Age-Dependent Influence of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations on Construction Worker Performance

ID

Comments and Suggestions

Response

Reviewer

1-1

Abstract:

Page 1 – line 27: Confused! What do the authors mean by affecting negatively? High health risks are expected to affect motivation and productivity;

Authors agree with the reviewer's point. Authors thought that the negatively affects mean the bad effects on work motivation and productivity of older workers and modify the description as follows.

Line 27:

… but the effect of these motivations on work performance differed depending on age. High health risks are anticipated to affect the work motivation and productivity of older workers. The proposed model and …

1-2

Page 1 – line 30: What are intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, exemplify each one;

Authors described each example of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and modified the text as follows to keep the number of words in “Abstract” under 200 words.

Line 31-32:

… By addressing construction workers’ intrinsic (e.g. interest) and extrinsic (e.g. reward) motivations in the workplace, it is possible to sustainably improve project productivity.

1-3

Keywords:

In my view, “resting heart rate” and “body mass index” are not keywords. They could be replaced by "construction workers", "productivity".

Authors replaced the keywords in accordance with the reviewers' points as follows:

Line 33:

Keywords: motivation; health risk; age; construction workers; productivity; worker performance

1-4

Introduction:

In general, the introduction must be a single text, that is, to group the introduction with the theoretical development. The text must be written in a fluid way with connection between paragraphs. The motivation of the worker should be better described, that is, a detailed description of the workers' idea of perception should be made. How is this type of perception determined? How can this information be validated?

As per the reviewer's advice, authors added descriptions and citations regarding workers' motivations and perceptions to improve the flow of the text in “Introduction”.

Line 48-51:

… To maintain the workforce, construction companies need to be able to motivate older workers while considering the work environment. Barg et al. [8] investigated peer-reviewed papers over the past 50 years, and many researchers have mentioned the importance of increasing worker motivation and communication at the workplace for determining the productivity of construction projects.

Shashank, Supata, Kabin, and Nath [9] identified eight factors that affected productivity at construction projects: …

Line 67-69:

…Thus, motivation has been a topic of great interest to psychologists and business owners in the past few decades [14]. Moreover, Seifert [15] et al. discuss a program to promote health by increasing a person's awareness and motivation for action. They describe the potential for a person to minimize physical pain and maximize pleasure through.

In this study, we evaluated health risk by resting heart rate and body mass index (BMI), and investigated the relationship between motivation, skill awareness, and productivity of workers of a wide age group. …

1-5

Introduction:

Page 2 – line 49: How do other factors (manpower, environment, materials, equipment, safety, management, and quality) affect productivity? What does "strongest effect" mean? Explain.

In their study, Shashank et al. conducted online survey of 108 construction professionals and their findings identified factors to improve labor productivity in the construction industry. "Strongest effect" means that it has the strongest impact on productivity. These explanations were added as following.

Line 54:

… Shashank, Supata, Kabin, and Nath [9] identified eight factors that affected productivity at construction projects: manpower, environment, materials, equipment, motivation, safety, management, and quality, according to the knowledges of 108 construction professionals. They concluded that motivation has the strongest impact on productivity.

1-6

Introduction:

Page 2 – line 51: What would be a "highest effect"? Very subjective, the authors should express a percentage compared to other factors. The same comment for "increased productivity", how much does it increase productivity?

In the Kazaz et al. report, their study was the result of a questionnaire survey of companies and did not provide specific productivity. Authors compared organizational factors to other factors. The results were 15% higher on average for organizational factors. Thus, authors modified the description as follows.

Line 57-59:

… in Turkey. They found organisational factors to have the highest effect, about 15% higher than average for other factors and emphasized the role of motivation for increased productivity by knowledges of the subject companies. Worker skills, …

1-7

Introduction:

Page 2 – line 54: What do the authors mean by "effective human resource system"? Explain.

Authors explain that an effective human resource system is an efficient human resource system to increase corporate profits. Thus, author added the following description.

Line 62:

… To build an effective human resources system for the improvement of corporate profits, the company management needs to have a clear understanding of the factors that affect productivity, the most important of which are motivators and demotivators [12]. Worker motivation is …

1-8

Introduction:

Page 2 – line 64: How is this "perception of productivity" defined?

What are the "psychological factors".

Authors define that "perception of productivity are the awareness of trying to increase work performance. Authors added a specific explanation.

Authors think that the psychological factors are awareness at workplace. Author added a specific explanation.

Line 74-76:

… in the construction industry. [10,12,16-18]. However, few studies have evaluated the impact of motivation on workers’ perception of productivity (i.e. awareness to improve work performance) using a combination of psychological factors seen in work awareness at workplace and physical health risks.

1-10

Methods:

The subtitle "Materials and Methods" is not suitable for this type of study. What you can use is Methodology or simply methods.

Authors replaced the subtitle "Materials and Methods" with "Methodology".

Line 283:

3. Methodology

…

1-11

Methods:

Most of the text (3.1.1 subtitle) should be in the introduction (theoretical framework). Here the work hypothesis should be described, how it was chosen and why it was chosen. This comment can be expanded to subtitles 3.1.2, 3.1.3, 3.1.4, 3.1.5 and 3.1.6. Review all paragraphs.

Authors moved the hypotheses in subtitles 3.1.1 through 3.1.6 into "2. Theoretical Development" in response to the reviewers' point of view. The subsections 3.1.1 to 3.1.6 moved into 2.2.1 to 2.2.6.

Line 184-209:

2.2.1. Health risk indicators and intrinsic motivation

…

Line 210-225:

2.2.2. Intrinsic motivation and work skills

…

Line 226-241:

2.2.3. Work skills and extrinsic motivation

…

Line 242-250:

2.2.4. Work skills and team performance

…

Line 251-264:

2.2.5. Intrinsic motivation and team performance

…

Line 265-280:

2.2.6. Extrinsic motivation and team performance

…

1-12

Methods:

Page 3 – line 127: What do the authors mean by "positive behavior"?

Authors think that “positive behavior” is to engage in moral activities and challenging activities. Authors revised some of the text, adding an explanation of "positive behavior".

Line 186-187:

… Cooney et al. [57] noted that workers in challenging environments are concerned about their health. Worker perception of health risks can lead to have higher sensitivity in terms of working conditions and positive behavior (e.g. moral activities and challenging activities). As part of their annual physical examinations, construction companies have begun regularly measuring workers’ physical health measures, …

1-13

Results:

The results must be rewritten, as the way they are presented and discussed is not clear. There is a lack of charts comparing workers' responses with the factors chosen.

As per the reviewer's advice, the workers' responses by latent variables (factors) summarized Tables 2 and Table3 in Appendix B. The explanation of the workers' responses was added in “4. Results”.

Line 500-504:

4. Results

… SEM was used to analyse the relationship between HRI and the other four latent variables. The percentages of worker responses obtained by the questionnaire are summarized in appendix B for each of the younger and older worker groups. In both groups, the latent variables of WS, WIM, WEM, and TP had high percentage of Neutral responses, and tended to exist between Neutral and Strongly agree. Table 4 presents the descriptive statistics and correlation outcomes for Group A. …

Line 707-713:

Appendix B

Table 2. Responses to latent variables for the young workers group (Group A).

…

Table 2. Responses to latent variables for the older workers group (Group B).

…

1-14

Results:

It would be important to define what "r" and "p" are, as some readers may not be familiar with statistical terms. Also, a discussion comparing and justifying the correlation values is necessary.

Authors added descriptions of r and P, according to the reviewer's advice.

Line 510:

All of the remaining latent variables were positively correlated to each other. By indicating the correlation coefficient in r and the P-value in p, the correlations were seen between WIM and TP (r = 0.686, p < 0.001), WEM and TP (r = 0.533, p < 0.001), and WIM and WEM (r = 0.476, p < 0.001).

1-15

Results:

The way the regression is presented is confusing!! Add equations.

Thank you very much for your advice. Authors added in the Note in Table 6 the explanation of the regressions that show the effect on team performance from health risk indicators. In addition, authors corrected a typo in the coefficients in Group B.

Line 581-583:

“The total effect of HRI→TP is determined by multiplying the path coefficients of HRI→WIM and WIM→TP. Thus, in Group A, HRI→TP is not significant, and in Group B, HRI→TP = -0.11 is obtained.            The regression in group B are WIM = -0.20 × HRI and TP = 0.52 × WIM;”

1-16

Results:

Also, explain what type of regression (linear, non-linear) was used.

The SEM used in this study assumes a relationship of linearity. The following explanation was added in “4. Results”.

Line 499:

Using BMI and resting heart rate as observed variables, the effects of the health risk index (HRI) as a latent variable were examined. The SEM used in this study deals with linear relationships. SEM was …

1-17

Results:

The way the results are confused! Was ANOVA performed to indicate the p-value? How did you achieve these results?

Authors did not use ANOVA, but obtained the p-value by SEM analysis with R language. The following explanation was added in 4. Results.

Line 542-545:

… Figs. 2 and 3 show the derived path diagrams of Groups A and B with standardized solutions for the strengths of the path coefficients [93]. SEM analysis using the R language provides the significance of the path in the relationship between the latent variables [95,96], in addition to the path estimates and standard deviation. The p-values regarding the path coefficients between latent variables in each group are shown in Figures 2 and 3.

1-18

Results:

Figure 2: If the factor is not significant, there is no need to add it to the model.

The path coefficients for intrinsic motivation from health risk indicators are not statistically significant, however, the factors are significant. We also showed the non-significant path coefficients for the comparison of the two models.

ID

Comments and Suggestions

Response

Reviewer

2-1

However, the accuracy of the data sources in this paper is affected by the randomness of the participants, which will directly affect the reliability of the analysis of the paper. Moreover, since the research group mainly focuses on a certain group, whether more groups can be promoted, ….

Thank you very much for your advice. Please allow me to use that for reference in our research from now on. Authors added the following sentence (underline) in 5.6. Limitations.

Line 674-675:

… Finally, the hypotheses in this study were wide ranging, with many side effects and adverse effects as well as endogenous problems. In addition, since this study mainly focuses on a specific group, further research and discussion is needed to determine whether it can be promoted to more groups in the future. These results may be specific to the Japanese construction company workers in this study and need to be evaluated for generality.

Reviewer

2-2

… in addition, the author is suggested to refine the full text better.

For other points, authors revised based on the review by other reviewer and editors.

ID

Comments and Suggestions

Response

Reviewer

3-1

Line 88: The extrinsic factors are described as “hygienic” which would imply factors related to cleanliness and sanitation. Based on the subsequent paper, a different word is needed.

Thank you very much for your advice. The incentive to make someone do something, or the threat of punishment, is called a "hygiene factor". Herzberg mentioned that hygiene factor (job title, job security, salary, benefits, working conditions, etc.) does not lead to higher motivation. "hygiene" will be described as “maintenance factor” in order to avoid confusion. Authors have modified it as follows.

Line 98:

… According to Herzberg’s theory, worker satisfaction involves two groups of factors: motivational factors (intrinsic) and maintenance factors (extrinsic) [24].

Reviewer

3-2

Line 111: “Conversely, intrinsic motivation include work and supervision”. Additional explanatory language is needed.

For the evaluation of intrinsic motivation, there are work and supervision subtypes in Spector’s report. As the reviewer pointed out, authors have modified it as follows.

Line 290:

Conversely, intrinsic motivation included sub-type of work and supervision.

Reviewer

3-3

Lines 133-134: Based on the context, the phrase “controlled air temperatures” seems like it should be described as “uncontrolled air temperatures”.

As the reviewer pointed out, authors corrected the incorrect expression and replaced it with this sentence.

Line 193-195:

… In a study on East Asians, Zheng et al. [61] found that people with a BMI of 22.6–27.5 had the lowest risk of death from cardiovascular disease, cancer, and other causes; this risk increases with the increase in BMI. In the construction industry, strict work schedules and irregular working hours and temperatures need to be taken into account to ensure workplace safety. Love and Edwards [30] …

Reviewer

3-4

Regarding concerns about autonomy of participation, the protocol section says (lines 254-256) that “participation would not cause any disadvantage”. Were workers likewise free to decline to participate without adverse consequence?

Workers were free to participate in the questionnaire. In this survey, a total of 25 workers at the two work sites declined the questionnaire. Authors added this explanation in "3.3.3. Participants".

Line 450-451:

… at 38 construction sites of a Japanese construction company. In this survey, a total of 25 workers at the two construction sites declined the questionnaire. In addition, the 33 participants who did not answer any one or more of the survey items were excluded from the analysis. …

Moreover, authors explained the following before participants responded to the questionnaire, "If there is some items you do not want to answer on the questionnaire, you can skip them."

ID

Comments and Suggestions

Response

Reviewer

4-1

For one, the hypotheses must be established before the authors discuss how the data was collected. Thus section 3.1 should be placed after all the hypotheses have been established.

Thank you very much for your advice. Authors think the reviewer's point is correct. As the reviewer pointed out, section 3.1 was placed after all the hypotheses were established. The hypotheses were moved into “2. Theoretical Development”.

Line 115-282:

2.1. Definition of variables

…

2.2. Definition of hypothetical model

…

Figure 1. Hypothetical model for the perceptions of construction workers.

4-2

There needs to be renaming of the sub-sections.

Even though Section 3 is named Materials and methods, 3.1.1 to 3.1.6 discuss hypothesis development. Thus, these would be better if they fell under 2.1 to 2.1.6 after theoretical development.

Again the hypothesis itself should not double as the sub-heading.

For example, “3.1.1. Hypothesis 1 (H1): Health risk indicators affect intrinsic motivation” can simply be renamed Health risk indicators and intrinsic motivation and at the end of the section, H1 is then stated.

As the reviewer pointed out, the subsections 3.1.1 to 3.1.6 moved into 2.2.1 to 2.2.6.

The hypothesis itself was changed from describing it as sub-heading to the following. Each hypothesis was described at the end of the section.

Line 184-209:

2.2.1. Health risk indicators and intrinsic motivation

…

Hypothesis 1 (H1). Health risk indicators affect intrinsic motivation. (Health risk indicators → Intrinsic motivation).

Line 210-225:

2.2.2. Intrinsic motivation and work skills

…

Hypothesis 2 (H2). Intrinsic motivation and work skills. (Intrinsic motivation → Work skills)

Line 226-241:

2.2.3. Work skills and extrinsic motivation

…

Hypothesis 3 (H3). Work skills affect extrinsic motivation. (Work skills → Extrinsic motivation)

Line 242-250:

2.2.4. Work skills and team performance

…

Hypothesis 4 (H4). Work skills affect team performance. (Work skills → Team performance)

Line 251-264:

2.2.5. Intrinsic motivation and team performance

…

Hypothesis 5 (H5). Intrinsic motivation affects team performance. (Intrinsic motivation → Team performance)

Line 265-280:

2.2.6. Extrinsic motivation and team performance

…

Hypothesis 6 (H6). Extrinsic motivation affects team performance. (Extrinsic motivation →Team performance)

4-3

The hypotheses must specify the direction of the relationship being proposed i.e. where a positive or negative effect.

Thank you very much for your advice. Author added the direction of each hypothesis in “2.2. Definition of hypothetical model”.

Line 208-209:

2.2.1. Health risk indicators and intrinsic motivation

…

Hypothesis 1 (H1). Health risk indicators affect intrinsic motivation. (Health risk indicators → Intrinsic motivation)

Line 225:

2.2.2. Intrinsic motivation and work skills

…

Hypothesis 2 (H2). Intrinsic motivation and work skills. (Intrinsic motivation → Work skills)

Line 241:

2.2.3. Work skills and extrinsic motivation

…

Hypothesis 3 (H3). Work skills affect extrinsic motivation. (Work skills → Extrinsic motivation)

Line 250:

2.2.4. Work skills and team performance

…

Hypothesis 4 (H4). Work skills affect team performance. (Work skills → Team performance)

Line 263-264:

2.2.5. Intrinsic motivation and team performance

…

Hypothesis 5 (H5). Intrinsic motivation affects team performance. (Intrinsic motivation → Team performance)

Line 279:

2.2.6. Extrinsic motivation and team performance

…

Hypothesis 6 (H6). Extrinsic motivation affects team performance. (Extrinsic motivation → Team performance)

4-4

Because the definition of the variables should factor into how the respective hypotheses are developed, it looks rather odd to establish the hypothesis and then provide more detailed explanations of the various variables used. The reader would be better served if these definitions – under section 3.2. – are inter-woven into the hypothesis development or literature review section.

As the reviewer points out. authors described the variables details in section 2.1, and then set out the hypothesis in section 2.2. The numberings of the citations were modified in line with the flow of the manuscript.

Line 115-282:

2.1. Definition of variables

…

2.2. Definition of hypothetical model

…

Figure 1. Hypothetical model for the perceptions of construction workers.

4-5

Although the authors note that they seek to examine the role of “Age-dependent influence”, the role of age is largely missing in the hypotheses development.

Notwithstanding, because in the results section the authors analyze both groups separately, all the hypotheses should reflect this.

For instance, H1 could have H1a and H1b where H1a would reflect the “younger” workers while H1b will reflect the “older” workers to align with how the results were analyzed. That would mean that per the results, H1a is not supported while H1b is supported.

Thank you very much for pointing this out. Authors added discussion of the relationship between productivity and workers’ age in hypothesis development.

Line 159-180:

2.1.6 Worker age

Regarding worker productivity loss due to aging, it has been reported that older workers have fewer accidents and injuries [50]. As for those factors, it is presumed that the awareness and experience of older workers allows them to maintain safe and solid work [8,50]. In addition, older workers are reported to adhere to rules and procedures at work [51]. A review by the U.K. Department of Trade and Industry provided evidence that the physical and mental decline associated with normal aging has little effect on the performance of many jobs, except for jobs requiring fast physical reactions and physical strength [52]. This study shows that the brains of older people might have different functions than the brains of younger people, however, it is not always accompanied by a decline in function [53,54].

Crowfold et al. [55] found that both physical and psychological changes occur in middle-aged and older workers over the age of fifty. However, these changes vary widely among individuals and can be moderated by lifestyle modifications. Therefore, there was no finding of inferior labor productivity with increasing worker age. Dalen et al. [56] defined that hard qualities (e.g. flexibility, physical and psychological abilities, willingness to learn new skills) and soft qualities (e.g. commitment to the organization, reliability, and social skills) in workers' job skills. It is reported that older people have the advantage of soft qualities and younger people have the advantage of hard qualities. In general, there is a negative stereotypical evaluation of the productivity of older workers. However, few reports have investigated the effects of worker age on work performance regarding productivity, including work awareness. In this research, the above latent variables (health risk indicators, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, work skills, and team productivity) are used to analyze work awareness by worker age.

4-6

What was the total number of questionnaires that were distributed and what was the response rate?

A total of 382 questionnaires were distributed, for a response rate of 93.5%. In this survey, a total of 25 workers at the two work sites declined the questionnaire. Authors added a description of this content in “3.3. Participants”.

Line 450-453:

… at 38 construction sites of a Japanese construction company. In this survey, a total of 25 workers at the two construction sites declined the questionnaire. In addition, the 33 participants who did not answer any one or more of the survey items were excluded from the analysis. A total of 382 questionnaires were distributed, for a response rate of 93.5% (valid response rate = 84.8%). In total, 324 participants were …

4-7

How were the sample firms selected?

The sample company was selected as the "Kumagai-gumi" to which the co-researchers belonged. Author added the name of the firm Kumagai Gumi to which the co-researchers belong.

Line 449-450:

, workers of a wide range of ages were randomly selected at 38 construction sites of a Japanese construction company (Kumagai Gumi, where the co-researchers belong). In this survey,

4-8

Did you use convenience sampling?

Yes, we did it. Authors selected the subjects of the questionnaire by convenience sampling. Authors modified in the following line.

Line 449:

… In the questionnaire survey, workers of a wide range of ages were selected by the convenience sampling at 38 construction sites of a Japanese construction company …

4-9

Authors need to state the specific measures that were used to measure the study variables and include the relevant references for these measures.

Authors used five-point Likert scale to investigate the impact of participants' awareness on the study variables. The following are shown with citations.

Line 466-468:

Responses to the questionnaire were assessed using a five-point Likert scale to assess the impact of participants' awareness on latent variables [89,90].

4-10

The CFA provides information on the fitness or otherwise of the measurement model. Thus, these results must be reported before the path analysis results and not the other way round as the authors did.

Authors agree with the reviewer's point and moved the description and table 3 of the goodness of fit of the measurement model from "4. Results" after the description of CFA (after Table 2).

Line 488-496:

The fitness of the models in both groups was tested based on the goodness of fit (GoF). The GoF was assessed according to the Norm kai square (X2/df), comparative fit index (CFI), Tucker–Lewis index (TLI), goodness of fit index (GFI), and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA). The GoF indices for both models were obtained according to the approach that is recommended by Yuan et al [16]. The GoF indices for both groups fit the recommended values, as given in Table 3. Thus, the hypothetical model showed a good fit to both the groups.

Table 3. Validity of the models for Groups A and B, and recommended GoF values.

…

4-11

Line 398…. “Our results also showed that extrinsic motivation had no effect on intrinsic motivation.”

Because the authors neither hypothesized not analyzed the relationship between extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation in the research, this statement is unwarranted.

As the reviewer pointed out, we deleted this sentence because the authors did not hypothesize regarding the relationship between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in this study.

Line 606-607:

… both intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation affect their engagement. This result is consistent with a previous research by Putra, Cho, and Liu [101]. Our results also showed that extrinsic motivation had no effect on intrinsic motivation. In contrast to the crowding theory, …