The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 2 - 32

Katherine B . Boone

financial obligations, career development, and
desire for power, while Herzberg's intrinsic
factors correlate with Deluga and Winters' motivational factor categories of helping behaviors,
personal growth, and RA cohesiveness.

Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study was to examine the
motivational factors of current RAs when they
applied for the RA position. The job description of the RA has evolved over time, and the
complexity of the job requirements has grown
tremendously, which raises concerns regarding the ability of current housing professionals to continue to attract and retain qualified
student staff (Crandall, 2004). This research
seeks to discover the most significant motivational factors as well as predictors of motivation. Further, the study aims to determine
if those motivational factors change with the
influence of time in the position or vary given
specific demographic and work environment
characteristics (gender and race/ethnicity, type
of institution, type of residential community,
number of students RA was serving, and class
standing of students the RA was serving).
This study is based upon the following research questions:
*	 What	are	the	most	prominent	motivational	
factors for current resident assistants?
*	 Are	there	significant	differences	in	the	
motivational factors of current resident
assistants based on their demographic
characteristics (i.e., gender and race/
ethnicity)?
*	 Are	there	significant	differences	in	the	
motivational factors of current resident
assistants based on characteristics of the
work environment (i.e., type of residential

32

community, semesters in the RA position,
class standing of population RA was
serving, number of students the RA was
serving on the floor/wing, and type of
institution)?
*	 What	demographic	and	work	environment	
characteristics (i.e., gender and race/
ethnicity, semesters in the RA position,
and number of students the RA is serving
on floor/wing) can predict high levels of
motivation for current resident assistants?

Limitations
The study design was limited to current RAs
at 46 Mid-Atlantic higher education institutions. Care should be taken when generalizing that data outside this region. The sample
was limited to those RAs in the Mid-Atlantic
College and University Housing Officers
(MACUHO) region who attended the Student
Staff Live-In (SSLI) conference on October 24,
2015. In examining the context of this conference as the setting for data collection, the
argument could be made that those RAs who
attended the conference may inherently have
been more motivated and/or more financially
secure than those RAs who chose not to attend.
Another limitation may be the result of the
instrumentation used in the study. While the
authors of the RAMQ did extensive research to
determine the six motivational factors in 1991,
it is possible that the survey does not measure
all possible current motivations for seeking the
RA position (Deluga & Winters, 1991).

RESEARCH DESIGN
Instrumentation
The instrument utilized was the Resident Assistant Motivation Questionnaire (Deluga &

T h e J o u r n a l o f C o l l e g e a n d U n i v e r s i t y St u d e n t H o u s i n g
The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 2

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