Motivation as Driving Force That Can Energize the Employees - Term Paper Example

INTRODUCTION – WHY IS MOTIVATION NEEDED? Motivation is one of the driving forces in a human being. It is the willingness and the extra effort that a person is willing to put for the accomplishment of a certain task. Why will organizations or the society in general want to improve the performance of the employee? That is because employees are the ones who are representing the company and are working on behalf of it. If their performance is good, satisfying and high, it will be a reflection of how good the company is, being beneficial to the company's image in the eyes of the consumer. (Rayner, 2005) FormCo Pvt Ltd. company is home to 90 engineers, and motivation theories can be applied practically in planning their compensation systems, training needs etc. Let us analyze how literature review can help us with that. THEORIES OF MOTIVATION The first one among them was the traditional approach which talked about the economic man – a man who just worked for money and would increase performance if given the right economic rewards. The concept of pay for performance developed in this era. Then came the human relations approach, which introduced the social man – a man who considered his society as well, a man for whom money was not everything. This era included the Hawthorne studies, where non economic rewards were used such as meeting social needs. (Watson, 2005) The Hawthorne effect at that time seemed to be based on non economic rewards but the reality later turned out to be different. Then came the human resources approach, where came the concept of the whole man. McGregor gave the Theory X and the Theory Y. these theories show that human beings are complicated and it is a little difficult to understand them. The theory X contended that man is lazy and would always want to avoid work. This theory showed how employers often perceive their employees. While the theory given by McGregor Theory Y said the opposite thing that people want to be given responsibility and they would like work as much as they would like play. Then came the contemporary approaches. In the contemporary approaches lie three different kinds of perspectives; (Farnham, 2005) the content perspectives on motivation – they stress the analysis of the human needs which are on the subconscious level that is they are underlying. Next are the process perspectives on motivation – these are basically the thought processes that influence behavior of the employees when they are on work. And lastly the reinforcement perspectives on motivation – they focus on how do employees actually learn the desired behavior at work. This behavior is desired from the side of the organization and it does not mean the behavior that the employee desires to show.  Expectancy theory The expectancy theory talks about the motivations of the employees in terms of the choices that they have to make between various alternatives. It predicts that employees will be motivated to work if they believe that the more effort they put, they will ultimately be able to achieve the task. (Buchanan, 2007) Secondly, they need to be assured of the fact that when they achieve the task, they will be rewarded for it. And thirdly, it depends from person to person, how lucrative it is for them to receive rewards on the completion of the task. It is in the hands of the management of FormCo that they increase the level of confidence of their employees, as well as induce in them that they can do it, whatever the task might be. Job design Job design can be defined as the planning of the various dynamics related to the content, process and relationship between various jobs, so as to better utilize the technology available as well as to satisfy the requirements of the organization, not to forget the personal and social needs of the employee holding the job. (Northouse, 2007) Therefore, companies which value their employees take care of the job design and exert special efforts in planning for the job design of their employees. It will not only improve the performance of the individual in the workplace, it will also increase his levels of satisfaction, with respect to his job. There are five kinds of ways in which job design can be improved. Job simplification is the first one where the attempt is to make the job as simple as possible for the employee, so they have no doubts on how to do it. Usually, a single task or few tasks are assigned to the employee, where he does not have to go through any thinking or complex decision making. In terms of employees of FormCo, job simplification will help them since they are already engineers and specialist in their own field. Helping them to refine their job to one single task will improve their job design. Job rotation is the second method for improving job design. It means to change the job of the employee after a certain amount of time has passed. (Hughes, 2004) In this way, he will have knowledge of doing various works around the organization, and he will experience a growth in learning as well as knowledge about the dynamics of the organization he is in. Rotating engineers from department to department will ensure that they get to learn the mechanics of various tasks, and feel a sense of growth in themselves. The third tool is that of job enlargement, which actually increases the complexity of the work to be done by the employee. They have to perform lots of tasks for the completion of the job, but the challenge is not altered. (Holm, 1999) The challenge remains the same, but the number of tasks increases. Engineers which are motivated by doing multiple tasks can be exposed to job enlargement. Another term for job enlargement is horizontal loading. The next tool is that of job enrichment, which makes use of the range of skills and abilities which an employee possesses. It attempts to challenge the employee as well as give him some authority on a complete meaningful task that has to be performed. The task can have various challenges, whether physical or mental, high degree or low degree in nature. (Farnham, 2005) Moreover, the management gives prompt feedback to the employee and keeps constant communication with them. This gives lots of encouragement to the employee. Another term for job enrichment is vertical loading. This will be a great tool for engineers who love challenges. The job characteristics model attempts to build upon 5 factors, which will combine to give the employee a great working experience at his job. The skills to be used in the completion of the task will be increased, the employee will be able to identify with the connection of the task he is doing to the improvement of the organization's performance, the task will be important to the organization, the employee will have autonomy in decision making with respect to his task and lastly, the organization will give him prompt feedback. (Capon, 2004) FormCo should use this model in designing jobs for their engineers, since it will enable them to be not just productive but also satisfied with their job. Conclusion In conclusion, it can be said that motivation is one of the biggest driving forces that can energize the human being. The management at FormCo should address this fact, and develop their incentive plans as well as management plans to capitalize on this phenomena, by motivating employees in any way that is possible. Some of the recommendations for giving employees motivation are that rewarding system should be in place, plus employees should be praised more often for whatever they accomplish. Plus, it is very important to recognize employees, for instance, at FormCo recognition can be given by choosing "Employee of the Month". Such non-monetary rewards really add to the motivation level of the employee. Plus, recognition should be tied to specific tasks and results that the employee has done or produced. This specificity will encourage the employees more, since they know exactly what task led to this reward. (Buchanan, 2007) In addition to that, a dual communication process should result, where the employees can easily talk to the top management, about their problems and give comments and suggestions. This will help management to know about the loopholes in the incentive plan and other systems at work in FormCo. BIBLIOGRAPHY Buchanan, D and Huczynski, A (2007) Organisational Behaviour, 6th Edition, FT Prentice Hall Capon, C (2004) Understanding organizational context:  inside and outside organizations. Prentice Hall. Farnham, D. (2005) Managing in a Strategic Business Context, 2nd edition, CIPD Holm, S. & Hovland, J. (1999). Waiting for the other shoe to drop: help for the job-insecure employee, Journal of Employment Counseling, 36 (4), 158-166. Hughes, L. (2004). Are your employees ready to jump ship? Women in Business, 56 (3), 30-31. Lawler, E. (1973). Motivation in work organizations.  Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing. Northouse, P. (2007) Leadership: Theory and Practice. Sage. Oss, M. (2004). Eight strategies for human resources development. Behavioral Health Management, 24 (2), 22-27. Rayner, C. and Adam-Smith, D. (2005) Managing and Leading People, CIPD Schermerhorn, J., Hunt, J. & Osborn, R. (2003). Organizational Behavior (8th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. Watson, G. and Gallagher, K. (2005) Managing for Results, 2nd edition, CIPD Read More