Proceeding of National Postgraduate Conference on Business Administration 2014 1 Motivation of Quantity Surveyors towards Improved Job Performance in the Malaysian Construction Industry Siti Sarah Herman 1,a , Prof. David Eaton 2,b , and Hasif Rafidee Hasbollah 3,c 1 PhD research student, Room 344, School of Built Environment, Maxwell Building, University of Salford, Salford, M5 4WT, United Kingdom. 2 Room 418, School of Built Environment, Maxwell Building, University of Salford, Salford, M5 4WT, United Kingdom 3 Faculty of Entrepreneurship and Business, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Malaysia. a s.s.herman@edu.salford.ac.uk, b d.eaton@salford.ac.uk, c rafidee@umk.edu.my Abstract: Performance is a product of motivation and is viewed as the implementation of an action or one’s ability. Meanwhile, employee performance is the measure of the quality of an organisation. Motivation has been described as the key factor that influences people to perform better, resulting in higher productivity. Motivation triggers action into achieving goal(s). The issue of motivation is important as it is the key to high performance especially since the construction industry is related to human management. In construction, quantity surveyors contribute to the overall construction performance, mainly, by adding value to the contractual and financial management of projects starting from the pre-construction stage until post-construction. However, the roles of the quantity surveyor have undergone significant change in different countries in the last decade and the profession now faces several challenges that threaten its existence. The way quantity surveyors carry out their work has changed in order to adapt to the challenging environment. The quantity surveying profession has been established in Malaysia since 1961. However, there is a paucity of research that has investigated the motivational practices towards improvement of job performance of quantity surveyors; and the evolution of the role of the quantity surveyor in order to study the relationship between motivation and work performance of this profession in Malaysian construction industry. This paper compares 5 studies related to motivation and job performance of employees. This paper is based on on-going PhD study which is expected to complete in 2017. Conclusions and recommendations are offered for the benefit of academics, researchers, professional institutions and the construction industry in Malaysia. The conclusions and recommendations are offered for the benefit of academics, researchers, professional institutions and the construction industry in Malaysia. Keywords: Malaysian Construction Industry; Performance; Motivation; Motivation Factors; Quantity Surveyors INTRODUCTION The construction industry is a major productive sector in Malaysia and this sector is among the top three of the major economic sectors, besides the agriculture and manufacturing sectors (CIMP, 2005). It is an essential sector for development of the nation since construction industries generate one of the highest multiplier effects to the other sectors of the economy (Salleh et al., 2011). Major development projects face problems such as delay in construction time and cost escalation in public amenity projects where consultants who supervise projects have failed to control costs, other than managing design and scope of those projects, which result in higher cost projects (Ibrahim et al., 2010). It has also been quoted that the Malaysian construction industry (MCI) was burdened with, among other things, cost overruns and late payment to contractors (CIDB, 2008). Corresponding Author: Siti Sarah Herman, School of the Built Environment, University of Salford, UK. Email: s.s.herman@edu.salford.ac.uk