Management of Students' Motivation in the Context of Higher Education in India:An Indigenous Model

The application of Euro-American model of motivation to nonwestem situations has received setbacks during past decades. Attempts have been directed to develop culturally valid explanations of motivation. More recently an efficacious model of motivation has been formulated in terms of need saliency. As a contradistinction to hierarchy of needs, 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 salient whereas other needs are considered non-salient. The model further posits that motivation is significantly and positively related to salient need satisfaction. In contrast, motivation is unrelated to non-salient need satisfaction. The present investigation provides an empirical test of this pan-cultural model. College students were individually administered a multipart study behavior questionnaire. They were asked to rank order sixteen study outcome factors. These include brand name of institution, gaining knowledge, cordial peer relationship, opportunity for higher studies, supportive learning enviroiunent, interesting course-work, sound administrative policy, multiskilling, healthy interpersonal contact, collaborative learning, professionally competent teachers, well planned schedule, individual attention to students, freedom from social pressiire, job prospect, and fair assessment. With identification of salient and non-salient needs, it was possible to measure salient need satisfaction, non-salient need satisfaction and total need satisfaction. Subsequently study motivation was measured in the form of semantic differential technique, questionnaire, and graphic designs. The examination of relationship between salient need satisfaction and motivation provided supportive evidence for the indigenous model. The implication is outlined.