Motivation for Effective Work of University Teachers or Why Innovations in Higher Education are Being Hindered

Abstract

The article deals with the issues of motivation of teaching staff as a complex category that includes several motivational aspects that affect the involvement of the teaching staff in the educational process. The article is based on the results of the study of staff motivation. The main research has been conducted since 2002 on the materials of organizations of the automobile market. The results of previous research were published in early articles of the authors; additional research on the application of vector motivational theory to scientific and pedagogical personnel was conducted in the period from 2007 to 2018. The research was conducted on the basis of observations and surveys of teaching staff of at least 30 organizations of higher and secondary vocational education, and motivational experiments at the level of departments and institutes in at least five organizations of professional education in Russia. The article touches the following results:

1. A clarification of the concept of human capital capacity of a scientific and pedagogical worker with the consideration of the features of intellectual work of higher school teachers. 2. A description of the main motives that form the motivational space of employees in the pedagogical system taking into account the specific features of the studied area. According to the authors, such main motives are classified into monetary, conservative, image, hygienic and self-actualization ones. 3. A proposal of the concept of effective use of the university’s human potential on the basis of a five-vector main motivational space. The concept is a modified theory of human capital management of industrial enterprises and incorporates the specifics of managing scientific and pedagogical staff in educational institutions. 4. A presentation of the author’s opinion on the reasons of reduction of the effectiveness of innovation in higher education institutions and professional depreciation of human capital based on a vector motivational model. 5. A consideration of the best practices of implementing innovative solutions in higher education institutions and an explanation of their impact on the performance of teaching staff in the context of the proposed motivational theory.