An analytical study of Job Involvement and Employee Motivation among workers of public and private tea estates in Dibrugarh district of Assam

Abstract

 Purpose

The present study examines job involvement and employee motivation among public and private tea garden employees in the district of Dibrugarh, Assam. The study aims to identify significant differences in job involvement and motivational dimensions between public and private tea garden employees and among four employee groups comprising executives and non-executives. The study also attempts to understand the organizational and psychological factors influencing employee involvement and workplace motivation in plantation sector.

Design/Methodology/Approach

The study is exploratory in nature. Data were collected from 564 tea garden employees, including 284 public tea garden employees and 280 private tea garden employees, selected through random sampling technique. Standardized instruments namely Kanungo’s (1982) Job Involvement Scale and Srivastava’s (1988) Employee Motivation Scale were used for data collection. Inferential statistical techniques such as t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were employed through IBM SPSS Statistics Version 27 for analyzing the data.

Findings

The findings revealed that there were significant differences between public and private tea garden employees in job involvement, personal growth, achievement, self-control, social affiliation and autonomy and self-actualization. The findings of ANOVA also revealed that the public executives, public non-executives, private executives and private non-executives were significantly different in almost all motivational dimensions other than monetary gains. The organizational attachment and developmental orientation were comparatively higher among public tea garden employees while achievement orientation and social affiliation tendencies were comparatively higher among private tea garden employees. The findings show that the working environment, welfare facilities and work tasks have an impact on employee motivation and job involvement.

Practical Implications

 The study provides important implications for human resource management and labour welfare policies in plantation sector. Improving employee involvement, organizational support, recognition programs, and development opportunities can have a substantial impact on employee engagement, organizational commitment, and productivity in tea plantation sectors.