Introduction
Workers are a fundamental component of every organization. These people are the primary machinery of the business and they are indispensible since they carry out the tasks necessary for the business or company. For this reason, people can be categorized as a crucial asset in every organization. They give the business a competitive edge over its rivals in the market and enable it to succeed in any given field.
Without the workforce, the business or organization would not exist to begin with. From this realization of the importance of the human factor, all organizations have a Human Resource (HR) department that is charged with handling issuing concerning the members of the organizations.
Personnel in the HR field assert that there are a number of factors which affect the performance of the individual in the organization.
This assertion is backed by research by many experts in psychology. One factor which stands out is motivation. It is therefore of great importance for the organization to know how to motivate its workforce. This paper will discuss the importance of motivation in the workplace and give various ways that can be used to motivate workers.
Why Motivation is Needed
One fact about human beings is that they cannot be counted on to work on the same task consistently over a period of time and give uniform good results. This may be attributed to the fact that humans tend to tire after some time which is the difference between humans and machines. People experience a “burn out” from working for long periods especially if it is work that the individual finds routine or is unenthusiastic about. Because of this, every worker needs to be motivated in order to perform his/her work effectively.
By definition, motivation is the process of stimulating people to action to accomplish desired goals. Motivation entails providing a person with reasons or incentives to carry out the required tasks. A motivated person is one who is inspired to achieve the desired goal. The value of motivation cannot be overstated and motivation is of core value in all aspects of life.
Two main kinds of motivation exist namely: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. In intrinsic motivation, the person is internally motivated and they perform the desired tasks out of their own pleasure or desire. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation occurs as a result of external factors such as promise of reward or need to avoid punishment by the individual (Pan 2010).
As a process, motivation involves engaging a person such that they show desirable behavior or perform certain required action. Motivation is an interdisciplinary issue and it is studied in: psychology, economics, political science, education and sociology. Denhardt et al. (2008, p.146) asserts that motivation acts on the knowledge of “what causes people to behave as they do”.
Interestingly, motivation is an internal state which is responsible for making people to behave in specific ways so as to achieve certain goals and purposes. The outward manifestations are observable to people but motivation itself remains internal (Denhardt et al. 2008, p.147).
The work place is one of the places where motivation is highly desirable. Coming up with effective ways to motivate the employees mostly poses as a major challenge for the employers. This is in spite of the fact that highly motivated employees are key to the success of the business. Highly motivated workers exhibit greater work satisfaction and as such, their work performance is higher (North 2010).
People in the work place therefore need to be constantly motivated to ensure that work is done efficiently. However, the people making up the workforce differ greatly from each other and as such; any one single motivational tactic may not work universally. Every person has varying reasons for working and their desires differ to a large extent.
Even so, it can be universally claimed that we all work because we need to achieve something that can only be obtained through working. These needs may include: salary, personal fulfillment, professional growth (Heathfield 2010). These needs can be used as the basis for motivating the employee to perform good work.
Pan (2010) states that things such as salary, favorable work conditions, safety and security, benefits and policies can be used to motivate the employee. While it is generally agreed that the employee must be satisfied with the remunerations they are receiving from the company, there are many other facts that affect the performance of the employees and therefore cause unsatisfactory performance (Igalens & Russel 1999).
Numerous studies and research efforts have been undertaken on motivation and its effect on workers. This has led to many theories being developed on the topic and recommendations made. In spite of the availability of these significant body of material, motivation is still poorly practiced in the workplace setting (Accell-Team 2010). Typical organizations comprise of hundreds of people who have varied desires and goals.
Effective motivational strategies are necessary to ensure that every individual in the organization is properly motivated. This will lead to a boost in individual performance and by extent, increased productivity for the organization.
For an organization to prosper, it is mandatory for the employees to provide high quality work. This is because the individual performance of the employees brings about organizational success. The increase in the performance and productivity of individual workers is a primary concern of the company and it is one of the ways that a business is able to counter increasing costs of running the business.
In return for this performance, the organization gives the employee some monetary remuneration. Motivation plays a large and significant part in the great and holistic performance of employees. The work performed by the employee may be driven by some intrinsic motivation and with this in mind; the altruistic motives of the employee can provide the grounds from which to undertake motivation.
Motivational Methods
From the many studies undertaken in motivation, there are a number of motivational theories of motivation that can be implemented in to motivate workers. Some of these theories and models were advanced by the best minds in behavioral psychology such as Maslow, Taylor and Herzberg. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory is arguably the most influential motivational theory is.
This theory as proposed by Abraham Maslow states that human needs can be viewed as a hierarch and people are constantly ascending from the lowest to the highest. The five levels of the pyramid are physiological, safety, emotional (love), esteem and self-actualization (Simons et al 1996).
Maslow theorizes that when one set of needs is satisfied, it ceases to be a motivator to the individual and without the lower needs being satisfied, it is difficult for an individual to aspire to fulfill the higher level needs. This particular theory offers a basis from which employees can be motivated.
The two factor theory of motivation advanced by Frederick Herzberg suggests that in addition to the monetary rewards which can highly motivate an employee, such as the work conditions can act as incentives for employees to be more productive.
The employer is therefore supposed to let the employees know of the monetary remunerations as well as non-monetary benefits so as to properly motivate the workers to produce even higher performances (Simms 2007).
Organizations in the US engage in intensive non-monetary incentives as can be seen from the fact that nearly 27 billion dollars is used for travel, meals, merchandises and recognition awards (International Society for Performance Improvement & The Incentive Research Foundation 2002).
The motivation factors which include achievement and recognition, advancement and growth and responsibility must be present since these are the factors that create a drive in the employee. Jakobson (2007) states that a company can use simple methods such as recognizing hard work and performance of individual employees during meetings.
The workplace environment also influences the performance of the workforce. Creating a harmonious workplace environment is therefore one of the ways through which employee productivity can be raised since this demonstrates that the inputs of the employees are valued and appreciated by the organization.
As a matte of fact, some Multi-National Companies such as Reuters, Salisbury and Nucor Corporation have become successful because of applying this strategy. Part of the process of creating a harmonious workplace environment is by putting in place mechanisms where the ideas and voices of the employees are recognized.
In addition to this, the company lets the employees know of changes that are about to take place that could affect the employees in one way or the other. Through this means, the employees view themselves as a valuable part of the organization and are supportive of changes proposed by the company.
This approach also motivates the employees to do their jobs more effectively and reach desired company goals and objectives (Whiteling 2007; Bolman & Deal 2008).
Another motivational strategy that is similar to the above is storytelling. Silverman (2006) defines the concept of storytelling as creating an organizational culture where employees are given a platform on which to voice their “stories” and subsequently, their stories are acted upon showing that they are given value and importance.
These stories also influence other workers and create a feeling of togetherness. Such a relationship makes the employees feel like valuable members of the organization which invariably translates to higher and better work performance by the workforce.
Communication is the cornerstone of all successful relationships and in the organization, communication takes place between and among the various individuals. The tone and language used to carry out communication plays a monumental role in motivating individual employees. Sharbrough (2006) asserts that there is a direct relationship between the motivating language and employee’s job satisfaction and performance.
When a superior uses motivating language, it results in increased efficiency in his/her management of the subordinates. A leader’s effectiveness is directly related to his capability to motivate his followers by use of word (Sharbrough 2006). In addition to this, the engagement level of the employees in the organization is a factor of communication.
Kellerman (2007) reveals that managers and supervisors can gauge the level of employees’ commitment to company objectives using a scale. These scale has “feeling and doing absolutely nothing” on one extreme and “being passionately committed and deeply involved” on the other extreme. By using such a scale, the manager can assess commitment and accurately develop the best way in which to motivate the individual employee.
Besides stipulating goals and objectives that the employees should accomplish, it is important to the motivation efforts for the employee’s job to be regarded as valuable. If the employees do not get the feeling that they work is valued and considered important, they will be less motivated to do their work. Employers are therefore taxed with the job of validating the work that individual employees take part in.
Employers can provide their staff with rationale of their jobs and demonstrate how their specific works contributes to the achievement of company goals and objectives (Wright 2001).
As has been noted before, performing repetitive tasks may result in decreased work performance due to work becoming routine for the employee. Sokoya (2000) suggests that the employer should set out to create variety in work so as to maintain work satisfaction and hence increased productivity from the employee.
Discussion and Conclusion
Motivation is essential for people in all avenues of life since it brings about increased performance. Its importance is even more accentuated in the workplace setting where increased performance leads to the success of the organization. However, the workplace is full of many stressful situations which result in dissatisfaction and a lack of motivation which brings about poor work performance.
In such scenarios, motivation needs to be restored so as to increase work performance. One of the common finding from research on motivation is that the communication between employers and employees plays a huge role in the motivation of the workforce.
Another universal finding is that motivation yield to better and greater work performance from the employees. With this in mind, it makes sense for the employees to employ the various motivational techniques available to achieve the desired behaviors and actions from the employees.
From this paper, it is clear that motivation has tremendous effects on work performance. By employing motivation theories such as; Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, and Herzberg’s two factor theory, employers can effectively motivate their workers with favorable results.
While there is no perfect motivation theory that can work on all people, applying the various motivational techniques highlighted in this paper will increase changes of workers being stimulated to accomplish the desired goals and objectives of the organization.
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