Job Characteristics Model of Hackman and Oldham is an established tool that helps calculate the Motivating Potential Score (MPS) used in understanding the extent to which employees are motivated in their workplace from different perspectives. High MPS indicates positive work outcomes like high motivation, high employee satisfaction, high performance, low absenteeism, low turnover, etc. In human resource management, a motivating potential score (MPS) is used to track the perceived mental state of the workforce towards their jobs. Understanding this score is vital for both HR and line managers in decision-making. So it has become a part of regular action research by business professionals. This study measures the MPS of government primary school teachers while considering different dimensions of workforce diversity like- academic qualification, educational background, level of experience, gender. The established formula for calculating MPS has been used here. A total of 100 school teachers working in different state-run primary schools of Bangladesh have been considered as respondents of this study. The study finds an overall MPS of 69.78 out of a maximum possible score of 125. However, the study does not show any significant change in MPS due to the presence of workforce diversity. Rather, it shows a moderate level of MPS for all. Policy makers and government officials working for workforce improvement of the primary schools can use these findings to take further steps, though a moderate score may indicate that they have already done a lot to develop the index. Similar studies considering a better sample size might provide better insights and help in decision-making. Moreover, since ensuring quality education is one of the pillars of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations, this research is expected to be a good contribution in this regard as the ultimate intention of the study is related to ensuring quality education through skilled, motivated, engaged, and dedicated teachers.
The formal education system of Bangladesh has been classified into three major categories which are Pri-mary, Secondary, and Higher Education. Receiving primary education was made compulsory through for-mulating ‘Primary Education (Compulsory) Act, 1990: Act No. 27 of 1990 (Directorate of Primary Edu-cation, 2021). This is why government is trying its level best to ensure primary education for all children regardless their soci-economic, demographic and geo-graphic status. For Bangladeshi people, government owned primary schools are the desirable institutions for receiving primary education, and it has covered a great portion. At present, there are around 65,620 government primary schools in Bangladesh where about 1,41,00,445 students are enrolled and around 3,56,366 teachers are employed (Rahman 2021; Bang-ladesh Bureau of Statistics, 2021).
Arnon and Reichel, (2007) found that students per-ceive individual qualities which include attitude toward profession, kindness, leadership, and expert knowledge which include knowledge of the subject matter and didactic knowledge as the substantial qualities for a perfect academic staff. The skilled tea-ching staff is a prerequisite to ensure quality education (Rashid, 2019). Quality education in schools cannot be ensured without improving teaching quality and faci-lities (Birdsall et al., 2006). Quality education depends mostly on the qualification and competency of the teachers. A friendly atmosphere for teachers with posi-tive support, effective training, career development chances, good remuneration, and necessary facilities can help attract and retain quality teachers in the school (Joshi, 2018). Emphasizing quality academic staff to ensure quality education, Bangladeshi Educat-ion Minister Dr. Dipu Moni indicated the govern-ments initiative to arrange local and international training for teachers to enhance teaching quality and make them better prepared for the classroom (Daily Sun, 2019). Quality education helps prevailing equity in society and contributes to economic and social development.
Aristotle developed a theory related to motivation which is connected to the ongoing perception process of controlling outcomes (Dilts, 1994). Hackman and Oldham directed a Job Diagnostic Survey based on the Job Characteristics Theory (JCT) in 1974 and it is used as a tool for measuring assessment of job satisfaction. It is the most prominent, appropriate, and broadly accepted theory in the area of organizational behavior. Consequently, in 1975, a well-organized model was used by them for performing the work design. The motivating potential score has been measured using the established components namely- skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback (Hackman and Oldham, 1974). From the literature and scholarly statements, it can be decided that quality education mostly depends on the quality of teachers who are responsible for creating the next generations as human capital. So, their level of motivation is a matter of concern in this regard. In this paper, the focus has been given to the teaching staff by linking their motivation with their background that may help the policymakers to think from a human resource man-agement point of view.
Literature Review
Workforce Diversity
Diversity creates a heterogeneous workforce. Work-force diversity refers to the similarities in contrast to the differences among employees based on their age, physical abilities and disabilities, cultural background, professional qualification, religion, gender, race, sex-ual orientation, and so on. A diverse workforce feels contented collaborating with different perspectives and offers a larger pool of thoughts and experiences (Saxena, 2014). People are different from one another because of diversity (Gomez-Mejia et al., 2007). Work-force diversity remains in the employees be-cause different socio-cultural backgrounds work in an ins-titution. Diversity is based on age, religion, sexual orientation, values, beliefs, national origin, disability, economic status, ethnic culture, language, physical appearance, etc (Wentling & Plma, 2000).
Motivating Potential Score (MPS)
Hackman and Oldham established the ‘Job Chara-cteristics Theory in the mid-1970s. Since then this model has widely been used around the globe in meas-uring employees perception towards their jobs based on a standard formula. In this theory, they emphasized five basic dimensions that affect motivation and assess the fulfillment of the job characteristics of the staff. These dimensions are- i) skill variety, ii) task identity, iii) task significance, iv) autonomy, and v) feedback. Moreover, Motivating Potential Score (MPS) is com-bined with five core dimensions which creates a single index for a job (Yaverbaum and Culpan, 2011).
Factors of the Five Core Dimensions for Measuring MPS
Five core dimensions of the formula for measuring motivating potential scores have been discussed below based on the statements of different scholars.
Skill variety
Skill variety denotes the degree to which a member of staff needs to use a variety of knowledge, skills, and talents for performing his/her duties, tasks, and res-ponsibilities (Price & Muller, 1986). Employees ex-perience meaningless tasks with the absence of skill variety in work. Employees are not interested to do the job when it is monotonous and repetitive, and it turns to boredom (Kemboi et al., 2013; Pee, 2011). The job contains diversified work activities that challenge the workers skills and abilities (Luthans, 2011).
Task identity
Task identity refers to the degree to which a job needs to complete. It denotes the fulfillment of the whole work or a distinct piece of work (Lunenburg, 2013). Employees do the job from first to last, at the same time outcomes must be visible and tangible. Conse-quently, it is crucial to point out the clearly defined beginning, middle, and end of the task. The job be-comes meaningful when employees are attached to the whole process of the work. Hackman and Oldham, (1975) pointed out that task identity generates a sense of duty to complete the task and it works as a moti-vating driver. Coelho and Augusto, (2010) explained that task identity motivates the employee to do the work smartly when they feel that job is meaningful and worthwhile.
Task significance
Hackman and Oldham, (1974) indicated that task significance is the degree to which the work has a significant impact on other people. The impact can be in the internal or the external environment of the organization. A job becomes meaningful if it can help to enhance the psychological or physical well-being of other people. Staffs awareness about their job respon-sibilities and their performance creates a positive impact on others and motivates them to do better (Lynton & Pareek, 2000).
Autonomy
Autonomy refers to the degree to which a job provides liberty, authority for scheduling the work, and deter-mine which procedure is to be used to continue the task (Hackman and Oldham, 1974). Job autonomy creates the opportunity that enables staff to break out of a routine and use new work procedures for doing the task (Wang et al., 2011). With the help of autonomy, employees are efficient to explore innovative ideas and learn from the consequences like failures and succe-sses at work, and with the help of relevant skills, they can expand their domain (Coelho & Augusto, 2010).
Feedback
Feedback is well-defined by Hackman and Oldham, (1974) as the degree to which employees receive clear, specific, direct, and detailed information regarding the effectiveness of their task. Hellriegel and Slocum, (2011) indicated that job feedback provides the staff the right direction and clear information regarding the efficiency of an individuals performance. Feedback helps employees to monitor progress based on their tasks and responsibilities and it can be reviewed on a daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis (Kemboi et al., 2013). Hackman and Oldham built the Job Diag-nostic Survey (JDS) which is used to assess the employees perception of their jobs. Job Diagnostic Survey is used for detecting and identifying the weak points that show the effect of employees performance and effectiveness (Casey & Robbins, 2009).
Source: Hackman and Oldham, 1975
MPS is calculated by summing up skill variety, task identity, and task significance and divide it into three, after getting the average it is multiplied by autonomy, and feedback (Hussein et al., 2016). This formula is used for a job record in the lowest score value 1 = (1×1×1), expressing the lowest dimension of moti-vation potential and a job record in the highest score value 343 = (7×7×7), expressing the highest dimension of motivation potential (Weaver, 2008). A five-point Likert scale has been used for measuring the value of MPS in this study. Therefore, the highest possible score value 125 = (5x5x5), expresses the highest di-mension of motivation potential, and the lowest score value 1 = (1x1x1), expresses the lowest dimension of motivation potential.
Workforce Diversity and Motivating Potential Score (MPS)
Gender, Age, Rank, Work Status, and Years of Service are the five factors that affect the diagnostic process of MPS (Hussein et al., 2016). In a study on the staff of Bangladeshi commercial banks, Rahman et al. (2014) identified educational qualification, remuneration, designation, work experience, marital status, gender, etc as the demographic factors which have a trivial influence on MPS. Bahrami et al. (2016) in their research showed that demographic characteristics of the study participants are presented in gender, marital status, education, and profession afterward present the descriptive findings of jobs with MPS.
Problems Statements
Ensuring quality education is one of the pillars of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations (SDGs-United Nations, 2021). Achieving quality education is not possible without quality teachers. Furthermore, the teachers are needed to be motivated enough in order to get the best out-comes from them as well as to attract talented people in this sector. This is why enough concentration has to be given by the decision makers in attracting and retaining highly motivated teachers in the educational institutes. In this regard, action researches have to be conducted in a regular basis in order to track and take corrective actions in motivating teachers. By analyzing the job circular for the post of Assistant Teacher of the government primary schools in Bangladesh, it has been found that the government recruits different kinds of academic staff which brings workforce diversity from different dimensions like gender, academic back-grounds, age, educational level, experience, and so on. Despite having differences in academic qualification, academic background, experience, etc. all of them are having an almost similar career path, environment, compensation structure where the difference in job output is not that much visible. This scenario generally does not support Adams ‘Equity Theory which sug-gests higher compensation, benefits, career path to the employees with higher competencies (Islam and Khan, 2000). Motivating Potential Score (MPS) based on the Job Characteristics Model (JCM) developed by Hack-man and Oldham is one of the widely used methods for measuring the level of motivation of the workforce. Hussein et al. (2016) measured the MPS of the faculty members of Lebanese International University using this model. Bahrami et al. (2016) and (Faraji et al., 2015) showed the relationship between Motivating Potential Score and employees organizational com-mitment. Similar researches have been conducted worldwide depicting the link between MPS and other variables. However, studies focusing on the relation-ship between the diversity of the workforce and moti-vating potential score (MPS) are very few. Moreover, no study has been found measuring the MPS of the academic staffs of the government primary schools of Bangladesh though concerned authority of the country should know the potential score of the diversified groups in order to take better policy to make them motivated and ensuring equity in compensation, pro-motion, career path, incentives, and other benefits.
Objectives of the Study
The general objective of the study is to measure the Motivating Potential Score (MPS) of the academic staff of government primary schools of Bangladesh and show the relative impact of workforce diversity on MPS. The overall objective will be obtained through the following specific objectives:
• To measure the condition of each of the dimen-sions of the motivating potential scores.
• To measure the MPS of the academic staff of dif-ferent gender.
• To measure the MPS of the academic staff of dif-ferent ages.
• To measure the MPS of the academic staff of dif-ferent experience levels.
• To measure the MPS of the academic staff having differences in institutional backgrounds.
• To measure the MPS of the academic staff of di-versified academic qualifications.
• To measure the MPS of the academic staff of di-versified academic backgrounds.
Research Design
This study is quantitative that demonstrates facts and Figure showing the motivating potential score in a measurement scale mentioned in the questionnaire section. A mathematical formula has been used in this study for measuring the MPS. For dealing with num-bers, the quantitative approach of study is justified as suggested by Zikmund et al. (2010).
Questionnaire Design
The study questionnaire has been divided into three segments namely demographic, workforce diversity, and the motivating potential score. For measuring the MPS (section 3), a five-point ‘Likert Scale has been used since here the perceived scores have been collect-ed against each of the job characteristics where these are originally qualitative but have been quantified (Hussein et al., 2016).
Population Size, Sample Size, and Sampling
According to a publication of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, (2021) under the Ministry of Planning, the total population of the study is the number of academic staff working in the government primary schools in Bangladesh which is 3,56,366. Sample size has been calculated using a table of sample size (Singh and Masuku, 2014) considering a 90% level of confidence and a 10% margin of error where the sample size is 100.
Data Collection and Analysis
The collected quantitative data have been organized and then analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software 16.0. The Motivating Poten-tial Score (MPS) of the academic staff has been calc-ulated using the formula mentioned in the literature review section. Then, the MPS score has been conver-ted into a percentage using a simple mathematical way that is- (MPS × 100)/125. Researchers have developed the following scale of classifying the MPS level based on Bahrami et al. (2016) where they classified the MPS score into three levels (poor, moderate, and good). In this study, five levels of MPS have been developed using the following scale.
Table 1: Scale Developed in the Current Study (Source: Scale developed in the current study.)
Table 1 represents a scale of measurement developed by the researchers of the current study which has been used to convert the MPS score into percentage. The maximum possible MPS score (125) has been classi-fied into five categories shown in the above table. Five score categories-1 to 25, 26 to 50, 51 to 75, 75 to 100, and 100 to 125 have been further denoted by Very Low, Low, Moderate, High and Very High respect-ively. This Table of measurement has been developed using researchers judgement in order to make the study results easily understandable to the readers. However, using the mean value of MPS might be sufficient to draw conclusions.
Demographic Analysis of the Respondents
Table 2: Respondents Profile (Source: Field Survey 2021)
Participants demographic characteristics are presented from the above Table 2 which includes gender, age, academic qualification, district, and location of the school. Among the respondents of the current study, 66% are male and rest 34% are female teachers work-ing in different government primary schools. Among the academic staff, 8% are below 30. The academic staff ages 30 to 35 made up 37 percent, 36 to 41 made up 41%, and ages above 42 made up 14 percent. The maximum academic degree of 10 percent of the teachers is HSC/Equivalent, 20 percent of the respondents hold Bachelor (Degree Pass), 40 percent of respondents hold Bachelor (Honors) and 21 percent of respondents have masters qualifications. 64 percent of the respondents belong to Khulna and 36 percent of the respondents belong to Dhaka while 60 percent of schools are located in the urban areas and 40 percent of schools are located in rural areas from where the data have been collected.
Condition of Each of the Dimensions of MPS
Table 3: Condition of Each of the Dimensions of MPS (Source: Field Survey 2021)
So using the formula of MPS mentioned earlier, the average Motivating Potential Score of the academic staff can be calculated as the following way-
Here, the Motivating Potential Score = (4.04+3.6 9+4.31)/3×4.20×4.14 = 69.78 which is the overall MPS of the respondents. In percentage, this will be (69.78×100)/125= 55.82%. This value of MPS shows that the overall Motivating Potential Score of the academic staff working in government primary schools is moderate.
The chart shows the mean value of each of the dimen-sions of MPS. Among the five dimensions, task signi-ficance carries the maximum mean value of 4.31 where the minimum value is carried by task identity (3.69). The mean value of skill variety, autonomy, and feedback are 4.04, 4.2, and 4.14 respectively. Mean values of all the dimensions except task identity are
between 4.00-5.00. In order to maximize the average MPS of the academic staff of the government primary schools, the policymakers should work towards in-creasing the task identity first.
Fig 1: Condition of Each of the Dimensions of MPS (Source: Field Survey 2021)
Gender-wise Motivating Potential Score of the Academic Staffs
Table 4: Gender-wise MPS (Source: Field Survey 2021).
The result shows that male and female teachers have MPS of 69.69 and 71.18 respectively. It indicates that female academic staffs have relatively greater MPS than that of males, though the difference is insigni-ficant. However, both male and female academic staffs possess a moderate level of motivating potential score.
Motivating Potential Score of the Academic Staffs of Different Ages
Table 5: MPS According to Ages (Source: Field Sur-vey 2021)
The above Table 5 reveals the MPS of the academic staff of different ages. Motivating potential score of academic staff within the age of 18-23 is low with a value of 47.64 which is much lower than that of aca-demic staff within the age of 30-35 with a value of 78.42. However, this result does not carry significance since there was only 1 respondent within the age group of 18-23. Academic staffs within other age groups have a moderate level of MPS.
Experience-wise Motivating Potential Score of the Academic Staffs
Table 6: Experience-wise MPS (Source: Field Survey 2021)
The above findings show that the motivating potential score of academics staff of all experience levels is moderate. It indicates that changes in the level of ex-perience MPS do not change significantly rather aca-demic staffs of all experience levels possess moderate MPS. However, there is a slight difference too. Aca-demic staff having 16-20 years of experience have relatively higher MPS than others. On the contrary, the minimum MPS value is represented by the academic staff within the experience level of 11-15 years.
Motivating Potential Score of the Academic Staffs of Different Institutional Backgrounds
Table 7: Institutional Backgrounds and MPS (Source: Field Survey 2021)
The study categorizes academic staff into three groups mentioned above. The Table shows that the academic staffs from the National/Open University background have a moderate level of MPS with a value of 59.61. On the other hand, the MPS of academic staff from Private University and Public University backgrounds
are 66.41 and 71.78 respectively. The result indicates that the academic staffs from public university back-grounds have relatively greater motivating potential scores than that of the other groups.
Academic Qualification-wise Motivating Potential Score
Table 8: Academic Qualification and MPS (Source: Field Survey 2021)
The above analysis shows that the academic staff, though having different levels of academic quailfic-ations, do not possess significant differences in moti-vating potential score; rather all of the categories have a moderate level of MPS. The above analysis rep-resents that the academic staff from HSC/ Equivalent qualified to have a moderate MPS score of 72.94. MPS of the academic staffs of Bachelor (Degree Pass) and Bachelor (Honors) qualified are 65.77 and 71.25 res-pectively. Masters qualified have also a moderate MPS mean of 73.00. However, a little difference in MPS has been observed here.
Academic Background-wise Motivating Potential Score of the Academic Staffs
Table 9: Academic Background and MPS (Source: Field Survey 2021)
The result shows that the academic staffs from science/ engineering backgrounds have a high level of MPS of 77.66. On the other side, the MPS of academic staff from arts and business backgrounds are 69.31 and 65.71 respectively. However, the difference in MPS level is not that much significant.
This study measures the motivating potential score of the diversified academic staffs of the government primary schools. This study expected to have a signi-ficant difference in MPS level due to diversity in the workforce which has not been found significantly true, rather the research finds a moderate level of MPS for all of the academic staffs. However, a little difference can be pointed out which is the academic staff within the age group of 30-35 have a higher level of MPS than others in the same category. Similarly, academic staffs from Science/Engineering backgrounds have greater MPS value than others. The study finds a moderate MPS of all of the academic staff which is 69.78 out of a maximum possible MPS value of 125. Among the five dimensions of MPS, the mean value of task identity is 3.69 which may be accountable for lowering the MPS value. Policymakers and responsible administration should track this score from time to time. They also need to focus on improving this value through carrying out proper initiatives of developing each of the dimensions of MPS. A nationwide further study can be conducted considering a greater sample size in order to have a deep understanding of the scenario.
The authors are grateful to the honorable primary school teachers who gave their valuable responses to complete the research.
The authors professed that there is no potential conflict of interest to publish this research paper.
Academic Editor
Dr. Sonjoy Bishwas, Executive, Universe Publishing Group (UniversePG), California, USA.
Assistant Professor, Human Resource Management Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna-9208, Bangladesh.
Islam SA, Shanjabin S, Zaman Z, and Nibir MMAM. (2021). Measuring motivating potential score of diversified academic staffs of the government primary schools in Bangladesh, Asian J. Soc. Sci. Leg. Stud., 3(5), 209-217. https://doi.org/10.34104/ajssls.021.02090217