Jurnal UMP Social Sciences and Technology Management
Vol. 3, Issue. 3,2015
An Investigation into the Effect of Mcclelland Motivational
Factors on Productivity Including the Employed Nurses in
Ahwaz Medical Education Hospitals
Karamollah Daneshfard,
MA Student of Public Management, Management Department, Yasooj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Yasooj, Iran.
Forouzan Darabpour
Faculty member, Management Department, Yasooj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Yasooj, Iran.
Abstract
The present research is intended to examine the effect of McClelland motivational factors
on productivity including the employed nurses in medical education hospitals at Ahwaz
city, Iran. The research method is of applied type in terms of goal and it is of correlation
type in terms of essence. The statistical population comprises of the nurses, who were
employed in medical education hospitals of Ahwaz i.e. totally 920 participants. Two
questionnaires were utilized in this investigation: a) McClelland motivational factors
inventory and b) productivity questionnaire where the reliability rates of questionnaires
are 0.80 and 0.75, respectively. To measure the relationship between variables, Pearson’s
correlation test was used. The results from this study are as follows: There is no
significant relationship between all of variables and among need to power and
productivity and also there is a significant relationship among variable of social affiliation
and need for achievement with productivity of the employed nurses in Ahwaz medical
education hospitals. According to McClelland need theory, the foremost effective
parameters on motivation of the employed nurses in Ahwaz medical education hospitals
are as follows: Need to power, need to communication (affiliation), and need to
achievement.
Keywords: McClelland’s Theory, Social Affiliation, Productivity, Need to Power,
Motivation
Introduction
The universities of medical sciences in Iran are responsible for essential and crucial tasks in education,
healthcare, treatment with the extent, variation, and dispersion of the covered units (in six fields i.e.
support, healthcare, treatment, education, students, cultural, and research) in the endmost points of the
provinces , which mainly including less-developed and underprivileged regions. All these cases signify the
diversification and complexity of management in universities, which should be ultimately led to producing
health and upgrading healthcare and medical parameters to achieve the objectives of the holy system in
Islamic Republic within the framework of five- year development plans and 20-year political outlook by
means of proper and on- time planning and optimal appropriation of resources to this purpose. It is obvious
that possessing accurate and adequate information is required for proper and on-time decision- making and
optimal planning and division of sources will not be possible without the proper information. The resources
of any organization are divided into classes of human resources and financial resources. Whereas the
financial resources are used by human resources as well thus optimal use of these financial sources may not
be possible without enjoying the motivated manpower. Today in advanced world, workforce is deemed as
the most major capital as well as one of the effective factors in realization of organizational objectives in
any organization (Ghorbani, 2010:18). To achieve these objectives, the motivational factors should be
identified in human and used to meet his/ her essential needs. What is definite and should be accepted is in
that due to individual differences, the motivations of several persons are different from each other. Thus,
before doing any activity for creation of motive, it necessitates identifying individual characteristics of
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persons thereby the motivational factor could be recognized in them. The directors and official should
know that the motivated manpower is efficient in survival, dynamism, and realization of organizational
policies and strategy. On the other hand, those directors, who appreciate human values and assume job
satisfaction of personnel as the major organizational goals, believe that efficiency can be increased as a
result of improving motivation (Larijani, 2006: 39-45). Thus, for this purpose the current study is intended
to examine further the impact of social needs in emergency nurses at Ahwaz educational hospitals and
McClelland theory was selected as theoretical framework in the present research so the effect of these
motivational factors (McClelland) on productivity of nurses is measured. And we utilize the questionnaire
that was invented by Hersey Blanchard & Goldsmith (1994) by the aid of ACHIEVE model so that eventual
to show to what level their motivation is and how these needs are classified according to order preference
while the impact of these motivational factors on productivity is evaluated.
Research literature
Tomey (2000) expresses that the personnel may posit this question: Why do personnel work? Why some
personnel are more efficient while the other groups are efficient at average or sometimes lower level? These
questions are deemed as important for a manager and directors acquire the complex and often unstable
answers for these questions (Tomey, 2000: 80). Being informed about subject of personnel’s motivation,
which is in fact the inquiry about the reason and cause of moves and behaviors of organizational members
and personnel, is entirely requisite for any director of organization. Hence, through acquiring the way of
motivation of personnel and their motives, the directors can easily take step toward realization of
organizational objectives by the aid of personnel and also succeed in doing their tasks. Overall, we can
assume the motivation as a mood in personnel, which tends them to execute certain behavior and activity.
Many theories have been posited about motivation so exploring them in details is the subject for books of
organizational behavior and psychology of management (Alvani, 2013: 157). Motivation is a chain process
that begins with sense of need or feeling of deficiency and deprivation then it is followed by request and
causes tension and action toward a goal and the behavior of approaching to the objective is the given
product for it. Sequence of this process may lead to meet the need. Thus, the motives cause encouragement
and stimulation of person to do an activity or behavior while the motivation reflects a general desire. The
position of punishment and reward is still mentioned as very strong motives in all of researches about
motivation and in this regard money has been proposed as a tool to grant reward but it is not the only
motivational factor (Seyed Javadin, 2013: 456). In a study titled ‘Review on occupational motivation and its
effective factors in nurses at Mashhad city’ that was conducted by Yousef Zadeh (2012), some factors
including type of employment, possessing responsibility, the friendly relations in workplace, participation
in managerial decision making, salaries and benefits, physical conditions at workplace, sense of (perceived)
value for job from population’s view, acceptance of job by members of family, and on the job (OTJ) training
courses were directly related to job motivation. Variables of gender, age, place of service, and having second
job did not significantly affect on increase of job motivation. According to research results, external factors
(health) as well as internal factors (motivational) play role in creating occupational motive. In a study under
title of ‘Prioritization of motivational factors in personnel by aiming at improving productivity in National
Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIODC) at Fars Province’, Khademi et al (2010) concluded that
there was significant relationship among reward system and motivational factors and productivity of
workforce. In a survey that was carried out under title of ‘Exploration of job motivation in members of
faculty at Police University based on McClelland’s Theory’, Arasteh et al (2009) showed that the motivation
directly affected on performance of members of faculty. Increase in age, educational degree, scientific
degree, and conversion of employment status inversely affect the motive. According to McClelland’s
Theory, the paramount effective parameters on motivation in members of faculty include the need to
achievement, need to power, and need to affiliation. Franco (2004) has explored the effective factors on
personnel’s motivation and concluded that the sense of admiration, efficacy, sincerity in management, and
job security have been supposed as the foremost factors and also some other factors such as financial and
non- financial encouragements were recognized as these vital factors. In a survey with title of ‘Review on
satisfaction, motivation, and job performance of educational personnel in a military academy’, Ghazanfari
and Abedi (2010) came to the result that the educational personnel possessed the satisfaction, motivation,
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and job satisfaction higher than average level. In a study that was done by Raeisi and Mohebfar (2006) to
determine motivational preferences of personnel ad directors in Qazvin educational hospitals, they
concluded that the studied personnel have been involved in the first class of needs i.e. physiologic and
security requirements in Maslow’s needs hierarchy while director were aware of this issue more or less.
Methodology
The present research is of applied type in terms of goal. On the other hand, it is a descriptive (of correlation
type) in terms of essence and methodology. The statistical population in this study includes all personnel in
staff unit at University of Medical Sciences at Yasooj City, which were totally 920 participants. Primarily,
quantity of sample size was selected as 274 by means of Morgan’s table. Then, the sample of any
organizational unit was chosen via classified sampling of them. Two questionnaires were utilized in this
research: a) McClelland motivational factors inventory that comprised of 21 questions and it was formulated
using Likert scale spectrum and it was considered for measurement of parameters (need to power 5
questions, need to social affiliation 8 questions, and need to achievement 8 questions). The results from
conducting Cronbach test showed that the current questionnaire could measure variables of need to
achievement (0.71 confidence level), need to power (0.70 confidence level), and need to affiliation (0.75
confidence level). And generally, it can measure the motivation with 0.80 confidence level; and b)
Personnel’s productivity was determined by calculation of Cronbach alpha coefficient with reliability of 0.75
in this study.
Research findings
First hypothesis: There is relationship among need to power and productivity of nurses.
To examine the relationship among variable of need to power and productivity of nurses, the following
statistical hypotheses was tested:
H0: There is no relationship among need to power and productivity of nurses.
H1: There is relationship among need to power and productivity of nurses.
Table 1: The relationship among need to power and productivity of nurses
Variable
Productivity
Need to power
Pearson
Correlation coefficient
Significance level
Frequency
0.57
0.363
258
As it observed in Table (1), there is no positive and significant correlation among two variables of need to
power and productivity at significance level 0.95 and also significance level is greater than 0.05. As a result,
Hypothesis (H1) is not approved according which there is relationship among need to power and
productivity of nurses.
Second hypothesis: There is relationship among social affiliation and productivity of nurses.
To examine relationship among need to social affiliation and productivity of nurses, the following statistical
hypothesis was tested:


H0: There is no relationship among need to social affiliation and productivity of nurses.
H1: There is relationship among need to social affiliation and productivity of nurses.
Table 2: The relationship among need to social affiliation and productivity of nurses
Variable
Productivity
Need to social
Pearson
affiliation
Correlation coefficient
Significance level
Frequency
0.231
0.000
258
As it seen in Table (2), there is a positive significant relationship among two variables of need to social
affiliation and productivity of nurses at significant level 0.95 and also it has significance level lower than
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0.05. As a result, hypothesis (H1) is confirmed accordingly there is relationship among variable of social
affiliation and productivity of nurses.
Third hypothesis: There is relationship among need to achievement and productivity of nurses.
To determine relationship among variable of need to achievement and productivity of nurses, the following
statistical hypothesis was tested:
H0: There is no relationship among need to achievement and productivity of nurses.
H1: There is relationship among need to achievement and productivity of nurses.
Table 3: The relationship among need to social affiliation and productivity of nurses
Variable
Productivity
Need to achievement
Pearson
Correlation coefficient
Significance level
Frequency
1
0.000
258
As it visible in Table (3), there is a positive and significant relationship among two variables of need to
achievement and productivity at significant level 95% and the significance level is lesser than 0.05. Thus,
hypothesis (H1) is verified according which there is relationship among need to achievement and
productivity of nurses.
Conclusion
Analysis of the findings about the first hypothesis indicates that there is no positive and significant
correlation between two variables of need to power and productivity of the employed nurses in Ahwaz
medical education hospital at significance level 95% while the significance level is greater than 0.05. As a
result, hypothesis (H1) based on which there is relationship among need to power with productivity of
nurses, is rejected. Therefore, the researches findings in this regard are aligned with the results study of
Arasteh et al (2009). Power- seeking trait is accompanied with the human since childhood where s/he tries
to compel his/ her parent to pay attention to him/ her by crying. Power-seeking is embedded in human’s
nature and s/he looks for something in which s/he may feel sense of being strong including acquisition of
wealth and job promotion and such power-seeking and acquisition of strength may not always lead to
improvement of performance and productivity but it only satisfies human’s requirements as the variable of
need to power did not affect productivity in this study.
Analysis of the related findings to second hypothesis shows that there is positive and significant correlation
between two variables of need to social affiliation with productivity in the employed nurses in Ahwaz
medical education hospitals at significance level 95% while the significance level is less than 0.05. As a
result, hypothesis (H1) based on which there is relationship among need to social affiliation with
productivity of nurses, is approved. Thus, from this viewpoint, research findings comply with the study of
Yousef Zadeh (2012). Analysis of the findings relating to third hypothesis shows that there is positive and
significant correlation between two variables of need to achievement with productivity of the employed
nurses in Ahwaz medical education hospitals at significance level 95% and at the same time the significance
level is smaller than 0.05. As a result, hypothesis (H1) based on which there is relationship among need to
achievement and productivity of nurses is confirmed. So the research findings are consistent with results of
study done by Ebadi (1995). Need to achievement denotes tendency to doing good activities proportional to
criterion of preference. This requirement motivates the individuals to look for achievement with criterion of
preference (McClelland et al, 1953). Hence, it is perceived that as the individuals do some activities and
tasks to acquire achievement and preference, this trend may improve performance and productivity.
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