Understanding Employee Motivation Review

ASSIGNMENT: ARTICLE REVIEW ARTICLE: UNDERSTANDING EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION

NAME: NUR SYAZANA BINTI GULAB KHAN I.C NUM: 870530-56-5332 MATRIC NUMBER: AH090258 LECTURER’S NAME: EN MOKTHAR ABD AZIZ

Understanding Employee Motivation

The study being carried out to described the rank importance of motivational factors to employees that is job security, sympathetic help with personal problems, personal loyalty to employees, interesting work, good working conditions, tactful discipline, good wages, promotions and growth in the organization, feeling of being in on things and full appreciation of work done. Motivation has been defined as the psychological process that gives behavior purpose and direction, a predisposition to behave in a purposive manner to achieve specific, unmet needs, an internal drive to satisfy an unsatisfied need and the will to achieve. For the article, motivation is operationally defined as the inner force that drives individuals to accomplish personal and organizational goals. Interesting work and good pay are keys to higher employee motivation. Carefully designed reward systems that include job enlargement, job enrichment, promotions, internal and external stipends, monetary, and non-monetary compensation should be considered. Motivated employees are needed in our rapidly changing workplaces. Motivated employees help organizations survive. Motivated employees are more productive. Managers need to understand what motivates employees within the context of the roles they perform. Motivating employees is arguably the most complex. The fact that what motivates employees changes constantly. Research suggests that as employees’ income increases, money becomes less of a motivator and as employees get older, interesting work becomes more of a motivator. There is an old saying you can take a horse to the water but you cannot force it to drink, it will drink only if it's thirsty and so with people. They will do what they want to do or otherwise motivated to do. Whether it is to excel on the workshop floor or in the 'ivory tower' they must be motivated or driven to it, either by themselves or through external stimulus. Employee motivation is the level of energy, commitment, and creativity that a company's workers apply to their jobs. In the increasingly competitive business environment of recent years, finding ways to motivate employees has become a pressing concern for many managers. In fact, a number of

different theories and methods of employee motivation have emerged, ranging from monetary incentives to increased involvement and empowerment. This study found employees are not motivated solely by money and employee behavior is linked to their attitudes. The manager's main task is to develop a productive work place, with and through those he or she is in charge of. The manager should motivate his or her team, both individually and collectively so that a productive work place is maintained and developed and at the same time employees derive satisfaction from their jobs.The Hawthorne Studies began the human relations approach to management, whereby the needs and motivation of employees become the primary focus of managers. Five major approaches that have led to our understanding of motivation are Maslow’s need-hierarchy theory, Herzberg’s two-factor theory, Vroom’s expectancy theory, Adam’s equity theory, and Skinner’s reinforcement theory. According to Maslow, employees have five levels of needs that is physiological, safety, social, ego and self and self-actualizing. Maslow argues that lower level needs had to be satisfied before the next higher level need would motivate employees. A comparison of these study results to Maslow’s need hierarchy theory provides some interesting insight into employee motivation. The number one ranked motivator, interesting work is a self-actualizing factor. The number two ranked motivator, good wages is a physiological factor. The number three ranked motivator, full appreciation of work done, is an esteem factor. The number four number ranked motivator, job security, is a safety factor. Therefore, according to Maslow, if managers wish to address the most important motivational factors of employees, interesting work, physiological, safety, social, esteem factors must first be satisfied.

According to Herzberg’s work categorized motivation into two factors that is motivators and hygiene’s. Motivator or intrinsic factors such as achievement and recognition, produce job satisfaction. Hygiene or extrinsic factors, such as pay and job security, produce job dissatisfaction. The highest ranked motivator, interesting work, is a motivator factor. The second ranked motivator, good wages is a hygiene factor. Herzberg stated that to the degree that motivators are present in a job, motivation will occur. The absence of motivators does not lead to dissatisfaction. They also stated that to the degree that hygiene’s are absent from a job, dissatisfaction will occur. The lack of interesting work for the employee would not lead to dissatisfaction. Paying employees lower wages than what they believe to be fair may lead to job dissatisfaction. Employees will be motivated when they are doing interesting work and but will not necessarily be motivated by higher pay. According to Vroom’s theory is based on the belief that employee will lead to performance and performance will lead to rewards. Rewards may be either positive or negative. The more positive reward the more likely the employee will be highly motivated and the more negative the reward the less likely the employee will be motivated. The highest ranked motivational factor is interesting work according to Vroom’s theory. The employee will be motivated if the successful in their job and given opportunity to conduct independent research and project. According to Adam’s theory, employees strive for equity between themselves and other workers. Equity is achieved when the ratio of employee outcomes over inputs is equal to other employee outcomes over inputs. The third highest ranked motivational factor is according to Adam’s theory that is full appreciation of work done. If an employee feels that there is a lack of appreciation for work done, as being too low relative to another employee, an inequity may exist and the employee will be unmotivated. Adam’s stated employee will attempt o restore equity through various means, some of which may be counter- productive to organizational goals and objectives. An employee who feels their work is not being appreciated may work less or undervalue the work of other employees.

Skinner’s theory simply states those employees’ behaviors that lead to positive outcomes will be repeated and behaviors that lead to negative outcomes will not be repeated. Managers should positively reinforce employee behaviors that lead to positive outcomes. Managers should also negatively reinforce employee behavior that leads to negative outcomes. The strategy for motivating employees depends on which motivation theories are used as a reference point. If Hertzberg’s theory is followed, management should begin by focusing on pay and job security that is hygiene factors. If Adam’s equity theory is followed, management should begin by focusing on areas where there may be perceived inequities that is pay and full appreciation of work done before focusing on interesting work and job security. If Vroom’s theory is followed, management should begin by focusing on rewarding that is pay and interesting work, employee effort in achieveing organizational goals and objectives. Regardless of which theory is followed, interesting work and employee pay appear to be important links to higher motivation on this research. Options such as job enlargement, job enrichment, promotions, internal and external stipends, monetary, and non monetary compensation should be considered. Job enlargement can be used by managers to make work more interesting for employees by increasing the number and variety of activities performed. Job enrichment can be used to make work more interesting and increase pay by adding higher level responsibilities to a job and providing monetary compensation raised or stipend to employees for accepting this responsibility. Quite apart from the benefit and moral value of an altruistic approach to treating colleagues as human beings and respecting human dignity in all its forms, research and observations show that well motivated employees are more productive and creative. The key to motivating employees is to know what motivates them and designing a motivation program based on those needs. If properly designed reward system is not implemented, employees will not be motivated.