Proceedings of 10th Asia - Pacific Business and Humanities Conference
22 - 23 February 2016, Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
ISBN: 978-1-925488-00-5
Influence of the National Context for Work Motivation:
Comparative Study for Germany, Russia and Japan
Toshiko Suda
Abstract
This study compares the motivational factors behind work in Germany, Russia and Japan.
Previous studies have found that many aspects of work, such as history, culture and
institutional frameworks, are different in the three countries. There are two main objectives
of this study: to identify differences in motivational factors among the three countries and
to analyze why particular types of motivational factors were established in each country;
based on many variables, such as history, culture and institutional frameworks.
This study used surveys as the data gathering method. The subjects of the survey were
business school students in Germany, Russia and Japan, and the questions asked in the
survey were on significant benefits that the respondents expected to accrue from working.
The study was administered from 2013 to 2014 in Germany and Russia, and from 2014 to
2015 in Japan. The study gathered 258 samples: 54 in Germany, 104 in Russia and 100
in Japan. The data were then statistically analyzed. The main methods used were “Factor
Analysis”, “ANOVA (analysis of variance)” and “Multiple Analysis”.
The Factor Analysis extracted four key factors: “human resource development through the
job”, “good benefits and welfare programs”, “both public and private involvement with
society” and “flexible working schedule”. The points for each factor in the three countries
were then extracted through factor analysis and were analyzed by ANOVA and Multiple
Comparison. As a result of the ANOVA, statistically significant levels of differences were
found for all four factors. The Multiple Comparison revealed more concrete differences
between the three countries. For example, for the factor of “human resource development
through the job”, which can be considered as a form of intrinsic motivation, Russian data
indicated very low levels compared with the German and Japanese data; the German and
Japanese data showed similar levels.
Track: Management
______________________
Prof. Dr. Toshiko Suda, Graduate School of International Management, Aoyama Gakuin University,
Japan, Tel: 81-3-3409-8463, Fax: 81-3-3409-4167, Email: tsuda@gsim.aoyama.ac.jp