Real-world Business Situation - Coursework Example

Despite the high advancement in technological areas such as faster computing power, high speed broadband, and greater communications and logistics the efficiency in the workplace still comes down too the company greatest asset which is its human capital. It is the job of the managerial staff and the leadership team to keep the employees motivated to obtain the maximum performance possible. A company’s performance is directly correlated to the job performance of its employees. If for whatever these employees are not properly motivated their performance is sure to be not up to par. In this essay paper the problem of low workforce productivity is analyzed as well as the motivation theories and techniques that can apply to solve the problem of low employee motivation. One of the ways a manager can reduce low workplace productivity while at the same time improve employees motivation is through job design. Before entering into details of any strategy to pursue it is important to understand what motivation is. Motivation refers too individual forces that account for the direction, level, and persistence of a person’s effort expended at work (Schermerhorn, Hunt, Osborn, 2003). It is important for the manager to guide people in different work routes that allow inspiration to set in and motivates employees to perform at their maximum level. Job design is a work arrangement aimed at reducing or overcoming job dissatisfaction and employee alienation arising form repetitive and mechanistic tasks (Businessdictionary). We will discuss a few of them, but there are six types of job design strategies that can be implemented by a supervisor which are: job enlargement, job rotation, job enrichment, flextime, job sharing, and flexplace. Job enrichment is the practice of enhancing job content by building into it more motivating factors such as responsibility, achievement, recognition, and personal growth (Schermerhorn & Hunt & Osborn). The job enrichment strategy can be used effectively by proving the employee with higher level of involvement in the everyday activities of the business so that the employee feels that the overall performance of the company is highly dependent of the work the person is performing. Job enlargement increases the variety of tasks by combining two or more jobs into job description that used to be performed by different set of workers. This is a very typical scenario in a small business. Sometimes the accountant is also the marketing executives. The small business owner can use this strategy, but the owner must make sure the employee is being compensated adequately in financial terms so that the person does not feel he / she is being exploited. Employees enjoy working in a place where their time needs are part of the equation. A system that provides the flexibility employees desired is flextime. Flextime is a job design system that allows the employee to select the time he or she will work (Rosenberg). This technique motivates employees because they know the business owner respects the personal commitment of a person such as the commuting of their children or other personal commitments. This non-financial reward is sought out a lot by single parents. Flexplace is the ability of the worker to work outside a fix location. One model that describes the motivational process is called Lock’s model of goal setting. The model was developed by Edwin Locke and Gary Latham in 1990 (Skinner). A goal is an action that regulates behavior and guides it in specific path towards accomplishing the desired outcome within a specified period of time. The goal setting theory may be used in organization to create expectations of what is expected of the employees of a company as well as individual to reach their personal desires. It has been used as a scientific method in certain patients such as drug addicts to determine cognitive behavioral treatments (Skinner). Goal theory provides certain advantages to its users and other constraints which prohibit accomplished the desired results for the use of the technique. The theory needs to have goals set that are challenging and difficult to reach and are not ambiguous so that the specific end state that is desired is clearly defined for the person or employees working to accomplish the goal. The performance of an organization tends to be lower if a goal can be easily reached. People individual that set easy to reach personal goal is not challenging themselves and their true potential is been hidden to them by their complacency. The theory proposes that goals are the immediate regulators of behavior, thus setting difficult goals lead to higher levels of performance (Erez). To simplify the theory in organizational setting it is better to give employees goals that are hard to reach so that they don’t complacent with simple goals and keep working on their skills and abilities to improve themselves to reach those higher end goals the administration set out for them. Another theory of motivation developed by John Stacey Adam in 1963 is Adam’s Equity Theory of Motivation. Equity in itself relates to a sense of fairness in the actions endeavor realize. The motivation a person has to accomplish a set goal is evaluated internally by the person comparing the obligation and job goals he is suppose to achieve with what others are expected to perform. A person working as a salesperson for a distribution company that is given a quota of 12 sales per week will accept and work towards accomplishing this benchmark as long as other salesperson are expected to perform the same and as long as this quota is within the boundaries of the industry standards. If the salesperson finds out the main competitor of the company set the minimum weekly quota for its salespeople at 6 units the employee will lose motivation immediately because he will perceive the company’s requirement as unfair and abusive. The sense of fairness which underpins motivation is dependent on the comparison a person makes between the reward/investment ratios of the person in regards to the ratio of others in similar scenarios (Chapman). Motivation at work can be achieved utilizing simpler techniques to get the employees set in the right direction. Some of these techniques require the employees to put forth initial effort themselves. The list below illustrates five of those techniques: Keep ambition in check Find out how to get from A to B Get experience Set boundaries Push your limits (Mfrov, 2008). A person should not have initial goals that are too high since failure is a likely possibility if the goals are unrealistic. A person can not get motivated if they do not know what to thrive for. Clarity is an important element in the work design process that helps attain motivated employees. During the first weeks or months of job tenure a person feels unsecured of their abilities due to a lack of job experience. Setting boundaries at work helps establish guidelines to follow to achieve the desired benchmarks. A different theory related to work motivation that comes from the psychological field is McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y developed by Douglas McGregor in the 1960’s. Theory X states that a person by nature dislikes work and tries by all means to avoid it. Based on this view the function of management, therefore, is to force the employees to work through coercion and threats of punishment (Dushkin, 2008). The latter theory of the McGregor Model is theory Y which is called the humanistic / self-actualization approach to human motivation. The Y theory states that work is natural and can be a source of satisfaction therefore the worker can be highly committed and motivated (Dushkin, 2008). Based on X money is the only driving factor, but Y has a much wider view of what makes a person tick. Theory Y believes that a person seeks responsibility and a need to be more involved with the managerial staff to get motivated at work. There are multiple theories and concepts on how to deal with a lack of job performance due to poor motivation. In any work setting in which the firm is performing poorly the first area to audit is the employee’s motivation. Looking elsewhere for the root could eat up valuable time. Human capital may be a company’s most valuable resource, but this also means implicitly that it is also an area where potential problem can rise. A lack of motivation among a staff is very detrimental towards the work output of a firm it limits a company’s potential when employees get complacent with average performance. Communication is important to establish a line of trust and to get ideas moving back and forth between the line workers and the administration. It is important to know what the needs and desires of the employees are to attempt to accommodate them as much as possible. Sometimes non-financial rewards such as praising a person’s job performance can be powerful motivating factors. It is the duty of supervisors and managers to find ways to motivate their employees to keep a company producing at its maximum potential. References Businessdictionary.com. 2008. Job Design. Available from [Accessed 28 July 2008]. Chapman, A. 2007. Adam’s Equity Theory. Available from [Accessed 29 July 2008] Dushkin.com (2008). Work Motivation. Available from < http://www.dushkin.com/connectext/psy/ch09/workmot.mhtml> [Accessed 29 July 2008]. Erez, M. 2005. Goal Setting. Available from [Accessed 30 July 2008] Rosengberg, D. 2008. Flextime: A definition 12.Available from [Accessed 29 July 2008]. Schermerhorn, J., Hunt, J., Osborn, R. (2003). Organizational Behavior (8th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. Skinner, N. 2002. The Role of Goal Setting in Workforce Development. Available from [Accessed 29 July 2008]. Swinton, L. (2008). Motivation at Work: How to recharge your work Mojo. Available from < http://www.mftrou.com/motivation-at-work.html> [Accessed 31 July 31 2008]. Read More