Employee Motivation Mechanisms in Labour-Intensive Manufacturing Firms: An Action Research Study Based on a Small and Medium-Sized Furniture Enterprise in Chongqing

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-825-2_37How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Employee Motivation; ESG Social Responsibility; Action Research; Performance Management; Manufacturing

Abstract

Against the backdrop of ESG frameworks increasingly becoming a core benchmark for corporate sustainability, how manufacturing firms implement effective incentive mechanisms to fulfil their internal social responsibilities has emerged as a critical issue. This study takes a small and medium-sized furniture manufacturing enterprise in Chongqing as a case example. Adopting the action research paradigm, it collects data through semi-structured interviews and employs thematic analysis to identify key institutional barriers. The findings reveal four interrelated challenges: (1) the promotion mechanism exhibits structural imbalance, creating a significant “incentive gap” between management and production staff; (2) the performance appraisal system lacks scientific rigour and transparency; (3) unclear job responsibilities lead to accountability avoidance and organisational inefficiency; and (4) performance results are applied narrowly without effective feedback. Drawing upon the ESG framework, this study proposes dual-track career ladders, appraisal system re-engineering, and institutionalised feedback mechanisms. The findings suggest that incentive effectiveness depends fundamentally on institutional fairness, procedural transparency, and employee participation.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Yujie Xi
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/11/10
TI  - Employee Motivation Mechanisms in Labour-Intensive Manufacturing Firms: An Action Research Study Based on a Small and Medium-Sized Furniture Enterprise in Chongqing
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 5th International Conference on Public Service, Economic Management and Sustainable Development (PESD 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 375
EP  - 383
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-825-2_37
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-825-2_37
ID  - Xi2026
ER  -