The Influence of Work Motivation, Rewards, and Punishments on Employees’ Job Satisfaction at XYZ Company

Purpose: This study examines the partial and simultaneous effects of work motivation, reward, and punishment on employee job satisfaction at XYZ Company, an organization operating in a performance-target-driven environment requiring procedural compliance and consistent work quality.

Research Methodology: A quantitative explanatory research design was employed with a purposive sample of 85 employees of a performance-target-driven company in Indonesia who had at least one year of service. Data were collected using Likert-scale questionnaires and analyzed using multiple linear regression with SPSS. The instruments were valid and reliable, and all classical assumption tests (normality, multicollinearity, and heteroscedasticity) were satisfied.

Results: The regression results show that work motivation, reward, and punishment all have positive and significant partial effects on job satisfaction, with work motivation being the most dominant variable. The simultaneous test confirms that the three variables jointly have a significant effect on job satisfaction (F = 42.615, p < 0.001). The model explains 61.2% of the variation in job satisfaction (R² = 0.612).

Conclusions: Work motivation is the most dominant predictor of job satisfaction (β = 0.387), followed by reward (β = 0.311) and punishment (β = 0.168), supporting expectancy and equity theories in explaining employee satisfaction. Collectively, the three variables explain 61.2% of the variance in job satisfaction, indicating that satisfaction is primarily driven by motivational and reward-based HRM mechanisms within an integrated model.

Limitations: Cross-sectional design; self-report questionnaire data from a single organization; company name anonymized as ’XYZ Company’ — limiting contextual specificity and external validity of the findings.

Contributions: This study shows that motivation, reward, and punishment jointly affect job satisfaction, explaining 61.2% of its variance and supporting integrated HRM practices.