Diaco's Organizational Behaviour - Guiding Principles of Rewarding Employee Performance - Case Study Example

MOTIVATION ESSAY OF ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR By Name Course Instructor Institution City/State Date Motivation Essay of Organisational Behaviour Introduction Workers motivation is without a doubt the most crucial thing that all organisations should do, but it is very challenging. A motivated worker is expected to work harder, be active in the place of work so as to bring about a work environment that is positive, and that can benefit every company. The perception of in-equitability and equitability according to equity theory is what motivates people to work. In equity theory, the focus is mainly on the input as well as the outcome where employees contrast their job inputs with the outcomes ratio. When inequality is perceived by the employee, he or she may act so as to correct the inequity. Diaco understands that inequality leads to lower motivation as well as productivity, and that is why the company has offered its employees different incentives. In view of this, motivation may be described as the process of employees’ indoctrination with the objective of maintaining a harmonious relationship. Employee willing to work can be attributed to different forms of motivation, which increases the performance output of the employees leading to a high turnover. Therefore, motivation is crucial for the management of the organisation and for managers to realize motivation benefits in the organization they must improve their motivational skills. The essay seeks to analyse how equity theory can explain the motivation of employees working at Diaco and discuss the extent to which Diaco’s approach to employee motivation is consistent with expectancy theory. Discussion At Diaco, workers are allowed up to 6 weeks off for environmental groups and for those seeking to pursue their studies, half of their tuition fees is paid by the company. This leads to motivation as evidenced by equity theory whose foundation is based on individuals desiring fair treatment at the workplace. According to Alawneh (2008, p.3), every worker desire to be treated equally, and that their effort, time, as well as their commitment to the job should always be rewarded. In nearly all organisations, training is offered only to new workers; but in this case, Diaco has allowed its workers to invest more in developing their skills in order that they can improve their productivity. Allowing employees to pursue further studies is imperative since it allows them to adapt their everyday routine work consistent with job requirements, which observably are changing rapidly. When employees advance their skills, they consequently, improve their present job performance and get ready for the intended work. As suggested by Zahra et al. (2014, p.60), to make training process successful as well as purposeful, the leaders of the organisation must closely work with Human Resources personnel together with functional department heads so as to pursue a systematic training approach and achieve the sought after outcomes from it. Principally, Diaco allows its workers to further studies so as improve quality as well as productivity, to increase employee and organizational morale, to motivate workers, to realise financial benefits, and to offer broader awareness to workers that enables them improve their personal growth. Besides that when employees further their studies they improve the image of the company since they gain knowledge on how to align their skills with the goals and objectives of the company. Allowing employees to join the environmental groups also motivates Diaco workers since it leads to personal development by assisting workers to develop communication skills, it reduces their fear to carry out new tasks and allows them to manage stress, conflicts and frustration. These benefits are offered equitably considering that even the casual workers benefit from them. Equality at Diaco offers workers an opportunity to perform well which lead to the development of satisfaction feelings towards their job. Equity theory is anchored in the notion that workers become less motivated, both with regard to their employer and their job, when they perceive their inputs are greater as compared to the outputs (Tudor, 2011, p.95). Employees can be demotivated when they perceive an existence of a disparity between the outputs and the inputs, and as a result, they can become disgruntled or disruptive. Diaco understands that incentives motivate the workers, so it has a day care centre and pays medical insurance for both permanent and casual workers. During the hot days, employees are encouraged to take a breather at the beach. Greene (2010) observed that the basis for every successful compensation system is a reward and an incentive structure that is equitable. For this reason, pay systems are purposely developed so as to maximize. Whereas perceptions of equity are exceedingly subjective, and not all systems will be perceived as equitable by every person, Schmidt (2007) posits for the compensation structure to be equitable it should be designed in a manner that most employees see their pay as fair. This connotes that when employees compare external (market) and internal (job and company) there should be a high likelihood of perceiving equity. Employees’ motivation at Diaco is evident because the company does not just consider extrinsic rewards, but also intrinsic rewards like medical insurance and availability of child care. All these have been used by Diaco in an attempt to maintain happy workers. Even though a number of experts hold the view that many of such efforts, if they focus on employees’ motivation, are merely waste of money, for some people, monetary incentives may lead to improved job performance. According to the expectancy theory, motivation of employees is an outcome of how much a reward is needed by a person (Valence), the valuation of the probability that the effort will result in the expected performance (Expectancy) as well as the faith that the performance will result in reward (Instrumentality). In a nutshell, Valence is the implication related to a person with regard to the anticipated outcome. Valence is an expected satisfaction that a worker expects to achieve after attaining the goals. Expectancy is the belief that improved efforts will lead to improved performance. As stated by Lunenburg (2011, p.2), expectancy is affected by factors like having suitable skills to carry out the job, accessibility of the needed resources and information, in addition to receiving the needed support so as to complete the job. Instrumentality, on the other hand, is the belief that if a worker performs well, subsequently an effective outcome will be there. According to expectancy theory, workers motivated to the level that he/she is certain that their effort will result in satisfactory performance, the performance will be rewarded and the rewards’ value of will be highly positive. According to Simone (2015, p.20), rewards do have a valence since it is associated with the needs of the employees. Therefore, valence offers a connection to employee motivation. In Diaco, for instance, the rewards such as the company paying half the tuition fees for employees advancing their studies, allowing employees to engage in environmental groups and recognising creativity, can essentially have value to individual workers. Different from instrumentality and expectancy, valence may be either negative or positive; for instance; if a worker has a strong. The culture of Diaco attracts talented applicants, and this attraction factor can be described best by Vroom's expectancy theory, which states that potential workers often search employment that is substantive and significant; employment that offers chances for progress as well as a solid future; and an environment of friendly peers in a place of work where employees are offered good training (Jewczyn, 2010, p.8). In view of this theory, Lunenburg (2011, p.2) posits that mechanisms of compensation can be an influential incentive for connecting performance with rewards. In essence, compensation system at Diaco rewards employees directly based on their performance, creativity, and teamwork. According to Chiew and Braver (2011), rewards associated with performance have to be monetary in nature. Besides that, verbal as well as symbolic forms of recognition for employees who are performing are useful in organisations like Diaco, who donate part of their revenues to environmental groups. Moreover, with a workforce that is demographically diverse, Jewczyn (2010, p.9) posits that it is deceptive to believe that very worker wants the same rewards. Even though this contradicts the equity theory assertions, expectancy theory proves that a number of workers may prefer a pay raise or promotion while others may desire for more vacation days, day care, improved insurance benefits and so forth. Therefore, offering vacation days, day care, and medical benefits makes Diaco’s approach to employees’ motivation be in line with expectancy theory. Conclusion In conclusion, the essay has analysed how equity theory explains the motivation of employees working at Diaco and discuss the extent to which Diaco’s approach to employee motivation is consistent with expectancy theory. As indicated in the essay, allowing employees to pursue further studies does not just lead to employee motivation but is also an appropriate technique for modifying as well as managing workforce skills according to the objectives of the organisation and to improve the overall performance of the organisation. Based on equity theory, even though performance and pay are a key consideration in all organizations, the equality perception has an impact on the worker's performance. As pointed out in the essay, the expectancy theory has a number of crucial implications for employees’ motivation since it ascertains numerous important things that may be carried out so as to motivate workers. References Alawneh, M.K., 2008. Factors Affecting Training Transfer: Participants’ Motivation to Transfer Training, Literature Review. Research Paper. Pennsylvania: Penn State University. Chiew, K.S. & Braver, T.S., 2011. Monetary Incentives Improve Performance, Sometimes: Speed and Accuracy Matter, and so Might Preparation. [Online] Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3210981/ [Accessed 10 September 2015]. Greene, R.J., 2010. Rewarding Performance: Guiding Principles; Custom Strategies. New York: Routledge. Jewczyn, M.N., 2010. A comparison of equity theory and expectancy theory and some implications for managers in a global work environment. Journal of Business Management and Entrepreneurship, vol. 1, no. 8, pp.1-11. Lunenburg, F.C., 2011. Expectancy Theory of Motivation: Motivating by Altering Expectations. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, BUSINESS, AND ADMINISTRATION, vol. 15, no. 1, pp.1-6. Schmidt, C.T., 2007. What is a compensation system? What are the various dimensions of a compensation system? [Online] Available at: http://www.uri.edu/research/lrc/scholl/webnotes/Reward_Systems.htm [Accessed 10 September 2015]. Simone, S.D., 2015. Expectancy Value Theory: Motivating Healthcare Workers. American International Journal of Contemporary Research, vol. 5, no. 2, pp.19-23. Tudor, T.R., 2011. Motivating Employees with Limited Pay Incentives Using Equity Theory and the Fast Food Industry as a Model. International Journal of Business and Social Science, vol. 2, no. 23, pp.95-101. Zahra, S., Iram, A. & Naeem, H., 2014. Employee Training and Its Effect on Employees’ Job Motivation and Commitment: Developing and Proposing a Conceptual Model. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, vol. 16, no. 9, pp.60-68. Read More