Introduction
The depths of individual human beings as well as their devotion to deliver tremendous output in the operation of an organisation contribute immensely in the competitive ability of the firm. In fact, the performance levels of an organisation’s personnel play significant roles in increasing competitive advantage of the firm. Several factors affect employees’ job performance. For instance, motivations, rewards, compensation systems among other factors are considered as influencers on employee performance (Armstrong and Baron 13).
Besides, the tasks carried out by individuals and the way, in which the work is done, describe the employees’ outputs as well as the general organisation’s performance. As such, organisations apply a number of grounds in the evaluation of employee performance management. In essence, trait-based, behaviour-based and outcome-based performance procedures are critical output measures of employees within an organisation. The discussion will focus on three major factors affecting the performance of workforce within an organisation.
Motivation
Firms often apply different concepts and models to explain how motivation increases 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 organisation must adopt practices that inspire personnel to increase their productivity. As indicated, various models of motivation are often utilised by organisations to implement employees’ management procedures that encourage work performances (Beck 76).
In most cases, organisations utilise suppositions including the theories of scientific management, human relations, human needs and goal setting to put in place appropriate practices that increase motivation and influence employees’ performance. The organisation can use the combination of these theories to establish performance management practices that would end up motivating the workforce.
The models of motivation and performance management practices
The scientific management hypothesis asserts that employees are inspired exclusively by the remuneration they get from the labour they offer. In fact, proper remunerations are the greatest motivators in any work environment. Essentially, the employees of the corporation are highly motivated by proper remuneration and huge perks offered by the organisation (Beck 76).
Moreover, the management holds 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 exceeds the quantity of work, the employees will be highly motivated.
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 recognising employees as people with valuable views as well as their pleasure in relations with one another (Beck 78).
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 organisation’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.
The theory of human needs centres on the workers’ emotional desires. As a result, there are five levels of needs required by the employees in order to fulfil their wants. 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-actualisation. In fact, the recognition of such needs by employers leads to improved outcomes (Shields 181).
The acceptance by employees that the organisation takes care of their essential needs indicates the application of the model in workers management and development. The benefits offered by the organisation provide essential as well as other needs of the employees. Most importantly, working in the organisation provides employees with the self-actualisation.
In fact, self-actualisation is attained in various ways within the organisation including the ability to set personal goals and ways, through which they can be achieved (Shields 182). The organisation must establish a set of programs that value workers together with their efforts.
Goal-setting model also 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. The model works well in an environment where employees set their own goals and work out ways, through which such objectives can be attained.
Allowing employees to perform own job evaluation also indicates the application of the model. Further, the employees are left to suggest the best ways, through which they can achieve their own objectives (Shields 182). Through the practice, employees are encouraged to perform as leaders and in effect motivate themselves towards attaining the goals of both individual and the organisation.
Motivational practices that influence work performance
Drawing from the suppositions, appropriate practices that increase motivation and influence employees’ performance are developed. In fact, the organisation has to put in place appropriate compensation and reward system that motivate employees towards attaining the desired outcome.
Employees will be highly motivated and increase their performance when the compensation practice applied by the organisation is perceived to be fair (Beck 82). In other words, employees will be motivated when the perceived compensation equals or exceeds the quantity of work. Essentially, compensation is one of the practices that organisation should adopt to attain increased employees’ performance.
Most importantly, organisations have to consider the employees contribution on the attainment of the organisation’s goals. As indicated in the human relations theory, employees should be given opportunity to provide suggestions on how they can achieve the objectives of the assigned tasks.
Moreover, the organisation’s practice that recognises the emotional and basic needs of workforce leads to improved employees’ outcomes. Besides, organisation management should set clear goals that are attainable in order to motivate employees. Employees will always be motivated when they pursue challenging and specific tasks with clear feedback (Beck 82).
The management structure and leadership styles of the organisation
Management structures
The relationship between the leadership style of the organisation and employees’ performance is direct. In addition, the management structure directly affects employees’ job commitments that have greater influence on the performances. Essentially, management structure and leadership style of an organisation have a greater influence on the performance of employees (Armstrong and Baron 21).
Moreover, the management structure and leadership style the organisation adopts have significant influence on the general performance of the organisation. Currently, organisations tend to implement management structures and the leadership styles that tend to motivate workers thereby increasing their output. In other words, several management practices are currently being adopted by the organisations to motivate their employees, which in turn contribute to increased performance.
The first motivating management practice is the adoption of cross-functional management structure. Most importantly, the cross-functional management structure encourages the astral managerial leadership and innovativeness among the organisation’s employees (Shields 202). The management structure often determines the type of leadership style that have direct impact on the employees’ behaviour and the general output of the organisation.
In most cases, the management and the organisation structures determine the culture of the organisation. As such, organisations tend to pursue cultural and moral principles as well as practices that motivate and increase the employees’ output. In fact, organisations should entrench moral principles that emphasise employees’ motivation as well as enhancing the general output of the firm.
Employees’ management practices such as encouraging individual accountability have been found to encourage employees to effectively perform the assigned tasks resulting in increased outcome (Shields 202). However, such practices have to be adopted within the moral principles determined by the management structure and the leadership style.
Studies on the relationship between employees’ performance and responsibility indicate that personal accountability combined with freedom to operate explains individual innovativeness that encourages employees to do extra work not only for the organisation but also for personal goals. The practice of encouraging individual responsibility among employees is highly applicable within the cross-functional management structure.
Generally, organisations should adopt management models and leadership styles that aim to increase the output of employees, which in turn augments the general output of the organisation. In fact, models of management that focus on the improvement of employees’ output as well as individual development increase the competitive advantage to the organisation (Armstrong and Baron 23).
Most modern organisations have adopted the cross-functional management due to its effect on employees’ improvement and the accompanied astral leadership style. Astral leadership style allows cross-functional management practices that encourage work processes and motivate employees. Moreover, the cross-functional models are aided by the open communication system that limits the organisational structure spectrum.
Essentially, the corporate organisation management model offers a sense of responsibility to the workers and the result is the greater contribution to the organisation’s objectives. In other words, the management model should result in increased employees’ performance.
The cross-functional model fulfils such requirements (Shields 211). As such, the cross-functional model becomes one of the management structures that encourage employees’ performance resulting in increased productivity of the organisation. Moreover, cross-functional model increases the leadership and management competencies resulting in additional competitive advantaged to the organisation.
Leadership style
As indicated, leadership style plays a critical role in the motivation of employees. The management and leadership style should remove obstacles that alienate employees from work processes. In other words, the leadership style should encourage employees towards attaining the desired outcome (Kirchmer 341).
In most cases, organisations considered as high achievers adopt leadership styles that create positive changes and inspire employees towards attaining the goals of the organisation. For instance, transformational type of managing employees is one such style of leadership. Transformational leadership is characterised by its inspirational nature and positive changes it creates in an organisation.
In order to achieve increased performance among employees, organisations often adopt leadership styles that take into consideration the concerns of employees.
In addition, the leadership styles should be focused on encouraging workforce to attain the goals of the organisation. In fact, the leadership style should be geared towards creating positive change among employees. Studies indicate that performance attributes of employees increase when their concerns are greatly considered by the organisation’s management (Shields 212).
Moreover, to remain competitive, organisations require leadership style where members of the team are encouraged to attain the desired results on the assigned tasks. Further, to become extremely motivated, leaders have to impart the vision of the group and take into consideration the members’ contribution in the attainment of the results (Armstrong and Baron 31).
Besides, leaders should have greater vision as well as inspirational characteristics, which are applied to motivate and change the expectations as well as perceptions of employees to work towards the desired goals and outcomes. Essentially, there is need to raise optimism among employees to attain the required output.
Moreover, the management needs to inspire employees towards attaining the desired outcome of the organisation. In addition, organisations need visionary leaders to inspire and motivate employees towards attaining the desired outcome. Such characteristics are majorly found in the transformational type of leadership styles.
As indicated, leadership styles play a critical role in enhancing employees’ performance. Generally, the organisation management structure and leadership styles are factors that significantly affect the performance of employees. The reason is that the two variables are directly related to the employees’ behaviours, which further affect the outcome of the organisation.
Compensation
Compensation and reward system of an organisation remains to be one of the important factors that contribute to the improved work performances among employees. Among the factors that influence employee’s performances, compensation directly affects the performances of employees and remains critical in the attainment of the organisation’s goals.
Therefore, when an organisation is deciding on the best compensation strategy, factors such as employees’ needs and feelings have to be considered (Kirchmer 337). In other words, employees have diverse needs that organisations have to put into consideration while determining effective rewards. Essentially, employees will consider compensation as effective when the types of rewards meet their primary objectives.
Often, the central argument is that a fair rewards system satisfies the needs of employees, motivates and improves performances. Therefore, compensation and employees’ work performance are directly related. Moreover, the most excellent compensation practices take into account internal business processes as well as environmental competitiveness.
Internal balance in the compensation practices and design implies the organisation’s activities and practices that ensure the attainment of goals. Besides, the internal business processes include employees’ performance management practices that form the core basis of compensation (Kirchmer 345).
On the other hand, external competitiveness encompasses compensation practices in relation to industrial standards or regulatory framework. In most cases, compensation practices follow the regulatory frameworks set by the industry or legal authority.
However, the organisation must ensure that its compensation practices are geared towards enhancing employee’s motivation and attaining set goals in order to gain competitive advantage (Kirchmer 341). In other words, compensation practices must be aligned with the employee’s general productivity as well as motivation. As such, the primary goal of compensation practices of an organisation is to motivate employees and improve their performances.
On the part of employees, increased compensation and benefits ensure augmented productivity due to the satisfaction they receive from such benefits. Well-compensated employees feel protected from social ills that may affect the work processes, which in turn may result in decreased performance (Armstrong and Baron 231).
In other words, compensation and benefits that take into consideration the needs of workers are critical in increased performance and the general output of the employees. The general assertion is that there is direct correlation between appropriate compensation and increased productivity among employees. Essentially, compensation has a direct impact on the employees’ performances.
Compensation and employees’ output
One of the major effects of compensation is that employees are motivated to attain the greater output. Good remunerations increase the worker’s motivation and job commitment that are translated into high performances (Ismail 923). The forms of compensation also enhance the performance culture among the employees.
However, these forms of compensation can hardly be determined without appropriate measurement procedures on job performance and output. Besides, increased efficiency cannot be divorced from employees’ high performance and attainment of the organisation goals.
Appropriate compensation raises performance among workers. In fact, increased performances result from augmented motivation workers gain from appropriate compensation (Armstrong and Baron 231). The increased impetus adds to efficacy and competencies needed to improved performance.
The effect is greater productivity and the attainment of the overall goals of the organisation. Essentially, the major effect of appropriate compensation design system is the increased performance, productivity within the workforce and the general attainment of the organisation’s goals.
Compensation and employees’ performance management
Compensation also influences the general employees’ performance management procedures. The employees’ efficiency and effectiveness can be enhanced through appropriate compensation. In this case, appropriate compensation implies that the it should be based on the market rate. In other words, suitable compensation that has effect on the workers’ attitude and motivation should be above the market rate.
Effective compensation indicates the manner in which the organisation values its workers as well as their needs (Ismail 929). In addition, effective compensation increases productivity as well as the general performance of the organisation. In general, compensation system and design communicate the values and beliefs of the organisation regarding the performance.
Performance-based compensation and improved workers’ output
The performance-related pay covers various forms of employees’ compensations that take into consideration the output of individual workers. In other words, workers are compensated according to the individual performance. The performance-based pay is applied in the circumstances where workers can easily show a discrepancy in their productivity depending on the individual endeavour.
In such situations, performance-based pay is believed to have greater chance of increasing workers performance (Ismail 923). One of the major advantages with all these forms of payments is that the employees are motivated to attain the greater output. Moreover, the forms of compensation also enhance the performance culture among the employees within the organisation.
Conclusion
Many factors affect job performances among employees within the organisation. However, motivation, compensation and the organisation management structure as well as leadership style remain critical factors that influence the work performances. 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 high likelihood 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 organisation’s work processes that motivate, increase satisfaction and job commitment leading to increased performance.
Works Cited
Armstrong, Michael and Angela Baron. Managing performance: performance management in action, UK: CIPD, 2005. Print.
Beck, Robert C. Motivation: Theories and Principles. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 2000. Print.
Ismail, Azman. “Relationship between Performances based pay features and job satisfaction: Does interactional justice act as a mediating role?” Academy of Management Journal, 35.5 (2007): 921-955. Print.
Kirchmer, Mathias. High performance through process excellence: turning strategy into operations – smart and fast. Berlin: springer-Verlag, 2009. Print.
Shields, John. Managing employees performance and reward – concepts, practices and strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Print.