As Indonesia continues to pursue bureaucratic reform and improve public service quality, government agencies have increasingly adopted performance-based compensation systems. Performance allowances, commonly known as tunjangan kinerja (tukin), are intended not only to reward employee achievements but also to encourage higher productivity, discipline, and accountability.
Despite their widespread implementation, questions have remained about whether these financial incentives genuinely improve employee performance or simply function as additional income. The study from Universitas Persada Indonesia Y.A.I offers empirical evidence that performance allowances have meaningful psychological and organizational impacts.
Survey of Ministry of Defense Employees
The researchers employed a quantitative survey involving employees of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Indonesia. Participants represented diverse demographic backgrounds, including differences in gender, age, educational attainment, and employment status, with the majority being civil servants.
Respondents evaluated three main aspects using a four-point Likert scale:
Perceptions of performance allowances.
Work motivation.
Work behaviour, including discipline, responsibility, initiative, and teamwork.
The collected data were analyzed using regression and mediation analyses to determine the relationships among these variables.
High Levels of Motivation and Positive Work Behaviour
The descriptive analysis revealed that employees viewed performance allowances as moderately positive, with an average score of 3.12.
Meanwhile, work motivation achieved an average score of 3.45, indicating a high level, while work behaviour received the highest average score of 3.60, categorized as very high.
These findings suggest that although some employees believe their performance allowances could be improved, they continue to demonstrate strong commitment, enthusiasm, and responsibility in carrying out their duties.
According to the researchers, this indicates that intrinsic factors—such as professional commitment, pride in one's work, and organizational loyalty—remain the primary drivers of employee behaviour, while performance allowances reinforce these positive attitudes.
Performance Allowances Significantly Increase Motivation
Statistical analysis demonstrated a significant relationship between performance allowances and employee motivation.
The study reported the following results:
Performance Allowance → Work Motivation: β = 0.45 (p = 0.001)
Performance Allowance → Work Behaviour: β = 0.30 (p = 0.015)
Work Motivation → Work Behaviour: β = 0.60 (p < 0.001)
These findings indicate that employees who perceive performance allowances as fair and adequate tend to show greater enthusiasm, stronger commitment, and higher motivation at work.
Interestingly, motivation had a stronger influence on work behaviour than performance allowances alone. This suggests that financial incentives become more effective when they successfully strengthen employees' internal motivation.
Motivation Serves as the Key Link
One of the study's most important findings is that work motivation acts as a mediating variable between performance allowances and work behaviour.
The mediation analysis identified an indirect effect of 0.27 with a p-value of 0.03, confirming that performance allowances improve work behaviour not only directly but also by first increasing employee motivation.
In other words, fair compensation encourages employees to become more motivated, which subsequently leads to greater discipline, responsibility, cooperation, and overall job performance.
The study further found that:
Performance allowances explained 20% of the variation in employee motivation.
Performance allowances explained 15% of the variation in work behaviour.
The combination of performance allowances and work motivation explained 45% of the variation in employee work behaviour.
This means that nearly half of employees' work behaviour can be explained by the interaction between financial incentives and psychological motivation.
Financial Incentives Alone Are Not Enough
The researchers emphasize that increasing employee welfare through performance allowances is important but insufficient on its own.
Performance allowance policies should be accompanied by organizational strategies that strengthen intrinsic motivation, including supportive leadership, recognition, career development opportunities, and a positive workplace culture.
Employees who perceive the allowance system as fair and transparent are more likely to demonstrate stronger discipline, greater responsibility, and better teamwork.
Conversely, if employees perceive the allowance distribution as unfair or inconsistent with their workload, the effectiveness of the policy may decline.
For this reason, the researchers recommend that the Ministry of Defense continue implementing performance allowances based on the principles of fairness, transparency, consistency, and proportionality according to employee responsibilities.
Supporting Bureaucratic Reform
The study contributes to the growing body of knowledge on human resource management in the public sector by demonstrating that performance-based compensation affects not only employees' financial well-being but also their psychological motivation and workplace behaviour.
By integrating performance allowances, work motivation, and work behaviour into a single analytical framework, the research offers valuable insights for policymakers seeking to strengthen bureaucratic reform and improve organizational performance.
The findings may also serve as a practical reference for other ministries and government institutions that are implementing performance-based management systems to enhance employee effectiveness and public service quality.
Author Profile
Ary Saksono is a researcher from Universitas Persada Indonesia Y.A.I whose expertise focuses on human resource management, organizational behaviour, and public administration. This research was conducted in collaboration with Al Ridho and Rilla Sovitriana, also from Universitas Persada Indonesia Y.A.I, who actively conduct research on organizational management, employee motivation, and public sector performance.
Research Source
Article Title: The Effect of Performance Allowances on Work Motivation and Behaviour at Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Indonesia
Authors: Ary Saksono, Al Ridho, Rilla Sovitriana
Journal: Indonesian Journal of Education and Pedagogical Sciences (IJEPS)
Volume: 4, Issue 4 (2026)
E-ISSN: 3030-8410
DOI: https://doi.org/10.59890/ijeps.v4i4.27
Journal Website: https://journalijeps.my.id/index.php/ijeps
0 Komentar