The Research Of Motivation Mechanism Of Teachers In Universities

The competition between universities is actually the competition of their talents and teaching staff. For universities in the west regions of China such as Northwest Normal University which is in a geographically disadvantaged position and has limited external resources, for the purpose of further deepening the reform of inner management system, it is their urgent task to find ways to strengthen the inner management system, and to build up a scientific motivation mechanism which is advantageous for bringing up and using talents, so as to let the teachers take full initiatives and to use their creative power to the fullest extent, and to raise the teaching quality and efficiency of the university and to ensure the vigorous and sustainable development of the university. Based on theories on higher-education management, the author of this paper who has long been doing the job of personnel management in university believes that a combination of the theories on motivation and university management will be of great realistic significance for the research of university teachers' motivation mechanism.Based on the analysis and literature review of the motivation theories of the western world, this paper makes a systematic analysis on the present status of the research on the motivation among university teachers and the motivation mechanism. The author puts forward the problems that call for further research and solution. It believes that for a long time in the past, the university teachers were mainly motivated by the means of spiritual motivation such as spiritual incentives and moral education, honors and awards, which led to the low income of teachers and the prevalence of undifferentiated distribution among them and greatly undermined their initiatives. The reform of working system beginning in the early 1990s and the reform of personnel system in the universities in the later 1990s were made in the light of the seriousness of this problem, and obvious effect has been seen in activating the teachers' initiatives and building the motivation mechanism. However, there are still problems prominent in the motivation mechanism. The social environment for the shaping of the mechanism is not lenient enough, and the employment system in the university is far from complete. In addition, the means of assessment for teachers' performance are not scientific enough, and the rewarding system lacks flexibility. There is also a lack of awareness of the teachers' needs. The measures of motivation areaccordingly not well institutionalized and normalized. All the problems mentioned above have given rise to inefficient operating of the motivation mechanism.Adopting the research method of literature review, data collection, questionnaire, interview and so on, this paper analyses the following issues: the effect of motivation measures adopted by Northwest Normal University in recent years; the discrepancy of the strata structure of needs and the needs of the different types of teachers among teachers in Northwest Normal University; the effects of various motivation measures such as material motivation, policy motivation, environmental motivation, spiritual motivation and so on upon teachers of different types; major factors affecting the initiatives and the degree of satisfaction among teachers of different types. Through the preceding analyses, with the reference to other research outcomes in the relevant fields, this paper makes an attempt to probe into the building of motivation mechanism in the university by adopting the motivation theory in the behavior science and puts forward the model of motivation mechanism and suggestions for its application. These suggestions include the reform of the present assessment system of the titles of technical posts and the gradual 'adoption of the post employment system; the deepening of the distribution system within university, the building of a more flexible rewarding system; thorough understanding of the teachers' needs, the combination of material motivation and spiritual motivation;...