Does higher remuneration equal higher job performance?: An empirical assessment of the need-progression proposition in selected need theories

Abstract

Improving employee job performance is central to almost all management activity. To this end, the need theories of motivation have been the foundation of many interventions to increase employee job performance. Important elements of these theories, especially the progressive satisfaction of needs from lower-order to higher-order needs and the impact thereof on behavioural outcomes on different organisational levels, have been questioned. This uncertainty has implications for what strategies managers would explore to eliminate need deficiencies on the different organisational levels to motivate employees. In assessing the influence of need satisfactions on various behavioural outcomes in previous studies, regression analysis was used to statistically analyse the data. This technique identifies significant correlations, but not causal relationships among variables. It has been suggested that the identification of a causal link between the satisfaction of various needs and behavioural outcomes could shed more light on the motivation of behaviour. In the present study a more advanced technique - structural equation analysis - that identifies what variable causes a certain outcome, is used to measure the influence of various need satisfactions on performance intentions. The empirical results support the need-progression proposition, because the influence of need satisfaction on performance intentions is not the same for employees at different organisational levels.