Employee Motivation and Organisation Behaviour
Executive Summary
The report centralises on the impact of personality and individual differences on the motivational levels of the employees of the organisation. In this context, the report will provide brief descriptions of personality and individual differences. Personality can be regarded as a sub-segment of individual differences, which together affect organisational behaviour. The managers are required to understand and explore the differences in the personalities of the employees for devising suitable techniques of motivation compatible with them. The report also refers to theories and researches conducted by eminent scholars for supporting the primary argument about the impact of personality and individual differences on motivation and organisation behaviour.
Table of content
Introduction (150)
The main objective of the report is to examine two critical attributes of employees and their relationship with motivation. The two chosen attributes are personality and individual differences. In this context, the report will focus on a brief description of personality, elaborating about its role in shaping the behaviour of employees. A short explanation of individual differences will also be provided focussing on its importance in the organisational phenomenon. Further, the report will move on discussing motivation and various motivational theories related to the employees of an organisation. The last few sections of the report will highlight the impact of personality on the motivational levels of the employees. The effect of individual differences will also be judged concerning changing motivational levels and behaviour of the employees. Different theories proposed by eminent scholars and researchers will be referred for studying the impact of personality and individual differences on the motivational levels and behaviour of the employees.
Personality (300)
Individual differences (300)
Motivation (also give idea about theories) (300)
Employee motivation can be regarded as the level of energy, enthusiasm and dedication, which is manifested by the employees towards their jobs. It is the responsibility of the management to keep the employees motivated to enhance the productivity of the organisation. Low motivational level among employees can be detrimental to an organisation as it leads to the development of complacency, disinterest and discouragement among the employees (Basyir and Ibrahim 2018). This situation is generally observed in small businesses. Therefore, management should always take initiatives for enhancing the motivational levels of the employees. Many approaches can be taken in this respect, such as providing additional benefits to the employees such as health care, insurance, sharing of profit, subsidized meal plans, and many others.
Many motivational theories have been proposed by eminent scholars and researchers. Under this broad class of approaches, the most important ones are related to personality and individual differences. Self-determination theory is an essential motivational concept that influences the behaviour of an individual towards the achievement of his goals. The method identifies different types of intrinsic as well as extrinsic motivations of the employees. Another critical theory that integrates personality and individual differences with motivation is the big five model of the Ocean model, which takes into account five essential traits of individuals such as agreeableness, openness, extraversion, conscientiousness and neuroticism. Other relevant theories in this context can be a trait theory of personality and social cognitive theory (Prasmara and Wijaya 2017). Trait theory explains that an organisation needs to explore the traits of individuals to understand their personalities. The social cognitive theory states that behavioural aspects of an individual are affected by two factors, that is, cognitive factors and situational factors. This theory also explains that personality can be shaped up through learning from people as well as the environment.
Impact of personality on employee motivation and organisation behaviour (application of theories) (650)
The personality of an individual is a combination of all his characteristics and attributes that are distinctive and unique concerning others. Personality is the foundation of individual differences among the members of an organisation. According to Nuckcheddy (2018), managers are concerned about inducing and sustaining motivation among workers. Therefore, there is a growing need for establishing a relationship between personality and motivation for analysing the effect of personality on motivation. In determining the impact of personality on motivation, some of the sub-segments of personality have been found to be necessary. These sub-parts of personality are emotional stability, level of aggression and the level extroversion and introversion possessed by the employees (Şahin and Çetin 2017). Through research, it has been observed that individuals having low psychoticism are more receptive towards catching the motivation techniques. Other factors such as experience, skills as well as abilities of individuals aid towards their positive attitude in accepting motivational techniques.
The big five models of personality can be applicable in associating the character with the motivational factors of individuals. Openness relates to the exploration of a broad range of elements of the world and conscientiousness relates to planning ahead of schedule. Extroversion relates to the outgoing nature of individuals and agreeableness talks about the passion and empathy for others (Ratcliff et al. 2018). Neuroticism is a negative shade characterised by sadness and emotional instability. Out of all these traits, the most important characteristics affecting motivational levels of individuals are openness, extraversion and neuroticism. Another critical theory proposed by experts is trait theory as well as Herzberg’s theory of motivation. These theories could be related to the aggressive nature of individuals (Zhang and Ziegler 2018). According to these theories, there are few factors that cause job satisfaction and dissatisfaction among the employees. Exploring these factors and traits within the individuals can reveal shades of their personalities. This will help in formulating appropriate motivational techniques for each one of them.
According to many authors like Ashven, personality also impacts organisational behaviour showcased by the employees. The personality of an individual affects the functioning of the members in the area of cultural tolerance (Bondarenko 2017). Many other authors, like Barrick, have observed that a homogenous set of personality resists different kinds of personalities and creates a negative behaviour within the organisation.
On the contrary, many other authors argue that diversity in personality will create conflicts in the short run within the organisation. Personality can have a significant influence on another conspicuous element of the organisation, that is, the quality of the work environment. Sometimes, management might fail to organise groups, teams or departments in alignment with their compatible personalities. This leads to the creation of misunderstanding and conflict among the members (Boyle et al. 2020). Finally, personality also has an impact on the work ethics of the organisations. Positive attitudes of employees towards work can increase productivity and lead to the completion of the work in good time within the deadline. Personal perspectives also help in determining the success or failure of teamwork as this factor either enhances or degrades coordination between all the members of the team.
The two significant theories applicable in this context are self-determination theory and social cognitive theory. Self-determination theory concerns human motivation and personality. Through this theory, the behaviour of an individual could be determined. This is because the method talks about the inherent growth tendencies of individuals and the innate psychological needs of them. The theory mainly talks about the intrinsic choices of people without the influence or interference of the external environment (Zeigler-Hill and Hobbs 2017). The social cognitive theory is also regarded as social learning theory which talks about the individual learning within the organisation through dynamic and reciprocal interaction of the person, his behaviour and the environment.
Through social cognitive theory, the individuals acquire and maintain the behaviour in unique and distinctive ways, owing to their social environment (Lowie and Verspoor 2019). Past experiences play an active role in determining the behavioural action of the individuals within the organisations. These past experiences influence expectations, reinforcements as well as expectancies of the individuals.
Impact of individual differences on employee motivation and organisation behaviour (application of theories) (650)
Individual differences can consist of multiple elements, which affect the motivational levels of the employees. The personality is one of such factors followed by the physical ability and belief possessed by a respective individual. Attitude is also an essential element that shapes up motivational levels of individuals. The sub-segments of attitude are perceptions, confidence and values, which are intrinsic elements giving rise to intra-motivational factors. The self-esteem and perceived ability of individuals also help in the self-motivation of the individuals. The external factors contributing to the process are social skills and level of knowledge acquired from the outside environment (Dixon 2017). According to many authors like Carl Owen, effective management of teams can be possible if proper motivational techniques can be inculcated within the working groups. This can be achieved by analysing the behavioural differences of the individuals.
Personality is unique for an individual and management should pair the employees with the right duty in adherence to his personality for increasing productivity and motivation. Similarly, a positive attitude can have a huge influence in creating a positive motivational culture within the organisation (Grzeczkowski et al. 2017). Values are also important parts of employee motivation. Organisations should respect the personal benefits of individuals which might dictate the way they want to be motivated.
Many theories of personality have helped in understanding human behaviour within the organisation. These theories have explained many dimensions of human characteristics which can be classified under cognitive and useful patterns. The thoughts and emotions are some of the essential elements of human behaviour. According to Boag and Tiliopoulos, a self-motivated psychophysical system influences the patterns of behaviours, ideas as well as feelings of an individual and directs an individual towards his goals or objectives. The popular big-five model or the ocean model consisting of five essential traits of personality can be effectively related to such a phenomenon (Majidi and Khosravi 2019). These five essential traits such as neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness can be crucial in exploring the differences in attitudes and behavioural aspects among the individuals of the organisation. Other factors severely influencing individual differences are socio-cultural experiences such as interactions, involvements and perceptions created through the cultural encounters of the individuals. On the whole, individual differences are the individual traits or qualities possessed by individuals, which are distinctive from one another and leads to variation in personalities (Jennstål 2018). Through the analysis of these personalities and traits, a person could be fitted to a particular motivational technique according to his compatibility.
The individual differences are significant for the functioning of organisations. Managers should have the ability to understand the relation and interaction among the individuals for creating a positive behavioural culture within the organisation. A psychological perspective can be given to individual differences through the theory of cognitive intelligence. The method evaluates the individual differences in the area of intelligence, which takes into accountability, emotional adjustment, creativity and personality. Individual differences can be observed through the way of thinking of the individuals (Garcia-Garcia et al. 2018). This is a standard method of finding out the probable behaviour of such an individual. The way an individual reacts to stimulation can help in understanding his behavioural pattern. Through the analysis of individual differences, the career path of the employees can be formulated. Organisation behaviour can be manifested by following the effect of one’s perception and thoughts on the mentality of another person.
The researchers have proposed two critical approaches for studying the impact of individual differences on organisation behaviour. These two approaches are nomothetic and ideographic approaches. Most of the researchers prefer to the nomothetic method for assessing individual differences. This is because a nomothetic approach draws attention to the traits of the individuals (Tomaka et al. 2018). In contrast, ideographic theory talks about a single feature or a combination of characters, which might only be applicable for a single individual. Considering traits from a single individual might enhance the difficulties in the process and researchers might not be able to compare the individual differences possessed within the individuals. Therefore, the practical applicability of the theory is very less in the current scenario.
Conclusion (100)
From the above report, it can be concluded that personality and individual differences are two essential attributes that determine the levels of motivation acquired by the individuals. Many theories have been proposed concerning these two attributes of the individuals and also for studying the impact of these attributes on the motivational levels of individuals. In this context, the report has elaborated the different notions and approaches to personality and individual differences such as big five model of personality, self-determination theory, social cognitive theory, trait theory and Herzberg’s motivation theory. All these theories have special effects on the motivational factors of the individuals.
References
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