A study on the factors influencing motivation of selected district level public officials in Bangladesh

Abstract

In the context of strikingly limited research on the causes of inefficiency of civil servants and the motivational status of public officials in Bangladesh, the main objectives of this study are to identify and trace the factors (as well as their manifestations) which influence the motivational level of the district level civil servants. The relevant literature was reviewed to develop an analytical framework and selected theories of motivation and job dissatisfaction, job satisfaction (especially content and process theories) were applied to analyses the collected data for this study. In this research de-motivating factors and motivational status of the civil service were measured by twelve independent variables i.e. (1) Inadequate salary, (2) Lack of standardization in promotion system, (3) Lack of standardization in posting, (4) Lack of effective career planning, (5) Inadequate emphasis on innovation, (6) Lack of political commitment and long term vision regarding civil service, (7) Unsupportive working environment, (8) Negative political pressure, (9) Lack of subject specific training, (10) Nepotism, (11) Partisan influence and (12) Lack of integrity. Primary and secondary data were used for the study. Primary data were collected through a survey with formal questionnaire. The secondary data were gathered from journals, books, reports, etc. The level of motivation and de-motivation was measured by a structured questionnaire. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) tools was used for data analysis. The results of the study indicate that the civil servants, who are now working at the District level, are moderately de-motivated. The most important factors responsible for de-motivating district level civil servants are inadequate salary, lack of standardization in promotion system, lack of standardization in posting system, lack of effective career planning, inadequate emphasis on innovation and lack of political commitment and long term vision regarding civil service. This study also showed that the factors negative political pressure and nepotism have a strong significant relationship with the overall de-motivation of district level civil servants in Bangladesh. One interesting and encouraging findings is that all respondents noted that they were motivated by such factors to join the civil service as desire to serve the people, prestigious job, job security, social status of the job rather than to earn money. Moreover, most of the respondents opined that nepotism and negative political pressure were xvi significantly responsible for inefficiency of civil service and because of these factors the civil servants often could not take any free and faire decision. The results of this study provide an insight into the broader picture of the motivational status of civil servants working at the district level in Bangladesh and may assist the relevant policy formulation process towards enhancing staff motivation which in turn may improve civil officials’ efficiency as well as service delivery. Further research is needed especially to investigate into the potential relationships and effects of the variables studied in this research and other extraneous variables.