Perception of Organizational Support to Lecturers’ Research Motivation: The Case of Vietnam

The aim of this study is to test the direct relationship and the indirect relationship of the perceived organizational support to lecturers’ research motivation through “expectation” factor (belief in ability). The subject of the study is lecturers who are teaching and researching in the fields of economic, management and business administration at universities in Vietnam. The questionnaires were directly sent to lecturers at scientific conferences, sent out via e-mail and Facebook, the questionnaires were designed on google docs and directly sent to the lecturers. The detailed sample includes 475 respondents. The results of a quantitative analysis with a research sample of 475 lecturers in economics universities in Vietnam show that it is impossible to separate between lecturers’ research ability and motivation. Lecturers with increased expectation (in terms of capability) also have increased research motivation, and vice versa. At the same time, the research also affirms the role of perceived organizational support, which not only has a direct positive impact on research motivation, but also increases expectation, thus, indirectly influence research motivation. This suggests that the solution for managers who want to improve research motivation by having measures to increase the expectation for the lecturers through various forms of organizational support.