Moods, emotions, and attitudes are directly correlated with the workplace environment. If an individual does not find their workplace environment satisfactory, their moods and emotions will be affected, and their work efficiency will decrease. A lot of results in businesses come from the attitudes and efforts of their staff members. As a result, it is of utmost importance for organizations to find the best strategies to improve the employees’ attitudes and moods and create a well-balanced and motivational atmosphere.
To better understand emotions and moods at the workplace, psychologists examine the scope of an individual’s reactions along with the intricacies of work and non-work stimuli. According to research conducted at Western Electric’s Hawthorne facility, employee perspectives had as much of an impact on productivity as physical conditions (Landy & Conte, 2018). The Hawthorne experiments sparked interest in employee attitudes and the new concept of employee satisfaction (Landy & Conte, 2018). Consequently, other studies on moods and attitudes led to the establishment of motivation strategies and theories.
Herzberg and his team found a link between employee satisfaction and other work attitudes, leading them to develop one of the first advanced job satisfaction theories. According to their findings, both external and internal motivators drive people to perform their tasks (Landy & Conte, 2018). Additionally, the findings suggested that any kind of relationship, be it with an organization or a friend, is connected with emotions (Landy & Conte, 2018). As a result, due to the feelings the firm causes in employees, the latter decide to either stay with the company or leave.
It was not until 1964 when Vroom created a theory known as VIE (valence, instrumentality, expectancy) that the various motivation strategies started to emerge (Landy & Conte, 2018). Vroom asserted that in order to create motivation in people, there must be psychological and physical stimuli. While some people are motivated by bonuses, pay raises, and promotions, others are stimulated by encouragement, support, and acknowledgment. As Vroom put it, these are ways to recognize people’s needs or desires.
Therefore, if a supervisor decided to implement Vroom’s theory, they could do it in several ways. The first way to motivate employees would be to associate good results with beneficial outcomes. This means that the employees will have a clear-cut idea of the award. When workers know why they perform the given tasks and what the benefits of high efficiency are, they are more incentivized to achieve the set goal. On the other hand, there is no incentive for an employee to provide exemplary results when there is no reward.
Another way to motivate employees to be productive and motivated to provide good results is to support them. The support can vary from providing the needed resources or emotional support and encouragement. When it comes to the implementation of the task, an employee should feel like they can ask questions and receive feedback. In case when employees are shamed, the process might result in poor performance and employee dissatisfaction.
The last step to motivating employees is to reduce stress in the employee’s environment that is not related to the challenging work. The employee must understand the specific expectancies of the supervisors and have a plan of implementation. However, if there is too much stress on the individuals, the employee can collapse or not bear the pressure. Additionally, the employee should not be expected to perform too many tasks and overexert themselves.
Hence, moods, attitudes, and emotions directly impact the workplace environment. When employees have positive emotions and attitudes, they provide the organization with perfect results. However, when the workplace environment conditions are dissatisfactory, and there is no motivation to outperform, the employees have negative attitudes. Therefore, various motivation strategies can be implemented in order to change the situation. For example, the employer can either provide a clear image of the reward, support the employee and reduce stress levels.
References
Landy, F. J. & Conte, J. M. (2018). Work in the 21st century: An introduction to industrial and organizational psychology. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.