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Study on job motivation among working women in different sectors

 

Growing globalization shows the importance of women employment in different sectors more than ever not only locally but also globally (Dermody et al., 2004).   But how far they motivate at work is an issue currently. While some still believe that women should stay at home and fulfil the responsibility of taking care of their families, some believe women should also participate in the workforce of a country (Giannikis and Mihail, 2010). 

The pregnancies, the need to breastfeed the child, caring for the toddlers are all extremely important responsibilities that the woman is expected to shoulder (Jyothi, 2010). In our society, there are women who desire to play her role as a housewife while there are professional, educated, talented women who want to grow in their career to support their husband's income or support her own family to fulfil basic needs and to save for a better future. There are many factors that influence women to work or in other words, make them working women (Abdel and Sabah, 2020). Nowadays, when jobs are becoming complex and diverse, women employee motivation is also becoming important (Chang, 2016). 

Organizations in different sectors support working women in their own ways (Hamza, 2016). Our company, Informatics International Pvt Ltd takes care of female employees by providing health insurance, maternity leave, and work from home options. Further our company organizes different workshops and events for female employees which are beneficial for their lifestyle. Similarly, other organizations in different sectors are highly focused on ways to increase female employee motivation (Hassanein and Lily, 2016). 

According to Muhammad and Madiha (2004), Marriott Hotels allow female employees to celebrate their special days in the hotel by giving them a free meal for six or a stay to experience their own hospitality. As Marriott female employees, they also get access to the hotels' special discount policy. This includes food, beverages and room stays in and around the country.

Silver Spark Apparels in India, the secondary brand of Raymond group, having over 90 per cent women workforce. The Silver Spark Apparels company by default is women-friendly. Silver Spark Apparels offers daycare facilities for kids, teachers to educate the kids, various social and cultural activities for the employees and their children (Uzoigwe et al., 2004).

Accenture, which is headquartered in Dublin, has a special community for its female employees which attends all problems that female employees might encounter at the workplace. They also have a dedicated helpline for women employees to support at any given time. Expectant mothers in the company are also provided with visits to the gynaecologist (Imadoğlu et al., 2004).

When it comes to working environment, employee facilities and benefits, work-life balance, very few companies in the world can compete with Google (Zeoli et al., 2004). Google provides medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees and dependents, laundry service, haircuts,

beauty and salon facilities, employee assistance programs focused on mental health, onsite wellness centres, parental leave, remote work opportunities, four “work from anywhere” weeks per year, part-time work schedules and job-sharing options and childcare options (Locke and Latham, 2004).

According to video 1.0, Google is known as the best company to work for and their employees are among the highest-paid in the world. Further, video 1.0 explains that it is not easy to get work at Google, but once joined not only the employee but his or her whole family get benefits from Google including pets 

Video 1.0: GOOGLE - Employee Benefits

Source: LadyBird, 2020

Further, Google provides well-equipped gym facilities, free meals and unlimited snacks, several sleep pods for quick naps. Initiatives only for women include women empowerment, academic scholarships, supporting female employee resource groups such as women@google. Also, to motivate female employees Google allows bringing their children to work (Chovwen and Ivensor, 2009)

RMSI, a global Information Technology service organization in India provides female employees safety and security, rewarding work environment, healthcare and other employee benefits, stress management programs including yoga and meditation (Baard et al., 2004). Further, RMSI also has focused on healthcare initiatives for female employees such as breast and cervix cancer tests, thyroid tests, gynaecological tests. Furthermore, female employees are also entitled to long-duration maternity leave, flexible working hours and work from home options. Also, they have the option to take a short-term break in their careers. Because of these facilities, RMSI won the Best Employer Award 5 times (Baard et al., 2004). 

As women employees are important for any company, in today's world, many organizations try to motivate them and retain this valuable asset. There is no universal solution or way for every organization to motivate their female workforce (Jeon, 2010). Each company has to build its own motivation system and methods based on employee expectations and organizational goals. Further, working women prefer to join organizations that do not just offer high salaries but provide a pleasant and flexible working environment, convenient location, working from home option, childcare facilities, work-life balance, extended maternity leave (Kim and Seo, 2015).


Reference 

Abdel-Aal, Amira Hassan (2011). Management of breadwinner women in family crises and their relationship to achievement motivation, unpublished PhD thesis, Faculty of Education, Ain Shams University

Abdel- Latif, M. Sabah (2020). The deficiency of emotional organization as a precursor to emotional separation of a sample of male and female teachers, an unpublished master's thesis, Faculty of Education, Fayoum University

Baard, P. P., Deci, E. L., and Ryan, R. M. (2004). Intrinsic need satisfaction: a motivational basis of performance and well-being in two work settings. J. Appl. Soc. Psychol. 34, 2045–2068.

Bezzina, F., Azzopardi, R. M., and Vella, G. (2013). Understanding and assessing the work motivations of employed women: insights into increasing female participation rates in the maltese labor market. Sage Open 3, 1–14.

Chang, E. Young.& Kim, Hee-Jin.(2016). The Relationship between Job-Role Quality and Parenting Behaviors among Employed Mothers in Korea. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 47(4): 527-548.

Chovwen, C. and Ivensor, E. (2009), "Job insecurity and motivation among women in Nigerian consolidated banks", Gender in Management, Vol. 24 No. 5, pp. 316-326.

Dermody, M. B., Young, M., & Taylor, L.S. (2004). Identifying Job Motivation Factors of Restaurant Servers. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, 5:3, 1-14.

Giannikis, S.K. and Mihail, D.M. (2010), "Motivation of working women in the Greek retail sector: an empirical analysis", International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 4-20.

Hamza, I. Ahmed., El-Sayed. A.Hanan.& Mansour, M. Amr (2016). Women Contemporary Issues and Problems. Riyadh: Dar AlZahraa.

Hassanein, Lily Kamel Ahmad (2016). The conflict of roles for working women and its relationship to their achievement motivation within the framework of the theory of the social role in serving the individual. an unpublished master's thesis, Faculty of Social Work, Helwan University

Imadoğlu, T., KURŞUNCU, R. S., ÇAVUŞ, M. F. (2020). The effect of Glass Ceiling Syndrome on women’s career barriers in management and job motivation, Holistica Journal of Business and Public Administration, vol. 11, iss. 2, pp. 85-99

Jeon, H. S. (2010). A Study on Learning Experiences of Women Who Returned to Work After Career Breaks: A ground Theory. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation)., Busan National University, Busan

Jyothi, P. (2010). A study of achievement motivation in relation to job satisfaction among high and low achieving working women. Managerial Psychology, 4(1-2), 84–93.

Kim, M. S., and Seo, Y. S. (2015). Clustering by career persistence motivations and group differences in work burnout and life satisfaction among highly educated married working women. Korean J. Counsel. Psychol. 27, 425–443.

Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P.(2004). What should we do about motivation theory? Six recommendations for the twenty-first century. Academy of Management Review 2004, Vol. 29, No. 3, 388–403. 

McNeese-Smith, D., 1996. Increasing employee productivity, job satisfaction, and organizational
commitment. Hospital and Health Services Administration, 41: 160-174.

Muhammad, Madiha Saad Zaghloul (2004). Professional and family pressures and their relationship to the motivation for achievement of working women. Master Thesis, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, Minia University.

Uzoigwe, G. Anthonia., Low, Y. Wah.& Noor, N. Siti . (2016). Predictors of Work-Family Role Conflict and Its Impact on Professional Women in Medicine, Engineering, and Information Technology in Nigeria. Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health, 28 (7): 629-637.

Zeoli, M. April., Rivera, A. Echo., Sullivan, M. Cris.& Kubiak, Sheryl. (2013). Post-Separation Abuse of Women and their Children: Boundary-Setting and Family Court Utilization among Victimized Mothers. Journal of Family Violence, 28(6): 547–560.





Comments

  1. Well said Dileepa. Austen J, (2004) also mentioned that women should be allowed to work due the possibilities of their spouses facing disease or being fired. Besides, married women cannot avoid the fatality of their husband. This is why women are strongly encouraged to be allowed to work is spite of encountering such difficulties.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Upeksha, Totally agree with the points you mentioned in my blog post. women who desire to play her role as a housewife and on the other we have educated, professional, talented, dashing women i.e. working women who want to make a career and work outside and earn to supplement their husband's income, to fulfill all her wishes or even to save for better future. There are many factors that motivate women
    to work or in other words, make her a working woman (Uzoigwe et al., 2004).

    ReplyDelete

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