EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION

EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION

INTRODUCTION

Employee Motivation plays a crucial role in the long term growth of an organization which has a direct connection with the performance of employees. Employee motivation and performance are essential tools for the success of an organization in the long run in a volatile and fierce market environment. 

Motivation is the force that energizes, directs and sustains behavior. It provides the personal and dynamic element in the concept of engagement. High performance is achieved by well-motivated people who are prepared to exercise discretionary effort (Amstrong, 2010). Motivation is defined as the amount of effort an individual desires to exert towards his or her job performance. Organizations are always searching for innovative ways to increase employee motivation (Stephen, 2016).

There are 5 ways to motivate the employees as mentioned below; 

Communicates Better – The staff will know their value and communication is the best way to show the value of employees in an organization (Jacoby, 2017).

Be an example – It is necessary to be an example to the employees. By being an example it will show the employee, the leader’s excitement towards the company’s goal (Jacoby, 2017). 

Empowering the employee – To get the employee to improve their performance. Employees have ideas about how they can be more efficient and it is important to get them motivated (Jacoby, 2017).

Offer opportunities for better career growth – Motivate employees by offering training that give them skills (Jacoby, 2017).

Provide incentives – Incentives are always motivation boosters and incentives are the best way to show appreciation. Motivation is a key role in keeping the best employees too (Jacoby, 2017). 

Motivation is not only restricted to physical and tangible things like money or promotions but also intangibles like psychological factors (Ikoku, 2018). Goals motivate people to develop strategies that will enable them to perform at the required goal levels. Finally, accomplishing the goal can lead to satisfaction and further motivation, or frustration and lower motivation if the goal is not accomplished (Lunenburg, 2011) Many researchers show that the environmental factors increase the employee’s motivation. Reis and Pena (2001) has objective to introduce the environment in employees can work friendly. Findings show that in nowadays cooperative work environment is great effect on motivation. It’s confirmed that working style and methods have been changed (Dahie, Ali and Ale, 2015)

Motivated workers are more dedicated to their organizations. They have job satisfaction and therefore, they work more productively, and for this reason, managers motivate their employees to use their knowledge and skills towards organizational aims (Osterloh, Bruno and Frost, 2001).

Employee Motivation is categorized into two categories such as, Extrinsic Motivation and Intrinsic Motivation; Individuals are intrinsically motivated when they seek enjoyment, interest, satisfaction of curiosity, self-expression, or personal challenge in the work (Keijerz, 2010) and extrinsically motivated when they engage in the work in order to obtain some goal that is apart from the job. (Keijerz, 2010). Increase in extrinsic factors alone does not lead to an increase in performance. And at last, it is argued that extrinsic factors have an influence on intrinsic motivation and in some cases can even decrease intrinsic motivation (Keijerz, 2010).

The following model shown in Figure 1 depicts the impact of motivation on employees' performance. According to the analysis and interpretation made by (Uzonna, 2016) the following conclusions were drawn: If managers to be effective, they need to have at least a basic understanding of motivation and different motivational theories which explains the concept of motivation. It is only grasping these concepts that they can hope to effectively bring about continual high performance in their workers. Managers need to provide growth opportunity and challenging jobs in order to better motivate today's workers. Without these challenges and opportunities for growth, employees may not see a need to perform highly at work. In conclusion, when it comes to bringing out the best performance of employees, growth opportunities and challenges, recognition and non-cash rewards are more effective motivators than money (Uzonna, 2016).  

Figure 1: Impact of monetary motivation variables on employee performance

                                (Source: Uzonna, 2016)

If the empowerment and recognition of employees is increased, their motivation to work will improve their accomplishments and the organizational performance. Nevertheless, employee dissatisfactions caused by monotonous jobs may weaken the organizational performance (Dobre, 2013). Therefore, jobs absenteeism rates may increase and employees might leave the organization to the competitors if they offer better work conditions and higher perks. Each individual should be motivated using different strategies. For example, one employee may be motivated by higher commission, while another might be motivated by job satisfaction or a better working environment (Dobre, 2013).

Herzberg's Two Factor Theory

Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory also called as the Theory of Motivation and Hygiene Factors which is a well known theory of motivation;      

Figure 2: Herzberg’s two factor theory

Motivators (Leading to Satisfaction)	Hygiene (Leading to Dissatisfaction)
Achievement Recognition Work Itself Responsibility Advancement Growth	Company Policy Supervision Relationship with Boss Work Conditions Salary Relationship with Peers Security

     (Source: Keijerz, 2010) 

Herzberg’s two-factor theory has received extensive attention of having a practical approach towards motivating employees. Herzberg published his investigation of feelings of 200 engineers and accountants from over nine companies in the United States. The individuals were asked to describe job experiences where they felt either extremely bad or exceptionally good about their jobs and rated their feelings on these experiences. Feedback about good feelings is generally related to job content (motivators), and feedback about bad feelings is associated with job context (hygiene factor). Motivators came about with factors built into the job itself, such as achievement, recognition, responsibility and advancement. Hygiene factors were related to feelings of dissatisfaction within the employees and were extrinsic to the job, such as interpersonal relations, salary, supervision and company policy (Herzberg, 1966). Hygiene factors prevent dissatisfaction but they do not lead to satisfaction. They are necessary only to avoid bad feelings at work. Under Herzberg’s (1966) theory, workers who indicate satisfaction with both motivator and hygiene factors should be top performers and those who are dissatisfied with both factors should be poor performers (Tan and Waheed, 2011).

I am working for a leading multinational company. By reviewing the benefits of the company which offers the employees under the motivation and hygiene factors, the company offers the Executive Directors a house from the company to be owned by themselves which is built in the city with all facilities included. Rewards the staff who completes 10,15,20 years of service with special monitory benefits. The factory staff receives meal allowances as them being recognized under privileged category, medical clinic every week and free accommodation are few benefits to name which are being received by the factory staff. The company also extents scholarships to the children of the staff who performs well in education. Senior Managers and above are given with company maintained vehicles including fuel and their mobile phone bills are paid with a limitation. Life insurance is also offered to the staff and their immediate family. Apart from the above benefits the company also offers annual increments which goes up to a maximum of 20% as per the performance appraisals being evaluated by the management. The company has also introduced fitness and yoga segments for employees which I believe is an essential need for the employee well-being. 

ADVANTAGES OF EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION

1. According to (Kuvaas & Dysvik, 2009) motivated employees are highly engaged and involved in their work and jobs and are more willing to take responsibility (Shahzadi et al, 2014).

2. (Denton, 1987) explains motivated employees with high levels of job involvements are considered as an important asset to an organization (Madi et al, 2017). 

3. Self-determination theory focuses on the intrinsic motivation who desire personal growth and are independently pushed towards achieving goals (Hammond, 2018).   

CHALLENGES OF EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION

1. Requires the instructor or leader to have personal knowledge of each individual in the group (Keenum, 2011). 

2. Pointing out employees when they have not met their goals is demotivating, and it reduces future performance. Instead, the manager should help employee with strategies to achieve the goals (Lazen, 2008). 

RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION

It is observed that the company has given less attention in training and development and recognition of the employee. Therefore the company should concentrate more on training and development aspects of the employee and ensure that all employees have access to learning as well as the need for training and development on the job which will enable them to work to satisfactory level of the company. The company should also identify a star from the work force on employees' achievements and also should choose a leader among teams. This will be another way of motivating the employees. Further recommends and suggest a work friendly family environment in promoting relationship with Peers and suggests to place a grievance handling (Suggestion Box) to be kept at factories to drop their suggestions or concerns which needs the attention of the management. 

1. A motivated staff is essential for a company that wants to increase productivity and customer satisfaction. In this context, motivation means the willingness of an individual to do efforts and take action towards organizational goals (Dobre, 2013). 

2. Combination of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation is vital for effective employees' motivation leading to job satisfaction and greater productivity (Ikoku, 2018). 

3. The studies therefore recommend that organizations should consider staff motivation as a cardinal responsibility. Unless staff motivation is properly executed, organizations and their managers will always suffer employees' negative attitude towards work (Ikoku, 2018).    

References

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