Motivation in a Banking System - Essay Example

Motivation in a banking system Summary This study shows the culture in the banks that keeps the employees motivated in the banking system. It reveals different aspects of the banking system that describe the need and the reason for the motivation of employees. Table of Contents 1) Introduction 2) Literature Review 1.1) Work Environment 1.2) Compensation 1.3) Maslow's Pyramid 1.4) Elements of Motivation 1.5) Creating Motivation In Employees 3) Conclusions Introduction This study is focused on the concept of motivation in the banking system. This study critically evaluates the effect of motivation of employees on the banking system. How the employees in the banks are kept motivated and what are the reasons that they are being motivated in the banking system. Some basic questions are being asked to assess whether the employees are motivated in the working place or not. Is there any difference between the attitude and satisfaction of male and female staff or that both of the sexes are taken care of while formulating the policy for the bank. A detailed study of the employees of banks has been made covering both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the motivation in the banking system. Anything unusual or any negative response which has come to the attention of the researcher has been very critically analyzed and carefully reviewed while making conclusions upon them. while conducting a detailed study on the motivation of employees in the banking system a lot of factors have come to the attention of the researcher that define the reason for the employees to banks to get and remain motivated at their work place. In this study a detailed study and analysis has been made of one of the most famous and leading bank in the banking industry and it has been seen tat how the motivational factors in that particular bank effect the employees of the banks and how those banks have successfully implemented those motivational factors and strategies in the their banks. What is the performance of the banks when its employees are thoroughly motivated and stress free How their basic needs and wants are taken care of. What are the reasons that they are provided with all of those facilities that have provided them with an opportunity both to excel themselves at their work place and at the same time take their organization to the level where it can be recognized as the leading banking organization in the banking industry The example which has been taken in the industry has that of the Standard Chartered Bank. A detailed study and discussion of the motivational theories applying to this banking organization has been made due to the fact that this bank has its presence in most of the countries of the world covering the countries of both developed and developing world. Therefore, it has vast culture of people working for it in different countries of the world. Standard chartered Bank has an immense amount of experience in managing those people and in motivating them so that they continue to perform better for the sake of their future and for the future of their organization. Literature Review Motivation of employees at the work place is considered to be an essential paradigm in determining the professional growth and in attaining performance development among the employees of the company. Motivation is considered to be a driving force behind the better performance and target achievement of employees in any organization. Motivation is the reason that the attitude of the employee is changed at the work place for I can't do it to I can do it because I have done it attitude. This can be achieved through various actions of the management and peers at the working place. This working paper focuses on the motivation of employees working in the banking sector and discusses how the employees of banks from managers to lower level staff are kept motivated in the big and small organizations alike for the achievement of better results for the organization. Motivation as it applies to all the organizations also applies to the banking sector as well and is the key factor for determining the organizational performance at an individual level and at the overall level. There have been too many researches on the motivation topic and motivation at the work place has long been in the most popular area for the research purposes influenced by the modern research stature which resultantly provided the sense of understanding of work motivation and asserted the more efforts to be applied by the employees on their jobs. This is simply due to the fact that the more motivated employees are; the more motivated they are to become resulting the perpetual cycle of employee performance due to motivation. Relating the motivation factor to the banking sector it has come to the attention of the researcher that in banks everyone from the top level management has to be motivated in order to achieve better results for the organization. If the top level management is not motivated, then how are they going to translate their goal achieving motivation to the employees working for them down the line The study further reveals that motivation incurs strong basis for value integrity and within that boundary of value integrity lays the tools and methods of motivating employees of the banks. Employees can be motivated by either introducing at the work place some factors that will define the overall scope of achievement to be made by the employees of the organization given that they are provided with adequate infrastructure and necessary resources to fulfill their objectives. Motivating employees does not necessarily mean that the employees of the organization are to be provided with the additional resources in the work environment. The main objective of motivating the employees can also be achieved with the eradication of certain factors that are considered to be the hurdles in motivating the employees of the organization. Work Environment Employees can be motivated by giving proper work environment. Work environment is a broader term which entails within it number of factors that affect the performance of employees working for the bank. Banks are famous for providing the work environment which is very attractive and conducive to the employees and customers of the bank. Work environment is made up of various factors affecting the work place. These factors may be the type of infrastructure provided to the employees of the bank including the utilities provided to them. This may include availability of required level of stationary and machinery .e.g. fax machines and telecommunication device to the employees to the level where these things further enhance their performance. The attitude of peers and the attitude of higher level management towards the employees and how the overall structure of the bank is established that defines the integral values of the bank. In our example, Standard Chartered Bank has successfully provided the best of the work place environment all over the world. Organization officials have a legal responsibility, if not a moral one, to ensure that a work place is free from unnecessary hazards and that conditions surrounding the work place are not hazardous to employees' physical or mental health (Decenzo). Good working environment such as work relationships, adequate equipment, space, heating, lighting and ventilation motivated employees (Gerhart). Green (2001) says that management can motivate employees by setting in motion the conditions required for motivation such a working environment, confidence, trust and satisfaction that enforce employees to improve their performances. Herzberg and Miller (1968) states that compensation including pay, rewards, communication and working conditions are four common incentives which motivate employees. Compensation Compensation is also a factor that derives the bankers in performing well. If an employee of an organization is paid very well for the services it is offering to the organization then he or she will be very much motivated as compared to those employees who are not paid well or adequately compensated for their services offered to the organization. Thus, those employees who are not properly compensated for the work they perform for their organization cannot utilize their full potential. Here the question arises that what does compensation actually mean. Basically compensation refers to all forms of financial returns and tangible services and benefits employees receive as part of an employment relationship. (Milkovich and Newman, 2002) Compensation benefits (pay, reward, medical and transportation) are a major consideration for the human resource management because it provides employees with a tangible reward for their services. (Bohlander, Snell, and Sherman, 2001) Sansone and Hareckiewicz (2000) identify that compensation benefits energize and guide behaviors toward reaching a particular goal (Milkovich and Newman, 2002). Stone (1982) indicated that people are motivated by money for many different reasons. The need to provide the basic necessities of life motivates most people (Kovach, 1987). Benefits, both financial and otherwise, send a powerful message to employees of an organization as to what kind of organization management seeks to create and maintain, and what kind of behavior and attitudes management seeks from its employees (Beer. et al, 1988). this shows that many researchers of the past have also paid a lot of attention on the compensation packages being offered to the employees of the organization and are of the view that good compensation offered to the employees result in the more input of efforts by employees while performing their work and thus creating better results for the organization and for themselves. Maslow's Pyramid Maslow, a renowned social scientist, described the five goals that every individual seeks and should seek in order to remain motivated for his work and achieve excellence in the life along with prosperity in his life. All of these five factors that Maslow described as the motivational factors for any individual in the world make up what we call now Maslow's Pyramid. These five factors as described by Maslow are as follows: 1) The physiological part. 2) His or Her own safety 3) Love 4) Self-esteem 5) self-fulfillment The main feature of this theory is that it is transitional and in order for the person to achieve the second part, one must pass the first stage of the pyramid, and then to go to the third stage, second stage should be cleared first. Therefore, it is implied for a person, in order to remain motivated, he or she should first pass the first four stages of the pyramid before going to the last and fifth stage of self fulfillment. This feature of the pyramid shows us the true nature of human beings and the society we live in. The most basic needs of the hunger or thirst must first be fulfilled by any person because if a person does not have such needs then he or she is not going to get motivated for anything else in the world. The physiological needs are considered to be the most basic needs of any human being living in the world. If these needs are not properly satisfied then human beings are considered to be more desperate than to be motivated. Personal safety is very important for any person to be able to work efficiently at any place. If a person is not feeling safe at the work place then he or she will never be able to work efficiently in that work place. Safety includes the physical safety of a human being and also the mental satisfaction of employees so that they don't feel threatened by anything that they think can harm them. Another stage is the stage of love. Studies have shown that those people who have the love of other human beings in their lives are more satisfied and motivated as compared to other people who don't have the love of other people. Another factor that affects a human being is the factor of sex. Studies in the past have also revealed that those human beings who have opportunity of having sex or either have any sex partner are much more satisfied as compared to others whose sexual needs are not fully satisfied. Thus, this is a clear case of fulfillment of basic needs of the human beings and satisfaction of mind which leads any human being towards the glory of success. Then reaches the stage four; which describes the self esteem of the person who is an employee of an organization. After all of the above stage has been cleared then a person must seek for self esteem. Once self esteem has been achieved by any person then he or she marches towards the path of ultimate success and self fulfillment. One basic factor which is a qualitative factor while marching towards the ultimate goal is the factor of motivation and it is the only factor that has lead many great people to achieve extraordinary in life. Elements of Motivation Motivation can be defined by many ways but the real element to consider for the motivation of employees is the reason people tend to get motivated. Past research has shown us that the motivation starts with the desire to be free. This desire can relate to any of the aspects of human life that can be financial freedom, freedom of social worries or any kind of freedom as it varies from people to people because different people have different fears in their minds. Although an ultimate freedom is not possible but the thrust to achieve that ideal is the reason why people get motivated. Basic elements of motivation can be described in the following manners. 1. Motivation starts with a need, a vision, a dream or the desire to achieve the seemingly impossible. Once a person has set a goal for something that is deemed to be a highly challenging task for the person then he or she will be motivated to achieve that goal thus turning a vision into reality. This transition of a dream into reality can only be made possible with the help of motivation otherwise this whole saga of dreaming will result in a fiasco. In order to achieve that goal one has to be creative and the creativity is associated with ideas, projects and goals, which can be considered a path to freedom. 2. Develop a love-to-learn attitude and try to learn every day at any place you go. It does not matter whether a person is at work place or not, one must learn at every moment in life. Human learning is a great and life long process and is not confined to a specific place or to a specified period of time, therefore, a desire to learn is the key to success for any human being. To be successful in life one should look for way to get involved with risky ventures and continually seek new opportunities. Success is based on learning what works and what does not work. 3. Developing the ability to overcome barriers and to bounce back from discouragement or failure. It is extremely important because success does not come to a person when he takes the first step rather it comes in a dozen of steps. What a person should keep in mind is that he or she should learn from every mistake he or she makes and must as well for the sake of success learn to get over the failures. Achievers learn to tolerate the agony of failure. In any worthwhile endeavor, barriers and failure will be there. Bouncing back requires creative thinking as it is a learning process. In addition, bouncing back requires starting again at square one. This means that when a person sees a failure, he or she might think that he/she is again back at the point where he/she started some time ago. Therefore, it is extremely important for a person to remain motivated for the achievement of the final goal that ensures the long lasting success. Creating Motivation in Employees One of the biggest challenges of the job of a manager in any organization is the motivation of its employees. The point here is that a motivation is a qualitative aspect of human nature and not a quantitative one .i.e. it is not something that can be measured with the help of any scale. Motivation lies in the head and heart of people of the organization. But there is also a dire need for the management of any organization to motivate its employees in order to achieve the best results and to fully exploit the potential of its employees. Therefore, the question arises that how people in an organization should be motivated and if they are motivated then what is the scale and degree of the measurement of their motivation. The solution to that problem is that managers should change their mindset towards motivation of the employees. As motivation is an abstract thing which cannot be seen and measure therefore, managers should turn their focus towards those things that can be seen and measured. Managers should start concentrating on the behavior and performance of the employees which might depict that whether the employees are motivated or not. Thus, the tool to see and measure the abstract thing can be the behavior and performance of the employees. If the behavior of an employee is positive towards the work then he/she would be considered a motivated employee and his/her performance would also be fairly good as compared to the one who are not motivated. Conclusions From this study it has been concluded that the motivation in the banking sector is dependent on the management of the banks. How the management defines the overall structure of the bank and what kind of ethical and moral values describe the culture of the banks. Motivation is driven mainly by compensation paid to the employees and the condition and sanity of work place offered to the employees. It also depends on the attitude of higher level management with the lower level employees and on the attitude of peers. Any sexual, racial or ethnical discrimination also describe the level of motivation in the banks. Motivation in the employees of banks is made evident through the effective communication made from the management to the employees. Read More