioned many times in employees’
recommendations in the survey. Therefore, it is recommended to include this factor in

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future research. The employees want to feel that their job is secured and they are not
threatened with dismissal or unemployed situation.
- The study was limited only to a group of employees at a Saudi mega construction
company. Therefore, it is recommended that future studies should include several
organizations in the same field.
- The research focused on investigating the problem from the employees’ perspective. It is
recommended to expand the work by exploring the other stakeholders’ perspectives too.

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