Topic Proposal Presentation
Example B:
Good morning everyone. I’m Thomas Chen from the department of Business Administration. As someone who is hoping to
join the workforce in the next few years, I wanted to research and discuss something that could affect everyone in this room when it
comes to finding your first job. This semester, I would like to focus on the topic of the factors affecting workplace motivation in
South Korea, and today I’m going to give you a brief introduction to that topic. I’ll explain some of the background of this topic and
my connection to it, and finally I’ll talk you through some of the research that I plan to use in support of my work.
To start with the background details, let me explain what I mean by workplace motivation. What makes a worker want to
stay in their job? Maybe as individuals you have some ideas: perhaps you’re thinking of the big one, salary. But in addition to
material factors such as money, there are also a lot of intrinsic motivators for workers – things that come from within us. Gagné et al
identified a Multidimensional Work Motivation Scale, after surveying workers in 9 countries about their work motivations – including
need satisfaction, job effort, leadership style, burnout, and so on. The results of this research showed that there are many common
motivators among workers, even across different countries and languages. One thing we also need to consider is how motivation
can differ across various generations of workers, such as generations X, Y and Z. The criteria that we look for in employment is likely
to be very different from what our parents looked for. External factors such as the onset of COVID-19’s ‘work from home’ period has
also caused priorities to change when it comes to what influences workers. We can see a shift from focusing mostly on salary to
focusing on work-life balance and satisfaction in work, but we haven’t necessarily seen many Korean companies reflecting that in
their office culture. For these reasons, I believe this topic is worth investigating.
So why should the motivation of workers matter to a business major like me? Well, from a company’s perspective, workers
who are not motivated are likely to make less effort and produce lower quality work, tend to avoid the workplace and will move
quickly to another company if an opportunity arises. Working alongside workers who are unmotivated can also be demoralizing for
others within the team, leading to a department-wide lack of productivity. And of course a lack of productivity means a decrease in
profits, which no company would like to see. Companies need to be aware of the motivational trends of workers in order to hire and
retain the best suited people to their roles. For these reasons, I believe it is important to identify some of the key motivators for
workers today, and discuss ways in which companies can meet those motivations in order to retain their staff. I hope that my
research will help me, as a future worker, understand my own motivations when job-hunting too.
I’d now like to identify some key sources that I hope to learn from during my research. The first has already been
mentioned: Gagné et al’s 2015 cross-cultural research on motivation. This source has already helped me to gain background
knowledge of the topic and what motivators exist for workers. Secondly, Mahmoud et al’s research from 2021 focuses specifically on
the last 3 generations and looks at their individual workplace motivations. As this research is so recent, I think it can be considered
to be reliable and the most up to date. Finally, 2020 research from Haryono, Supardi and Udin looked at the effects of training and
job promotion on motivation. This research focuses on an Indonesian context specifically, but can help me to infer more generally
the possible effects of good motivation for companies. This can help when I want to discuss how Korean companies can motivate
their workers.
These days, workers want more from their job than just a salary. They want to be proud of the work they do, to feel
fulfilled, and to be able to have a decent work-life balance. For these reasons it is worth companies paying attention to trends in
motivation. I hope that in my research I can suggest making purposeful changes that can satisfy workers and maintain the
productivity of their company.
Sources:
Gagné, M., Forest, J., Vansteenkiste, M., Crevier-Braud, L., Van den Broeck, A., Aspeli, A. K., … Westbye, C. (2015). The
multidimensional work motivation scale: validation evidence in seven languages and nine countries. European Journal of
Work and Organizational Psychology, 24(2), 178–196. [Link]
Haryono, S., Supardi, S & Udin, U. (2020). The effect of training and job promotion on work motivation and its implications on job
performance: Evidence from Indonesia. Management Science Letters, 10(9), 2107-2112.
Mahmoud, A., Fuxman, L., Mohr, I., Reisel, W., and Grigoriou, N. (2021). “We aren't your reincarnation!” workplace motivation
across X, Y and Z generations. International Journal of Manpower. 42. 193-209. 10.1108/IJM-09-2019-0448.