Absenteeism & Motivation Theories - Essay Example

Academia Research March 18, 2007 Absenteeism & Motivation Theories Introduction The term motivation possesses something in itself, according to Robbins motivation is "the process that accounts for an individual's intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal", motivation always put very positive impact on not only an employee's mind but on every single living being in this world, one can understand that if there wouldn't be any such thing as motivation then no body would have any charm in life or would have no courage or desire to achieve something in life, the motivation is specifically used in the today's world, where the world is facing growing diversities, exquisite challenges, and above all the competition which is moving on day by day, the employees are not only required to contribute to their level best in their organizations but also required to show loyalty to the place where they earn from, so in order to get maximum from them and in order to utilize their talents at best, motivation is playing a tough role, so that employees keep on moving in the right dimension, they should think and work for their achievements as well as the organization's achievement and they should not give up in life ever. Keeping in view the growing needs of employees there are so many motivational theories that have taken place in the present day organizations, a lot of employees get motivated using such theories, in this discussion we would be discussing few of these theories that are useful for the employees in the given case, the main concerns would be on Douglas McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y, while other useful theory would be Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Both these theories work hand in hand for preventing stress and absenteeism in the employees of organizations, mostly the stress has been found in financial institutions, yet many other industries have the employee issues. . McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y Theory X The assumption, which says that employees who dislike work are lazy, they dislike responsibility, and they must be coerced to perform well. This should be relatively more discussed in this case because either way the organization should be concerned with taking out work from the employees but it could be so wonderful if employees do not need any such dose and they somehow get shifted to Theory Y. Theory Y The assumption, which says that employees who love their work are creative, they seek responsibility and they can exercise self-direction. The organizations should try to bring their employees under this theory naturally and this is what we would be discussing. Douglas McGregor gave two different views of human beings, the first view is the negative view and is known as theory X, the other view is positive and is known as theory Y, the entire explanation of the theory says that the manager shows his or her behavior according to certain assumptions, the theory X would be the effective one here, as the employees are assumed to be forced to work, the four basic assumptions for theory X are, 1. Employees inherently dislike work and whenever possible, will attempt to avoid it. 2. Since employees dislike work, they must be coerced, controlled, or threatened with, punishment to achieve goals. 3. Employee will avoid responsibilities and seek formal direction whenever possible. 4. Most workers place security above all other factors associated with work and will display little ambition. Now lets have a look at the assumptions of theory Y that is not applicable in this case because of the fact that employees are not hardworking and not devoted to their work. But the organization has to bring them in this category. 1. Employees can view work as being as natural as rest or play. 2. People will exercise self-direction and self-control if they are committed to the objectives. 3. The average person can learn to accept, even seek, responsibility. 4. The ability to make innovative decisions is widely dispersed through out the population and is not necessarily the sole province of those in management positions. The theories given by McGregor naturally reflect the Maslow's hierarchy and it states that the theory X assumes that lower-order needs dominate individuals such as psychological, safety and social needs, while theory Y assumes that higher-order needs dominate the individuals such as esteem and self-actualization. All this means that both these theories are however similar while given different name, the purpose of all these motivational theories is same, that is reducing the stress from employees' minds leading them to no absenteeism. Analysis Of Similarities In the case of absent employees, the theory X assumptions have to be considered by the manager and keeping these in mind the manager has to identify the basics, which can put employees from theory X to theory Y, the first thing the manager needs to do is the interaction with the colleagues and people working under his/her area, he/she has to identify all the needs that are prevailing and not fulfilled, there are numerous of things the manager could do to put them on track, there are numerous need theories that can be associated with the present case such as Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, the manager can identify the level till when the needs of the employees are fulfilled, at numerous occasions it has been seen that due to personal problems people are unable to contribute toward work and they are simply unable to concentrate on the given tasks, this results in a lot of turnovers in the organizations and also results in the absenteeism that is a failure to report at work, it often affects the profitability of the organization, so the entire scenario says that the manager should look forward to understand the basics of the employees (Theory X), these were psychological needs that the manager should understand about the employees, the next level of needs is safety, in this case there is a possibility that employees might just not be feeling well and they have some doubts in their minds that their job is unsecured and they can loose there job at any time with out any prior notice regardless of their level of performance, the manager's job is to identify such feeling within the employees and he/she should encourage them in working with full confidence while neglecting any such thinking, manager should also point out the fact that they can all loose their jobs if they would not work effectively and he/she should give a reason such as the decrease in profitability that would lead to the firing of them, however if they keep on working with full dedication there is no chance of loosing on their job and also they would keep on getting incentives and rewards in the near future (Theory X). The next level of need is the need of belongingness, it has been seen commonly that people working in an organization don't have great relations they are very much into pulling each others' legs and also poking nose in others' businesses as a result people leave their jobs and start working somewhere else where they can create congenial relationships with the subordinates, the manager can also put the same assumption in the present case, he/she can get herself into the subordinates and should try to understand each others relationship in terms of working in a collaborative way, and he/she should also observe their behavior, there is a possibility that he/she can find out that his/her subordinates are having a lot of hassles and they all are working in an unusual manner as a group, manager should let them know that they all should admire each others work and it would bring motivation in them automatically to work hard, he/she can give them a lecture and can let them know that in order to achieve the maximum they have to work as a group no matter if tomorrow some one of them would be promoted to much higher post but at the moment they all should work together, because you never know that who is going to be promoted (Theory X), the previous three levels were lower level of needs which were more important for the employees working in the present case organization, as they all are facing the assumptions of theory X which requires a more concentration on the above mentioned three levels. Other Concepts Supporting Case The reinforcement may also help the manager to settle the things, there are two types of reinforcements, positive and negative, the positive reinforcement means that the reward would be given to the employee so that a desired behavior is encouraged to happen again and again, and negative reinforcement means that punishment would be given to minimize the undesirable behavior, in the case of these employees the manager should be putting a lot of stress on the positive reinforcement theory but it is simply possible if the manager has encouraged the workers to perform well through the previously discussed theories, if they all are feeling comfortable and they all have started showing a positive behavior because of the other theories than positive reinforcement can make them work even more harder and most importantly the rewards should be monetary to keep them motivated as money is all in this era, secondly the manager can also apply the negative reinforcement theory which is already in practice as the employee's pay is decreased each time they work poorly, so it is not useful in making them comfortable and the manager should be putting positive reinforcement into consideration as it has the tendency to create the desired outcomes. Absenteeism may be indirectly proportional to the use of such reinforcement, the more it is used the less the absenteeism is. Conclusion We have gone through theory X that seems to be more prominent in the case of absent employees and its relation to Maslow's theory. Coming onto Theory Y, which is having entirely different assumptions, is not applicable here directly because the workers are not at all creative, though the manager is the one who is more responsible and has a positive attitude towards the work, the first thing is to change the employees from theory X assumptions to theory Y assumptions, after that he/she can use other numerous theories as the employees would be than more competent and can work under any circumstances, the manager can actually assign difficult tasks to each and every individual and it is simply not just related to the work in the working hours but he/she can also ask them to work outside the office may be by asking them to utilize their public and personal relations in communicating the organization's services and the benefits provided by them and can also introduce an incentive program for instance if an employee has received a call from the reference as a result of previous communication in non-office hours with that reference and the employee is somehow able to convince the reference to avail the organization's service which is again profitable than that employee would be getting some commission from the office in person basis which is again very motivating, but first the employee's mental presence is necessary, this would also increase the potential in the employees and would help them improving self-efficacy which is the tendency of individual to perform the task with effectiveness. Overall the entire plan can be very useful in reducing absenteeism and both the theories have to take in support from some other points, so that the employees could really find themselves moving from X category to Y and the absenteeism could be reduced. Lets suppose they have got themselves from X to Y, this is not the end here, they all would than start grooming themselves more, even though they are currently working very well as they are now changed from theory X to theory Y, but still they are finding a lot of competition outside the office, so they would be trying to work more effectively keeping on the competition around the globe. References Bartol, K.M., D. Martin, "Principles of Management", New York: McGraw Hill, 1998. Robbins S., "Organizational Behavior", (n.p.): Prentice Hall, 2003. Read More