Employee Motivation
As Huber (2006) explains, the concept of motivation comes from a Latin word called “movere” which has the meaning “to move”. Accordingly, Mayer (2011) further elaborates, motivation as a factor that comes within an employee and that results for target-oriented behavior.
Parashar (2016) proclaims that motivation is the driving force that makes the employees move forward by strengthening the willingness to work and inevitably it positively impacts on the organization’s effectiveness and competence as well. Thus, in this article, it considers on how the motivation proceed to enhance the performance of the employees in the education industry.
In the first section of the article, it will discuss why and how the employee asset will affect the organizational growth.
Parashar (2016) introduces some key factors which emphasize the importance of company’s work force as follows.
- Employees are committed to the organization.
- Employees are the main innovators of the organization.
- Assets make things possible; employees make things happen.
- Employees are a sustainable competitive advantage.
- Employees are always a strength to an organization.
Thus, Parashar (2016) claims that organizations focus more on maintaining the motivation of the employees since they are the important asset of the organization as it mentioned above. Furthermore, Parashar (2016) attests that maintaining employee motivation as a major problem face by organizations, but as an essential component that connects the employees and the organizational objectives which result to retain employees within the organization. Simultaneously, he emphasizes that motivation make the employee to be creative and innovative and go beyond limitations of a job. In fact, Reio and Callahon (2004) emphasize that higher employee motivation often results for active involvement and high productivity. Besides, Amabile (2001) asserts that indeed it is necessary to achieve their organizational goals for respective survival in this fast driven world.
Nohria et al. (2008) introduce acquire as the first drive which explains that the employees acquire insufficient goods that strengthen their sense of well-being. Moreover, the researchers explain that the employees are content when the drive is fulfilled and discontent when it is not fulfilled. Furthermore, Nohria et al. (2008) claim that it is more visible through the reward management system.
Yang (2008) explains about reward management system and that reward management system includes both extrinsic and intrinsic rewards. Financial rewards such as salary, bonus consider as the extrinsic rewards while intrinsic rewards involve with non-financial rewards like recognition, security, title, promotion, appreciation, praise, decision making involvement, flexible working hours, workplace comfort ability, feedback, work design, social rights. Nevertheless, Yazıcı (2008) attests that the effective performance of an organization and its reward management system directly affect for the morale and productivity of an employee.
For instance, in an education institute such as the organization where I work, an annual award ceremony is organized for the academic staff in which “The best Lecturer of the year” is selected based on their performance and reviewing their Key Performance Indicators (KPI). Indeed, it is evident that it spontaneously motivates the employees to perform the tasks and be eligible for the reward.
As per the explanation of Nohria et al. (2008), the second drive at work is the bond through which enhances the motivation of the employees by enhancing mutual reliance and friendship among coworkers. Simultaneously, it leads to develop motivation within the employees by giving them the feeling of belonging to the organization and on the other hand, loss of morale when the organization betrays them. For instance, within the organization that I work, an annual outbound training session and knowledge sharing activities are organized with the intetsion of giving the employees the opportunity to meet colleagues from other branches and share each other’s experience and knowledge which result to make a bond among the coworkers. According to Oyitso and Olomukoro (2012), training sessions help to enhance job knowledge, higher worker confidence, efficiency, facilitates performing skills, and to develop faculty performance. Accordingly, all these factors lead to employee motivation and higher productivity. Thus, it is further proven by the claim of Meyer & Allen (1991) in which the scholars explain that by conducting training practices, it directly or indirectly influences in the employee motivations and for the commitment to the organization.
The third drive factor of motivation can be identified as the drive to comprehend which is basically improves via the job and organizational structure. Nohria et al. (2008) claims that it is necessary for the organizations to have various job roles within the organization and ensure employees with challenges and responsibilities through which they get the opportunity and experience to grow. For instance, the organization which I work provide opportunities to the academic staff to grow themselves even from the very basic level to the highest level that an individual can reach with utmost potentials and capacities. For an individual who starts the career as an instructor has the opportunity to reach the level of a professor by achieving the relevant academic qualification as well as experience. Indeed, the career development path is clearly shown and guided them towards the success. Furthermore, based on their soft skills, hard skills and performance, rewards can be awarded as extra benefits.
According to Nohria et al. (2008), drive to defend is the fourth drive, and it leads the employees to feel secure and confident. In fact, without this drive, employees will develop and show negative traits like fear and resentment. Thus, as it is explained by Nohria et al. (2008), this drive explains employees’ resistance to change, and the devastation that the employee must undergo when experiencing a merger or acquisition. For instance, my working place has a good reputation and standard framework which result for the employees to have a clear idea about the transparency of their work and the reward system.
Referencing
Amabile, T. M. (1993) Motivational Synergy: toward new conceptualizations of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in the workplace. Human Resource Management Review, 3(3), 185-201.
Huber, D. L. (2006) Leadership and nursing care management (3rd ed.). Philadelphia: Saunders Elsevier.
Mayer, R. E. (2011) Towards a science of motivated learning in technology-supported environments. Educational Technology Research and Development, 59(2), 301-30.
Meyer, J. & Allen, N. (1991) “A three component conceptualization of organizational commitment”, Human Resource Management Review,1(1), 61-90.
Nohria, N., Groysberg, B. & Lee, L. (2008) Employee motivation: A powerful new model. Harvard Business Review, 86(7/8), 78–83.
Oyitso, M. & Olomukoro, C.O. (2012) Enhancing Women’s Development through Literacy Education in Nigeria, Review of European Studies, 4(4), 66-76.
Parashar, B. K. (2016) Significance of Theory Z in Indian Scenario. International Journal of Management and Social Sciences Research, 5(2), 8-16.
Reio, G.T. & Callahon, J.L. (2004) Affect, Curiosity, and Socialization-related Learning; A path analysis of antecedents to job performance. Journal of Business and Psychology, 19, 3-22.
Yang, H. (2008) Efficiency Wages and Subjective Performance Pay. Economic Inquiry, 46(2), 179–196.
Yazıcı, N. K. (2008) The Effect of Reward System Applications on Employee Performance in Service Sector. Master’s Thesis, Institute of Social Sciences, Marmara University.
Yes, while motivation provides personal and dynamic elements of engagement, well-motivated people who prepared to practice discretionary effort are achieved with high performance (Armstrong, 2010). When managing people even, manager has to motivate employees in adequate manner (Geomani, 2012). According to Mohsan et al in 2004, motivation and commitment are the HR values that organization can build in their organization to survive in the competitor market.
ReplyDeleteYes Thushari, In addition to that Employee motivation is what drives organisations to achieve their goals. Not only ability of doing things but also the motivation to do the job are the main two factors in an organization which sets the productivity levels high (Rajasekar and Premkumar, 2017).
DeleteAccording to the research done by Perumal (2008), there is an association between employee motivation and employee demographics such as gender, age, race, and organizational level. Strombeck & Wakefield (2008) explain that motivation is dependent upon the individuals and the situations.
ReplyDeleteYes. Agreed with you Nuwan. Furthermore , Motivation is not a stable state of mind. Something motivates an employee right now, might not be motivate after a year. Also it change according to the situation. When talking about organizations and its behaviors, one of the most researched topics is employee motivation and Manager’s ability to influence employee motivation can directly affect an organization’s bottom line (Stevens, 1992).
DeleteAgreed with your view. When employees are well motivated, they help the organization to grow and survive in a fast changing workplaces (Lindner ,1998). Any organization can archive better competitive advantage through its motivated employees.
ReplyDeleteYes Roshini, Employees are the most important asset to an organization which cannot be replaced with anything else. The ground floor of a firmed organization builds through most satisfied and loyal employees where the employees increase productivity and efficiency while innovating new ideas to the organization (GABCANOVA, 2011).
DeleteYes Nimna, furthermore, Based on many studies related to Human Resource Management is it is proven that motivation is one of its significant factors (Saijanen, 2017) Whereas, an employee’s concentration, direction and determination of the envisioned behavior can be lead to great achievements with the right motivation (McShane & Glinow, 2016).
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Employee motivation may be defined as a way to reflect an employee's patience, direction, and strength, and motivated individuals are the most dedicated to their jobs (Pinder,2008).
ReplyDeleteYes Menupa, In the work domain, work motivation is “a set of energetic forces that originate within individuals, as well as in their environment, to initiate work-related behaviors and to determine their form, direction, intensity and duration”(Pinder,2008).
DeleteAgreed with you Menaka. On the other hand, Motive peoples are an essential asset of any organization. Although discovering the individuals‟ heightened motivations as a cause behind their improved performance is not an easy task, organizations and managers have to pay attention to such motivation.
ReplyDeleteYes Amila, Armstrong (2007) assures that a highly motivated team as the most valuable asset to any organization.
DeleteAgreed. motivation is most important in organization. extrinsic and intrinsic rewards available in motivation theory . (Yang, (2008)
ReplyDeleteYes Chandana, The difference between these motivation types is Intrinsic motivation involves doing something because it's personally rewarding to you and Extrinsic motivation involves doing something because you want to earn a reward or avoid punishment(Sophia,2017).
DeleteYes. According to Yang, 2010, due to the fact they believe in self, the motivated employees are innovative and achieve set goals hence the organization will be benefited from same.
ReplyDeleteAgreed with you Jayashi. Motivated employees are perform their duties with full responsibility and they are goal-directed and act in a purposive manner(Faisal,2017).
DeleteYes agreed. In Fcat Employee motivation is critical to organizational performance, and managers must understand what motivates their people in order to motivate them. In terms of employee motivation, understanding the concept of motivation could help unskilled and inexperienced managers recognize what motivates their staff (Kim,2006).
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Management must ensure and understand there are various drivers of motivation and they can apply into the workplace (Kalimullah, 2010).
DeleteAgreed with what you stated. Motivation is a significant factor that urges people to give their best execution and help in arriving at big business objectives. (Jain , A. et al., 2019)’’. With higher level of motivation it is obvious that the organization can achieve better employee engagement and finally it will lead to achieve organizations stated goals in a positive work environment.
ReplyDeleteYes Roshini.Keeping the employee motivation, commitment and job engagement are always rewarding to a business,as motivated and committed employees are more productive (Denton, 1987).
DeleteAgreed with your points. I would also like to bring to your attention that the tendency for engaged workers to achieve high performance are inter related on their low intention to leave an organization (Rich et al., 2010). Thus, it is evident that motivated employees lead to high work engagement.
ReplyDeleteYes Shanil. Engaged employees drive the organization forward through care, enthusiasm and dedication (Allen, 2014).
DeleteUnderstanding what motivated employees and how they were motivated was the focus of many researchers following the publication of the Hawthorne Study results (Terpstra, 1979). According to Maslow, employees have five levels of needs (Maslow, 1943): physiological, safety, social, ego, and self- actualizing. Maslow argued that lower level needs had to be satisfied before the next higher level need would motivate employees. Herzberg's work categorized motivation into two factors: motivators and hygienes (Herzberg, Mausner, & Snyderman, 1959).
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Different kinds of theories have been explained on employee motivational theories. It is ideal to consider about the practical importance of these theories in the modern business environment. Motivation is identified as a key force in deciding better performance at organizations (Pinder, 2008).
DeleteAgreed, motivation enables the employees to choose specific work, to stay and work hard in the given job role. The motivation of employees is significant at all level of any organization. In other words, it is about how an organizational motivation is a necessary part for the human resources (Kirstein, 2010).
ReplyDeleteMotivated and committed employees with high levels of job involvement are considered as an important asset to an organization (Denton, 1987).They are goal oriented and give more productivity.
DeleteI agreed with your point of view. Further, according to the McClelland's Human Motivation Theory states that every person has one of three main driving motivators: the needs for achievement, affiliation, or power. Those with a strong need for affiliation don't like to stand out or take risk, and they value relationships above anything else.
ReplyDeleteAgreed with you Sanjeewani. Michalos (2017)explains that when considering the need theory, it is important to differentiate "needs" from "wants", where needs are universal regardless of geography or culture but wants can be different due to many given variables.
Deleteagreed , and according to Herzberg’s two-factor theory is also known as two factor theory motivation factors and hygiene factors. The theory states that there are certain factors in the organizational environment which if present will be to motivate the employees and certain factors if available may satisfy the employees but if not there do not lead to dissatisfaction
ReplyDeleteThe argument of salary being considered as the hygiene factor. There are some cases where employees are working hard because of the salary, and their satisfaction level is decided by the amount of bonus paid or the increment. (O’Malley and Michael, 2000).
DeleteAgree Samuddhi, In the service industry, employees who are highly motivated and committed to the organization, provide excellent quality to the customer (Mohsen et al., 2004).
ReplyDelete