Assessment of Motivation
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Assessment of Motivation
Introduction
Many managers and individuals do not understand the importance of spending time and resources in motivating employees in their workplace. Most people do not understand that motivating employees is not useful for just the employees themselves but helps in extending the existence of managers. Employees are an integral part of an organization and their commitment towards the organization is imperative. If they have no organizational commitment then there should be no expectation from them to excel at their work. Recent studies have shown that the majority of the firms currently in operation around the world have a hard time attracting and retaining talented employees (Peters, 2015). Furthermore, these studies also illustrate the effect that employee leaving on organizations is, for example, it is estimated that a loss of ten employees is around one million dollars to the organization. Furthermore, other than the loss of money, organizations also lose knowledge and the experience of the individuals that might be leaving. These are some of the reasons why motivating employees is an important task for organizations. This shows that employee motivation has a huge impact on the productivity in the organization. This report focuses on the need for motivating employees within the workplace. Specifically, this report will focus on the literature behind motivating employees, models of motivation, theories of motivation and a real-world example for implementing these theories.
Motivation
Motivation can be defined as the reasons on which the behaviour of a person is based on. Other researchers broadly define motivation as the attributes that are associated with our actions regarding doing one thing or the other. Furthermore, the motivation of the intrinsic form is shown through personal enjoyment or pleasure (Bellemare, et al, 2016). Intrinsic motivation is also a method of energizing and sustaining activities by the use of spontaneous activities that provide satisfaction to the person. This type of motivation is visible during times such as exploration, play and challenge seeking activities that people mostly do to get a reward of some sort.
Some researchers have seen to compare and contrast intrinsic motivation with extrinsic motivation, which can be explained as the motivation generated by contingency reinforcement. But under this comparison, researchers have seen to be more inclined towards intrinsic motivation. This is because this type of motivation is more desirable and is thought of a method that has a higher chance better learning outcomes in comparison to extrinsic motivation (Hennessey, et al, 2015). Furthermore, it can be said that motivation involves an accumulation of perceptions, interests, beliefs, actions and values, which are all very closely related. This leads to the conclusion that the different approaches to motivation can either focus on cognitive behaviours or non-cognitive behaviours, or maybe both as well.
Academic literature
Multiple researchers globally have researched motivation and its relation to employee performance. Early approaches to the study of motivation were mostly based on the reinforcement of intrinsic type. Literature characterized reinforcement contingencies as the reason for all behaviour such as achievement. The most vocal proponent of this notion was B.F. Skinner, and he is also the one who has researched reinforces of different types. Positive reinforces and rewards are mostly used in relation to the belief that through them only the desired actions would have resulted. However, negatively reinforcers are those which increase the chance of one situation occurring by removing any negative stimuli accredited to that behaviour (Lăzăroiu, 2015),. Punishment is one reinforce that decrease the chance of any behavior occurring by referring to unpleasant consequences that might result from said action. An example under this framework would be of the teacher who uses good grades and praise as a method to get the wanted behaviour. Whereas, bad grades are used as means of deviating from self-destructive behaviour. Other researchers have noted that this type of approach is limited in its nature. Its limitation arises from the fact that rewards and punishment are not fully equal and also are not effective for every student.
The study of employee motivation and performance is solely based on the work done by Maslow, Herzberg and Taylor. The concepts of motivation are inclusive of the overall structure of an organization and the behaviour model within that organization. Each of these researchers links how motivated an employee is about the performance of the employee. But researchers have proposed the fact that managers are not able to motivate employees bit rather that they influence what employees are motivated to do. In terms of boosting employee morale, implementing a range of communication channels to facilitate the quality within subordinate and superior communication. The advantage of such an approach would be that employees would have a way of voicing their concerns regarding the various aspects within their jobs that they find either unpleasant or demotivating. Furthermore, this method also shows that the engagement is ready to listen to their views and there is an environment of engagement and appreciation. Furthermore, strategies that become a contributing factor to the personal and professional development of employees is an effective strategy for employee motivation. But the fact is if the motivational aspect of the development program is to be highlighted more vividly than a third party with prior experience and competence shall implement them.
Research dictates that the use of job rotation and flexible working hours and job sharing are all excellent methods of increasing motivation of employees. An increasing number of organizations are starting to appreciate the importance of alterations in working patterns and their benefits. But some organizations are left behind in the sense that they do not understand the importance of such an important tool. Research has also dictated that the managers should delve into self-motivation practices and should be proactive regarding such approaches. This is beneficial in the sense they also need to maintain a high level of motivations so that they can effectively motivate their subordinates as well. The main challenge that studies have found out regarding motivation in workplaces is the motivation of every employee while keeping the differences within them in mind. This is why individual differences have seen to be the biggest hindrance regarding increasing motivation among employees for management. Other researchers while focusing on the same problem have focused specifically on differences that arose due to difference in cultures. In the sense of an organization, culture can be explained as a pattern of behaviour, norms, knowledge, traditions and values that are common within a certain group of people. So in this sense, the differences in culture have seen to be the biggest challenge towards motivation in employees.
Contemporary models in motivation
Management’s around the world have started the potential benefit that motivation has on increasing employee morale and employee productivity. Research has seen that Motivation is a key ingredient in the development of an extension program. But the fact is that it is not always used properly in relation with people (Safa & Von Solms, 2016). There are certain models out there that help in clearly explaining the use of motivation. The model that is to be presented here was derived from the work of Mayo, Likert, Maslow, McGregor and many more. This model includes inputs the process of motivation and the associated components and finally the output.
Input
The input within this model is the person either professional or an everyday man who has his own goals, value system, abilities and needs. Needs was referred by Maslow as psychological, physical and social. Other researchers such as Herzberg, used the definition of needs by Maslow to determine the level of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction among a variety of working people. They found positive factors leading to job satisfaction as recognition, responsibility growth, achievement and growth. Whereas, factors such as supervision, relationships with subordinates, status, difficulties with company policy and administration are some of the reasons for increasing job dissatisfaction among employees.
Motivational Process
The motivational process within such a model is based on three levels. These three levels are organization, group integration and personal. The organization has the biggest role to play in terms of increasing motivation across its employees. In today's world the, individuality and creativity and their related philosophies have seen to be successful forces for motivation within any organization. Furthermore, group integration is an indication of how good is the structure and function of a group and how well that has been kept by the different members. Group integration is majorly influenced by leadership, group members and goal setting. An increasing number of turnover and dissatisfaction with policies has seen as the signs of decreasing integration within a group. Lastly, the personal part refers to how employee's high-performance periods and the sense of achievement and recognition and responsibility and the same is the scenario with an average person. Research has suggested that this can also be accredited as motivation and individuals use this to satisfy their needs.
Output
Within this model, the output is presented in two separate parts. One is related to an average person whereas the other relates to a professional. In the case of an average person, two important results can be seen in case of occurrence of motivation. First, any of his participation in organizational activities would explicitly suggest that the person is trying to fulfil some sort of need or a goal of sorts. In terms of professional, the measurement of output is done based on how effective and efficient one was in obtaining the participation and was able to effect change in behaviour in his clients.
Theories of motivation
Regarding increasing motivation in the workplace, there are several theories out there that clearly explain the relationship between motivation and employee productivity and efficiency. Furthermore, out of the plethora of motivation theories out there Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg's Two Factor Model are the most widely accepted theories. These theories indicate the relationship between motivation and employee productivity. These theories are as follows.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
This model was presented by Abraham Maslow in 1954 and was his take on how motivation was affecting people and professional. Under this theory, Maslow described five levels of needs that every human has. Furthermore, every level needs to be fulfilled as it helps someone to be motivated by any factors of a high level. According to this theory, one cannot be motivated by positive feedback if the psychological needs that are thought of to be basic for a person are not met (Fallatah & Syed, 2018). This theory has very much real-world applications, this is because if someone's pay isn't enough to feed his family there is no need for that person to care about a sticker which just states "good work". Under his theory, the needs are arranged in order from psychological needs to need for self-actualization. So if the basic need is secured then security is sought, then belonging, then esteem and finally come self-actualization.
Herzberg’s Two Factor Model
In comparison to Maslow, Herzberg was the one that came up with the more popular theory regarding motivation. According to him, certain factors or as he characterized them as Hygiene Factors, needed to be there so that employees can be satisfied. On the other hand, these hygiene factors are not a sure-fire way of increasing motivation among employees. To form this theory, Herzberg conducted interviews with around two engineers in different industries in the United State of America (Andersson, 2017). After his analysis of the answer, she received from these interviews he found that the good feelings or motivation was mostly associated with the content factors of the job. Whereas, bad feelings were generated due to the job context factors. So the intrinsic factors related to the job are what promote satisfaction regarding a job whereas, extrinsic job factors are known to be dissatisfiers or in other words hygiene factors.
Real-world example
I used to work in a content writing firm before and worked on projects for multiple clients at a certain time. At one point in time, all the projects that I had to write about were either out of my expertise or even my interest. During this time I was sent into the hands of a recently appointed new manager. My manager to motivate me did a couple of things different from average managers. Firstly, he set up some expectations, by understanding my condition regarding the projects I was assigned. To move forward, he shared his experiences with me and used them to motivate me to get interested in the projects I was assigned. Moreover, he continuously gave me feedback, not in a demeaning manner but more of in an encouraging manner even when my work was not that up to par. Moreover, he supported me through the whole time I was under his supervision. All these efforts of his led to the development of a personal connection, which helped in fostering a better relationship at work and increase respect for each other.
Conclusion
Motivation is very important for the effectiveness and productivity of employees within any working environment. There is a high amount of literature present in the world that supports this notion regarding motivation and employees. Furthermore, the model presented for motivation has three parts such as inputs, motivational process and outputs. Moreover, Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Herzberg's two-factor model are two of the most prominent theories of motivation currently used in organizations.
References
Andersson, S. (2017). Assessing Job Satisfaction Using Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory: A Qualitative Study Between the US and Japanese Insurance Employees. IAFOR Journal of Business & Management, 2(1), 22-35.
Bellemare, M., Srinivasan, S., Ostrovski, G., Schaul, T., Saxton, D., & Munos, R. (2016). Unifying count-based exploration and intrinsic motivation. In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (pp. 1471-1479).
Fallatah, R. H. M., & Syed, J. (2018). A Critical Review of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Employee Motivation in Saudi Arabia (pp. 19-59). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Hennessey, B., Moran, S., Altringer, B., & Amabile, T. M. (2015). Extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Wiley encyclopedia of management, 1-4.
Lăzăroiu, G. (2015). Employee motivation and job performance. Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations, (14), 97-102.
Peters, R. S. (2015). The concept of motivation. Routledge.
Safa, N. S., & Von Solms, R. (2016). An information security knowledge sharing model in organizations. Computers in Human Behavior, 57, 442-451.
