Shilan Shah
Professor Khoury
MGT 201-04: Management Principles
5 December 2014
Motivation Paper
Motivation acts a force to energize and direct behavior in the workplace (Myers 329) so that employees perform tasks to a high degree. It is motivation that retains employees in a company because improper motivation acts as a deterrent to productivity and joy. Whether physiological, emotional, or incentive based, motivation affects our lives everyday and induces our natural drive to thrive and succeed. Many psychological theories explain the different ways employees may become motivated, such as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Herzberg’s two factor theory, and theory Y, based on how appealing a stimuli may be to an employee’s needs.
A successful company only exists if its employees are properly motivated. However, finding the right types of motivation proves to be difficult considering the variety of employees within the company. While one employee may appreciate vacation time, another may feel he is not properly motivated to do more for the company. One employee may crave recognition, while another finds solace in completing their work without any applause. Also, in terms of incentives, it would be hard to distinguish employees who work intrinsically to perform quality work from those who work extrinsically for the reward. Too much of a stimuli leads to habituation and employees may ultimately become demotivated (Myers 340). Without motivation, however, employees
Motivation is derived from an internal force that provides an individual the opportunity to achieve their needs or goals. People are motivated by a variety of things and often have different motivating factors. Employers should be mindful of individual motivating factors when attempting to motivate staff to increase performance. While some people may be motivated by money, many are motivated by things like: recognition, promotion, and increased responsibility. Once an employer has identified motivating factors they are able to analyze a variety of motivational theories to design and implement a program that will motivate employees to go above and beyond what is expected of them.
Motivation is a key aspect in the organization or workplace, and it is imperative to know the basic theory application and methods dealing with any problems that usually unavoidable for the employee and will come up in any work environment. This is a mandatory skills for a leader or future manager to know how important on how to motivate his or her employee to work more efficient. Motivating employees is a big dilemma for managers. To produce a higher level of performance and productivity, manager’s today are obliged to pay more attention on this matter. Every employee needs different types of motivation. In this paper will elaborate three motivational methods that a
According to researcher Lindner (1998), motivated employees are needed in our rapidly changing workplaces to aid in the survival of organizations. Not only is it important to meet the needs of the consumer, it is equally important that to make sure that associates are taken care of and remain motivated. For this reason, Gibson, Ivancevich, Donnelly and Konopaske (2012) “states much of management’s time is spent addressing the motivation of their employees” (p. 125). According to the Encyclopedia of Small Business (2007), employee motivation is the level of energy, commitment, and creativity employees bring to their jobs; the inner force that drives individuals to accomplish personal and organizational goals (Lindner, 1988). Despite its obvious importance, employee motivation can be an elusive quest for managers due to the multiplicity of incentives that can influence employees to do their best work. The reality is that every employee has different ways to become motivated and the knowledge of how to motivate them is key to organizational success. It is imperative that employers get to know the personal needs and wants of their employees in order to establish tactics in which to motivate each of them. Once achieved, “managers are in a better position to encourage and reward employees to behave in effective ways” (Gibson et al, 2012, p.
There are as many different methods of motivating employees today as there are companies operating in the global business environment. Still, some strategies are prevalent across all organizations striving to improve employee motivation. The best employee motivation efforts will focus on what the employees deem to be important. It may be that employees within the same department of the same organization will have different motivators. Many organizations today find that flexibility in job design and reward systems has resulted in employees ' increased longevity with the company, improved productivity, and better morale.
The success of any business depends on the productivity and satisfaction of its employees. Employees need to be motivated to work. Motivation can be defined as the inner force that drives individuals to accomplish personal and organizational goals. Motivation can be either intrinsic or extrinsic. For an individual to be motivated in a work situation there must be a need, which the individual would have to perceive a possibility of satisfying through some reward. Intrinsic motivation stems from motivations that are inherent and arise from performing the task of the job itself, which the individual gets a feeling of either positive or negative motivation as a result of
Motivation is the force that makes us do things, whether accomplishing personal goals or completing tasks at work. Most people are motivated as a result of their individual needs being satisfied, which gives them the inspiration to perform specific behaviors for which they receive rewards (Kinicki & Williams, 2011). These needs vary from person to person, as everybody has specific needs to be satisfied. When we consider factors that determine the motivation of employees, many of us think of a high salary. This answer is correct for the reason that some employees will be motivated by money, but mostly wrong for the reason that it does not satisfy other needs to a lasting degree (Bizhelp24, 2010). This supports the idea that human
that employees remain motivated if they are rewarded to achieve goals of a company. And when they are
Motivation in the workplace is one of the major concerns that managers face when trying to encourage their employees to work harder and do what is expected of them on a day-to-day basis. According to Organizational Behavior by John R. Schermerhorn, James G. Hunt and Richard N. Osborn the definition of motivation is "the individual forces that account for the direction, level, and persistence of a person's effort expended at work." They go on to say that "motivation is a key concern in firms across the globe." Through the years there have been several theories as to what motivates employees to do their best at work. In order to better understand these theories we will apply them to a fictitious organization that has the following
Human Resources is dependent on the success, happiness, and contentment of employees that keep the business on course. Motivation is one of the best ways to push employees forward while making sure everyone is in a comfortable position in their job. Motivational theories just attempt to explain what motivates or makes people act the way that they do. The goal of understanding these theories and their outcomes is to ensure a better performance from each employee, and to give each of those employees the best situation they can have in the workplace. Visionaries such as Abraham Maslow, Frederick Herzberg, and Henry A. Landsberger also brought forward new ways of management and ways to handle internal situations that changed the landscape of human resources as a whole. Motivational theories instituted in the workplace have a commonly positive effect on both employees and management, showing that it is important to strive for proven motivational practices.
The subject of motivation has been an important component in both theoretical and applied literature. There are many reasons why the motivational theories have generated so much discussion. In an organization motivation has been considered an important factor because employee motivation is considered essential for an organization 's status within the business environment and the community. The two motivation theories selected for this paper is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg hygiene factors.
Foundation of today 's organizations. These theories go back to the turn of the century and in some cases are considered by the uninformed to be simply fads which come and go. As I have discovered, these theories are rather the steps on a ladder which continually takes us higher and higher. Douglas McGregor in his book, "The Human Side of Enterprise" published in 1960 has examined theories on behavior of individuals at work, and he has formulated two models which he calls Theory X and Theory Y. Theory X Assumptions The average human being has an inherent dislike of work and will avoid it if he can. Because of their dislike for work, most people must be controlled and threatened before they will work
Motivation is the desire of doing things, to attain the goals set by the individuals. Motivating Employees is one of the most essential skills that are possessed by the manager, as it relates to the degree in which the employees can be influenced. As Mark Twain (1869) had said, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” Motivated employees have an impact on the productivity of the business as the employees channel their energy towards completing the organizational goals. (Marc & Daft, 2012) From many years, different psychologists have studied and provided with many motivational theories over the years. The conclusion that is reached by them is that motivation is a problem. The workforce is a ‘big asset’ of the company, so they are ‘only source of competitive advantage’ that makes them different from their competition. (Wilson, 2009)
Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology is devoted to the study of employee behavior in the workplace and understanding the issues facing organizations and employees in today’s complex and ever changing environment. Motivation refers to the set of forces that influence people to choose various behaviors among several alternatives available to them. An organization depends on the ability of management to provide a positive, fostering and motivating environment for its employees in order to increase profits, productivity and lower turnover rates of its employees. The purpose of this paper is to discuss and compare six academic journal articles and explore the behavior, job, and need based theories of motivation that can aid management in motivating and understanding their employees. Finding that delicate balance to can sometimes be elusive so effectively learning how to motivate by understanding, controlling and influencing factors to manipulate behavior and choices that are available to employees can produce the desired outcome.
According to Robbins & Judge (2017), Organizations can exploit the use of three elements of motivation to actively engage their employees. Motivation is the art and essence that spurs human behaviour. The various methods exhibit how motivation can directly and/or indirectly influence an employee’s thought process and actions. Huczynski & Buchanan (2016) also shared that Behaviour Theorists claim Intensity, Direction and Persistence as the three elements needed for motivation. Therefore, these aspects are vital in putting a conscientious effort towards attaining organizational goals.
Motivation is one of the most discussed topics in the present era’s organisations, especially since renowned psychologists like Maslow and Herzberg are dedicating their efforts to understanding it. Companies are investing a significant amount of resources in improving productivity in order to maximise profits. One of these important resources is of human nature. In order to get the very best out of employees, some motivational approaches need to be used. But what is motivation and how do I successfully motivate? I will try to relate one of my personal experiences with a friend to some of the most influential motivational theories. After introducing my story and making a definition of motivation I will address the ideas of Taylor,