Why sticks and carrots are only for animals: An exploratory study on self-worth in higher education

Abstract

The question that needs to be asked is what is motivating employees at higher education institution and why do people act in the way that they do? This article sought to test the following statement: There exists within the context of higher education an organizational culture based on the premise of self worth. Various theories of motivation have delved into the issues of what makes some workers more motivated than others and what underlying processes are responsible for people’s feelings of self worth. This article draws on the works of Maslow, McClelland, Vroom, Hertzberg and other related literature, together with a quantitative study, using a site in a Higher Education institution to administer a survey to empirically test the above statement. The results from the survey allude to the interesting result that the culture of self worth based on the populations perception of feelings about themselves and achievement of something worthwhile was constant across a merger of the institution.