The Effect of Employee Motivation on Job Satisfaction and Job Performance: A Case Study of Travel Agents Guangxi, The People’s Republic of China

Abstract

Tourism industry in Guangxi, the People’s Republic of China has drastically expanded. Hence, the competition of travel agents is intense. Employees are the core of the company such as travel agents to gain advantages over competitors. As employee performance would enhance company performance, prior research suggested that employee motivation and job satisfaction would lead to advance employee performance. The objective of this study is to explore the role of intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation on job satisfaction and employee performance. This study employs quantitative method to collect the data from 256 employees of three leading travel agents in Guangxi, China. The result of this study suggested that intrinsic motivation has stronger effect on job satisfaction and employee performance than extrinsic motivation. The effect of intrinsic motivation on contextual performance is stronger than on task performance.