Managing and Motivation of Employees
Abstract
The management of workers is key to the success of any business. One crucial aspect of managing employees is how to motivate them and ensure they remain motivated. The motivation of employees is an essential aspect that many companies need to consider. There are many ways in which a business can benefit from motivating its employees. Motivation can be internal or external, which has a different impact on the person. The reward an employee gets from their work b the level of motivation they have. Various psychologists have proposed theories on what motivates people and what causes motivation. Psychologists have also suggested that there are needs in a person that cause their motivation. The motivation of employees is an aspect that should be continuously reviewed, and a study conducted to help improve the employment sector.
Managing and Motivation of Employees
Employees in many businesses have specific desires that they would want to be fulfilled to them by their employers. A large percentage of employees would quit their jobs due to a lack of bonuses and allowances compared to those who would quit to further their studies or to find other better jobs. Compensation aims at improving employee motivation, which many employers practice. Motivation is the extent a person would be willing to spend extra effort and energy to achieve a goal. Motivation involves forces that arouse a person to show a willingness to persist on the responsibility to complete a task. Motivating employees helps in making employees remain productive, which is vital for the success of an organization.
The motivation of employees is of huge importance to a business as it can reap many benefits from it. The motivation of employees helps improve the production level of employees. Motivated employees will put more effort into their work, work for long hours, complete tasks assigned to them faster, and have the drive to achieve something for the business (Graves 2017). Motivated employees work faster and more efficiently. This means that clients’ demands are met in the best way possible. The quantity of production scales up, which means that a business will make more profits.
The motivation of employees helps retain workers in an organization. When an employee is motivated by the organization, they would consider quitting their jobs as betraying the organization. This leads to a lower staff turnover as the organization does not hire many different employees frequently. A lower staff turnover helps in building a company’s reputation as clients like being served by employees they are acquainted with, which they will have a good perception of the organization. A company with a high reputation is able to attract highly qualified workers, and the employees will always say something positive about their employer. The culture of the business is well built as workers stay in the company for long and build the culture. A lower staff turnover helps reduce the cost of hiring new workers, and the cost of training workers is reduced because workers are used to their job and help each other out.
In 1975, Greg R. Oldham and J. Richard Hackman developed the job characteristics model in which they stated that various job characteristics help in keeping an employee motivated. In the model, these characteristics are skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. Tasks that require more than one skill to completely make a worker feel more is wanted from them, and they are motivated. The ease of identifying a task in a job and its outcome makes a worker feel that their work is meaningful. The significance of a task to the organization or society makes a job attractive to a worker. Autonomy gives freedom to an employee when doing their job, which is vital in motivating them. Allowing employees to device their own ways of completing a task is important to keep them motivated. When employees get feedback on how well they are working, they are motivated to keep working. Human resource managers should identify these characteristics in their organizations and adjust to them.
Employees can be motivated in various ways in an organization. The various ways of motivation have different impacts on employees, with each having a specific target. Providing feedback on the performance of employees is one way to motivate an employer. Informing a worker on how they are performing raises their self-esteem, their drive towards work is also improved, and their morale to work is always high. Feedback also helps workers improve as they are able to know their weak areas. Giving employees the freedom to control over time and methods they perform their work shows they are trusted, which and it is a way to motivate them. Another way to motivate employees is by giving rewards. Extrinsic reward leads to performing a task to receive an award or avoid the consequences of not doing it; the drive is not from within the person (Kanama 2017). Intrinsic motivation involves engaging in performing a task because it is personally rewarding and not for receiving the external reward. The task is the reward itself.
David McClelland proposed the McClelland’s Needs Theory, which proposed that there are three basic motivating needs; the need for power, the need for affiliation, and the need for achievement (Rybnicek 2019). People with a high demand for power seek high positions in an organization to be able to exercise their power on other people. An organization can use a person with a high need for power as a supervisor as they would apply power to workers, thus improving productivity. People with a high need for affiliation derive satisfaction from being loved by other people and avoid being rejected. An organization should hire a worker with the need for affiliation as they would perform their tasks well to win the love of their superiors. People with a high need for achievement take a moderate risk in management, seek immediate feedback on their work, set goals, and dedicate themselves to it and achieve them to obtain personal satisfaction. Organizations should use people with a high need for achievement as they would make an organization achieve more.
Deci and Ryan Self-Determination Theory proposed that everyone has three basic needs that are important for motivation; autonomy, which helps us get control over our lives, relatedness, which helps in socializing and getting a sense of belonging and competence which help us have confidence in our work (Ryan 2017). The psychologists argued that the extent of our motivation depends on how well we satisfy the three fundamental needs. The psychologists argued that an intrinsically motivated person would complete a duty out of the basic interest and joy in the duty itself. Intrinsic motivation is controlled by the three basic needs we possess from the theory.
Frederick Herzberg, a behavioral scientist, came up with a two-factor theory referred to as the motivator hygiene theory. According to Frederick, there are duty factors that bring about satisfaction and others that prevent dissatisfaction. Hygiene factors are those that are needed for the existence of motivation in the workplace (Herzberg 2017). These factors do not lead to long-term positive satisfaction, but their absence would lead to dissatisfaction. These factors include pay, benefits, company policies, and job security. Motivational factors are intrinsic and lead to positive satisfaction. They motivate employees for higher performance. They include recognition, promotion, and responsibility, sense of achievement, and contribution of the work.
Motivating employees is vital in order to achieve company goals. To successfully motivate employees,’ managers should be aware of the benefits, the methods used to motivate them, and the factor that contribute to their needs. The motivation of employees should be the utmost priority of businesses seeking to achieve high profits.
References
Graves, L. M., & Sarkis, J. (2018). The role of employees’ leadership perceptions, values, and motivation in employees’ provenvironmental behaviors. Journal of Cleaner Production, 196, 576-587.
Herzberg, F. (2017). Motivation to work. Routledge.
Kanama, D., & Nishikawa, K. (2017). Does an extrinsic reward for R & D employees enhance innovation outcomes? Evidence from a Japanese innovation survey. R&D Management, 47(2), 198-211.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2017). Self-determination theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness. Guilford Publications.
Rybnicek, R., Bergner, S., & Gutschelhofer, A. (2019). How individual needs influence motivation effects: a neuroscientific study on McClelland’s need theory. Review of Managerial Science, 13(2), 443-482.