Worker motivation on selected construction sites in Bangkok, Thailand

The groundbreaking works of Maslow and Herzberg have been used by many researchers on construction worker motivation. These two classical theorists were used as the basis for a survey of needs, motivators and demotivators on high-rise building construction sites in Bangkok, Thailand. The needs and felt motivators of construction workers in Bangkok are low on the Maslow hierarchy. The agreement between workers and supervisors regarding needs is strong. However, the agreement on motivators and demotivators is rather weak. This may lead to the use of inappropriate methods for motivating workers. A comparison of the results of the present survey with other studies showed that attempts to motivate workers should take cognizance of the cultural context in order to achieve good results.