Relationship Between Life Satisfaction And Work Motivation Among Nurses In Klang Valley

Research Objectives

Individuals sometimes feel positive towards their jobs and some other times towards their jobs. This feeling of positivity for the job of the individuals is known as work satisfaction. According to (Gagné et al., 2015) there are several factors that are responsible for this satisfaction. These factors include self-esteem, perceived sense of control, optimism and positive social relationships. In the presence of these factors, it is expected that the satisfaction for work increases (Pinder 2014). If there are lack of these factors in an individual, the dissatisfaction in work increases for that individual. In case of medical service industries, it is important that the workers work satisfactorily in their duties (Valero, Hirschi & Strauss, 2015). This is important to provide high quality medical care. The workers that have high satisfaction towards their work, provide work of better quality, can work more and take responsibilities for their work and the work environment (Mafini & Dlodlo, 2014). Thus, a healthcare sector must emphasize more on the work satisfaction of their employees as it might lead to reduction of cost of their services (Lee, Back & Chan, 2015). This research is mainly based on the relationship between life satisfaction and work motivation. The factors in this study is mainly based on the nurses in the Klang Valley. The four different components in which work satisfaction has been sub divided are positive Self-Esteem, Sense of perceived control, Optimism and Positive social relationships.

All these four attributes were considered for questioning the nurses in the Klang Valley. Combining all these four attributes, there were in total 35 questions. The respondents of this research were asked to rate the questions on a scale of 1 to 7, in which 1 indicates strongly disagree and 7 denotes strongly agree. Further the motivation towards their work is also rated by the nurses on a scale of 1 to 100. A questionnaire was prepared with all these questions and have been distributed to 107 nurses who were selected randomly from the government hospitals located in the Klang Valley. The research objectives of this study are provided in the following sections.

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It has been observed that there are differences across gender in terms of motivation towards work (Douglass, Duffy & Autin, 2016). Motivation in that case has been considered as the goals than an individual perceive in life (Lazaroiu, 2015). There can be various types of goals such as work avoidance goals, achievement goals and social goals. An individual having a goal to avoid work does not have much of motivation towards the work he or she is doing (Hochschild, 2015). There have been differences in this motive towards the gender as the choices differ across gender.

Research Questions

Thus, the null and the alternate hypothesis to test the differences in the work motivation of the nurses across gender can be stated as follows:

Null Hypothesis (H₀₁): There are no significant differences in the work motivation of the nurses in the Klang Valley across gender.

Alternate Hypothesis (H_A1): There are significant differences in the work motivation of the nurses in the Klang Valley across gender.

According to various analyses, it has been obtained that the motivation towards work is negatively impacted with the age of the employees (Prel, Hasselhorn & Borchart, 2018). Though, it has been concluded that the subject is open to more researches. The intensity of the employees in planning to leave an organization is highly dependent with the increase in the age of the employees (Akkermans et al., 2016). One of the studies concerned about 5000 employees in UK have found a U-shaped relationship between work satisfaction and employee age. This indicated that the motivation towards work of the employees are higher in the young and the old employees and is low for the middle aged employees (Feißel et al., 2018). Another study concluded that the older people have found their career path and are at the end of their service periods. Thus they become reluctant to work and have lesser work motivation (Herzberg, 2017). Based on all these concepts, the following null and alternate hypothesis has been framed.

Thus, the null and the alternate hypothesis to test the differences in the work motivation of the nurses across the age of the nurses can be stated as follows:

Null Hypothesis (H₀₂): There are no significant differences in the work motivation of the nurses in the Klang Valley across the age of the nurses.

Alternate Hypothesis (H_A2): There are significant differences in the work motivation of the nurses in the Klang Valley across the age of the nurses.

The null and alternate hypothesis to ascertain where there exists any significant relationship between the four dimensions of life satisfaction of the nurses such as “Positive Self Esteem”, “Sense of Perceived Control”, “Optimism”, and “Positive Social Relationships” with the work motivation of the nurses, has been framed as follows:

Null Hypothesis (H₀₃): There are no significant relationships between the dimensions of life satisfaction of the nurses such as “Positive Self Esteem”, “Sense of Perceived Control”, “Optimism”, and “Positive Social Relationships” with the work motivation of the nurses.

Alternate Hypothesis (H_A3): There are significant relationships between the dimensions of life satisfaction of the nurses such as “Positive Self Esteem”, “Sense of Perceived Control”, “Optimism”, and “Positive Social Relationships” with the work motivation of the nurses.

Factors Affecting Work Satisfaction of Nurses

The null and alternate hypothesis to ascertain the extent of prediction that the four dimensions of life satisfaction of the nurses such as “Positive Self Esteem”, “Sense of Perceived Control”, “Optimism”, and “Positive Social Relationships” can give for the work motivation of the nurses, has been framed as follows:

Null Hypothesis (H₀₄): The four dimensions of life satisfaction such as of the nurses such as “Positive Self Esteem”, “Sense of Perceived Control”, “Optimism”, and “Positive Social Relationships” is not efficient in predicting the motivation towards the nurses in the Klang Valley.

Alternate Hypothesis (H_A4): The four dimensions of life satisfaction such as of the nurses such as “Positive Self Esteem”, “Sense of Perceived Control”, “Optimism”, and “Positive Social Relationships” is quite efficient in predicting the motivation towards the nurses in the Klang Valley.

The hypothesis stated in the section previously involves the application of necessary statistical techniques. In this study, the data was collected from 107 nurses who are working in the government hospitals in the Klang Valley. Their responses to the questionnaire prepared were considered as data for this assignment. Thirty-five questions were there in the questionnaire that represented all the four attributes. The responses to the questions relating to each of the attributes were transformed into one variable by considering the average of the responses by each individual on each of the questions. Thus, the main analysis was performed on the transformed variables. In the questionnaire, question 1 to question 7 indicated the measures of positive self esteem of the participants. The average of the responses from each individual for each of the seven questions was considered to represent the variable “Positive Self Esteem”. Question 8 to question 17 indicated the measures of the senses of perceived control of the participants. The average of the responses from each individual for each of the ten questions was considered to represent the variable “Sense of Perceived Control”. Question 18 to question 25 indicated the measures of optimism of the participants. The average of the responses from each individual for each of the eight questions was considered to represent the variable “Optimism”. Finally, question 26 to question 35 indicated the measures of the positive social relationships of the participants. The average of the responses from each individual for each of the ten questions was considered to represent the variable “Positive Social Relationships”. Work motivation of the nurses was the variable in which the nurses gave ratings to themselves on a scale of 1 to 100 about how much motivated they are towards their work. All these information in the transformed four variables and work motivation of the nurses was considered as the data for the purpose of the analysis.

Hypotheses

All the analysis in this study was conducted with the help of the statistical software SPSS Version 20. Necessary and appropriate statistical techniques have been applies on the data to perform the analysis based on the research hypothesis framed above.

In order to test the difference in the work motivation of the nurses across gender, independent sample t-test has been used, as this is the best possible technique to test the difference in the means of two different and independent groups.

In order to test the difference in the work motivation of the nurses across the age of the nurses, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) technique has been applied as this is the best possible technique to test the difference in the means of more than two different and independent groups.

In order to ascertain any significant relationships between the four dimensions of life satisfaction such as “Positive Self Esteem”, “Sense of Perceived Control”, “Optimism”, and “Positive Social Relationships” with the motivation towards work of the nurses, the most appropriate technique that can be used is regression analysis.

In order to examine the extent to which the four dimensions of life satisfaction such as “Positive Self Esteem”, “Sense of Perceived Control”, “Optimism”, and “Positive Social Relationships” can predict the motivation towards work of the nurses, the coefficient of determination has to be determined and discussed. All the specified tests are performed considering a 0.05 level of significance.

The results of the independent sample t-test to test whether the work motivation of the nurses vary across gender age given in the following tables 3.1 and 3.2. Table 3.1 provides the results of the group statistics of the work motivation scores. The mean, standard deviation and standard error of the mean of each of the two groups of gender, i.e., male and female on the work motivation scores is illustrated in table 3.1.

Table 3.2 gives the results of the independent sample t-test performed on the work motivation scores for the two gender groups of male and female. The values of the t-test for equality of means will be considered for the discussion. Levene’s test results will not be discussed in this case as it is assumed that the sample variances of the two groups are not equal. It can be seen from the results that the significance value (0.285) is higher than the level of significance. Thus, the null hypothesis (H₀₁) cannot be rejected and hence, it can be said that there are no significant differences in the work motivation of the nurses in the government hospitals of Klang Valley across gender of the nurses.

Table 3.1: Group Statistics
	Sex of respondent	N	Mean	Std. Deviation	Std. Error Mean
Work motivation scores	Male	54	66.39	15.396	2.095
Female	53	63.06	16.610	2.282

Methodology

Table 3.2: Independent Samples Test
	Levene’s Test for Equality of Variances	t-test for Equality of Means
F	Sig.	t	df	Sig. (2-tailed)	Mean Difference	Std. Error Difference	95% Confidence Interval of the Difference
Lower	Upper
Work motivation scores	Equal variances assumed	.088	.768	1.077	105	.284	3.332	3.095	-2.805	9.470
Equal variances not assumed			1.076	104.069	.285	3.332	3.098	-2.810	9.475

The second analysis that has been performed is the test to evaluate whether there are any significant differences in the work motivation of the nurses in the Klang Valley with respect to their ages. This test has been performed with the help of one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) technique.

With the help of the independent sample t-test, it could have been estimated whether there are significant differences in the average work motivation scores across two groups. The independent sample t-test is thus only restricted in testing the differences for two groups only. But in this case, the age of the nurses has been divided into four different groups. Here, group 1 indicates age of the nurses between 18 years and 26 years, group 2 indicates age of the nurses between 27 years and 35 years, group 3 indicates age of the nurses between 36 years and 44 years and group 4 indicates age of the nurses above 44 years. An independent sample t-test cannot test the difference in the average motivation scores of the nurses across 4 different age groups. Thus, the extended version of the t-test, which is the one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) technique has been used for this test. The results of the test are given in the following tables from table 3.3 to table 3.5. The differences in the means of the motivation scores of the nurses across different age groups is illustrated in figure 3.1.  Table 3.3 shows the descriptive measures of the motivation scores of the nurses separately for each of the age groups. It can be seen that there are no such measures for the age group 4, with nurses of age more than 44 years. Thus, it can be said from here that there were no nurses in the selected sample of nurses who were of the age of 44 years or more.

Table 3.4 gives the results of the results of the ANOVA test. The results will be interpreted with the help of the significance value obtained from the test. It can be seen that the significance value obtained from the test is 0.714, which is more than the level of significance (0.05). Thus, there is not enough evidence to reject the null hypothesis (H₀₂). Further from the post hoc tests provided in the table 3.5, it can be seen that the significance value for the difference between any of the two groups have been obtained to be greater than the specified level of significance (0.05). In fact, the significance between the average scores of the age groups 18 – 26 years and 36 – 44 years have been obtained as 1, which indicates that the average motivational scores between these two age groups are identical. Thus, it can be concluded from here that there are no significant differences between the motivation scores of the nurses working in the government hospitals in the Klang Valley across their ages.

Table 3.3: Descriptives
Work motivation scores
	N	Mean	Std. Deviation	Std. Error	95% Confidence Interval for Mean	Minimum	Maximum
Lower Bound	Upper Bound
18-26	34	65.79	17.077	2.929	59.84	71.75	26	93
27-35	44	63.20	16.687	2.516	58.13	68.28	36	95
36-44	29	65.83	13.931	2.587	60.53	71.13	48	95
Total	107	64.74	16.021	1.549	61.67	67.81	26	95

Table 3.4: ANOVA
Work motivation scores
	Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F	Sig.
Between Groups	175.817	2	87.909	.338	.714
Within Groups	27030.856	104	259.912
Total	27206.673	106

Table 3.5: Multiple Comparisons
Dependent Variable: Work motivation scores  Tukey HSD
(I) Age of respondent	(J) Age of respondent	Mean Difference (I-J)	Std. Error	Sig.	95% Confidence Interval
Lower Bound	Upper Bound
18-26	27-35	2.590	3.681	.762	-6.16	11.34
36-44	-.033	4.075	1.000	-9.72	9.66
27-35	18-26	-2.590	3.681	.762	-11.34	6.16
36-44	-2.623	3.856	.776	-11.79	6.55
36-44	18-26	.033	4.075	1.000	-9.66	9.72
27-35	2.623	3.856	.776	-6.55	11.79

In order to ascertain whether there exists any significant relationship between the four dimensions of life satisfaction of the nurses such as “Positive Self Esteem”, “Sense of Perceived Control”, “Optimism”, and “Positive Social Relationships” with the work motivation of the nurses, regression analysis technique has been used. Regression analysis is the best and most appropriate technique to establish the relationship between two or more than two variables. In this analysis, work motivation of the nurses is the dependent variable which will be predicted with the help of the independent or explanatory variables such as the four different dimensions of life satisfaction – “Positive Self Esteem”, “Sense of Perceived Control”, “Optimism” and “Positive Social Responses”. The results of the regression analysis are given in the following tables from 3.6 to 3.11.

Table 3.6 shows the list of the independent and the dependent variables that are involved in the analysis. The method with which the variables has been considered for the study is “Enter”. This indicates that the variables were entered for the purpose of the analysis.

Table 3.7 provides the summary of the regression model. The value of the r-square and the adjusted r-square are provided in this table, which will be discussed later on.

From the ANOVA table given in table 3.8, it can be seen that the significance of the regression model is illustrated. The significance of the model can be estimated with the help of the significance value provided in the ANOVA table. It can be seen that the significance value is found to be 0.000, which is less than the specified level of significance (0.05) for the test. Thus, the null hypothesis (H₀₃) is rejected. Hence, it can be said that there exists significant relationship between the four dimensions of life satisfaction and work motivation of the nurses.

From the coefficients table in table 3.9, it can be seen that the values of the coefficients are given along with their significances in the model and the collinearity diagnostics. A variable will be considered as multicollinear if the VIF value if higher than 4 and tolerance less than 0.2. It can however be seen from the table that variables sense of perceived control and positive social relationships have a value of VIF higher than 4.00 but all the variables have tolerance level higher than 0.02. This indicates that there is no problem of multicollinearity in the variables selected for the model. From the significance values, it can be identified that positive self esteem, positive social relationships and optimism have a significance value higher than the specified level of significance (0.05). Thus, these three variables are considered as insignificant in the prediction model. However, the relationship between the four dimensions of the life satisfaction in predicting the work motivation of the nurses is established by the equation provided below:

Work Motivation = 30.693 + (1.455 * Positive Self Esteem) + (4.491 * Sense of Perceived Control) + (1.057 * Optimism) + (0.375 * Positive Social Relationships)

From the residuals table and the normal probability plot given in table 3.11 and figure 3.2, it can be seen that the residuals show an almost linear trend. This indicates that the residuals are distributed normally and the assumption of the regression is satisfied.

Table 3.6: Variables Entered/Removeda
Model	Variables Entered	Variables Removed	Method
1	Positivesocialrlnshps, Positiveselfesteem, Optimism, Senseofperceivedcontrolb	.	Enter
a. Dependent Variable: Work motivation scores
b. All requested variables entered.

Table 3.7: Model Summaryb
Model	R	R Square	Adjusted R Square	Std. Error of the Estimate	Durbin-Watson
1	.590a	.348	.322	13.192	.565
a. Predictors: (Constant), Positivesocialrlnshps, Positiveselfesteem, Optimism, Senseofperceivedcontrol
b. Dependent Variable: Work motivation scores

Table 3.8: ANOVAa
Model	Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F	Sig.
1	Regression	9455.719	4	2363.930	13.584	.000b
Residual	17750.954	102	174.029
Total	27206.673	106
a. Dependent Variable: Work motivation scores
b. Predictors: (Constant), Positivesocialrlnshps, Positiveselfesteem, Optimism, Senseofperceivedcontrol

Table 3.9: Coefficientsa
Model	Unstandardized Coefficients	Standardized Coefficients	t	Sig.	Collinearity Statistics
B	Std. Error	Beta	Tolerance	VIF
1	(Constant)	30.693	5.355		5.732	.000
Positiveselfesteem	1.455	1.422	.112	1.023	.309	.532	1.880
Senseofperceivedcontrol	4.491	1.791	.406	2.508	.014	.244	4.107
Optimism	1.057	1.601	.090	.660	.511	.341	2.932
Positivesocialrlnshps	.375	1.874	.033	.200	.842	.239	4.189
a. Dependent Variable: Work motivation scores

Table 3.10: Collinearity Diagnosticsa
Model	Dimension	Eigenvalue	Condition Index	Variance Proportions
(Constant)	Positiveselfesteem	Senseofperceivedcontrol	Optimism	Positivesocialrlnshps
1	1	4.881	1.000	.00	.00	.00	.00	.00
2	.058	9.183	.64	.02	.06	.02	.05
3	.030	12.858	.20	.88	.00	.14	.01
4	.018	16.433	.17	.10	.25	.83	.12
5	.014	18.680	.00	.00	.69	.02	.82
a. Dependent Variable: Work motivation scores

Table 3.11: Residuals Statisticsa
	Minimum	Maximum	Mean	Std. Deviation	N
Predicted Value	38.07	82.34	64.74	9.445	107
Residual	-47.515	37.179	.000	12.941	107
Std. Predicted Value	-2.824	1.863	.000	1.000	107
Std. Residual	-3.602	2.818	.000	.981	107
a. Dependent Variable: Work motivation scores

The final research question was to examine the extent to which the four dimensions of life satisfaction such as of the nurses such as “Positive Self Esteem”, “Sense of Perceived Control”, “Optimism”, and “Positive Social Relationships” can predict the motivation towards the nurses in the Klang Valley. This can be determined with the help of the coefficient of determination (R-Sqaure value) obtained from the regression analysis given in the regression summary table in table 3.7. It can be seen that the r-square value obtained as a result of the regression analysis is 0.348. This indicates that the four dimensions of life satisfaction of the nurses such as “Positive Self Esteem”, “Sense of Perceived Control”, “Optimism”, and “Positive Social Relationships” can predict 34.8 percent of the variability in the work motivation of the nurses. Thus, the extent of perfection of the prediction model is identified to be only 34.8 percent. This is not a very high percentage. Thus there can be existence of other factors that can explain the work motivation for the nurses other than the factors specified for this model.

From the table of the coefficients, the significance values of each of the independent variables have been identified. It can be seen that the significance value for positive self esteem has been found to be 0.309, which is higher than the specified level of significance (0.05). Thus The variable positive self esteem is insignificant for the prediction model. It can be seen that the significance value for sense of perceived control has been found to be 0.014, which is less than the specified level of significance (0.05). Thus The variable sense of perceived control is significant for the prediction model. It can also be seen that the significance value for optimism has been found to be 0.511, which is higher than the specified level of significance (0.05). Thus The variable optimism is insignificant for the prediction model. Finally, it can be seen that the significance value for positive social relationships has been found to be 0.842, which is higher than the specified level of significance (0.05). Thus, the variable sense of perceived control is insignificant for the prediction model.

It has been found from the analysis in this research that there is no significant difference in the work motivation of the nurses in the Klang Valley across gender. But from some previous researches it has been observed that the motivation towards work of the employees differ across gender. There are differences in the preferences of the male and female employees. Thus, work motivation is expected to vary across gender. But the results of this research has contradicted with the previous studies. This can be because in this research, the work motivation has been considered for both male and female nurses of government hospitals in the Klang Valley. Probably the nurses do not have any differences in their expectations and hence the results.

Difference have not even been observed across the age of the nurses in the motivation towards the work. This has also contradicted with the previous literatures as according to other researches, with the increase in the age of the employees their capability to work decreases and thus the employees loose motivation towards working in respective sectors. This might not have been the case for the health sector. The nurses help others get better and probably this king of work is always motivating the employees despite their age. Thus, no significant differences have been observed.

The overall relationship between the life satisfaction dimensions of positive self esteem, sense of perceived control, optimism and positive social relationships with the work motivation of the nurses have been obtained to be significant. But, all the four dimensions of life satisfaction have not been obtained to be significant for the prediction model. Out of the four dimensions, only sense of perceived control has been found significant for the prediction model. Thus, if a model could be built by eliminating the insignificant variables, there would not have been much difference to the extent of prediction in the model which has been obtained to be only 34.8 percent. Job satisfaction is one of the most important aspects that can motivate a person to work in any domain. If a person is not much satisfied with the job, the person will not be motivated towards doing that job at all. Thus, including this aspect might have been important for the extent of prediction to be higher that what has been obtained.

Conclusion

This was a study about the work motivation of the nurses in the government hospitals in the Klang Valley. The study was mainly based on addressing the objectives to assess the existence of any difference in the work motivation of the nurses across gender and age and also to establish relationship between life satisfaction dimensions (positive self esteem, sense of perceived control, optimism, and positive social relationships) and work motivation.

From the study no difference in the work motivation scores of the nurses have been obtained across the gender and age of the nurses. Further, significant relationship has been obtained between life satisfaction dimensions (positive self esteem, sense of perceived control, optimism, and positive social relationships) and work motivation. However, three of the life satisfaction dimensions such as positive self esteem, optimism, and positive social relationships have been found to be insignificant for the model. The prediction model has been found to be predicting the work motivation of the nurses to an extent of 34.8 percent.

Thus, it can be said that the factors responsible for the work motivation of the nurses are different from the factors responsible for the work motivation of employees employed in other sectors. This might be due to the huge difference in the job type that the nurses work on from the workers in other sectors.

References

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