Factors Influencing Middle Level Managers' Motivation: An Empirical Study of Small and Medium Enterprises in Vietnam

In the era when organizations seek to attract and retain highly qualified employees, managers should carefully scrutinize and evaluate the reward preferences of their personnel, especially for middle level positions. The aim of the study is to investigate factors influencing motivation of middle level managers (MMs) in small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam. The study presented here is based on a questionnaire survey of 450 middle level managers regarding issues of relationship between organizational factors and motivation. The results show that several factors of three levels in organization have positive effects on MMs' motivation. Ranking of motivation factors indicated that "Participation", "Recognition" is ranked first and second respectively. These are followed by "Income and fringe benefits", "group relationship" respectively. Based on findings, some implications are suggested for SMEs owners and designers of motivation system. Besides, the study gives suggestion for further studies in the area of investigating the relationship between organizations' factors and MMs' motivation.