EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION
Employee Motivation – Key element of
Organizational Performance
Every
successful organization is backed by a committed employee base, and commitment
is the outcome of motivation and job satisfaction (Varma, 2017). Motivating
employees is about getting them to move in the organization’s direction to
achieve the set goals and objectives. What differentiates a good performer in
an organization from a bad performer and why do not all employees equally not
perform within the organization backed by employee motivation levels.
Therefore,
High performance is achieved by well-motivated people who are prepared to
exercise discretionary effort (Armstrong, 2009). A motive is a reason for doing
something. It is an inner drive to behave in a particular way or act in a
certain manner or way.
Types
of Motivation
The
two types of motivation are (Armstrong. 2009),
1. Intrinsic
Motivation
2. Extrinsic
Motivation
Intrinsic
Motivation
Intrinsic
motivation is a type of motivation in which an individual is motivated by
internal desires (Jain et al, 2019). In this way, an individual performs well
in his or her job to satisfy the higher other needs, which will ultimately lead
to intrinsic motivation. External rewards play no role regarding to behavior in
this definition of intrinsic motivation. As an example, in an organization
where I work, academic employees feel that their work is challenging,
important, and interesting, providing opportunities to achieve and develop
their competency levels.
Extrinsic
Motivation
Extrinsic
motivation occurs when things are done to or for people to motivate them. These
include the elements of incentives, rewards, increased pay, praise, promotion,
and punishments such as disciplinary action, withholding pay, or criticisms (Armstrong,
2009).
All
Organizations are apprehensive about what should be done or not to do to
achieve a sustained outstanding level of performance through employees in an
organization. This means organizations giving attention to how individual
performers can best be motivated through such ways as incentives, rewards, and
leadership skills and importantly, the work they do and the organization’s
context within which they carry out that work.
Factors
affecting Employees’ Motivation
In
any organization when employees work in their occupation no one works for free
nor should they. Employees want to earn reasonable salaries and payments, and
employees desire their workers to feel that is what they are getting.
Money
is the fundamental inducement; no other incentive or motivational technique
comes even close to it with respect to its influential value (Manzoor Q, 2011).
It has the supremacy to magnetize, maintain and motivate individuals toward
higher performance (Manzoor Q, 2011).
As
an example, In the Organization I work for, the HR department has noticed the
academic employee turnover got increased during the last financial year, and
Management has increased the salary package of academic employees by
benchmarking the highest salary structure which eventually cause the minimum
number of academic staff to leave, which cause for efficiency of organizational
performance levels to increase.
According
to Figure 1.0, Employee Relations and Leadership also play a significant role
in motivating employees in an organization’s work environment. Every
organization and team requires leadership to influence potential behavior. Leadership is a “social
influence process that is necessary for the attainment of societal and organizational
goals”. (Naile and Selesho, 2014)
Employees are motivated
to work for the right leadership to achieve the common vision of an
organization while they fulfilled their intrinsic and extrinsic motivational
factors. The relationship between Managers and employees is also the most
powerful element to drive the quality of employee motivation. It creates a
professional work setup, and the right attitude, and the culture of employees (Tan
et al, 2021).
Figure
1.0 – Factors affecting Employee Motivation
Source: Research Factors Affecting the Working Motivation of Employees at Accommodation Facilities in Danang (2021)
According
to Figure 1.0, Other than financial elements, Factors associated with Jobs, and
workplace environment also may affect employee motivation, which will have an impact on organizational-level performance eventually.
Motivation
is not the same as high performance and is not the only reason why people
perform well, but it is nevertheless a key influence factor over our
performance level in the end.
References
- Armstrong, M. (2009) A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice, 11th edition, P317
- Dr Varma C, (2017) Importance of Employee Motivation & Job Satisfaction for Organizational Performance, International Journal of Social Science and Interdisciplinary Research, Vol 6 (2) [Online] Available at: < https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329698335_IMPORTANCE_OF_EMPLOYEE_MOTIVATION_JOB_SATISFACTION_FOR_ORGANIZATIONAL_PERFORMANCE > [Accessed on 7th Nov 2022]
- Jain, A., Gupta, B. and Bindal, M. (2019) A Study of Employee motivation in an Organization, International Journal of Engineering and Management Research, Vol 9 (6) [Online] Available at: < https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338506233_A_Study_of_Employee_Motivation_in_Organization > [Accessed on 6th Nov 2022]
- Manzoor, Q. (2011) Impact of Employee Motivation on Organizational Effectiveness. European Journal of Business and Management, Vol 3 (3) [Online] < https://www.iiste.org/Journals/index.php/EJBM/article/viewFile/265/150 > [Accessed on 7th Nov 2022]
- Naile, I. and Selesho, J M. (2014) The Role of Leadership in Employee Motivation, Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, Vol 5 (3), [Online] < https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287481309_The_Role_of_Leadership_in_Employee_Motivation > [Accessed on 7th Nov 2022]
- Tan, T L., Tram Anh, P V., Phuong Nhu, P N., Anh Thu, T T., Anh Tuan, V D and Hung, H N. (2021), Research Factors Affecting the Working Motivation of Employees at Accommodation Facilities in Danang, International Journal of Marketing & Human Resource Research, Vol 2 (4)
Agreed with your content Sachini. Further, if the employee intrinsically motivated they execute new ideas to enhance the productivity and feel employees are also responsible for the decision making (Yazdani, Yaghoubi & Giri, 2011). If the employees trust the Organization and leadership they will deliver maximum work efficiency (Baldoni, 2005). As main benefits of the employee motivation increased the Organization productivity (Bradford, 2001), reputation can be enhanced (Rothberg, 2005).
ReplyDeleteThank you for your feedback Romeda, Leaders motivate employees by setting in place structures aimed at taking full advantage of employees’ potential, and organization resources and providing direction. Conversely, they can severely cause difficulty in inspiring confidence, buying into a firm’s goals, promoting alignment, and fostering a collaborative environment (Altheeb, 2020).
DeleteHi Sachini, agreed with the content of your blog post. Adding to your content, Thomas E. Catanzaro (2001) in his article Compensation and Motivation described the effects of rewards over employee motivation. He stated that rewards have a profound effect over employee motivation. He also discussed several factors of compensation which include both intrinsic and extrinsic factors and their possible effects over motivation in detail. He also emphasized that monetary values are not the only motivators but non-monetary factors have more importance towards motivating employees.
ReplyDeleteHi Nilusha, Thank you for your feedback. Organizations, regardless of industry and size, strive to create a strong and positive relationship with their employees. However, employees have various competing needs that are driven by different motivators. For example, some employees are motivated by rewards while others focus on achievement or security. Therefore, it is essential for an organization and its managers to understand what really motivates its employees if they intend to maximize organizational performance (Lee & Raschke, 2016).
DeleteAgreed With the post Sachini, Further added, Motivated employees are needed in our rapidly changing workplaces. Motivated employees help organizations survive. Motivated employees are more productive. To be effective, managers need to understand what motivates employees within the context of the roles they perform(Survival smith 1994)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sachin for your comment. Sustainability in business process management is a key factor associated with an enterprise's success. Employees are considered one of the most important and leading factors in achieving sustainability, especially employees who move the business forward. Managers, white-collar workers, and blue-collar workers are all involved in the company results. An employee’s performance, their new ideas, as well as their efforts to promote the company in a positive way, help build the values of an enterprise and the success or failure of a business is affected by their productivity (Lorincova, 2019).
DeleteGreat article Sachini, I would like to add another view of employee motivation. According to Jack Welch (2008) no company, small or large, can win over the long run without energized employees who believe in the mission and understand how to achieve it.
ReplyDeleteThank you Chathuri for your comment. according to Quain (2019), Motivated employees are much more likely to perform at a higher standard than employees who feel unmotivated to do their best. For example, if you run a business predicated on sales and you offer a commission to your sales personnel, they will typically try harder to make more sales. This is also true if you thank an employee for providing good customer service because that praise will likely drive the employee to maintain that standard.
DeleteIn the current business climate, it is important for organizations to stop losing performing employees because of declining job satisfaction and a lack of motivation to stay with the company for a long time. This is true as it relates to high job losses due to layoffs and retrenchment to create a lean organization. Employees who are motivated and content will pursue company goals with commitment (Risambessy et al 2012). if you can possibly add some benefits of employee motivation to your blog it may give high value to your blog.
ReplyDeleteThank you Hassan for your feedback, Add on a different view, many organizations will use appropriate reward systems to improve the incentives to improve employees’ job satisfaction. The literature discusses the relationship between motivation and job satisfaction (Springer, 2011). Igalens and Roussel (1999) argued that employees’ behavior and feelings are affected by motivation and job satisfaction. When organizations place more emphasis on implementing the incentive system with a high level of equity, employees’ job satisfaction will increase. Parsons and Broadbridge (2006) revealed that organizations, in the development of incentives, need to consider the differences in the nature of each industry and the background of each organization. They concluded that there is a positive effect of organizational motivation on employee job satisfaction (Pang & Shan Lu, 2018).
DeleteAn employee will work in his utmost potential when he is highly confident, knowledgeable and motivated.Motivation plays a very crucial role when comes to the performance of an individual. Motivation will lead the person to work in the right direction to achieve the goal in an easy manner.
ReplyDeleteThank for your comment Uday. The only way to get people to work hard is to motivate them. Today, people must understand why they're working hard. Every individual in an organization is motivated by some different way. When talking in term of employee motivation, it can be simply defined as “a reflection of the level of energy, commitment, and creativity that a company's workers bring to their jobs.” The job of a manager in the workplace is to get things done through employees. To do this the manager should be able to motivate employees. But that's easier said than done! Motivation practice and theory are difficult subjects, touching on several disciplines (Navaneetha & Bhaskar, 2018).
DeleteGreat Introduction Sachini, furthermore employee motivation is one of the policies of managers to increase effectual job management amongst employees in organizations (Shadare et al, 2009). A motivated employee is responsive of the definite goals and objectives he/she must achieve, therefore he/she directs its efforts in that direction.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment Azhar, Employee motivation is the key factor to boost up the function of an organization. In the globalization phase, every company needs to sustain in the fierce competitive market. Employees are main factors to manifest the business goals into reality. Therefore, in today's world every organization tries to manage their human resource department to keep their employees motivated (Menon, 2020).
DeleteGreat article sachini. Agreed with the shared points. Apart from that, given the significance of employee motivation, a study was conducted in the Afghan province of Nangarhar to determine whether workers' perceptions of compensation were accurate. According to the study case, randomly obtained from 350 employees of distinct private and public organizations through a five-Likert scale adapted questionnaire. To obtain consistent study results, the ordinary least square econometric assessment method was used. The results show that rewards have positive and statistically significant impacts on the motivation of employees. Further found the impact on employee motivation is positive on financial and non-financial benefits and strongly recommends both private and public organizations to motivate their employees through compensations (Muneeb and Ahmad, 2020).
ReplyDeleteThank you Ann, Employees’ motivation is driven by the internal rather than external elements of the organization. It means that the employees are to be involved in a continuous striving effort for improvement. Employees’ motivation is a psychological process that results from the interaction of the employees with the work environment and is characterized by the willingness of the employees to increase their work effort in order to achieve a specific need or desire they hold (Satyendra, 2020).
DeleteAgreed with your content Sachini. Employee motivation has emerged as a critical issue in enterprises around the world (Kallio & Kallio, 2014). Importantly, higher education institutions face difficulty in reducing staff turnover while retaining the most productive personnel (Lazaroiu, 2015). When one considers a solid income, good physical working circumstances, recognition, and many other variables, one's motivation will be increased, resulting in improved performance. According to Kallio & Kallio (2014), employees are continually looking for methods to benefit from the business. They seek a decent environment while also looking for greater possibilities.
ReplyDeleteThank you Christeena for your comment. According to Deci & Ryan, Motivation is commonly understood as intrinsic when it focuses on the inward desires which move a person to act based on pure interest or anticipated enjoyment in the activity itself. In contrast, extrinsic motivation is driven by the expectation of an external outcome such as pay (McRee, 2018).
DeleteGreat introduction Sachini, I agreed the content and a sound knowledge can be gathered with regard to employee motivation through the article. Furthermore, every individual in an organization is motivated by some different way. When talking in term of employee motivation, it can be simply defined as “Employee motivation is a reflection of the level of energy, commitment, and creativity that a company's workers bring to their jobs. Motivating the staff leads to broaden their skill to meet the organizational demands (Mohamud, Ibrahim and Hussein 2017).
ReplyDeleteGood content Sachini, just, in addition, Hull (1952), and others, asserted that motivation stemmed from physiological need deprivation which “drove” organisms to engage in random activity until, by chance, the need was satisfied and the drive was thus reduced.
ReplyDeleteThank you Kandeepan for your comment. Among financial, economic, and human resources, the latest is more essential and have the capability to endow a company with a competitive edge as compared to others (Rizwan et al, 2010). Employee Performance fundamentally depends on many factors like performance appraisals, employee motivation, Employee satisfaction, compensation, Training and development, job security, Organizational structure and other, but the area of study is focused only on employee motivation as this factor highly influence the performance of employees (Manzoor, 2011).
DeleteI agree with your content and i would like to add that according to the study of Grant (2008) held on employee motivation; motivation forced such result as productivity, performance and persistence
ReplyDeleteThank you Joel for your comment. Motivation as a meaningful construct is a central pillar at the workplace. Thus, motivating employees adequately is a challenge as it has what it takes to define employee satisfaction at the workplace. Quite a number of studies have been devoted to the link between motivation and its constituent factors and employee performance in different organizations (Forson et al, 2021).
DeleteEmployee Motivation is a very important topic these days because people got affected by a lot of external factors in recent years. Great Blog Sachini! Human nature is very complex and to understand the motivating factor of every employee is a difficult task. Therefore an effective leadership and management is required to appreciate employees. According to Varma (2018), employee motivation requires research and study of human nature and involves a well defined approach to deal with human beings. Observations and research in this field has proved that well motivated employees are more productive and creative.
ReplyDeleteThank you Manula for your comment. The majority of organizations are competing to survive in this volatile and fierce market environment. Motivation and performance of the employees are essential tools for the success of any organization in the long run. On the one hand, measuring performance is critical to organization's management, as it highlights the evolution and achievement of the organization. On the other hand, there is a positive relationship between employee motivation and organizational effectiveness, reflected in numerous studies (Dobre, 2013).
DeleteWell explained Sachini. Agreed with your points. according to Elvina and Chao ( 2019 ) Motivation improves performance. The results show that motivation plays a supporting role in both public and private companies, especially when it comes to improving performance. Empirical study indicates that one factor is the direct effect of motivation on performance. This is based on the relationship between performance and motivation. The findings of this study are in line with a number of other investigations that have previously demonstrated the significant influence that employee motivation has on performance in both direct and indirect ways.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Manoj for your comment. Motivation is defined by Stephen and Timothy as “the process that accounts for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal” Intensity here means the degree of how hard an employee performs in an organization. And when managers try to motivate employees, they will mainly focus on the part of intensity (Tong, 2013).
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