Psychological motivation system for the staff of a development company

Khalikov Rustem Marsovich Postgraduate student; Russian New University Specialist of organizational development; JSC 'Center-Invest' 119526, Russia, Moscow, Prospekt Vernadskogo, 95k1, sq. 134 halikovv-2000@mail.ru

Introduction

In modern conditions of dynamic complexity of market mechanisms, human capital is a system-forming factor of various managerial and economic processes and assumes as a basis a motivational complex that ensures the effective organization of the work of the workforce, including in development companies. Consideration of the motivational characteristics of staff becomes a condition for ensuring their competitiveness ^{[6; 10]}. Development companies, being complexly organized structures involved in a wide range of opportunities related to the development and management of real estate, fully depend on the motivational component. Unlike traditional construction organizations, which focus primarily on the construction of facilities, developers carry out comprehensive management of investment and construction projects, starting from the concept and design and ending with the sale and operation of real estate ^[9].

Development as an industry is in the process of active development, which is reflected in the continuous change of its legal, managerial and psychological aspects ^[12]. The transformation of development activity necessitates the permanent adaptation of motivational mechanisms to the changing operating conditions of companies in this field. The relevance of studying the psychological aspects of the effectiveness of development companies and management, as well as taking into account motivational factors in their activities, is due to the increasing complexity of the regulatory framework governing the field of development ^[15]. The system of legislative acts regulating urban planning, land relations, shared-equity construction, cadastral activities, technical regulation and investment activity in construction ^[14], as well as numerous other by-laws, testifies to the relevance and high importance of this industry.At the same time, the abundance of regulatory requirements covering all stages of a development project from design to commissioning, as well as the variety of regulated parameters (from sanitary and epidemiological standards to energy efficiency requirements in Federal Law No. 261-FZ), creates complexity of management processes in this area.

The implementation of projects in such a regulated legal environment requires effective organization of interaction between numerous project participants (designers, contractors, investors, regulatory authorities, etc.), coordinated work of various departments of the company, and the implementation of all procedures at each stage. In these conditions, the main success factor is the quality of human capital – professionalism, competence, responsibility and motivation of employees. Considering that development companies, in addition to the general requirements of labor legislation, are subject to building regulations on occupational safety and health, the creation of an effective personnel motivation system that ensures not only productivity, but also compliance with standards and regulations, becomes the most important task of labor psychology. However, despite the high relevance and practical significance of the motivation problem in development, the degree of its scientific elaboration remains insufficient.

Review of scientific literature

Existing research mainly focuses either on the analysis of motivation in fundamentally different professional fields, such as healthcare ^{[11; 25]}, education ^{[8; 26]}, public administration ^{[2; 18; 21]}, or in related industries, for example, in the field of architectural design ^[22], real estate management ^{[3; 13; 25]}, general contractor construction ^[21]. A relatively small number of works are devoted directly to the specifics of motivating employees of development companies, while they are fragmentary.

So, E.Y. In his work, Kosarev ^[4] identifies factors that negatively affect the development of real estate development, among which there is a lack of employee motivation. The author emphasizes that this factor is the most significant, since staff motivation ensures a more responsible attitude to work and allows for better results at all stages of the development project. At the same time, a detailed analysis of motivational mechanisms is not carried out in the study. In another work by the same author ^[5], the features of labor efficiency in development are considered and the main ways of motivating employees are highlighted: bonuses, social benefits, and promotions. The author notes the need to develop appropriate provisions on bonuses, benefits and career growth. It also points out the importance of taking into account specific factors affecting the organization of work in development – time, productivity, efficiency and professional skills of employees. However, these factors are not analyzed in relation to specific categories of personnel and their motivational profiles.

A.H. Lyashenko ^[7], investigating the psychological characteristics of the personality of employees, evaluates the motivation orientation in the context of achieving success among the main staff of the company. According to the results of the psychodiagnostics, it was revealed that the majority of sales department employees have an average achievement motivation and are more likely to be motivated by failure avoidance. Based on the research, a psychogram of a real estate sales manager has been constructed, including professionally important qualities. At the same time, the motivation of other categories of employees of development companies remains outside the scope of the analysis, which suggests that the issue is limited in research.

A.S. Selivanova and A.M. Platonov ^[19], considering motivation as a psychological management tool in development, describe a bonus system linked to the stages of project implementation. This approach certainly takes into account the organizational specifics of development, but it only affects financial motivation.

M.V. Olshanskaya ^[13] notes the complex nature of staff motivation programs in development companies, including socio-psychological methods. Special attention is paid to the role of autonomous motivation, which is positively related to productivity and innovative work behavior of employees. At the same time, the motivation under study, according to the author, may have advantages when performing routine tasks, but reduces effectiveness in situations requiring cognitive flexibility and creativity. However, these conclusions do not take into account the functional specifics of the personnel of development companies.

E.V. Razorenova ^[17], analyzing modern management trends in development, points to the practice of developing monetary incentive systems for employees linked to key performance indicators (KPIs). At the same time, the set of KPIs is determined in accordance with the company's strategic goals and the specifics of the construction cycle. The issues of non-monetary motivation are not raised in this study.

Thus, despite the existence of separate studies addressing the issues of motivation in development, many aspects of this issue remain insufficiently disclosed. Firstly, existing jobs tend to focus on individual functional groups (mainly sales professionals), without giving a holistic view of the motivational specifics of various categories of employees. Secondly, most studies focus on individual motivational factors and incentive methods without taking into account the multidimensional nature of labor motivation and the need to form integrated incentive systems. Thirdly, there are practically no works that consider the structural and functional features of development companies as a factor in differentiating the motivational profiles of employees.

In addition, existing research mainly examines motivation in development in a general context, without taking into account the mental specifics of the country. Meanwhile, the Russian development model has a number of significant differences from foreign practices, which determines the features of motivational determinants of labor efficiency. These differences manifest themselves both at the level of the external environment (imperfection of the legislative framework, lack of transparency of the market, limited sources of financing) and the internal organization of companies (insufficient level of corporate governance, blurred functionality of employees). This specificity determines the higher importance of non-monetary motivation factors (professional interest, challenge, self-realization) in conditions of instability and informal business processes, as well as the special role of monetary instruments (high pay, bonuses, social package) in the context of closed companies and limited external career prospects. All this makes it necessary to study the motivational determinants of the developer's work efficiency, taking into account the specifics of the industry and organizational culture using the example of a specific Russian enterprise.

In this regard, the novelty of this study lies in a comprehensive analysis of the characteristics of the labor motivation of the main categories of personnel of a development company in an attempt to fill in the gaps of the above-mentioned studies.

The subject of the study is the peculiarities of labor motivation of the main categories of personnel of a development company, due to the specifics of its organizational structure, functional division of labor and role profiles of employees.

The purpose of the study is to conduct a structural and functional analysis of motivational mechanisms in development companies in order to identify psychological patterns and differentiate the personnel incentive system, taking into account the functional roles of employees. To achieve this goal, on the basis of Center-Invest JSC, which is a typical representative of the development business, we have identified motivational factors and built a conceptual model of labor motivation in this industry. The research objectives include the identification of specific motivational patterns peculiar to various functional and role departments, and on this basis, the formation of practical recommendations for designing an effective motivation system, taking into account industry specifics.

The work has a pronounced practice-oriented orientation and is aimed at the formation of scientifically based tools for optimizing the motivation system in development companies. The results of the study can be used in the process of developing and implementing incentive programs for staff, which will help increase employee engagement, increase productivity and, as a result, achieve the strategic goals of development firms.

Materials and methods

The information base of the study was made up of data on the staffing structure of the development company Center-Invest JSC, including information on the number and composition of staff in terms of functional areas, job positions and management levels. Methods of analyzing the company's organizational documentation and the labor method were used to collect empirical material. The methodological basis of the study was the systemic, structural-functional and role-based approaches that allow us to consider a development company as an integral object represented by a hierarchy of interrelated elements, each of which performs a specific set of functions and is characterized by a specific role profile. In the process of data processing and analysis, methods of classification, grouping, generalization, comparative analysis, as well as graphical interpretation techniques were used.

Results and discussion

In order to identify the employee motivation characteristics typical of development companies, this study conducted a comprehensive analysis of the staffing structure of Center-Invest JSC, which is a typical representative of the industry. The analysis is based on a tiered approach, which involves consideration of motivational determinants for three main categories of personnel – top-level developers (top management), middle-level developers (managers and specialists of key departments) and support staff. The empirical basis of the study was a representative sample, including 171 full-time positions and covering all functional areas and hierarchical levels of the organizational structure, which ensures the validity and reliability of the results obtained.

The first stage of the analytical work was the stratification of personnel by functional basis, which makes it possible to assess the relative importance and staffing of various areas of the organization's activities (Fig. 1).

Figure 1 – Functional structure of the staff of a development company

As follows from the above data, the project management units (31%) and the sales and marketing unit (32.7%) have the largest share in the employment structure, which correlates with the key business processes of development - the management of investment and construction projects and the commercialization of real estate. The significant concentration of human resources in these blocks (53 and 56 employees, respectively) serves as an indicator of the high labor intensity and priority of these areas in the hierarchy of the organization.

The financial unit, despite its relatively small share in the total (7.6%), performs a strategically important function of providing budgeting, accounting and control of financial flows, which is a prerequisite for the effective implementation of investment and construction projects. In turn, the relatively low proportion of the legal department (5.3%) and the IT service (1.8%) is mainly due to the supportive nature of these departments that are not part of the core business processes.

It is noteworthy that the share of the public relations service is only (0.6%), which may be an indirect indication of the use of outsourcing for these functions. Taking into account the scale and diversified nature of the company's development projects, it seems advisable to expand the public relations service to at least 3 full-time units or 1.8% of the actual number of staff by introducing positions of an external communications specialist responsible for interaction with the media, government and public structures, and a corporate communications specialist providing training relevant information for internal channels, organization of special events for employees and business partners.

At the same time, a fairly high percentage of employees classified as administrative staff (7%) may indicate a certain irrationality of the organizational and staff structure and the availability of optimization reserves. Taking into account the standard staffing standards recommended by the Federal State Budgetary Institution "NII TSS" of the Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation ^[20], for business entities with an average number of employees in the range from 100 to 200 people, the regulatory limit for the personnel representation of the Administrative and Economic Department is 1.0 staff unit. Taking into account the specifics of the operational activities of development companies, of course, such a limited presence of business personnel will not be sufficient to fully support business processes. Nevertheless, a significant part of the functions of the AHO service is unified and is related to ensuring the basic needs of the organization in maintaining cleanliness and order, transport services, office work and courier delivery, and the availability of highly specialized positions in the staffing table (for example, 2 cleaners, 4 drivers, including the personal driver of the CEO, 2 clerks) it seems economically impractical, and can be reduced to 6-7 positions.

It is also worth noting the independent position of the commercial real estate and investment management department (4.1%), which are not directly related to the management of construction projects, however, they play an important role in the company's activities and are classified as mid-level developers.

The distribution of functional blocks in hierarchical specifics can be a significant factor in staff motivation, which determines the expediency of further detailed analysis in the context of the categories "higher-level developers", "middle-level developers" and "support staff" (Table 1).

Table 1. Hierarchical structure of the staff of the development company

For comparative clarity, the results were displayed as a bar chart (Fig. 2)

Figure 2 –Hierarchical structure of the development company's staff

As you can see, the development company has a fairly well-developed hierarchy of management levels. First of all, a relatively small proportion of top management (7% of the total number) attracts attention, which is typical for project-type companies with a "flat" organizational structure. At the same time, in addition to the CEO and his first deputy, the top management includes 7 functional deputies, 2 advisers and an assistant, which indicates a fairly extensive system of strategic management and expert decision support. However, the most interesting, from the point of view of psychological analysis, is the category of mid-level developers, who make up more than 2/3 of the company's staff (67.8%). It is this category, which includes managers and leading specialists in key business areas, that determines the effectiveness of operational activities and directly affects the achievement of the goals of development projects. The most numerous divisions among mid-level developers are the Construction Control Department (14%), Sales Offices (11.7%), the Sales Department for Premium Projects (6.4%), Project Management (5.3%) and the Engineering Department (4.1%). The high concentration of personnel in these divisions reflects the central business processes and competencies of the development company - the management of investment and construction projects at all stages of the life cycle, the implementation and promotion of real estate, ensuring the quality of construction and engineering solutions.

It is noteworthy that the departments directly involved in the design and construction processes (Project Management, the Department of Expertise and Approvals, the Cost Estimation and Analytical Department, the Department of Construction Control, the Department of Design and Pricing) account for more than a quarter of the total staff (26.3%). This highlights the engineering and production-technical dominance in the Russian business model of a development company, which should be reflected in the specifics of its personnel management system and motivation. At the same time, the personnel representation of the commercial unit is very significant, which includes the Sales Department for Residential Development Projects, Sales Offices, the Sales Department for Premium Projects, as well as transaction support and customer service units (a total of 25.9%). This fact reflects the increasing importance of marketing competencies, customer orientation and the service component in the activities of a modern company. The organizational division of sales into quarterly and premium projects, as well as the presence of specialized departments for mortgages, registration and after-sales services, may be a sign of differentiation of the commercial function.

As for the support staff, its share is 25.2%, which is quite typical for companies of this profile and scale of activity. At the same time, the most numerous are the financial and economic unit (7.6%) and the general Affairs service and the administrative and economic department (7%), while the share of the personnel service is only 1.2%. This fact may indirectly indicate the low status of the HR department in the organizational hierarchy and the reactive nature of its activities.

A fairly large proportion of the total number of staff (171) in relation to top management (171:12 or 14.25:1) may indicate a high degree of delegation of authority and relative decentralization of management. On the one hand, the presence of several levels of hierarchy and a significant proportion of leadership positions creates multiple opportunities for vertical career growth, which is an important motivating factor. On the other hand, a sufficiently large number of first-person deputies with a relatively narrow scope of control at the "top management - middle management" level (1:9.7) can lead to a blurring of areas of responsibility, duplication of functions and a decrease in the motivating potential for career advancement at this level. In turn, an almost 3-fold increase in the number of "production" personnel over auxiliary personnel is a sign of the orientation of the organizational structure towards business processes.

Accordingly, when designing the motivation system of a development company, special attention should be paid to ensuring a clear division of powers between the levels of the management hierarchy, as well as to the formation of transparent and objective criteria for career growth. An important element should be the development of specific motivation models for developers at the highest and middle levels, taking into account the specifics of their functions and professional competencies.

Further analysis requires an in-depth description of the professional activities of the staff in the scheme of individual job positions in order to identify the specifics of functional roles and the resulting features of labor motivation (Table 2).

Table 2. Personnel structure of the development company in terms of job positions

Thus, the motivational space of a development company has a three-level structure reflecting the specifics of motivation of various categories of personnel.:

1. The motivational core of top management (top-level developers) is formed by long-term incentive factors, the scale of responsibility and influence, status and self-realization in strategic projects.

2. The motivational profile of middle-level developers is characterized by a focus on factors of professional development and career growth, a combination of monetary and non-monetary incentives, and the importance of cross-functional communications.

3. The motivation of support staff is most strongly determined by the factors of stability, security and belonging, formed by a combination of economic and socio-psychological incentives.

At the same time, the motivational profiles of different categories are interrelated and complementary. Factors of universal importance form at the intersection, regardless of the level of the position and functional affiliation. These include the basic elements of the incentive system (fixed salary, social package), factors of a favorable corporate environment and relationships, as well as a focus on the sustainability and reliability of the company as an employer. These factors form the basis of the psychological system of the organization's motivational space, providing staff with common values. At the same time, the differences in priority motivation factors reflect the objective differentiation of labor functions, responsibilities, and professional competencies of the development company's employees. Obviously, the implementation of the motivational function of personnel management in this case requires taking into account the revealed variability of motivational profiles.

This means that an important principle for building an effective psychological motivation system in a development company should be its differentiation in accordance with the specifics of functionality and management levels.

From the point of view of labor psychology and motivation psychology, it is advisable to apply the following basic requirements to the design of an effective incentive system:

1. For top management (top-level developers), long-term motivation programs are of priority, ensuring their involvement in business value growth and focusing on achieving strategic goals (a system of annual bonus payments, depending on the achievement of the company's goals and indicators for the year; motivation programs, in which employees are given the right to buy shares of the company at a cost of No less important are the tools of status motivation that emphasize the importance of top managers and the scale of their influence (privileged compensation packages, representative options, exclusive working conditions). A key area of responsibility for HR staff is also ensuring the involvement of top management in strategic decision-making through their involvement in the work of corporate governance bodies, collegial advisory structures, and project committees.

2. The motivation of middle-level developers should be comprehensive, combining tools of material and non-material incentives, taking into account the specifics of functional areas of activity. For middle managers, it is necessary to develop multi-level bonus systems based on the performance of departments, complemented by mechanisms for evaluating personal effectiveness and contribution to achieving team results (for example, using the 360 degree method of employee evaluation, in which colleagues, supervisors and subordinates evaluate him). With regard to leading specialists, priority is given to the development of professional matrices and job levels that ensure promotion and pay increases as professional competencies and skills develop. Common motivation tools for mid-level developers should be training and development programs (specialized training, management trainings, internships, rotations), systems of internal professional contests and competitions, and professional communities.