Effects of Employee Motivation on Their Productivity - Essay Example

Topic: effects of employee motivation on their productivity Research questions The questions that the researcher will make use in the study will include: 1. What is the relationship that exists between motivations of the employees in an organization with their productivity? 2. What are some of the motivational factors that affect the level of motivation of the employees in organizations? 3. Does motivation affect the approach of employees towards work in organizations and their performance? Relevant literature The motivation of the employees determines the level of productivity among employees where many organizations have been working towards motivating workers. Organizations achieve competitive advantages in the market through ensuring that the employees are productive enough to enhance the organizational performance. Productivity is defined as the rate in which goods are produced with proportion to the number of workers and the quantity of materials that is required for the production of goods (Danish and Usman, 2010). Besides, the term productivity has been defined as the process of using resources in the production of goods and services. Moreover, it the same term has been further defined as a ratio of the labor and capital used to the goods and services produced. The aspect of productivity is mostly used by the economists in their process of determining the trends as well as the growth rate of a certain project. Besides, this aspect of productivity in most cases is usually applied in various areas such as in the; planning, accounting and also in the cost estimating (Nishii, Lepak, and Schneider, 2008). However, there are several factors which have an impact on the labor productivity, and one of the major factors is the basic education concerning any labor force which is effective. Importantly, some factors such as the employee motivation, job security, and employee training are quite significant in the labor productivity. However, the aspect of labor productivity cannot be realized with an absence of the maintenance and enhancement of labor skills and strategies for human resource. Also, well utilization of labor with a lot of commitment also has an effect on the labor productivity. Furthermore, work is a significant event as well as a fact which cannot be evaded in the life, since it is the one which leads to the satisfaction of the individual needs. Hence, workers try to look for the ways of satisfying their needs and therefore the managers are required to understand the problems which face their employees, thus assist them in satisfying their requirements (Combs, et al. 2006). In general, it is usually assumed that those employees who are adequately motivated are more likely to give in all their best towards the duties which are allocated to them in their job place. Above all, when the employees are well motivated, the aspect of poor performance and also inefficiency when performing duties they become eliminated in an organization. Therefore, the successful managers in the process of motivating employees create an environment which has the appropriate incentives so as to facilitate the satisfaction of the needs of the workers. Even though a large number of employees are paid highly in their job places for them to work hard and also maintain a high level of productivity. However, payment is not only the way of motivating employees in organizations as various non-monetary ways can be utilized in the process of motivating the employees (Ramlall, 2004). Some of the non-monetary motivators can include considering the welfare of the employees through providing insurance cover among other factors that can guarantee the well-being of the employees. Impacts of motivating employees Motivating employees affects the morale of the employees towards work hence playing a crucial role in improving their performance. The aspect of performance of the workers significantly determines the successfulness of a company, and that is why it is entirely necessary to look for various ways of motivating workers. Through motivation, employees are usually encouraged to perform their duties very willingly and thus improving the general performance of an organization (Wrzesniewski and Dutton, 2001). The term motivation is mostly defined as the willingness to do a particular activity. In many situations, the kind of motivation which is provided to the employees is mainly money. The employees who are motivated are committed to working towards improving the performance of the organization. Many organizations make use of better pay as the best tool for making sure that the employees are motivated. However, there are still other factors of motivation other than money which should be considered in an organization (Wright, 2001). Since different employees are in most cases motivated by different factors, it is advisable for the managers to get to understand what factors motivate their employees in the performance. The moment an organization adopts a motivational program that is competitive and able to motivate the staff, the performance of the organizations is likely to be improved. Types of motivation The motivations that are common in organizations can be cauterized into extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivations. The extrinsic motivations entail the external motivators that do not originate from the employees but influence the behavior of the employees towards work. The external motivator is the kind of motivation which is usually related to the rewards which are tangible such as promotion in the workplace, salary increment and also fringe benefits (Ramlall, 2004). All these rewards are which are required to be done to the employees so as to motivate them. However, these rewards are in most cases determined by the organization and may not be in control of the managers. Moreover, the extrinsic motivators have a powerful impact, even though it does not last for a long time. The intrinsic motivation, on the other hand, originates within the employees. It is an internal motivator that enhances the performance of the employees and can be linked to the emotions and psychology of the employees. Extrinsic motivators are mainly related to the psychological rewards that include the opportunity to utilize an individual`s ability. Intrinsic form of motivation arises from a sense of achievement and also a challenge (Wright, 2001). Moreover, the intrinsic motivators are more likely to have an impact which last for a long time. The working conditions that are provided by the employer is crucial in determining the level of intrinsic motivations among the employees. Philosophy Motivating employees can sometimes be considered to be a psychological thing as employees can be motivated through altering their behavior. The level of employee productivity is entirely a product of the behavior of the employees where the employee’s morale determines their commitment to work. Employees do not enjoy their work just naturally since they are closely controlled and also supervised by their managers (Need, 2006). Therefore, the managers are required to break down the production process into small tasks which should then be assigned to the workers who have the appropriate training. Besides, in some cases, employees are paid in agreement with the number of goods they produce in a set duration of time, a kind of payment which is referred to as a piece-rate pay. Moreover, this kind of payment was broadly adopted by a large number of the business enterprises since they realized that it led to rising in productivity level at a lower cost. Henry Ford first used the aspect of the piece-rate pay in the process of designing the first production line of manufacturing Ford cars, which resulted in mass production. Considering Taylor`s approach, the aspect of the piece-rate pay has been linked to the concept of the autocratic leadership whereby the managers make all decisions by themselves and then give orders to the employees. However, after a short period, employees came to dislike this approach of Taylor since they were assigned tasks which were repetitive and also boring. Above all, employees in the working sector were usually treated as if they were machines. Consequently, this aspect led to several strikes in various organization and also industrial actions which were conducted by the employees who were not satisfied. In the year 1923, Frederick Herzberg made an argument that there are some factors which a business can introduce in its organization that could motivate workers directly to work harder. However, there are still other factors which could de-motivate workers if they are not present even though they do not necessarily motivate workers to work hard. These factors are the one which is known as the Hygiene factors. Importantly, motivators are in most cases concerned with the real job itself, for example; how the work is interesting and the available chances of promotion (Oldham and Hackman, 2010). The Hygiene factors refer to those factors which revolve around the job but not the job itself. For instance, employees will only turn up to offer labor in an organization if it has provided a reasonable amount of pay as well as the safe working environment. However, the availability of these factors does not make the employees work harder in their job places. Significantly, Herzberg viewed the aspect of pay as a hygienic factor thus having a different opinion with Taylor concerning that aspect of remuneration. Therefore, Herzberg held belief that business organizations should motivate the workers by using democratic approaches in their management. Moreover, some of the democratic approaches which the managers can employ for motivation purpose include job enlargement whereby employees are offered a variety of tasks to do, thus making their work to be interesting (Gagné and Deci, 2005). Furthermore, so as to ensure that employees stay motivated, their individual needs are required to be properly addressed. However, in the process of considering what kind of incentive to use so as to motivate workers, there are usually two kinds of incentives which should be considered which are; intrinsic rewards and the extrinsic rewards. The extrinsic incentives refer to those external rewards which take place apart from work and which include material things such as money (Patterson, Warr, and West, 2004). On the side of the intrinsic rewards, these are internal rewards which an individual feels when carrying out a certain job. The term incentive is in most cases defined as the tangible rewards which are given to those individuals who perform their duties at a given level. Methodology The research will be conducted extensively by making use of the primary data and also the secondary data. The primary data will be acquired through the administration of questionnaires that will be well-structured to assist the researcher in collecting the necessary data for the research (Cresswell, 2003). Also, interviews will also be used to obtain the necessary information concerning motivation and how motivating workers influence performance. Besides, various reports, trade journals, and magazines will also collect for this study research. The questionnaires will contain the relevant questions that will help the respondents to provide their view concerning motivation and organizational performance. A questionnaire will form an important part of the research as it has the ability to collect first-hand information that is free from bias (Bryman, 2004). It contains both open-ended questions and also questions which are closed ended. The open-ended ones are set so as to acquire the various opinions of the respondents concerning the study. On the side of the closed-ended questions, they are set so as to restrict the respondents only to the options which are provided to them. Collection method The questionnaires will be administered to the respondents to provide their opinions concerning productivity and motivation of the employees. They will be guided by the questions contained in the questionnaires to make sure they provide the necessary information that can help in making sure accurate and reliable research results are obtained. Analysis Data collected will be analyzed to make it more meaningful and make the interpretation process easy. After the completion of the collection of data, bar graphs and also tables were used to analyze and also make a summary of the data. Practical issues The researcher will maintain the highest standards of ethics where the information collected from the respondents will be used solely in the study. Besides, the respondents will be given a chance to provide their opinion and views without any influence. References Bryman, A. 2004. Social Research Methods. 2nd ed., Oxford, Oxford University Press, chapter 2 Combs, J., Liu, Y., Hall, A. and Ketchen, D., 2006. How much do high‐performance work practices matter? A meta‐analysis of their effects on organizational performance. Personnel psychology, 59(3), pp.501-528. Cresswell, J. W. 2003. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Method Approaches. London, Sage, chapter 6 Danish, R.Q. and Usman, A., 2010. Impact of reward and recognition on job satisfaction and motivation: An empirical study from Pakistan. International journal of business and management, 5(2), p.159. Gagné, M. and Deci, E.L., 2005. Self‐determination theory and work motivation. Journal of Organizational behavior, 26(4), pp.331-362. Need, W.C.D.H.P., 2006. Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage. Nishii, L.H., Lepak, D.P. and Schneider, B., 2008. Employee attributions of the “why” of HR practices: Their effects on employee attitudes and behaviors, and customer satisfaction. Personnel psychology, 61(3), pp.503-545. Oldham, G.R. and Hackman, J.R., 2010. Not what it was and not what it will be: The future of job design research. Journal of organizational behavior, 31(2‐3), pp.463-479. Patterson, M., Warr, P. and West, M., 2004. Organizational climate and company productivity: The role of employee affect and employee level. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 77(2), pp.193-216. Ramlall, S., 2004. A review of employee motivation theories and their implications for employee retention within organizations. Journal of American Academy of Business, 5(1/2), pp.52-63. Wrzesniewski, A. and Dutton, J.E., 2001. Crafting a job: Revisioning employees as active crafters of their work. Academy of management review, 26(2), pp.179-201. Wright, B.E., 2001. Public-sector work motivation: A review of the current literature and a revised conceptual model. Journal of public administration research and theory, 11(4), pp.559-586. Read More