What Is The Employees Level Of Fulfillment

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

1. Introduction

Incentive according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is something that incites or has the tendency to incite willpower or action. Incentives have been used by in various situations by various people both professional and non-professional to entice or persuade other individuals into doing carrying out tasks or activities. These incentives have meaning to the said individual who is being wooed into doing something; they are both tangible and intangible. Incentives are generally used for the sole purpose of motivation (Laffont, J.J & Martimort, D, 2002)

Job performance can be defined as the sum total of an employee’s completion of assigned tasks. Grouping, assigning, examining, and assessment of an employee’s job performance usually requires human resource expertise (Fletcher, J. 2012). According to businessdictioary.com, job performance can be seen as the job related activities expected of an employee and how well those activities were carried out. Many businesses have human resource managers who assess the job performance of each employee on a regular basis in order to help such employees to spot areas for improvement.

However, the issue of job performance isn’t without its problems. There are many problems in job performance ranging from; quantity of work & quality of work to inappropriate behavior & refusal to change, etc. These problems often lead to ineffectiveness of the staff when not corrected, many-a-time employees display one or more of these traits as we are all humans, and sometimes feel de-motivated.

SEGi University is a preferred education destination for many students from all over the world. Therefore, to maintain this reputation, SEGi University must make sure that the services and education they offer improve in efficiency with each passing year.

SEGi University College recently became SEGi University and as such, must endeavor to a higher quality of education, administration and all other services that come into play when running an institution of learning. Like all other businesses that depend on people, SEGi University too, must look to its employees if it is to achieve a higher level of excellence.

Research Questions

What are the incentives affecting employee performance at SEGi University?

What is the employee’s level of fulfillment?

What methods can be taken to improve the performance of their employee’s?

1.2 Research Objectives

To find out what kind of incentive exist for SEGi University employees.

To find out the employee level of fulfillment.

To find out what methods can be taken to improve the performance of employees.

To find out which incentives are most desirable.

Background of Company

SEGi was founded by SEG International Berhad in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in the year 1977, as a systematic education group focused on providing quality professional qualifications. The name was later changed to SEGi in 2002. With an increase in the demand for higher academic institutions and qualifications in Malaysia, the higher education industry has boomed significantly. In relation with the industry, the SEGi group grew and expanded its range of courses and market reach by setting up 6 new campuses in various locations such as; Sarawak, Subang, Kota Damansara, Penang, etc, and also by acquisitions.

In 2008, it achieved the status of ‘University College’, a term used to denote an institution that provides tertiary education but does not yet have full university status. This is because the college partners with universities abroad. In the same year the university opened a 200 million ringgits campus in Kota Damansara and was given the status of ‘University’ in 2012. They offer several courses in every field, thus recruiting students from over 40 countries.

There has been much research done on motivation in the workplace, but more specific research is lacking when it comes to questions of why all employees in the same workplace do not perform at the same level of efficiency. It is possible to say that there are many factors but then a problem does not exist that it doesn’t have a solution. What needs to be considered is the reality that every person has a different type of incentive and for employers to identify if the incentives they offer fall within this ample assortment. This research will attempt to identify what the incentives for SEGi University employees are, and whether these incentives are meeting their wide variety of motivational needs, these incentives could be tangible or intangible. The main result in this case is better employee job performance.

The students benefit by receiving better services from friendlier staff within a cleaner, safer campus. The levels of education they receive will also see a marked improvement as happier lecturers will inevitably teach much better. The levels of education they receive will also see a marked improvement as happier lecturers will inevitably teach much better. These are the factors that will directly work towards making SEGi University a leading educational institution in Malaysia and the world. The research findings will also help other universities with similar needs.

Especially now that SEGi University has recently become a university, they must strive to come up to par with other international universities as well as the universities from the United States and United Kingdom with whom they are affiliated. The quality of education offered by the university and the quality of services that the university provides to its students are what the discerning public and educational quality checking institutions check first when parents are looking for the best school to send their children to or when the aforementioned institutions want to compare quality.

SEGi University is still a young university but it has already achieved respect and positive reviews because of the education it offers its student body. To help take this fame to the next level, SEGi University must look to its employees and helping them better themselves as well as providing them with the opportunity to improve themselves and their workspace.

Conceptual/Research Framework

Employee Job Performance

Promotion

Wage/Pay

Job Security

Independent Variables Dependent Variables

Hypothesis

Thesis statement: when it comes to improving work performance, incentives such as promotion, increased wages and bonuses and well as job security can play a major role.

According to the research aims and objectives of this research study, what it is attempting to discover is very simple. This research simply wants to understand how to help SEGi University employees improve their work performance. The research has also identified giving incentives as a possible method for this ‘problem’. Therefore, the research will use quantitative methods to discover whether the three specific incentives outlined by the researcher in the thesis statement are viewed as incentives by the employees; and whether these incentives would motivate these same employees to improve their work performance. Based on this, the following two hypotheses were identified. At the end of this research, when the results from the questionnaire are correlated, we will find out which of the hypotheses are correct.

H0: There is a relationship between employee job performance and giving incentives

H1: There is no relationship between employee job performance and giving incentives

H2: There is no relationship between job security and giving incentives

H3: There is no relationship between wage/pay and giving incentives

H4: There is no relationship between promotion and giving incentives

2.0 Introduction

A lot of theories have been proposed to explain what incentives motivate employee performance. Although the literature covers a broad range of such theories, this review will focus on four major areas of interest which will emerge several times throughout the literature reviewed. These areas of interest are: job security, wage/pay, promotion, and employee job performance. While the literature these areas of interest in a broad context, this review will focus primarily on their application to employee job performance.

2.1 Job Security

The definition of job security to employees is in constant change along with the state of the world economy. In western countries there are those who say that to, simply have a job is the new ‘job security’. (Aaron, K. 2012)

We are looking at the concept of job security as employees having the protection of knowing that they cannot be dismissed from their jobs, except with due cause. (Yousef, D. A. 1998) conducted research into the link between job security and its effects on employee performance; his study revealed that, "satisfaction with job security is positively correlated with both organizational commitment and job performance" (Yousef, D. A. 1998). He also found that the many demographic differences among employees is also affected: "Furthermore, employees’ age, educational level, job level, monthly income, marital status, tenure in present job, tenure in present organization and an organization’s activity contribute significantly to the variations in satisfaction with job security among employees" (Yousef, D. A. 1998).

It also turns out that the need to feel secure in your job is not just for people earning high salaries. Bertola, G (1990) found that, "Job security provisions are often cited as a major factor in the high unemployment in European economies. Such provisions do not bias labor demand toward lower average employment at given wages, nor do they bias wage determination toward higher wages."

Smithson, J and Lewis, S (2000) did research into what they term ‘job insecurity; using this term in the psychological sense of perceived impermanence’. They state that the strongest feelings of job insecurity are in the youngest members of the workforce and the oldest members of the workforce. Their research was restricted to the European job market but even in Europe they found that ‘job insecurity’ was common among skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers, students and the unemployed.

The world economy has suffered so greatly that businesses cannot make the kind of promises to their employees that would reassure them. Employees are taking matters into their own hands by taking it upon themselves to request for training as an attempt at "trying to adjust to a climate of increasing job insecurity by making themselves more employable" (Martin et al., 1998); this makes them have ‘individual employment security’ rather than job security.

Hochberg, Y. V and Lindsey, L (2010) stated that, "Firms whose employee option portfolios have higher implied incentives exhibit higher subsequent operating performance." The incentives in this particular case were stock options for the company itself. Steadily improving their work performance will lead to the employees gaining more options towards the stock of their company and this will lead to a sense of ownership. They will become invested in the well-being of the company and this in turn will lead to better work performance as the employees will want ‘their’ company to do well. This is a very effective way of increasing the feeling of job security among the employees.

A high turnover within a company signifies a lack of job security stemming from a lack of organizational commitment. Giving bonuses to employees on a merit or performance based system would give them a greater sense of security in their job as they would know that as long as their job performance was good, their job would be secure.

It is perhaps more pertinent for companies which want to maintain low employee turnover rates should invest in hiring employees who have families. Financial rewards are something that every employee with a family can appreciate as there are always financial needs that need to be fulfilled. In this way the millions that would have gone into hiring, training and replacing employees can be reduced and even if some of the money was redirected to fund bonuses and merit payments, it would still be of profit to the company in terms of harder working employees and thus increased profits.

Valletta, R. G (1997) speaks about the ‘parameters’ of job security. He identifies such things as seniority, and economic conditions as factors which influence both the workers mentality towards the security they feel within their job as well as the mentality of the management. His research along with the results of surveys, uncovered that even skilled white collar workers are finding it harder to keep their jobs and that the rate of displacement (job loss) is getting higher.

Ndebbio, J. E. U (2000), stated that, "labour demand is directly related to industrial investment"; which means that when companies grow and/or change they will require a corresponding change in their workforce. Agba, A. M, Agba, M. S, Ushie, E. M, and Nkpoyen, F (2012) use this to back up a claim that privatization leads to job creation and therefore to job security. This job security according to them is the ‘reasonable expectation’ that they will be secure in their job for some amount of time (Hodson, R. and Sullivan, T. A. (2002)).

Even on a more individualized scale, job security is a very important factor; studies show that it affects not only their work performance but their personal lives as well. Han, Y and Zhao, H (2012) says, "The negative impact of job insecurity on employee health and well-being may include higher stress levels, greater job dissatisfaction, non-conforming behaviors and poor health." They explain how this can lead to more and more employees leaving the job simply because they feel insecure even if they are not specifically told that their job is in jeopardy.

While in this current economy it is hard to guarantee job security to employees, they suggest a few radical changes within the work environment, such as reducing status distinctions. They explain how that it is these distinctions which may be keeping employees feeling segregated and reducing them will help them become more committed to their work and company as they will feel more valued.

Rowland, H (1996) suggests that since the main causes of companies not being able to offer job security is not going away then to approach the problem from a different angle. What she suggests is a solution that is beneficial for both the company and the employee. She says, "organizations now need to invest in increasing the employability of their employees, thereby enabling them to find employment more easily when it is necessary to do so."

2.2 Wage/Pay

Akintoye (2000) (cited in Tella, A, Ayeni, C. O, Popoola, So. O, (2007)), asserts that money remains the most significant motivational strategy. He does not state the form that it is best received as a motivational aid but he bases his argument on much research that agrees that when it comes to employee performance the first factor to consider is the financial recompense they are receiving for their work.

Stringer, Didham and Theivananthampillai (2011) found that pay satisfaction leads to positive intrinsic motivation, and this in turn led to job satisfaction. This link between pay satisfaction and job satisfaction is supported by the reinforcement theory which states that employees be given specific goals which they know that if completed will be rewarded in the form of increases to their wages. This helps link their performance to their earnings and will encourage them to work harder in order to earn more money.

Some researchers oppose these findings by saying that money is only good as short term motivation and cannot sustain long-term good performance in employees. This is supported by Frey and Osterloh (2002) who suggest that linking extrinsic rewards to an intrinsically appealing activity can have deleterious effects on the employees’ motivation to do the task well.

Sturman, M. C (2005) stated that "Both raises and bonuses increase future performance, but merit raises had a greater effect that that of bonuses."

The salary that an employee receives from the employer is not just a financial measure of their importance in the company, it is also meant to be an incentive for the employee to work harder. There is a misconception that an employee deserves their salary, but the salary is something to be earned the same as any incentives that a company can provide to its employees.

Studies have shown that both the amount of the salary/bonuses and the way in which the employee can earn the bonuses heavily influence the employee’s desire for the reward and thus their job performance. Naturally, the amount of their basic salary is the starting point of their desire for further financial rewards or salary increases.

Tella, A, Ayeni, C. O, Popoola, So. O, (2007), speaks about the right way to use salaries as a motivator. They identify four major ‘components’ of a ‘salary structure’ while also stating that personnel managers must also be aware of and take into account the salary structures of rival institutions. They further outlined the salary structure as:

Personnel managers must consider four major components of a salary structures. These are the job rate, which relates to the importance the organization attaches to each job; payment, which encourages workers or groups by rewarding them according to their performance; personal or special allowances, associated with factors such as scarcity of particular skills or certain categories of information professionals or librarians, or with long service; and fringe benefits such as holidays with pay, pensions, and so on. (2007)

Some professions utilize performance related pay or merit pay. Employees would be paid depending on their output and job performance; therefore, the better their work is or the more work they do, the more they would be paid. Commission related professions such as car sales or real estate utilize a very similar form of payment. On the other hand, research has shown that this form of payment works best in factory settings, and does not work as well when the job requires more cognitive skills.

Katz, in Sinclair, et al. (2005) explained how money has the power to ‘attract, retain, and motivate individuals’ to improve their performance. For example, if an individual had the two job offers with identical responsibilities but one of the jobs offered a higher salary then the individual would be more motivated to accept the higher paying job.

Another way of looking at salaries is to consider the form they come in; some companies do not hand over to their employees the full amount of their salary but retain a sum as part of their pension plan. Ippolito, R, A, (1997) discusses in his book about employees who join pension plans and their resulting performance. He explains how employees who have a high discount rate on their pension have a tendency to, "ignore the future implications of their current performance and therefore attach less value to future promotions resulting from good work" (P. 06). He goes on to explain that they may also not take warnings regarding poor work seriously and are very likely to take unscheduled days off and have poor attendance. This is perhaps because they are unable to see the money they will have in the future and thus are reacting to the lower salary they are receiving. They may feel an unintended slight and feel unappreciated in the workplace.

Trevor, C, O, Gerhart, B, B, and John, W found that even when it comes to highly dedicated, hard working employees, the proverbial ‘last straw on the camels back’ can be their salary. If their salaries do not reflect the effort they are putting into their work then they are likely to be unsatisfied with their job; this will cause them to leave the unsatisfying job for a work place that will appreciate their work ethic as well as pay them for it. Trevor, C, O, Gerhart, B, B, and John, W (1997) explained this in depth, they state that, "Most notably, salary growth effects on turnover were greatest for high performers, with high salary growth predicting rather low turnover for these employees, whereas low salary growth predicted extremely high turnover."

2.3 Promotion

McEvoy, G, M and Cascio, W, F (1989) found that, "for very young employees the relation between age and job performance was consistent and modestly positive." This was especially true if they were promoted to a higher position at a relatively younger age than they might have expected the promotion to happen. The question is to discover whether this still holds true today.

According to research carried out by (Doeringer and Piore, 1997) (Jacoby 1985; Morishima, 1996) on the internal labor market, they state that in order to keep staff for a long period of time, training should be carried out, as it empowers the staff and shows the investment on the side of the company. This action coupled with promotion through internal advancement will act as an incentive for employees to give their best with expectations of acknowledgement through aforementioned promotion. Jacoby, 1985 & Morishima, 1996 go on to state that promotional opportunities increase the commitment within an organization.

Milgrom, P, R and Roberts, J, (1992) stated that, "Promotions serve two roles in an organization. First, they help assign people to the roles where they can best contribute to the organization's performance. Second, promotions serve as incentives and rewards" (p. 364). The tournament theory (Lazear and Rosen, 1981; Rosenbaum, 1984) states when an organization cannot guarantee that the monitoring of its employees is accurate, it is then effective for said company to base promotions on the skills and abilities portrayed by the employees rather than the information previously gathered. If the participants recognize that rewards are given to winners, e.g. high positions and wage premiums are attractive, they will work hard to get the prizes. This competition will serve as incentives for employees to work harder and strive for the best, hoping to win the prize.

Takahashi, K (2006) states that employees are driven to improve work performance because of two incentives. These incentives are; bonuses to their salary, and promotions within the work place, he also asserted that these incentives are effective only in a work place where the employees feel job security; this is because job promotions require a long term commitment from the employee. Therefore, if employees do not feel that their jobs are secure then they will not put in any extra effort to improve their work performance.

Bidwell, M, scrutinized employee data of over 5300 employees coming from multiple jobs (e.g. traders and research analysts to support staff) from 2003-2009, from investment banking unit of a financial services firm in the United States.

Bidwell, M, (2012), conducted a study to understand the trend among people who jump from job to job. He found that companies which experienced high turnover rates were not really aware of the expenditure they were making to support these ‘temporary’ employees. He discovered that employees hired externally not only received consistently lower marks on their performance reviews (within their first two years on the job), but that they also get paid more. Another startling and very significant finding was that these people are more highly likely to be laid off than employees promoted from within.

The only true advantage that he pointed out was how newly hired employees tend to have more education and experience; but, he also states that this should not blind the company to the importance of an employee that does not need training. He said, "Employers don’t appreciate how important it is for workers to know the ropes of an organization." The logic of this is easily understandable as every day the company spends money to train a new employee is a day that another company with already trained staff is earning money. Bidwell, M, puts this in very simple terms, "Knowing where and when to file papers, for instance, or who to ask about approving a project, can make work much more efficient."

Naturally, like the above two incentive factors, this form of incentive is also not a 100% accurate for predicting improved employee performance. Baker, G,P, Jensen, M, C, and Murphy, K, J (1988), very clearly state that "Promotions are used as the primary incentive device in most organizations, including corporations, partnerships, and universities … This … is puzzling to us because promotion-based incentive schemes have many disadvantages and few advantages relative to bonus-based incentive schemes." (p. 600)

2.4 Employee Job Performance

The majority of previous studies into this area have largely concentrated on overall employee satisfaction with their job and how this links to their commitment to the organization they work for and to their job performance. This research is also concerned with assessing employee satisfaction but with the incentives they are offered in order to improve their work performance.

When this research speaks of improving job performance, it is speaking about finding a way or an incentive by which there will be notable positive improvement in both the quantity and the quality of work done by employees. An increase in quantity will result from an improvement in quality as a happier employee will do a better job on their work; and doing better work will get more work done.

To define what job performance is exactly can be hard, because despite the seeming simplicity, it is an answer that relies heavily on individualized perception. Campbell et al., (1993, p. 40) cited in Sonnentang, S and Frese, M (2001) states, "Performance is what the organization hires one to do, and do well".

Also, it is important to note that researchers in this area pay special attention to identifying whether the perception of ‘work performance’ is being characterized by simply the action of executing the task at hand; or by the quality of the outcome of completing the given task. This means that job performance is not an individual employees job title but relies on their own and their supervisors evaluation of how well the job is being performed and whether the product of this performance is of a quality acceptable to them. Campbell et al., (1993) cited Sonnentang, S and Frese, M (2001) support this view of job performance, he states that, "only actions which can be scaled, i.e., measured, are considered to constitute performance."

Thus far, what constitutes job performance has been shown to be highly specific to whomsoever is doing the grading but, research in recent years has also shown that there are some aspects to job performance that are shared across a wide range of jobs. Campbell (1990) asserts that "core task proficiency, demonstrating effort, and the maintenance of personal discipline are components of every job".

In collecting information for their research study into a very similar area within the field of job performance, Viswesvaran, C. and Ones, D. S., (2000) discovered a positive correlation among the ‘different facets’ of individual job performance evaluation; this means that even in differing fields with employees doing different tasks, there were still certain aspects to their work performance that were expected from all employees across the board.

If an organization is attempting to motivate their employees to do even better, then it is these same shared facets to which they must attempt positive change. However, this raises the question of how to break employees out of their existing patterns to make newer, better ones. This is supported in part by Goncharuk, A. G and Monat, J.P (2009) who stressed the difficulty of breaking employees of ‘existing work patterns’.

Goncharuk, A.G and Monat, J.P (2009) makes the point that employees will have established habits and routines which they apply to their work and it is these routines which management must try to change. They state, "any management improvement program would benefit from a concomitant employee motivation/development program that encourages the adoption of new behaviors." This is said to be the time when goals, behaviors and rewards for the employees must be established for work performance optimization.

Cho, Y. J and Perry, J. L, (2012) looked into what helps an employee become motivated and, discovered that managerial trust worthiness and goal directedness greatly influence intrinsic motivation, and thus employee satisfaction. This means, that personal motivation depends on the environment of the workplace. Employees who feel appreciated by their superiors, have clear work objectives and are satisfied by the compensation they receive for their work, are more likely to be self-motivated/self-motivating than employees who feel unappreciated, do repetitive work with no clear objective and are paid poorly/not up to expectations/insufficiently.

These findings give support to this research study which is centered on discovering how incentives given from the employer will influence the work performance of the employees.

3.0 Research Methods

3.1 Research Design

First of all, this research will be carried out using a deductive approach, the reason being that this research is set out to answer questions and proffer solutions to the current problem. "A deductive approach is concerned with developing a hypothesis (or hypotheses) based on existing theory, and then designing a research strategy to test the hypothesis" (Wilson, 2010, p.7). Though this research does not stem from an existing theory, the basic design structure of such a research is still fitting. The assumptions made in this case to develop the hypotheses are sound. In fact, the deductive approach involves the creation of hypotheses from known phenomena and then ‘testing’ the hypotheses by way of the research process.

In other words, when a deductive approach is being applied to a research, the researcher formulates a set of hypotheses that will need to be tested. Then, using research methodology that is suitable for the research, the researcher will attempt to prove or disprove the authenticity of the formulated hypotheses.

The advantages of using the deductive approach are many. This method allows the researcher to reach a definitive conclusion. It takes general assumptions and ends in identifying one particular ‘answer’. It is indeed, the best form of approach to take when attempting to identify something that has real-world applications such as in this research. In this research there are two assumptions and only one can be true. Through the deductive approach, the assumptions can in a sense be tested on the target audience and the results will yield which of the assumptions are valid.

3.2 Respondents for the research

The respondents for this research will be SEGi University employees. This research is therefore, very specialized, but the results can be used for reference by other researchers in the field, especially in situations where it is important to be aware or have a reference for knowing what the use of incentives in improving university employees performance can be.

More specifically there are some characteristics that the research requires be included as it is also necessary to exclude certain characteristics. The factors that we want to include in as our research subject would be employees who have been working with SEGi University Kota Damansara campus for a number of years, employees who have recently joined SEGi University Kota Damansara campus, employees whose work duties require that they are in daily and constant contact with the students attending the university as well as with other staff and lastly, employees whose work duties do not necessarily put them in constant contact with the students, but primarily with other employees.

On the other hand, the factors excluded from being in the research subjects would be any employee who has transferred from another campus to the Kota Damansara campus, as this specific research study is concerned with the Kota Damansara campus. Therefore, to have an employee who has transferred from another SEGi University/College campus could result in them answering the questionnaire while comparing the two campuses and the research study would be better served by using employees whose main experience with serving as an employee of SEGi University is the Kota Damansara campus.

The included and excluded characteristics of this research are vital in getting a more accurate result regarding our research. Employees who have the above described characteristics are more likely to have the information that this research study is looking for; also, when it comes to conducting the survey itself, it makes it easier on the researcher to keep these characteristics in mind as this will make it easier to be sure that the questionnaires are going out to the right people.

3.3 Sampling Design

3.3.1 Sample Size

The sample size will be a minimum of 200 and a maximum of 500 SEGi University employees. This sample size was determined as an adequate representation of SEGi University employees.

3.3.2 Sample Methods

This research will employ a probability sampling method to carry out the research, The questionnaires will be handed to the employees on Thursdays and Fridays till all 200 questionnaires are filled. Thursday and Friday was chosen as the best day because they are at the end of the working week and as such, the employees would probably not be over-laden with work.

Employees will be approached politely at a time when they appear free. Then, they will be asked a series of short questions to determine whether they fit the criteria specified in 3.2. They will be asked if they have time, told the purpose of the questionnaire, the purpose of the research and assured that all answers are anonymous.

This is done so that questionnaire answers will be more accurate, the employees are more likely to give specific answers when they know that they can express themselves freely without having to reveal who they are.

If any respondent misses even one question then the entire questionnaire cannot be used. For ease of analysis as we are utilizing the SPSS program; and this requires that every question has an answer.

The questionnaires will be given on the spot to the selected research subjects to fill up and the researcher will wait at a respectful distance for the respondent to finish filling it up or in case the respondent has any questions about the questionnaire. Afterward, the researcher will take a quick look through to make sure that all questions are answered, that all answers are clear. It is estimated that a single questionnaire can be filled in less than 05 minutes.

3.3.3 Survey method

Respondents shall be given survey forms that require them to fill out questionnaires. The questions will be formatted to fit the Likert Scale style of questionnaire (See Appendix 1). A Likert Scale usually has answer options of ‘Strongly Agree’, ‘Agree’, ‘Neutral’, ‘Disagree’ and ‘Strongly Disagree’ but in this research, it has been decided to remove the answer option of ‘Neutral’ to reduce redundancy as much as possible. The questionnaire works in a simple manner, and participants of the research only need to put a ‘tick’ in the answer box for the answer they have chosen.

The questionnaire will be split into three different areas: these areas will cover the three basic incentives identified in the literature review. The questions will cover Job Security, Wage/Pay and Promotion. The questions will require them to answer depending on their experiences with the three variables, their views on the use or lack of use of these three specific variables and also their regard for the effectiveness of these three variables as incentives to improve job performance.

The objective of this research, which is to find out the effect that these three identified incentives can have on the employees’ job performance, can best be fulfilled through this survey research method. This is because this method utilizes quantifiable data to explain the findings. A hypothesis is reached based on the research question, research topic, and research objectives and then through the survey method, a way is found to test the truth of the hypothesis. It keeps the research study simple, yet as accurate as possible.

The accuracy also depends greatly on the number of respondents participating in the survey but for the purposes of this research, the researcher is confident that the number of respondents chosen is appropriate.