Engidaw J Innov Entrep (2021) 10:43 Journal of Innovation and

https://doi.org/10.1186/s13731-021-00185-1
Entrepreneurship

RESEARCH Open Access

The effect of motivation on employee

engagement in public sectors: in the case
of North Wollo zone
Abriham Ebabu Engidaw*

*Correspondence:
Abrihamebabu@yahoo.com Abstract
Management Department, The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of intrinsic and extrinsic motiva-
Woldia University, Woldia,
Ethiopia tion on employee engagement in public sectors. To meet this purpose, a quantitative
and qualitative study survey was conducted and the researcher used an explanatory
survey research design. The study was used both primary and secondary sources of
data. The target population for this study was selected four city administrative office
employees including all kebeles office employees and as a sample size, 349 question-
naires were filled and collected from these employees. The study used proportionately
stratified with simple random sampling because to collect the relevant data and to
give equal chance for all employees. Later on, statistical package for social science
(SPSS) was used to the required test of inferential statistics; including reliability analy-
sis, bivariate correlation, analysis of variance (ANOVA) test, and multiple regression
analysis. The finding of the study revealed that extrinsic motivation was considered
more significant than intrinsic and there was a positive significant relationship between
intrinsic and extrinsic motivations with employee engagement. From the results, it was
also concluded that the relationship and effect of extrinsic motivation were stronger
on employee engagement as compared to intrinsic motivation. As a recommendation,
the organizations should find which ways are able to motivate employees, what drives
them, then making sure they utilize appropriate motivational techniques with each
employee. Managers should also endeavor to communicate the organization’s purpose
to employees. Finally, the organizations should take steps to incorporate the vision of
employees for the organization with its own vision.
Keywords: Motivation, Intrinsic motivation, Extrinsic motivation, Employee
engagement, Public sectors

Introduction
An unmotivated employee is likely to put little effort into work tasks, produce work
of lower quality, avoid the workplace, and even exit his or her job if given the oppor-
tunity to do so. On the other hand, motivated employees are likely to willingly take
on tasks, produce work of high quality, and be creative, persistent, and productive.
Employees motivation has two forms, intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation
arises from the intrinsic value of the work for the individual (for example, its interest

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Engidaw J Innov Entrep (2021) 10:43 Page 2 of 15

value), whereas, extrinsic motivation arises from the desire to obtain some outcomes
(for example, as rewards) that are apart from the work itself (Amabile, 1993). Each
and every person in an organization is motivated in a different manner. Workers’
motivation depends on many intrinsic and extrinsic factors like interesting work, job
appreciation, satisfaction, stress, job security, promotion and growth, rewards, work
environment, punishment and recognition etcetera (Palaniammal, 2013).
The main purpose of these motivating factors is to create an environment where
people are willing to work with zeal, initiative, interest, and enthusiasm, with a
high personal and group satisfaction, with the sense of responsibility, loyalty, and
confidence to achieve their personal as well as organizational goals (Palaniammal,
2013). Research has shown that there is a difference in strength between intrinsic
and extrinsic motivation on their relationship and impact on employee engagement.
Khan (2011) concluded that the relationship and impact of extrinsic motivation were
stronger on employee engagement as compared to intrinsic motivation.
According to Shuck (2010) employee engagement is an individual employee’s
cognitive, emotional, and behavioral state directed toward desired organizational
outcomes. Recently, Rice (2012) defined engagement as full employee engagement
represents an alignment of maximum satisfaction for the individual with a maxi-
mum contribution for the organization’s success. The focus of all definitions was on
two things, employee satisfaction and contribution to organizational success.
According to different researchers’ study results, employee motivation can be
used to engage employees in their work in the organization. Beyond motivation, to
achieve success in today’s highly competitive environment many organizations have
identified the need to engage their workforce. Habte (2016) concluded that manag-
ers perceive intrinsic motivation have a larger influence on the psychological aspects
of employee engagement than extrinsic motivation. This supports the idea stated by
Berl and Williamson (1987) but still contradict with the finding of Iqbal and Khan.
When we see the above research findings: the study conducted by Khan (2013) is
contradicted with the findings of Habte (2016), Thomas (2009) and Khan (2011).
This study was carried out in four selected city administration office employees in
order to know and explain the effect of motivation on employee engagement. Basi-
cally, the researcher is initiated to conduct this study because based on his observa-
tion and preliminary investigation there is a problem of employees being motivated
and engaged in public sectors and the other reasons are first there is the inconsist-
ency of previous findings relating to this topic, second as the researcher’s knowl-
edge there are few studies conducted directly related to this topic specifically in our
country Ethiopia. So this study can try to fill these gaps. Based on the above research
problems the researcher developed the following research questions:

Objectives of the study

General objective
The main objective of this study was to identify the effect of motivation (intrinsic or
extrinsic) on employee engagement in public sectors in the case of selected zones.
Engidaw J Innov Entrep (2021) 10:43 Page 3 of 15

Specific objectives

1. To explain the effect of intrinsic motivation on employee engagement in selected city

administration employees.
2. To describe the effect of extrinsic motivation on employee engagement in selected
city administration office employees.
3. To identify which motivation factor (intrinsic or extrinsic) more significantly affects
employee engagement in the organization.
4. To examine the effect of overall motivation on employee engagement.

Literature reviews
Employee engagement
Employee engagement is defined as “harnessing of organizational members selves to
their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically,
cognitively and emotionally during role performance”, In other words, “individual
involvement and satisfaction as well as enthusiasm for work” Andrew (2012).
According to Kahn (1990, 1992, cited in Saks, 2006) job engagement means worker
should be psychologically available during the performance of the organizational role.
The organization is totally dependent on their employees; therefore, they need to
be engaged in their jobs. Engagement in the organization’s jobs enables employees
to make operations successful, as it runs with the mutual commitment of organi-
zations and employees. When organization employees will engage, they will use
their potential to drive high performance (provide better services and attract max-
imum customers). Engage employees are more dedicated and helping to maximize
the organization’s productivity. They are more likely to consider themselves as an
employer. Therefore, organizations should pay attention to the employee engagement
concept. Otherwise, it can be the biggest threat to the organization’s success. If the
organization’s management is not interested in engaging employees, consequently it
would lead to unsatisfactory beneficiaries and lose their customers (Andrew & Sofian,
2012).
From the theories and literature discussed above the researcher identified two
broad motivation factors called intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and these motiva-
tion factors are also identified as an independent variable because they have an effect
on the dependent variable, employee engagement, in one way or another.

Intrinsic motivation
According to Berl and Williamson (1987) intrinsic motivation is defined as the doing
of an activity for its inherent satisfactions rather than for some benefits. Intrinsic
motivation can be defined as the motivation to perform an activity in order to expe-
rience the pleasure and satisfaction inherent in the activity. They also further stated
intrinsic motivation focuses on factors inside the individual which are based on per-
sonal needs. Employees get intrinsic reward directly from the job they perform, job
Engidaw J Innov Entrep (2021) 10:43 Page 4 of 15

satisfaction, interesting work, job appreciation, or the sense they help a client, Intrin-
sic motivated workers employ in a job because of their own interest in it and enjoy
the job due to search for new solutions for business challenges and are more likely to
burn up energy to identify problems and find innovative solutions.
From the Khan (2013) findings, they concluded that managers perceive intrin-
sic motivation as generally having a larger influence on the psychological aspects
of employee engagement. They found that extrinsic motivation is of importance to
employee engagement, though to a lesser extent psychologically but rather as a part
of the total package that is offered to the employee by the organization and the man-
ager. Habte (2016) concluded that managers perceive intrinsic motivation have a
larger influence on the psychological aspects of employee engagement than extrin-
sic motivation. This conclusion leads to the next research hypothesis development on
this research:

Hypothesis 1 Intrinsic motivation has a positive significant effect on employee

engagement.

Extrinsic motivation
Extrinsic motivation is defined as a construct that pertains whenever an activity is
done in order to attain some separable outcome and refers to doing an activity sim-
ply for the enjoyment of the activity itself, rather than its instrumental value (Deci
& Ryan, 2008). Or it can be the rewards offered to employees as an encouragement
to engage in a behavior/task in which they cannot employ or “an employee is inner-
directed, is interested or fascinated with a task and engages in it for the sake of task
itself ” (Zhang, 2010). When organizations wanted to fulfill a task from employees,
they deal with monetary rewards and other tangible benefits. It referred to extrin-
sic rewards in motivational language. Management should know what motivates their
workers and manipulate motivational techniques based on employees ’s desires. This
would help organizations to recognize, educate and retain creative and productive
employees for their engagement. For organizations to be better products and to have
efficient performance, both extrinsic and intrinsic reward systems should be intro-
duced. The purpose of explaining motivation (extrinsic, intrinsic) is to identify which
motivation affects and has a relation with job engagement. Employees consider both
important factors for their job motivation but some employees consider it more in
line with extrinsic than intrinsic and vice versa (Zhang, 2010).
The study of Khan (2013) also concluded that the relationship and impact of extrin-
sic motivation were stronger on employee engagement as compared to intrinsic moti-
vation. Thomas (2009) saying about intrinsic motivation at work stated that intrinsic
rewards become more important and more prevalent in the workplace today. The
above review leads to the following research hypothesis:

Hypothesis 2 There is a positive significant effect relationship between extrinsic moti-

vation and employee engagement.
Engidaw J Innov Entrep (2021) 10:43 Page 5 of 15

Overall motivation and employee engagement

Khan (2013) conducted research on the relationship between work motivation (intrin-
sic and extrinsic) and employee engagement on Allied Bank of Pakistan. The finding
of the study revealed that there is a positive relationship between intrinsic motivation
and employee engagement, and extrinsic motivation and employee engagement. Four
intrinsic factors namely interesting work, job appreciation, satisfaction, and stress,
and four extrinsic factors namely job security, good wages, promotion and growth,
and recognition were identified as important factors for engagement. The study con-
cluded that there is a positive relationship between intrinsic motivation and employee
engagement, and extrinsic motivation and employee engagement. Furthermore, it is
also concluded both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation has a strong positive impact on
employee engagement.
Aworemi (2011) conducted research on the motivational factors of employees and
their influence on employee engagement Nigeria and Marginson (1991) conducted
research on academic salaries: will award restructuring make a difference in employ-
ees’ engagement? And many researchers raised many issues and get different findings
of motivational factors for employee engagement. By considering these reviews the
researcher developed the next hypothesis:

Hypothesis 3 There is a positive significant effect relationship between overall motiva-

tion and employee engagement.

Empirical literature review

Khan and Iqbal (2013) study concluded that there is positive relationship between
intrinsic motivation and employee engagement, and extrinsic motivation and
employee engagement. Furthermore, it is also concluded both intrinsic and extrin-
sic motivation has strong positive impact on employee engagement. The study also
concluded that the relationship and impact of extrinsic motivation was stronger on
employee engagement as compared to intrinsic motivation.
Bergstrom and García (2016) studied the influence of intrinsic and extrinsic moti-
vation on employee engagement in private and public organizations. However the
study focused on the perceptions of managers “not employees”. From the findings
study they concluded that managers perceive intrinsic motivation as generally having
a larger influence on the psychological aspects of employee engagement. They found
that extrinsic motivation is of importance to employee engagement, though to a lesser
extent psychologically but rather as a part of the total package that is offered to the
employee by the organization and the manager. Thomas (2009) saying about intrinsic
motivation at work, stated that intrinsic rewards become more important and more
prevalent in the workplace today.
Habte (2016) concluded that managers perceive intrinsic motivation have a larger
influence on the psychological aspects of employee engagement than extrinsic moti-
vation. This supports the idea stated by Bergstrom and García (2016) but still contra-
dict with the finding of Iqbal and Khan.
Engidaw J Innov Entrep (2021) 10:43 Page 6 of 15

Michael (2008) conducted study on using motivational strategy as solution for

employee retention and turnover in both public and private sector organizations in
South Africa and the researchers used training and development, recognition, reward,
a competitive salary package and job security as motivational factors. Kassa (2015)
in his research on motivation and its effect on employee retention in Ambo Mineral
Water Factory, stated that employees are highly motivated with reward motivational
factors and are less motivated with interesting work and training and development
and working environment motivational factors.
Owusu (2012) conducted research on the effects of motivation on employee perfor-
mance of commercial bank in Ghana and the researcher used salary, fringed benefits,
promotion, and loans as motivational factors. Pessaran and Tavakoli (2011) conducted
research on identifying the employees’ motivation of Parsian hotels in Tehran and the
study used salary, security, working condition, status, achievement, recognition, growth
and advancement, work itself and responsibility as motivational factors.

Conceptual framework
After reviewing the relevant concepts and theories of motivation (intrinsic, extrinsic)
and employee engagement mentioned in this chapter, the conceptual framework of the
study has been developed as shown in the following figure (Fig. 1).

Research methodology
To achieve this study’s purpose, the researcher has used an explanatory survey research
design, and also quantitative and qualitative study survey was employed. Standard close-
ended questionnaires were used as a survey tool. The study was used both primary and
secondary sources of data. The target population for this research was four city admin-
istrative office employees including all kebeles office employees and 349 questionnaires
were collected from employees. The study used proportionate stratified with simple
random sampling because to collect the relevant data and to give equal chance for all
employees.
Since the organization under the study has four city administrations in different area.
The sample was drawn from all city administrative offices proportionally as follows
(Table 1).
After the proper data collection, coding, and organization, the study data were ana-
lyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Under the descriptive statistics, mean
and standard deviation are used and bivariate correlation was used to see whether the

Table 1 Sample proportion of respondents

No City admins No of employees Percentage/proportion Sample size
(%)

1 Lalibela 725 26.95 94

2 Woldia 1076 40 140
3 Kobo 574 21.34 74
4 Mersa 315 11.71 41
Total 2690 100 349
Source: Organization documents
Engidaw J Innov Entrep (2021) 10:43 Page 7 of 15

independent variables (intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation) have a relationship

with the dependent variable (employee engagement). To determine the effect of inde-
pendent variables (intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation) on the dependent vari-
able (employee engagement) multiple linear regression analyses were used.

Measurements of variables
The independent variables for this study are intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motiva-
tion whereas the dependent variable was employee engagement. The researcher used
standardized close-ended and some open-ended questionnaire instruments for collect-
ing the primary sources of data. Questionnaires concerning employee engagement used
are adapted from Gallup’s 12 standard questionnaires on the other hand questionnaires
regarding intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is adopted from Khan (2013) Five-point
Likert-Style rating scale was deployed in order to know the employees level of agree-
ment on the effect of motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic) and employee engagement. The
questionnaire has three parts; the first part is about demographic variables, the second
part was about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and the last part also about employee
engagement. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation have 8 items each and employee engage-
ment had 12 items and both are used five-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disa-
gree (1) to strongly agree (5).

No Items used to measure variables

1 I am interested in my work
2 Organizational management is making the work interesting by introducing unique job contents
3 I often receive appreciation for good work
4 Feedback on my job performance from the organization persuades me for more hard work
5 Working for the organization give me a sense of satisfaction
6 Considering everything I am satisfied with my job
7 Heavy work load and long working hours make me exhausted
8 I work below the level of my competences
(Extrinsic motivation)
9 Job security will give me a sense of engagement in my job
10 Insecurity of job may add low quality to my work
11 My salary is satisfactory in relation to what I do
12 I earn the same as or more than other people in a similar job
13 I am getting promotion on fairly basis
14 My organization provides me training that enable me to learn new things
15 Recognition is an effective method for employee motivation
16 I often get bonuses for good work
Employees engagement
17 I know what is expected of me at work
18 I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right
19 At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day
20 In the last 7 days, I received recognition or praise for doing good work
21 My supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person
22 There is someone at work who encourages my development
23 At work, my opinions seem to count
24 The mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important
25 My co-workers committed to doing quality work
26 I have a best friend at work
Engidaw J Innov Entrep (2021) 10:43 Page 8 of 15

No Items used to measure variables

27 In the last 6 months, someone at work talked to me about my progress
28 This last year, I had opportunities at work to learn and grow

Results
Discussion
The study was aimed at analyzing the effect of motivation on employee engagement at
selected city administration offices. The dependent variable employee engagement and
independent variables extrinsic and intrinsic motivation mean score was comparatively
moderate. This points out that the greater part of respondents has a minor agreement on
all measures. And also it shows that there was not a problem of multi co linearity, nor-
mality, and linearity in the study variables.
Based on the Table 2 result, the Pearson product-moment correlation analysis result
showed that there is a moderate positive and significant relationship between intrinsic
motivation and employee engagement at .329 and sig .000. This implied if the intrinsic
motivation for the employees is increased it will also increase their engagement level.
Lower employee intrinsic motivation will also lower their engagement level. The results
of bivariate correlation confirmed that there is a moderate positive significant relation-
ship between extrinsic motivation and employee engagement at .444 and sig level of
.000. This implied if the extrinsic motivation for the employees is increased it will make
significant positive changes in employee engagement. By lowering employee extrinsic
motivation, employee engagement will also be lower. The study result showed that there
was a moderate positive relationship between overall motivation and employee engage-
ment. Also, extrinsic motivation had a more moderate positive relation with employee
engagement as compared to intrinsic motivation.
Table 3 multiple regression analysis results portray that R square is .252 and adjusted
R square is .248. This implied that 24.8% variation in employee engagement is explained
by motivation in selected city administrations. In addition, the significance value of F
statistics indicates a value .000 and it was less than p < .05 so that it means the model was
significant enough.
Also based on Table 4 result, multiple linear regression analysis results also confirmed
that intrinsic motivation has a positive significant effect on employee engagement with
the unstandardized Beta value of (.249, sig. level .000). As a result, the regression coef-
ficient clarifies the average amount of change in employee engagement was affected by a
unit of change in intrinsic motivation.
Regression analysis results also confirmed that extrinsic motivation had also a moder-
ate positive significant effect on employee engagement. Since the beta value is .389 with
a significance level of .000. Also, the result of extrinsic motivation showed it had a more
moderate positive significant effect on employee engagement as compared to intrinsic
motivation.
Furthermore, regression analysis was used to find out the effect of motivation on
employee engagement. The result of the model summary from regression analysis indi-
cated that overall motivation has a moderately positive effect on employee engagement.
Engidaw J Innov Entrep (2021) 10:43 Page 9 of 15

As a result, the regression coefficient clarifies the average amount of change in employee
engagement was affected by a unit of change in motivation. The finding of the study indi-
cated that intrinsic motivation has a highly significant effect on employee engagement
compared to extrinsic motivation.
Based on open-ended questions feedback in the mentioned offices promotion and other
related benefits are based on the strength of relationship with administers, there is a high
shortage of working materials, there is no clear authority and responsibility delegation, no
attractive work environment, no clear plan is prepared, fairness problem, high workload
with unsatisfactory incentive and salary, there is the unnecessary intervention of manag-
ers at work, even superiors are not punctual and their incompetency/low problem-solving
ability, some employees are hired on the unrelated job with their profession. Additionally,
payments are not delivered on time, availability of hostile attitude, no motivational pack-
ages are available in those offices, customers’ poor discipline and others are things leading
to be demotivated at their work and other related problems are available on those offices.

Comparison of the result of this study with the result of previous researches
As mentioned in the literature reviewed, the study of Christian et al. (2011) and Chalofsky
and Krishna (2009) suggested that there was link between work engagement and motiva-
tional factors. Kahn (1990) and May et al. (2004) also relate employee engagement to moti-
vation. Fairlie (2011) and Macey and Schneider (2008) pointed out that an investigation
is required to find the link between work motivation and employee engagement. Thomas
(2009) saying about intrinsic motivation at work, stated that intrinsic rewards become
more important and more prevalent in the workplace today. Habte (2016) concluded
that managers perceive intrinsic motivation have a larger influence on the psychological
aspects of employee engagement than extrinsic motivation. Hence the finding of this study
also supports these previous findings and also it contradicted with Habte (2016) finding.

Conclusions of the study

The study also examined the effect of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on employee
engagement. Four hypothesis questions were tested to answer the research question and
fulfilled the research purpose. To achieve this objective, a quantitative and qualitative
study survey was conducted and the researcher used an explanatory survey research
design. A Standard close-ended questionnaire was used as a survey tool. The study
was used both primary and secondary sources of data. The target population for this
study was selected four city administrative office employees including all kebeles office
employees) and as a sample size, 349 questionnaires were filled and collected from these
employees. The study used proportionately stratified with simple random sampling
because to collect the relevant data and to give equal chance for all employees. Later on,
statistical package for social science (SPSS) software was used for the required test of
inferential statistics; including reliability analysis, bivariate correlation, analysis of vari-
ance (ANOVA) test, and multiple regression analysis. From the findings of the research,
it is concluded by answering the research questions and there is a significant positive
relationship between intrinsic motivation at .329 and sig .000 and employee engage-
ment and there is a positive significant relationship between extrinsic motivation and
employee engagement at .444 and sig level of .000.
Engidaw J Innov Entrep (2021) 10:43 Page 10 of 15

Findings of multiple regressions analysis portray that that intrinsic motivation has a posi-
tive significant effect on employee engagement with the unstandardized Beta value of (.249,
sig. level .000). As a result, the regression coefficient clarifies the average amount of change
in employee engagement was affected by a unit of change in intrinsic motivation. So that
the decision rule in this research’s first hypothesis is to accept the alternative hypothesis.

Hypothesis 1 Intrinsic motivation has a positive and statically significant effect on

employee engagement at (Beta value of .249, sig. level .000). So the decision is to accept
the alternative hypothesis and reject null hypothesis.

And also the regression analysis results confirmed that extrinsic motivation had also
a moderate positive significant effect on employee engagement. Since the beta value is
.331 with a significance level of .000. Also, the result of extrinsic motivation showed it
had a more moderate positive significant effect on employee engagement as compared
to intrinsic motivation. Based on the above study result the decision is to accept the
alternative hypothesis and reject the null hypothesis of hypothesis two.

Hypothesis 2 There is a positive significant effect relationship between extrinsic motiva-

tion and employee engagement at the beta value of .331 with a significance level of .000.
So the decision is to accept the alternative hypothesis and to reject the null hypothesis.

When we test hypothesis three, the study revealed that there exists a positive signifi-
cant relationship between both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and employee engage-
ment. There was also sufficient evidence to conclude that in addition to these relationships
successful motivational factors (intrinsic and extrinsic) had positive effects on employee
engagement in selected city administration office employees. Hence, for the management
to stimulate employees’ motivation and also to improve the level of staff works engage-
ment, greater efforts must be placed on the two perceived motivating factors. In addition,
as the open-ended question result, there is a low motivation with weak employees’ engage-
ment at work in those offices. So the decision is to accept the alternative hypothesis.

Hypothesis 3 There is a positive significant effect relationship between overall motiva-

tion and employee engagement. The decision is to accept the alternative hypothesis and
to reject the null hypothesis.

Limitation of the study

In this study, the independent variables, intrinsic and extrinsic motivations were
explained only 24.8% of the variation in employee engagement, but the other 75.2% were
explained by other factors that were not included in this study. So, future studies could
examine the rest variables which can explain the variation in employee engagement.
The study was only focused on four city administration office employees. Therefore,
future researchers relating to this topic should assess in a wider and larger scope to
include other private organizations and increase the generalizability of the study.
Engidaw J Innov Entrep (2021) 10:43 Page 11 of 15

Besides this study, a comparative study could be done to know what the difference is
available in different sectors relating to this topic. And another limitation is the research
variable taken is subject to the understanding and knowledge of the researcher.

Recommendations
Recommendations for policy and practice
The study result shows that employees of selected city administrations were moti-
vated by both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations but they were more motivated by
intrinsic motivation factors than extrinsic ones. So the management of those offices
should give relevant attention to these factors to stimulate the employee’s engage-
ment while developing and or revising strategies and policies for their organization.
The management and policymakers of selected city administrations should use rigor-
ous efforts in encouraging employees intrinsic and intrinsic motivation for better work
engagement by creating an attractive work atmosphere and satisfaction, provide appre-
ciation for good performers, moreover the management should also increase employees
extrinsic motivation by creating job security, provided promotion and growth, benefits,
and good salary, give appropriate reward and recognition for employees, provide oppor-
tunities to some form of ownership, as well as increased responsibility and authority.
The organization should find which ways are able to motivate employees, what
drives them, then making sure they utilize appropriate motivational techniques with
each employee. Managers should also endeavor to communicate the organization’s
purpose to employees. Finally, the organizations should take steps to incorporate the
vision of employees for the organization with his or hers own vision. This will moti-
vate employees to engage and contribute to the organization’s goals.
These offices should give a fair promotion and other related benefits, solve the shortage
of working material problems, should set clear authority and responsibility delegation,
create an attractive work environment, clear work plan to be prepared, minimize work-
load and make satisfactory incentive and reward based on their performance, avoid the
unnecessary intervention of managers at work, solve unpunctuality problem and could
improve managers skill by developmental programs to make them more experienced,
some employees are hired on the unrelated job with their profession so review and cor-
rect this issue are better. Additionally, payments should to deliver on time, motivational
packages should present in those offices, and also to increase employees engagement the
office should facilitate short term and long term work-related training, perform periodic
performance appraisal, make supervision and control at work, reduce time management
problems and unpunctuality, prepare benefit package and equal reward systems, better
to make decision makings more participative and open to motivate employees or to cre-
ate a sense of ownership, should give induction pieces of training when new entrants
have joined the office, minimize the availability of corruption and unethical activities,
work to keep rule and regulations, try to solve the shortage of office facilities, better to
make a fast decision, and other related problems should be solved on those offices.
Generally, selected city administrations should communicate with employees regard-
ing how looks like their motivation and engagement, which things should be fulfilled
and the organizations management could assess more factors that are most important
to increase employees engagement at work and it should make important corrective
Engidaw J Innov Entrep (2021) 10:43 Page 12 of 15

actions, it will make employees more engaged, strengthen their relationship with the uni-
versity as well as it will make employees more motivated and loyal to the organization.

Implications of the study

Theoretical implications
This study can contribute to the existing literature in employees motivation, their
engagement at work and effective human resource management and identifies the ways
to satisfy/motivate these employees’ to increase organizational performance. Basically
my findings are aligned with those of other scholar’s works relating to this topic and are
important to show/provide interesting and recent perhaps promising areas to work on
under the recent world.

Practical implications
The actual result of the paper also provide recommendations for public organizations on
how to be more competitive through managing their employees, motivating them and
also through resilience and renewal different human resource management strategies,
and the researcher has also gave relevant recommendations for policymakers and other
concerned bodies as shown in above.

Suggestion for future study

The research was conducted from employees’ perspective only by using employees’
engagement. It should be interesting to consider from the perspective of managers by
using managers engagement.
The researcher conducted more of quantitative study; deep qualitative study could also
be adopted to validate the results of this study. Employees of government organizations
and none government organizations may motivate indifferent way, hence it should also
be interesting to study from perspective of employees of government organizations.
From the findings of the study it is concluded that the model which included intrinsic
motivation (IM) and extrinsic motivation (EM) explained only 25.2% of the variance of
employee engagement the rest 74.8% may be due to the other variables which were not
included in this study and left for further study.

Appendix
See Fig. 1 and Tables 2, 3 and 4.

Independent variables Dependent variable

Extrinsic
motivation
Employee

Engagement
Intrinsic
Motivation

Fig. 1 Conceptual framework

Engidaw J Innov Entrep (2021) 10:43 Page 13 of 15

Table 2 Correlations result

Employee Intrinsic Extrinsic Over all
engagement motivation motivation motivation

Employee engagement
Pearson correlation 1 .329** .444** .499**
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000
N 349 349 349 349
Intrinsic motivation
Pearson correlation .329** 1 .225** .733**
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000
N 349 349 349 349
Extrinsic motivation
Pearson correlation .444** .225** 1 .828**
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000
N 349 349 349 349
Over all motivation
Pearson correlation .499** .733** .828** 1
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000
N 349 349 349 349
Source: own survey, 2019
**
Correlation is significant at the .01 level (2-tailed)

Table 3 Model summary

Model R R Adjusted R Std. error of Change statistics
square square the estimate
R square F change df1 df2 Sig. F change
change

1 .502a .252 .248 .63446 .252 58.318 2 346 .000

Source: own survey, 2019
a
Predictors: (Constant), extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation

Table 4 Regression coefficients

Model Unstandardized coefficients Standardized t Sig
coefficients
B Std. error Beta

1
(Constant) 1.272 .181 7.021 .000
Intrinsic motivation .249 .049 .242 5.062 .000
Extrinsic motivation .331 .041 .389 8.156 .000
Source: own survey, 2019
Engidaw J Innov Entrep (2021) 10:43 Page 14 of 15

Abbreviations
SPSS: Statistical package for social science; ANOVA: Analysis of variance; IM: Intrinsic motivation; EM: Extrinsic motivation.

Acknowledgements
Not applicable.

Authors’ contributions
The author of this article is Abriham Ebabu Engidaw and the author read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding
There is no any funding information for this research.

Availability of data and materials

Not applicable.

Declarations
Ethics approval and consent to participate
The process under the study, all the materials used from primary and secondary source data were ethical. Informed
consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Consent for publication

The entire participant has consented to the submission of the paper to the journal for publication.

Competing interests
The author declare that there is no competing interest for this article.

Received: 2 February 2021 Accepted: 15 September 2021

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