Factors Influencing Work Motivation of Development Agents: The Case of Duna Woreda, Southern Nation’s Nationalities and People’s Regional State

Abstract

The rationale of this study was to examine the work motivation extent of development agents and the factors influencing their Work motivation. The main facts used for this study were collected from a sample of 120 development agents, out of all 168 DAs and to quantify the performance extent of DAs, self rating only may not be reasonable data source. Therefore, farmers’ selection for DAs work motivation ranking purpose using simple random sampling technique through structured questionnaire. In analyzing the data both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed. In addition, secondary data were collected from different organizations and pertinent publication in order to elaborate the present situation of work motivation of development agents in Ethiopia. Ordinal Logit econometric model was used to analyze factors influencing work motivation of development agents. The value of work motivation extent are found to be 25.67 %, 48.5 % and 25.83 % low, medium and highly performed respectively. A total of seventeen explanatory variables were included in the model of which five variables were found to be significant.  Thus, if better pay structure and enhanced recognition, responsibility, perceived job security, perception  about work  itself and attitude of development agents towards their job, the development agents more motivated to perform goal of organization. Therefore, concerned agricultural office managers, process owners, subject matter specialists and supervisors in the study area should conduct a periodic assessments to determine the extent of  work motivation of Development Agents' and have to plan for improvement

Keywords: Work motivation, motivation, development agents, Ordinal Logit, Hadiya zone, Ethiopia.