Pornrat Pansrimangkorn.  1997.  Variables related  to  Professional Nurses  internal work Motivation Based
on Job Characteristics Theory.  Dissertation, M.S (Behavioral Science) Behavioral Science Research
Institute. 


                   The purpose of this study was to compare the relationshipe between (a) job characteristics and
psychological states, (b) the product of the three psychological states and intermal work motivation, and (c)
motivation potential score and internal work motivation among groups of nunses who were different in growth need
strength and context satisfaction. 
                    406  nurses in 8 different government hospitals, who had worked for at least 6  months were asked to
answer 7 - point rating scale type questionnaires. They concerned 5 job characteristics (skill variety, task identity,
task significance, autonomy, and feedback from job), 3  psychological states ( experienced meaningfulness of the
work, experienced responsibility for outcomes of the work, and knowledge of the actual results of the work
activities), growth need strength, context satisfaction, and nurses' internal work motivation. 
                   In order to test hypotheses, Pearson' s product moment correlation coefficient was computed to
exmine the relationships of job dimensions with psychological states, and the product of the three psychological
states, motivation potential scorre (MPS) with internal work motivatio. Fisher' s  ZI-test and c2- test were used to test
the significance of the difference between two and four correlation coefficients, respectively Multiple regression
analysis was additionally used to find out good predictons of nurses' internal  work motivation. 
                    All the hypotheses were not supported by the data from this study Growth need strength and
context satisfaction were not found to be appropriate moderatous in the nursing profression. However, when both of
them were applied together, it was found that the MPS was negatively correlated with the internal work motivation in
the group of nurses with high context satisfaction but low growth need strength, but for the other three groups (low
context satisfaction but high growth need strength, low growth need strength and low context satisfaction and high
growth need strength and high context satisfaction) the correlations between the two variables were positive. 
                       In addition, it was found that the three psychological states could account for 50.28 % of the variance 
in nurses' internal work motivation. The best predictor was experienced meaningfulness of the work. Three
characteristics of the job (skill variety, task identity, and task significance) could account for 20.95 % of the variance
in experienced meaningfulness of the work. Task identity was the best predictor. 
                    Finally, autonomy was shown to account for 6.55% of the variance in experienced responsibility for
outcome of the work. Feedback from job accounted for 33.06 % of the variance in knowledge of results. 

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