Factors Affecting Job Motivation of Faculty Members of Ardabil University of Medical Sciences: A Qualitative Study

The presence of motivated faculty members in universitiesof medical plays a vital role in education and community health education. So far, many studies have been done to identify the factors affecting employees' motivation in different ways, but considering the lack of reasonable basis for studying the motivational factors amongfaculty members, this study aimed to investigate the factors affecting the job motivation of faculty members of Ardabil University of Medical Sciences.

This qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with 21 qualified faculty members of Ardabil University of Medical Sciences who were selected through purposeful sampling. To analyze the collected data, the Content Analysis method was used through MAXQDA software version 10.

After analyzing the data, 26 sub-themes were obtained and after categorizing, 8 main themeswere reached, that is, evaluation classes, development and success, encouragement and creativity, evaluation, justice, management, financial and welfare problems, and interactions.

This study showed that universities of Iran, especially the universities of medical sciences faced serious challenges in motivation of faculty members; thus, challenges need to be tackled in order to improve faculty members' motivation.