Management of students' motivation in business schools: a test of an indigenous model

The construct of need saliency posits that different levels of priority are attached to different categories of needs in a given subset of human population. Accordingly some needs are regarded as salient whereas other needs are considered non-salient. The present investigation provides an empirical test of this pan-cultural model. Indian management students were administered with a multipart study behaviour questionnaire. They were asked to rank-order 16 study outcome factors. These include brand name of institution, gaining knowledge, cordial relationship, opportunity for higher studies, supportive learning environment, interesting course-work, sound policies, multi-skilling, healthy interpersonal relations, collaborative learning, professionally competent teachers, well-planned schedule, individual attention, freedom from social pressure, job prospect, and fair assessment. The model suggests that motivation is significantly related to salient need satisfaction. In contrast motivation is unrelated to non-salient need satisfaction. The examination of relationship between salient need satisfaction and motivation provided supportive evidence for the indigenous model.