AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE IMPACT OF MOTIVATION ON THE EMPLOYEE ABSENTEEISM. A CASE STUDY IN OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY 1. Introduction In today’s world, absenteeism has been considered very significant and widely spread problem in oil and gas industries. In current economic climate, the organizations faced employee absenteeism as a threat since it affects the productivity and increase the costs. According to the survey done by Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) in 2016, Malaysian companies suffer more than RM6Billion yearly cost due to loss of man-days through the absence of their employees.The purpose of this research is to investigate into the impact of motivation on the employee performance oil and gas industry 1.1 Research Objective • To analyze the factor contributing to absenteeism in oil and gas industry • To investigate the relationship between motivation and employee absenteeism • To determine the impact of motivation on employee absenteeism 1.2 Research Questions • What is the factor contributing to absenteeism in oil and gas industry? • What is the relationship between motivation and employee absenteeism? • What is impact of motivationon employee absenteeism? 2. Literature Review 2.1 Definition of Key Concepts 2.1.1. Absenteeism Absenteeism defined as a choice made by employees which occurs when an employee is absent due to reasons other than illness. Basically absence can be divided into an involuntary part and a voluntary part. (RogersandHerting, 1993) 2.1.2 Motivation Motivation has been traditionally related to issues such as: secure job, interesting job, ability to perform the job, recognition from others, adequate salary and feedback on performance. (Dwivedula and Bredillet, 2010:159) 2.2 Critical Review of Theories 2.2.1 Rhodes and Steers “Process Model” Theory Steers and Rhodes (1978) has developed employee absenteeism model which has been frequently cited and very influential in absenteeism literature. In this model, employee attendance is primarily determined by an employee’s ability and motivation to attend (Burton et al. 2002). Most the resercher theorised these two variables interact in such way that employee’s abitlity to attend moderates their motivation to attend to work. Motivation to attend is influenced by a person satisfaction with his or her job and various pressures to attend (Burton et. al., 2002). Recently there is research conducted by Obasan Kehinde (2011), on “Impact of Job Satisfaction on Absenteeism” in a manufacturing industry situated at Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria and concluded that employee satisfaction has been noted as one of the factors influencing an employee’s motivation to attend and major tools to reduce absenteeism. However, there is weak correlation between these variables (Cheng Wei Hin, 2010) and it depends on the type of situation an employee absence. If someone in the familyis ill and need to stay at home to care no matter how great the motivation and satisfaction the employee have. 2.2.2 Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory. According to (Herzberg, 2003) this theory focuses on the outcomes of the employee satisfaction and dissatisfaction. This theory also found that, certain aspects of a job cause satisfaction therefore motivation but certain aspects cause to job dissatisfaction. According to recent research conducted in Nigeria, factors like achievement, pay, work condition and recognition have a positive in satisfaction (Stephen.et, al, 2014). However on the other hand, the recent research found that employees who enjoy working with a good supervision and supervisor will be satisfied working in the company. Satisfaction with good supervision will increase the productivity and develop a commitment among the employee (Aamodt, 2004) 2.2.3 Expectancy Theory The Expectancy theory refers to cognitive process theory of motivation that the employee believes there is relationship between the efforts they have put at the work, the performance they have achieved due to that effort and there will be rewards for the effort and performance. On the other word, employees believe that strong effort will leads to good performance and that performance will leads to desired rewards (Vroom, 1964). According to recent research conducted in US, this expectancy theory has some suggestion in motivating by changing the employees effort-to-performance expectancy, performance-to-reward expectancy, and reward valences (Fred C, 2011). On the other article (Stefania De Simone, 2015), has stated that employees whose “belief, perceptions and probability estimates influence their behaviors”. 2.2.4 Theory X and Y (Individual Behaviour) The theory X and Y assumed that the managers in the company have two very different views their subordinates. Theory X refers to the employees who like to anticipate in their work and will avoid as possible as they can and therefore, this people must be forced with punishment to work in order to achieve the organizational objectives. Theory Y refers to the employees who like to put an effort in their work as well as to play. They also provide commitment to the organizational objectives with linked to rewards for their achievement (McGregor, 1966). According to recent research conducted in Turkey, Theory Y style of management significantly and positively associated with employee’s satisfaction meanwhile theory X style of management significantly negative impact with their managers (SaitGürbüz,et.al,2014). 2.2.5 Equity Theory Equity theory shows how a person identifies fairness in regard of social relationship. This theory presupposes that during a social exchange, they identify the amount of the input he has gained and from that relationship compared to the output. Walster, Berscheid&Walster (1973). Added to this, if an employee in the organization thinks that there is no equity between two social individual or groups, that employee more likely to be upset or unhappy because the input and the output are not equivalent. (Huseman, Hatfield & Miles (1987). According to the recent research to investigate the relationships between employee perception of equity and job satisfaction Findings revealed positive relationships between perceptionsof equity, where a "motivator" was the outcome in the comparison, and job satisfaction. (Hossam&Quang, 2010) 2.2.6 Kanter’s Theory of Empowerment According to Kanter’s theory of structural empowerment, the employees in the organization more likely empowered when they are given an access to empowerment to complete their task: such as opportunity, information, resources, formal and informal power in the organization (Kanter, 1977). In this approach, empowerment is defined as the indicator of for cognition about the employee’s orientation to their role: such as meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact or outcome According to recent research conducted in Thailand, one effective way to motivate employees, aside from increasing salary and job benefits is to provide them with greater opportunities for involvement and new work design to empower their in-role performance. Psychological empowerment was positively related to both attitude outcomes of job satisfaction and organizational commitment among the employees. (Spreitzer, Jahasz, & Quinn, 1999). 2.3 Review of Empirical Research KodjoEzané Joseph (2015), did a research on the gauging the issue of absenteeism in the workplace: evidence from the public sector in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, West Africa. A descriptive research survey was undertaken and a total of 91 questionnaires out of 110 were collected from enterprises located and operating in Abidjan. Political reasons, transfer, appointment, lack of motivation, leadership style, illnesses and working environment are the variables used by the researcher. The findings of this paper indicate,absenteeism is a complex situation that significantly influences employees’ morale and their productivity. Therefore, the adoption of a management by objective (MBO) approach and a model of motivating employees to improve productivity are helpful to organizational performance Belly Onanda (2015), did a research on the effects of motivation on job performance : a case study of Kenya Commercial Bank Coast Region in Kenya. This research is descriptive research survey undertaken at 7 KCB branches in Mombasa county. The variables used by the reaserchers are remuneration, job satisfaction, rewards and recognition. The study therefore concluded that great strides be made to motivate all staff to enhance performance. The researcher recommends that management attaches more importance to issues of employee motivation to make the Commercial Bank survive amongst its competitors. Lucie Vnoučková& Hana Klupáková (2013), did a research on impact of motivation principles on employee turnover. In this research, the data for the evaluation of reasons for employees’ leaving their jobs were collected in quantitative surveys by means of questionnaires and were completed by 100 employees. The variables used by researcher are positive and inspiring leader, performance and reward, recognition and appreciation, open communication and care for employees. The results of analyses proved and verified identical principles of employee management that affect job satisfaction and the decisions of employees to stay or leave their current job positions. 2.4 Conceptual Framework 3. Research Design and Methodology 3.1 Research Paradigm Research paradigm is a conceptual framework was commonly used by researcher and it is useful during examining problems and finding solution. This refers to research culture with set of assumption, beliefs and value that the group of researcher has in common whenever they conduct a research (Stephen KwadwoAntwi, 2015). In simple terms, it is an approach to thinking about and doing research 3.1.1 Positivism Paradigm Statistical and mathematical techniques are central to positivist research, which adheres to specifically structured research techniques to uncover single and objective reality (Carson et al., 2001). 3.1.2 Interpretivism Paradigm Interpretivism refers to the approaches which emphasize the meaningful nature of people’s character and participation in both social and cultural life (Chowdhury, M. F. (2014). 3.1.3 Phenomenological Approach Pure phenomenological research seeks essentially to describe rather than explain, and to start from a perspective free from hypotheses or preconceptions (Husserl 1970). 3.2 Research Design Research Design can be classified in term of their purpose. Accordingly, they are most often classified as exploratory, descriptive and explanatory (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2007). 3.2.1 Exploratory Research This type of research is important when the researcher topic is still new and the selected topic is not addresses with certain sample or couldn’t apply the existing theories. It is also useful when the researcher does not know the important variables to examine (Morse, 1991) 3.2.2 Explanatory Research Explanatory research refers to studies that establish the relationship between variables. The important on this research is studying the situation or problem in order to explain the relationship variables (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2003). These studies mainly designed to test and understand whether one event has related to another event (Hair, Babin, Money &Samouel, 2003) 3.3 Method of research Research Design: The study will focused on initially descriptive research design. It suits this study because, as a scientific method which it involves observing and describing the behavior of a subject without influencing it in any way. It will enable the research to generalize the findings of a fairly large population. The research attempts to describe such things as possible behavior, attitudes, values and characteristics (Mugenda & Mugenda, 2003).It also serves as a foundation to more research design and quantitative research experimentations The method of data collection fully monitoring by the researcher. The purpose of the study is based on co-relational research design and cross-sectional level. Target Population:The target population is as an entire group of individuals, events or objects with some observable characteristics (Mugenda&Mugenda, 2008). Approximately 1000employees working in the 3 different oil and gas industry will be target population and the 10% from the sample will be collected to represent the organization. Sample Design: A total of 100 samples will be collected from 3 different oil and gas compnay The convenience sampling technique will used for data collection. The participants were consists of employees at various level such as managerial level, supervisors, coordinators, other middle level staffs in the organization. Probability and Nonprobability : Nonprobability sampling technique in which sampling technique in which each unit in a population does not have a specifiable probability of being selected and in other words, that sampling does not select from the unit of population. For probability sampling technique, each unit in a population has a specifiable chance of being selected (Charles Teddlie and Fen Yu, 2007). Therefore, probability sampling will be used since random sampling does not guarantee that every random sample perfectly represents the population. Instruments: The following instruments will be used in the present study: The questionnaire as the mostappropriate instrument due to its ability to collect a large amount of information in a reasonably quick span of time (Kothari, 2004) Data Collection Procedure: Primary data were collected through filled up questionnaire that are workplace motivation & absenteeism from participants who were in managerial level, supervisors, and coordinators, other middle level staff in the organization. Data Analysis: The data were analyzed help of frequency distribution, percentage, pie charts and mean, standard deviation, inter-correlation matrix. 3.4 Accessibility In this research paper, in order to obtain the data from the selected organization, consent letter will provided as a proof that this is entirely for research purpose. 3.5 Ethical Consideration Prior to questionnaire survey will be distributed to the employees in the oil and gas company there are a number of ethical issues will be take into account. Participants will be provided a brief outline about the research and asked them to sign a consent letter. All their personal data will be kept strictly confidential and information given from the questionnaires will be anonymized in the finalreport. 3.6 Research Limitation There is some limitation to this research. The entire participant is from oil and gas industry and most of the employee in the company will be in offshore for some period of time. Therefore, the results from these staff (engineers) categories will be limited during the survey. Since the topic of the study is about the impact absenteeism on employee performance and motivation, initially the staff will hesitate to give a corporation to answer the questionnaire. The reason for the research and confidentiality will be guaranteed and will not be made available to anyone else. 4. Research Timetable Dec 16 Jan 17 Feb 17 Mac 17 April 17 May 17 June 17 July 17 Identify Research Area Formulate the research the strategy, research design and select method Write Research Proposal Negotiate on the access Discuss on the research objective and prepare research questionnaire Literature Review Research Methodology and Data collection 1st Data Analysis 2nd Data Analysis Dissertations After gathering journal and articles related to the topic of research, there is limited research has been conducted for the impact of motivation on employee absenteeism in oil and gas industry. It can be said that, this will be challenging to do this research since there is no previous research done in Malaysia. Furthermore, time will be taken to persuade the participant to participate and assure them that the shared information will be kept confidentially.