Employee Motivation: Role in Modern Management

Motivation is, according to the text, “A set of energetic forces that originate within and outside an employee that initiates work-related effort and determines its direction, intensity and persistence.” (Colquitt) When one hears the word “motivation”, one automatically thinks of an individual’s reasoning behind a certain task or performance. In terms of job motivation, it is what pushes or encourages a person to not only perform the work tasks, but to also be successful in the position and within the company. Motivation includes factors like “what do you do? How hard do you do it? How long do you do it?” The question of motivation has been a topic of discussion for decades. Many might think that money or, financial gains, play a huge role in motivation for an employee; however, motivation may differ drastically from person to person. Various underlying elements affect an employee’s motivation. There are several theories that are able to partially summarize aspects that account for high motivation.

What is motivation? As manager’s, motivation is one of the most vital and crucial assets to possess in managing a business. This drive is a critical tool to use in the work place and determine the success or failure of an organization. Motivation is a driving force that initiates and directs behavior. In other words, motivation is an internal energy that drives an individual to do something in order to achieve a certain goal. Therefore, creating a motivating environment in the workplace will lead to happy employees. Creating a work environment like this, managers can expect low staff turnovers, improved productivity, happy customers, and better financial performance. Therefore, the input of motivation use towards employees determines the output efficiency of the company. However, everyone involved in an organization is motivated differently. Everybody has their own individual needs in regards to motivation. Depending on how motivated a person is, determines the effort that individual puts into the work and therefore, how productive they are.

The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate and review three journal articles by John Honore (2009), James Lindner (1998), and an article by Fred Herrera (2002). All three articles discussed the topic of employee motivation in the workplace. The authors examined several motivational theories and put forward their ideas on the concepts and application of motivational techniques. The authors’ work provides insight into the psychology of motivation and the different factors and theories that affect it. My conclusion is in line with the authors’, motivated employees are needed for the organisational survival and just like our constantly changing environment and each individual is different, motivational techniques need to be continuously explored and developed.

Ali joined CVS Caremark project at TCS-Noida in November after a successful stint at Aviva in TCS-Bangalore, where he had worked as a trainee. He had always wanted to go back to his hometown and live with his parents and when he got a transfer to Delhi he didn’t waste a single moment in saying yes to the new project and heading towards Delhi. Many of his friends were also moving out from Bangalore at the same time which only made his decision easier. He felt that Caremark offered better career prospects, as it was a new project and they were offered to work on the current technologies that were in demand in the market. Ali was sure he would excel in his new position at Caremark, just as he had done in his old job at

Motivation refers to the psychological processes “that underline the direction, intensity, and persistence of behavior or thought (Fugate & Kinicki, p. 146).” Motivating your employees is very important and can be critical to accomplishing the mission or task at hand. “Direction pertains to what an individual is attending to at a given time, intensity represents the amount of effort being invested in the activity, and persistence represents for how long that activity is the focus of one’s attention (Fugate & Kinicki, p. 146).” Being able to instill motivation within the work place makes individual’s work that much harder to achieve the goal that the organization has set forth. According to Seppala, the best leaders are able to take a step back and maintain a human touch in the workplace by inspiring employees, being kind to them, and encouraging them to take care of themselves (Seppala, 2016). Although motivation comes in two forms, both extrinsically and intrinsically, the fact remains that motivation is the fuel that drives results and performances. On the opposite end of the spectrum, lack of motivation can cause a decrease in morale. People who are unmotivated to work can become complacent within the organization and just be content with having a steady job. In order to prevent this, it is with the utmost importance, that leaders and managers find a way to motivate their people. As a result, this would make job employees want to come to work, motivate

But why is motivating staff the most difficult task for managers in so many businesses? One of the primary reasons is because “behavior on the individual level is a very complex phenomenon” (Davidson 2005, p.304) Clearly, If a manager wants to build and/or sustain a successful company,

Motivation in the work place can be argued to be a key topic for any manager. It doesn’t matter what business they work in or what level manager they are! It’s important that they can get the best out of their employees. The most effective way of doing this is having a motivated work force. If an employee has the energy and interest in their job they will preform it to the best of their ability. This could be an increase in the employee’s productivity or it could be an increase in the quality of their work. If employees increase either of these factors it has potential to benefit a firm tremendously. In this assignment I will be examining what does motivate employees and whether money is a key driver.

The motivation function is considered to be one of HRM’s most complex aspects because it directly related to human behavior. “Human behavior is complex and trying to figure out what motivates various employees” (DeCenzo, et al., 2007, p. 40) requires research. The first step in the motivation function is to ensure the job is well designed, properly laid out, and the latest tools and technology are available to perform the job duties. Another step in motivating employees is developing a mutual respect between employees and management. When management actively listens to employees’ concerns, issues, and suggestions and genuinely cares for their team mates, it creates a comradery. Another important step to the motivation function is establishing performance standards for each employee. “The performance evaluation system is designed to provide feedback to employees regarding their past performance,

‘Motivation’ is derived from the Latin term ‘movere’ that means ‘to move’. Thus, motivation is a process that starts with a physiological or psychological deficiency or need that activates a behaviour or a drive that is aimed at a goal or incentive (Luthans). Broadly speaking, motivation is willingness to exert high levels of efforts towards organizational goals, conditioned by the efforts’ ability to satisfy some individual needs (Robbins). Need means some internal state that make certain outcomes appear attractive. An unsatisfied need creates tension that stimulates drives within the individual. These drives generate a search behaviour to find particular goals, that if attained,

Motivation is equivalent to a fuel that burns and boost an individual’s inner self to move him/her towards achieving their goals. By identifying the goals of employees the managers able to provide the employees what they are seeking, which eventually raise the determination of employees towards work.

Employee motivation a powerful new model explores drivers of employee motivation, the levers the managers can pull to address them and the local strategies that can boost motivation despite organizational constraints. Finding of new research introduce a model that establishes the four basic emotional need people exhibit; they are the drive to acquire, bond, comprehend and defend. Also it exhort organizations take an holistic approach to satisfy employee’s emotional needs through its reward system, culture, management systems, and design of jobs. The potential benefit of a motivated workforce to an

For centuries, behavioral and social scientists have studied the concept of motivation in hopes of finding a right formula for success. Years of research poured into understanding motivation have come up with numerous theories, both favorable and unfavorable. Hence, advice on how it’s applied in today’s workforce and organizations are abundant.

Motivation is a process of activating and energizing people to work willingly work with cooperation, confidence and enthusiasm for achieving organization common goals and objectives. It is the driving force behind all people’s actions. Motivated employees are more productive than those who are unmotivated because they enjoy their work and experience less stress.

Motivation is defined as a goal-directed behavior. It concerns the level of endeavor one exerts in pursuing a target. Managers are concerned with this concept because it is directly connected to employee satisfaction

Generally, in all companies and other organizations employees play an important role in their work place. Each company tries to motivate their stuff in order to improve their working process more effectively and efficiency. It is commonly believed that motivated workers add their contributecompany to be productive. We are going to point out the best two motivating ways below.