Low Employee Motivation and How to Address It Essay

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Introduction: Situational Overview

The situation selected for analysis is a typical one occurring in many organizations. During several months, the company has experienced reduced productivity caused by low motivation and performance indicators of employees. The managers’ personal experience with so-called motivational programs or programs with large motivational content is that they especially require close advance scrutiny and a design for evaluation. They are often accepted on faith, “motivation” being an appealing word that may itself sell a program package no matter what the content of the program or the techniques it seeks to install. Perhaps because of the very difficulty of measuring the effects, we tend to forgo a genuine evaluation, taking the view that something “good” is bound to rub off. Low motivation and poor productivity were caused by staff changes and recruiting of 10 new employees.

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Situational Analysis

The fact of individual differences is at the heart of the long-debated issue of what we should teach industrial supervisors about the nature of employees. The question is not “What is the employee like?” The assumption in such question is that we have found a definition that applies to all employees, that once we have described one employee we have described them all. Managers know now that the individual is complex and differs from other individuals. It is not necessary to trace the history of motivational theorizing to bring managers to this conclusion. Nor should we be led away from it by narrow motivational schools of thought that purport to provide a universal prescription (Schultz and Schultz 2004). The problem is not one of settling, beforehand, the issue of what specifically a manager or supervisor should see in employees but of providing him or her with a way of looking. The expectancy model of motivation appears to provide a valid and practical way. The situation needs to be improved because the current state of affairs will lead to high rates of turnover and reduce the income of the company in near future. Also, the current situation can lead to conflicts between employees and low morale (Corey, 2007).

Personality Characteristics

Roger’s theory suggests that self-actualization is a crucial point in personality development. The situation shows that poor performance and low motivation can be a direct result of poor actualization and inadequate assessment by their peers. It is in the subject area of motivation that the manager is under probably the greatest pressure to adopt programs, especially for experienced supervisors. To begin with, the fact of individual differences is a crucial consideration in employee performance and satisfaction (Schultz and Schultz 2004). One need not gild this point with research citations. The manager is amply aware–he or she is an expert witness–of differences between employees in regard to aptitudes, acquired skills, attitudes, perceptions, temperament, and motivation (in addition to the obvious physical characteristics). The recent research does throw light on the significance of certain personal characteristics as differentiating factors in satisfaction or performance, and especially on the roles of perception and motivation. The achievement motive has been found to be particularly germane ( Atkinson and Feathers 1966; McClelland and Steele 1973); employees high in achievement motivation tend to set goals of intermediate difficulty and to prefer concrete feedback as indications of how they are doing. In addition, there is evidence to support the hypothesis that employees who have a strong need for personal development and achievement may see a higher worth in achieving performance objectives than employees weaker in such need and that these latter are more likely to be satisfied through the fulfillment of security and social needs (Corey, 2007).

Two categories of employees are involved in the situation: managers-supervisors and employees (subordinates). An individual’s needs (as well as his or her experience, training, and attitudes) can affect job perceptions, which in turn can affect job satisfaction and behavior. The needs at issue, affecting job perception, will often be other than the higher-order needs (for achievement, challenge, and such) that have received so much research attention; they may be social needs (Schultz and Schultz 2004). There are indications that females tend to be higher on social needs than males and are more likely to take a favorable view of jobs involving relations with others. The precise relationship between job perception and job satisfaction (indeed, the very direction of the relationship) is not altogether clear, although there is clear evidence of a linkage. We know that an employee may enter employment with a predisposition toward satisfaction or compliance on the one hand or a negative stance on the other, which will color his or her view of the job without strong reference to objective evidence. Aside from predisposition, it has long been noted that an employee’s perception of the job may not correspond to the true descriptive account and that such distortion can have consequences (whatever the linkage process) in terms of job satisfaction or dissatisfaction and job behavior. There is evidence that the relationship between job perception and job satisfaction is moderated by individual characteristics and demographic factors (age, for example). It is evident, also, that job perceptions and job satisfaction are not absolutely fixed, predispositions notwithstanding, but can change as new information is acquired and evaluated (Corey, 2007).

Following A. Maslow, people are motivated by five factors: physical needs, safety concerns, love, self-esteem, and self-actualization. The situation shows that three of the main needs are neglected: safety concerns, self-esteem, and self-actualization. The majority of new employees are passive and inactive persons unable to solve problems and communicate effectively with supervisors (Schultz and Schultz 2004). In contrast, two supervisors are real leaders who possess charismatic and autocratic qualities. It seems to me that what the supervisor can realistically do, therefore, to influence productivity and satisfaction is to take the same broad approach with all employees with the expectation that some aspects of it will favorably affect productivity or satisfaction or both with most employees. The best supervisors can do is to state clearly what is in the job for the employee if he or she runs it, to help the employee to learn to run it, and to give the indicated returns (Maslow, 1970). The outcome may be negative in terms of job performance, in which case the supervisors analyze causes to ensure that job conditions will permit satisfactory performance and that job skills are adequate. These are difficulties the supervisors can do something about, especially in regard to further training needs. But they have pretty well expended their arsenal of productivity inducers when they complete this process, along with continuing with whatever reinforcers are still available. If the employees respond, as may happen, by leaving the job in the midst of the supervisors’ efforts to clarify expectations, produce job skills, and provide reinforcement, or by leaving when competency has been achieved and job rewards realized, the supervisors can be consoled by the thought that they have has done their best and that the prime agent in the response, after all, is the employee with his or her unique circumstances, needs, temperament, reward values, and all. The generalized approach is especially pertinent to the job-learning period for the compelling reason that a supervisor cannot realistically expect to identify the individual characteristics of employees at so early a time, let alone respond to them discriminatively (Schultz and Schultz 2004).

So the best approach, it can be argued, is to use the same tactic with all employees: to give information in an effort to make perceptions and expectations accurate, to train adequately, and to maximize rewards. This tack is largely a structuring one but is not lacking in concern for employees. This approach is not a denial of individual differences. It takes them into account in a different way, by providing a framework within which they can be expressed with clear sight, within which accommodation can be worked out-or not–by the employee between his or her needs and the correctly perceived way of meeting them that are available. There is no absolute assurance that this approach will result in a productive and satisfied workforce, but it is an open and straightforward way of attempting it, which takes account of some of the major lessons from research and experience and is within the capabilities of the trained supervisor to execute (Thomas, 2002). After training and job experience have wrought their effects on employees, the supervisor will find it more practical and productive to adjust his or her behaviors more discriminatively to individuals; differences in personality and motivation, though not easily read, will be more evident by then. Until job skill develops, however, the supervisor is well advised to use a more-or-less standard approach aimed primarily at the training objective. Of course, he or she will be respectful of individuals and considerate of their welfare, but the major concern will be differences in learning pace and learning difficulties, which training procedures should be devised to confront.

References

  1. Corey, G. (2007). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy. Brooks Cole; 7 edition.
  2. Maslow, A. H. (1970), Motivation and Personality edn, Harper & Row.
  3. Schultz, D. P., Schultz, S.E. (2004). Theories of Personality. Wadsworth Publishing; 8 edition.
  4. Thomas, K. W. (2002). Intrinsic Motivation at Work: Building Energy and Commitment. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
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IvyPanda. (2022) 'Low Employee Motivation and How to Address It'. 17 June.

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IvyPanda. 2022. "Low Employee Motivation and How to Address It." June 17, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/low-employee-motivation-and-how-to-address-it/.

1. IvyPanda. "Low Employee Motivation and How to Address It." June 17, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/low-employee-motivation-and-how-to-address-it/.


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IvyPanda. "Low Employee Motivation and How to Address It." June 17, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/low-employee-motivation-and-how-to-address-it/.

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