Das Problem der Motivations- und Leistungssteigerung in multinationalen Industrieunternehmen

This study is a contribution to empirical international management and organizations research. An approach is developed to design efficient incentive schemes in multinational organizations, as multinationals face the problem that an incentive system that is effective in one country cannot simply be transferred to another. This is contrary to the universalist claim of many motivation theories. Although cultural theories have criticized this aspiration, they have not provided an alternative approach for multinational companies on the operations management level. Instead, recent organizations research has criticized both approaches because of their irrelevance in the context of increasing socio-economic dynamics and cultural diversity already on the micro-level. On the contrary, even in the same or comparable geographical and cultural space, consumer and employee preferences are not time-stable and often strongly affected by ever-changing micro-contextual factors on the socio-economic so that also incentive systems remain not generally effective over a longer time or can simply be transferred regionally.
In this problem context, this study’s research aim is the theory-based development and introduction of an incentive and remuneration system in a multinational manufacturing company considering site-dependent differences in employee motivation mostly determined by site-specific socio-economic factors and possibly also on other factors not reflected in the mainstream motivation and compensation models. Based on motivation theories and research, compensation systems theories and employer attractiveness models as well as empirical quantitative research, this study develops a methodical approach to design an incentive system to optimize the operating performance of Chinese and Indian manufacturing sites.
This research concludes that incentive-efficient operations management must rely always on site-specific empirical data to find the optimal pay and incentive system to increase productivity. Although operations management can ground the change process on existing motivation and human resources theories, an iterative process of data collection and analysis is necessary to find the most efficient incentive scheme considering site-specific particularities on the micro-level. For this purpose, this study provides a process model as additional research contribution.