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MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2016 The essentiality of small businesses in South Africa, with its huge and still growing unemployment rate, cannot be overemphasised due to the fact that 55% of this country’s employees are employed by small businesses. The uniqueness of small businesses lies in the fact that they, due to their more flexible leadership styles, are able to provide services on a personal level that serve the needs of their clients. For surviving purposes, small businesses must however ensure that their employees – their greatest asset – remain productive throughout. A review of relevant literature provided proof of the importance of on-going employee motivation in order to achieve this goal, an aspect which is too often ignored by entrepreneurs. The aim of this research was, accordingly, to explore the motivation of employees in the Vaal Triangle and to establish which factors influence the motivation of employees in order to guide them towards improved productivity. After conducting an in-depth literature study, the core concepts such as entrepreneurship, motivation, work satisfaction and productivity in small businesses, was defined in chapter 2. The importance of employees in realising the small business’s objectives are furthermore discussed while emphasis is placed on the role of entrepreneurs to communicate such objectives to employees and even to allow them to be actively involved in setting mutual goals. In order to obtain the cooperation of employees and move them to realising set goals, both a contents approach (satisfying human needs) and a process approach (the processes and psychological motives influencing human behaviour) to motivation is investigated. The interrelationship between productivity and motivation as well as between productivity and work satisfaction is thereafter studied with reference to the influence of the working environment, management style, working conditions, active participation, stress and economic incentives on the behaviour of employees. Thereafter, the factors influencing the work satisfaction of employees are investigated. In order to answer the research question, namely to which extent and by following which processes can employees in small business be optimally motivated with regard to the improvement of their productivity without minimising their work satisfaction, an empirical research design was followed. The qualitative design, research strategy, population, methods to ascertain the sample as well as the use of semi-structured interviews as data collection method, is explained in chapter 3. The research data is comprehensively analysed and interpreted in chapter 4 in order to enable the researcher to make valid and reliable findings and recommendations pertaining to answering the research question in chapter 5 Masters |
