Introduction
The driving force behind any employee’s performance is enthusiasm. Therefore, managers have a responsibility of finding the explanations that inspires their personnel to increase their productivity (Andrews and Rose 241). Studies indicate direct relationships between motivation and employees’ performance as well as productivity.
In other words, factors that negatively affect motivation of employees in the workplace have also been found to have detrimental impacts on the employees’ productivity. Essentially, enthusiasm at the workplace plays a very significant role in influencing individual output since it affects the physical and intellectual potentials of the personnel
. Moreover, the maintenance of workers’ motivation enhances the ability of employees to perform the physical and mental responsibilities to the optimal levels.
Management relating factors such as compensation system of the organization, management structure, leadership style as well as other related work processes increases motivation on the employees. The way these factors affect the employees’ productivity remains critical to the attainment of the goals of an organization. Therefore, understanding the relationship between the motivating factors and the productivity of employees
as well as the way related variables affect this relationship is significant to the organizations’ success. As a result, diverse observations have been developed to find out what motivates human resources in the workplace.
The report tends to examine various factors that affect motivation of workers within an organization. In the empirical study that was conducted, various factors emerged to be contributing to the increased motivation to the employees. Essentially, the report provides an empirical analysis of various factors that affect the employees’ motivation within the workplace.
Research question
The aim of the empirical study is to determine various factors that affect employees’ motivation in the workplace. In other words, the empirical study tends to answer the question of various factors that influence the motivation of employees in the workplace.
Literature review
Appreciation forms the deepest principle of human nature. In essence, recognizing the efforts of employees, the provision of succession prospects to the personnel and enhancing job commitment and dedication among employees are ways through which employees can be motivated.
Further, the depths of individual human beings as well as their devotion to deliver tremendous output in the operation of an organization contribute immensely in the competitive ability of the firm (Andrews and Rose 241).
In fact, the performance levels of personnel play very significant roles in increasing the firm’s competitive advantage. Several factors affect employees’ job performance. For instance, motivation is considered to influence employee performance.
Firms often apply different concepts and models to explain the methods of motivation to increase the employees’ performance. In fact, employees are highly motivated when their interests are taken into consideration. In essence, the driving force behind any employee’s performance is enthusiasm. Therefore, any organization must adopt practices that inspire personnel to increase their productivity.
Various organization models of motivation are explained through a range of suppositions including the theories of scientific management, human relations, human needs and goal setting. Organizations can use the combination of these theories to establish models of motivation.
Theories of motivation
Scientific management theory
The scientific management hypothesis asserts that employees are inspired exclusively by the remuneration they get from the labor they offer. In fact, proper remunerations are the greatest motivator in any work environment (Beck 208). Essentially, the employees of the corporation are highly motivated by proper remuneration and huge perks offered by the organization.
Moreover, the management must hold the belief that employees must be well treated in order to increase productivity. In addition, the theory argues that the employees do not obviously like work. Therefore, they will always equate compensation and the amount of work done. In the circumstances that the perceived compensation equals or exceed the quantity of work, the employees will be highly motivated.
Human relations theory
Similarly, human relations concept stresses on the importance of society’s requirements to employees’ motivation. In other words, the theory argues that the personnel are not only inspired by the remunerations but also by social needs during the execution of responsibilities.
The concept concentrates on the bosses’ role of recognizing employees as people with valuable views as well as their pleasure in relations with one another (Beck 208). In addition, managers are supposed to put more consideration on employees’ social needs. In reality, employees should be given opportunity to provide suggestions on how they can achieve the objectives of the assigned tasks.
The allusion that employees are allowed to set own goals and targets as well as the firm’s responsibility helps workers achieve own set of goals. Further, in a firm, the management teams are supposed to inspire and empower the employees towards the attainment of the set objectives.
Theory of human needs
The theory of human needs centers on the workers’ emotional desires. As a result, there are five levels of needs required by the employees in order to fulfill their wants (Locke 37).
The idea proposed a hierarchy of needs varying from essential and physiological needs such as hunger, to the elevated ranked ones including self–esteem as well as self-actualization. In fact, the recognition of such needs by employers leads to improved outcomes.
The benefits offered by the organization provide essential as well as other needs of the employees. Most importantly, working in the organization enables employees to achieve self-actualization.
In fact, self-actualization is attained in various ways within an organization including the ability to set personal goals and ways through which they can be achieved. The organization must establish a set of programs that value workers together with their efforts.
Goal-setting theory
Goal-setting model motivates the employees. The model argues that the attainment of the objectives of assigned tasks depends largely on the task performance. According to the model, employees will always pursue challenging and specific tasks with clear feedback.
In essence, the set goals define individual employees’ efforts required to perform the given task (Locke 37). The model works well in an environment where employees set their own goals and ways through which such objectives can be attained.
Allowing employees to perform own job evaluation also indicate the application of the model. Further, the employees are left to suggest the best ways they can achieve their own objectives. Through the practice, employees are encouraged to be their own leaders and in effect motivate them towards attaining individual as well as the firm’s goals.
Effectiveness of motivating practices
The effectiveness of the firm’s motivating practices can be assessed by the conduct and the views of the employees. The employees’ motivating practices enable firms to attain the set objectives. Additionally, the provision of incentives by the firm attracts as well as retains highly skilled and talented employees.
Organizations should continue using motivating practices to attract talented employees and enhance their performance. Moreover, the firms should enhance teamwork approach to challenging tasks in order to motivate employees. Embracing teamwork and increased involvement of managers in looking after the interests of workers greatly boost trust and interpersonal skills among the personnel (Beck 208).
Concerning the development of trust and interpersonal skills among employees, the organization should ensure affirmative fairness. In essence, the leader should communicate evaluation standards as well as assessment points to the workforce for fairness and trust among employees. Finally, the firm’s human resources manager should embrace diversity in workplace in order to enhance the motivational effectiveness.
How a leader can use the theories to influence employees’ motivation
Taylor’s theory of scientific management is very important as far as reward and development of interpersonal skills among employees are concerned. For instance, the management finds it easy to reward its workforce based on workers’ output on a time piece-rate pay. Further, the provision of correct education and instruments to workers ensure efficient output on the assigned tasks.
Therefore, the leader takes the initiative of encouraging workers to maximize their yield (Beck 208). High output leads to improved motivation. Concerning the development of trust and interpersonal skills among employees, the organization should ensure affirmative fairness.
In essence, the leader should effectively communicate evaluation standards as well as assessment points to the workforce to ensure fairness and trust among the employees.
Through the application of Elton Mayo’s theory of human relations, the organization should study the productivity levels of different groups of employees. For example, increased employee recognition, consultations as well as offering them an opportunity to give response leads to easy decisions concerning remuneration (Beck 201).
In addition, embracing teamwork and increased involvement of managers in looking after the interests of workers greatly increase trust and interpersonal skills among the personnel. Therefore, a firm should restructure itself taking into consideration the significance of recognizing workers’ interests.
Just like the other motivation theories, Maslow’s theory is equally vital in building trust as well as in rewarding employees. Identifying employees’ individual places in the ladder of needs ensures the creation of terms that make it possible for the employees to acquire such needs through their endeavors (Beck 208).
The management achieves this through recognizing the fact that not all employees move up the hierarchy at the same rate. As a result, the management should offer different set of pay from worker to worker. Assigning power to the workers in making their decisions plays a significant role in developing a sense of trust among them and the employers.
The analysis of the study findings
According to the findings, the workplace environment plays significant roles in motivating employees (Grant and Gino 949). Over sixty percent of the respondents agreed that workplace environment contributes significantly in increasing the level of motivation.
As indicated, about sixty percent of interviewed employees strongly agree that workplace environment affect their motivation while twenty percent agreed on similar assertion. However, thirty percent of the interviewed employees were either neutral or disagreed that the work environment affects their motivations towards work processes.
Considering the relationship employees have with superior managers, over ninety percent of the respondents agreed that the relations trigger their motivation while only ten percent of the respondents were neutral. In other words, the type of relationship workers have with their superiors contributes hugely to the motivation and productivity (Grant and Gino 949).
Essentially, the type of relationship workers have with their immediate supervisors determines the level of performance and productivity derived from motivation towards the work processes. The relationship between workers and the managers is a critical determining factor affecting employees’ motivation within the workplace.
Besides, the relationships within the workforce also play a significant role in motivation. Over fifty percent of the respondents agreed that the relationship they have with fellow workers affect their motivation levels.
The findings underscore the assertion that relationships generated within the organization have greater influence on the general performance of employees as well as the organization. Essentially, the relations between the employees and management as well as between the employees play a critical role in motivating the workforce.
Another important factor that has come out clearly to be affecting employees’ motivation is compensation. All the respondents that were interviewed strongly agreed that compensation heavily affected their motivation. Compensation remains critical in determining the employees’ performance and productivity (Ismail 927).
In fact, increased productivity result from the enthusiasm workers have on the assigned task. Compensation and motivation of workers have a direct relationship. In other words, compensation directly influences workers motivation, which in turn affects performance and productivity.
Other related factors such as promotions, annual vacations as well as security have been found to be motivating. Regarding job promotions, most of the respondents agreed that maintaining fairness in the distribution of promotion as well as other benefits is motivating. Unfairness results in reduced motivation and performance (Ismail 927).
The study indicates that over ninety percent of employees consider fairness in the distribution of promotion as well as other compensation benefits practiced by the organization. The meaning of the findings is that fairness is a critical attribute of compensation practices that ensure job satisfaction among employees.
In other words, in order to achieve the motivational objective, the compensation method as well as related factors such promotions must be perceived as being fair by the employees.
In this case, fairness implies that employees perceive the overall policy of the organization regarding compensation benefits and promotions as reasonably representing their contributions to the goals of the organization (Ismail 927). Essentially, job satisfaction is a perception among employees particularly where the general organization practices are perceived to be fair.
The findings on other related compensation practices such as annual vacations, job security and the manner in which employees are remunerated such as paychecks indicate the importance of compensation practices to employees’ motivation. In fact, the practices increase the job satisfaction among employees (Schoeffler 349). As indicated in the study, job satisfaction is primarily derived from the motivation.
Further, the study indicates that highly motivated workers are more satisfied on their jobs than employees who are not motivated. As such, annual vacations, job security and the manner in which employees are compensated remain critical factors influencing employees’ motivation.
The appreciations of workers’ contributions to the attainment of the organization goals have significant and direct influence on workers performance (Schoeffler 349). In fact, over ninety percent of respondents strongly agreed or agreed that the appreciation of their contribution to the organization greatly influence their motivation. Only about ten percent of the respondents remained neutral.
The findings indicate that managers and immediate supervisors should acknowledge the contributions of workers in order to motivate them towards the attainment of desired outcomes.
Moreover, training and being acquainted with the work processes was also cited as important motivating factor. Over fifty percent of the respondents agreed that appropriate training on how to undertake the assigned tasks increases their performance.
Appropriate training enables employees be knowledgeable about the assigned tasks and increases their efficiency as well as effectiveness in attaining the desired results (Grant and Gino 951). Ensuring that employees get the required technical skills is critical in increasing their motivation and performance.
When asked about work schedules, most respondents agreed that flexible work schedules increases their motivation. Even though some respondents did not agree that work schedule has effect on their performances, over sixty percent agreed that flexible work schedules increases their motivation as well as performances. In addition, workers become increasingly motivated when the numbers of working hours is reasonable.
Moderate working hours combined with flexible work schedules enables increased performance and productivity (Grant and Gino 950). However, working hours did not feature much among the factors that increase motivation. About forty percent of the respondents strongly disagreed that the number of working hours has influence on their motivation.
Fair treatment, respect and recognizing employees by the superiors or immediate managers are also motivating factors. Respect remains an important aspect of the organization behavior that greatly influences the employee’s performance (Grant and Gino 949).
Majority of respondents identified respect as critical attribute of management that motivates the workforce. Despite other motivating factors such as compensation, respect remains important to the employees. Moreover, studies indicate that employees’ motivation increases when they feel respected by their leaders.
Another important factor affecting motivation of employees is the performance appraisal. Among the respondents that were interviewed, over sixty percent agreed that they feel motivated when their jobs are evaluated. Performance appraisal practices greatly affect the employees’ performance, commitment, attitude and behavior (Ismail 927).
The performance assessment entails evaluating the output based on the decisions and views of subordinates and peers. Further, the performance appraisal considers the views of other supervisors and even the employees themselves. Realization of organizational goals involves a lot of emphasis on the performance evaluation.
The pursuit of accurate performance appraisal depends on the managers’ responsibilities and the level of belief that the personnel have in their administrators. Discussions concerning performance rankings involve ratings that are designed for expansion purpose as well as those that determine the remuneration results.
Future expectations of the workforce also featured as important factor influencing motivation (Grant and Gino 949). The study indicates that the expectations of the workforce being promoted to higher position increases their motivation.
According to the findings, over seventy percent of the respondents agreed that they feel motivated with the expectation that they will rise in higher positions. Other factors such as job authority, routine nature of jobs as well as power distribution also affect employees’ motivation.
Conclusion
Many factors affect motivation among employees within the organization. However, workplace environment, compensation and the relationship between employees and management remain critical factors that influence motivation. The relationship between motivation and work performance is direct. The likelihood of attaining increased performance on motivated employees is very high.
In other words, there is greater possibility of attaining increased performance on highly motivated employees. On the other hand, compensation increases job commitment and satisfaction, which are critical in determining the performance of employees.
Moreover, management structure, practices and leadership styles culminate all the organization’s work processes that motivate, increase satisfaction and job commitment leading to increased performance.
Works Cited
Andrews, Abbye and John L. Rose. “A Preliminary Investigation of Factors Affecting Employment Motivation in.” Journal of Policy and Practice, 7.4 (2010): 239-244. Print.
Beck, Robert C. Motivation: Theories and Principles. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 2000. Print.
Grant, Adam and Francesca Gino. “A Little Thanks Goes a Long Way: Explaining Why Gratitude Expressions Motivate Prosocial Behavior.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 98.6 (2010): 946–955. Print.
Ismail, Azman. “Relationship between Performances features and job satisfaction: Does interactional justice act as a mediating role?” Academy of Management Journal, 35.5 (2007): 921-955. Print.
Locke, Edwin A. “Toward a Theory of Task Motivation and Incentives.” Organizational behavior and human performance, 3.2 (2008): 30-76. Print.
Schoeffler, Bill. “Employee incentive plans: Make them worthwhile.” Insurance Journal, 4.2 (2005): 345-357. Print.
Appendix
Survey Questions
Q1: My work environment contributes in increasing the level of motivation.
Q2: My relationship with my superiors positively alters my motivation?
Q3: The level of compensation affects my motivation heavily?
Q4: The level of acknowledgment that my superiors give really affects my initiatives?
Q5: The lack of training and the firm’s investment in me, negatively affects my motivation?
Q6: The Flexible work schedule really helps in keeping me motivated?
Q7: The level of respect that I get from my superiors is not important as long as I’m getting good compensation package?
Q8: My relationship with my colleagues affects my level of motivation?
Q9: The number of hours I work every day has a Negative relationship with my motivation level?
Q10: I feel motivated when my performance is being evaluated?
Q11: Unfair distribution of benefits and promotions in my organization reduces my motivation level?
Q12: I am motivated by the creativity and independence of my job?
Q13: The annual vacation period really affects the level of motivation?
Q14: The security of my job is what motivates me to work?
Q15: I’m only motivated by the paycheck at the end of each month?
Q16: I believe that the level of my job authority contributes to my motivation?
Q17: My complaints are always received and communicated to higher management?
Q18: I have a goal job in mind and I will reach that position in two years?
Q19: The routine nature of my job hinders my motivation.
(Answers: 1= strongly agree, 2= Agree, 3=neutral, 4= Disagree and 5= strongly disagree)
Open-ended questions
What is the most important factor that reduces your motivation?!
(Listed by interviewee number)
- Inconsistent fairness of treatment regarding all aspects of the firm (Senior Financial analyst | Reporting and planning)
- Lack of teamwork (CEO (Owner)| Executive Management)
- Absence in the level of appreciation or acknowledgment (Admin | College of law Department)
- Consistent negative feedback (Owner (Managing director) | Executive management)
- The low pay check (Financial Analyst )
- The lack of flexibility of the work (Asst. brand manager)
- Not giving a chance for creativity and independence (Photographer)
- Unfair practices in the workplace(Financial Analyst)
- Lack of involvement among employees (General Manager, Executive management), Disrespect (Junior Pilot)