Title: Development opportunity and motivation - A qualitative study about how individuals with different educational backgrounds experience that development opportunities affect their motivation to perform.

Authors: Mohamed Hassan and Charlotte Wennerholm

School: Halmstad University

Term: Spring term 2020

The purpose of the study was to investigate how individuals with different educational backgrounds experience development opportunities and in what way they feel it affects their motivation to perform. The research questions were: “What experiences do individuals have regarding their development opportunities?”, “How does the experienced development opportunities affect the motivation to perform?” and “Does individuals different educational backgrounds have an effect on how they experience their development opportunities?”. To answer these questions, we used a qualitative method in the form of interviews. We have eight respondents with whom we have held semi-structured interviews. The selection consists of individuals from different professions and educational backgrounds and all of them are between the age of 24 and 35 years. The findings show that educational background has an effect on how individuals experience their development opportunities. The individuals who has a Swedish upper secondary level education as their highest are more likely to be dissatisfied with their advancement possibility because they will reach a ceiling which requires higher education. The results of this study also show that there is a connection between development opportunities and the motivation to perform. A good experience related to development opportunities leads to higher motivation.