Motivational Needs for Construction Industry Employees in Gulf Countries - Kuwait Case Study

Abstract

Kuwait is mentioned as one of multi-national workplaces. It is important to identify motivating factors that affect the workers in Kuwait construction workplaces. Maslow's hierarchy is the most common theory of motivation. Many studies investigated the application of Maslow's hierarchy in many places around the world. This study surveyed the motivational needs of employees working in the construction industry in Kuwait. A questionnaire designed to evaluate the motivation needs of employees for different public and private sector in Kuwait industry. Ten motivators were used to describe the five hierarchical levels derived from Maslow's theory. Relative Importance Index (RII) was used to identify motivational needs for different categorizes in Kuwait workplaces and rank them. This rank was compared with what is mentioned by Maslow. Comparison between motivational needs' levels was done to clarify the differences of these needs from gender, sector, level of organization and other categorizes. Spearman rank correlation was used to distinguish the difference between different surveyed categories ranking.