Employee Motivation and Human Resource Practices During Economic Instability

As Lebanon struggles with ongoing political and economic challenges, we examined how employees at both local companies and multinational corporations (MNCs) are faring in terms of job motivation. Using Expectancy Theory and Equity Theory, this research explores the relationships among the work environment, leadership, organizational culture, perceived economic security, and organizational policies and employee motivation in local Lebanese organizations and multinational companies. The study focuses on employee motivation as the primary outcome of the empirical analysis, situating its findings within the broader literature on workplace experiences during periods of economic instability. We surveyed employees using standardized questionnaires to gather quantitative data. The results suggest no significant difference in employee motivation between the employees of local Lebanese firms and those of MNCs. For the entire sample, motivation showed a positive correlation with the organizational factors studied. However, some predictors did not meet the standard thresholds for statistical significance in the multivariate regression analysis. Consequently, these findings should be considered initial and exploratory. We acknowledge the limitations of our sample size and the restraints of generalizing these findings. Nevertheless, this exploratory study provides practical recommendations to improve human resource (HR) activities and offers preliminary insight for future studies in developing economies facing similar conditions.