New answers and new questions in construction worker motivation

A survey of unionized construction workers was conducted in a major American Midwestern city to collect data on their perceptions of the motivational climate on their jobs. The framework for the collection and analysis of the data was the expectancy model of worker motivation and performance. The findings indicated that the motivational climate is very poor. Contractors rely more on punishment and discipline than they do on positive rewards. Little is done to encourage good performance. Discipline is used to discourage poor performance. Contractors provide little in the way of rewards, even when they are not prohibited from providing a variety of rewards by their labour agreements. The workers surveyed reported very little incentive to be highly productive.