Final answer:
Reviewing the strengths, weaknesses, limitations, and delimitations of existing studies on employee motivation in a literature review is crucial for identifying gaps, informing research problems, and shaping the qualitative study design.
Step-by-step explanation:
When compiling a literature review on the topic of employee motivation in the workplace, examining the strengths, weaknesses, limitations, and delimitations of existing studies is essential. By analyzing these aspects carefully, a researcher can identify gaps in the current literature and shape the research problem distinctly. Awareness of the prior research gives insight into methodological approaches that have been successful or that require improvement, informing the proposed study design. Highlighting groundbreaking work as well as recent studies in areas such as motivation theories, employee engagement, and organizational behavior ensures that the literature review serves as a robust foundation for both argumentation and methodological planning.
Moreover, researchers can use the literature review to make connections, drawing potential significance and contributions from extant studies to the current research. It is also an opportunity to avoid duplication of previous research and focus on novel contributions. Crafting the review entails balancing objectivity and subjectivity through extensive analysis or evaluation, reflecting on how each referenced study informs the qualitative research problem and the study design in a way that aligns with the needs of the audience and the goals of the research.