Motivational Theories in Human Resource Management - Essay Example

Compensation holds a very important place in every organization. Organisation pays their employees to motivate them and get the best out of them. Different individuals have different ways to get motivated. For example the efficiency level of certain employees fall when they continue the same work again and again but, when they are temporarily shifted to other job their efficiency increases. For this employee change is the drive which motivates him. Organisation needs to find out this drives and work towards those to achieve best results. Thus, motivation is a continuous process. Thus, we can say that organisation needs to make use of an employee’s intensity in the right direction. This should be a continuous process as an employee who is motivated remains for a long time with the organisation. People use both their intrinsic and extrinsic goals to be motivated. Intrinsic goals is growth whereas extrinsic is money. Study has shown that “physiological threat increases priority people give to extrinsic goals”. (Smith & Robert, 1994) One such contemporary theory is the Equity Theory. It says that “employees compare their job inputs like efforts, experience, education to their outputs like salary level, recognition, incentives in relation to their peers to reduce inequality” (Robbins, Judge, Millet, Waters-Marsh T, 2008) An employee compares himself to his peers in different ways “like self-inside, self-outside, other-inside and other-outside. Mostly employees compare themselves based on the basis of gender, the time for which he had worked in the organisation, his position in the organisation and the degree of education he processes”. (Stephen & Timothy, 2008) Every employee compares their ratios with those of their peers and if they are dissatisfied it affects their work. But if the ratios are equal “equity remains prevalent and fair justice prevails”. Employees like neither to be under paid nor over paid. They want the pay to be equitable so that the satisfaction level is high among managers. (Gardner & Charles, 1998) Equity is something which is perceived and different people perceive it differently. Some employees perceive money important some status. So, it is important that there is fairness in the process giving rise to Organisational Justice. Organisational Justice is the perception of employees that fairness prevails in the organisation. It can further be divided into three i.e. Distributive Justice (every employee got what one deserved), Procedural Justice (the process used to give justice was fair and free from biasness) and Interactional Justice (treating employee with respect and dignity). (Robbins, Judge, Millet, Waters-Marsh T, 2008) According to Lively, Powell, Claudia & Carr “when there is inequity among inmates it gets reflected in the family environment as productivity gets hampered”. (Lively, Powell, Claudia & Carr, 2008) The study finds that when as employee does not perceive equity it gets reflected elsewhere also. When the inmates don’t perceive equity performance gets affected. This decreases productivity. As a result even family environment gets affected. A more through details says that this theory also can be applied to family life. Thus, compensation in modern society is shaped after considering the above issue. This helps to ensure that employees’ satisfaction level is high which results in organisation achieving the goals set for them. This also ensures that there is calm and peace as people know that there is fairness and justice prevails. Another motivation model is Expectancy Model. This theory says that “employees are motivated to work harder when they know that their hard efforts would lead to good appraisal and this appraisal will result in incentives like bonuses, promotions and so on and this would lead towards the satisfaction of employees as his personal goals will be achieved”. (Robbins, Judge, Millet, Waters-Marsh T, Organisational Behaviour, 2008) Thus, this theory focuses on three important relationships. First is the link between the efforts an employee puts in and how does it reflects in his performance. Secondly, the performance which he has achieved due to the efforts put in by him helps him get rewards which he deserved. Lastly, how satisfied the employee is due to the rewards which he had received. This entire process could “motivate the employee and make work him harder in the future to get better results”. (Robbins, Judge, Millet, Waters-Marsh T, 2008) This theory helps to find out who work in the company and who don’t. If used effectively it helps the company to design their future plans in such a way that employees who are highly motivated are entrusted to work upon the project thus eliminating the free riders. The expectancy model also works very effectively in case of peer evaluation. Today, people have to work in groups to accomplish a task. Some people put in more efforts and some less. So, the organisation can ask the peers to evaluate each one and on the basis of that evaluation the incentives can be decided so that it is fair. This model is widely used today. This helps the employee to understand the importance of working hard. It also ensures that there is a direct link between reward and performance. Organisations as a result of this are able to get the best out of employees. Another, important motivational theory is the Hierarchy of Needs Theory. Every individual has certain needs and wants and they work towards accomplishing those. The most basic need for an individual is the need for food, shelter, thirst and so on called the Psychological need. When a person achieves these basic needs he moves higher up in the hierarchy and wants Safety. He wants safety from physical as well as emotional aspect. Once this is satisfied he needs a Social status and he starts to crave for it. He wants respect in the society, a sense of belongingness and friends around. When he achieves this he wants to move higher up and crave for Esteem needs. He continues to work harder until his last need i.e. the need for self Actualisation is achieved. This is the stage where an individual achieves what he wants. He knows what he is capable of and this leads to self fulfilment. (Robbins, Judge, Millet, Waters-Marsh T, 2008) For example, suppose a person earns 20000. This is enough for his basic requirement. Now he wants recognition. So, he works to achieve those. Thus it motivates him. It urges him to work harder. This gives him satisfaction. This continues on and on. It is also important that the organisation understands which of these need can be satisfied internally and which externally. When a person starts to move higher up in the need hierarchy his needs are more satisfied internally as his basic requirement of food, hunger, thirst and safety are met. (Stephen & Timothy, 2007) It is important for organisations to realise the fact that all the human needs cannot be satisfied through money. Employees need to be motivated through measures other than monetary like respect, recognition for the work done and social status. (Lowery, 1998) This is the most important way to ensure that employees remain loyal. It ensures that employees get the best and at the same time helps the employees to fulfil their goals. This thus helps both the organisation and employees. Organisations are widely using this method due to the inherent advantage it gives and ensures that the results are positive. Another motivational theory is the reinforcement theory. This theory states that “a combination of reward and punishment is used to compensate employees to ensure that their behaviour are directed in the correct direction and yield positive results both for the organisation and employee”. (Barnett, 2010) This theory uses two type of tools to motivate. Firstly, “positive reinforcement which will result in the employee to repeat the same performance is paid accordingly to ensure that such behaviour is repeated”. (Maurice, Villere, Sandra & Hartman, 1991) For example, a sales person for Nike after using his efforts ensures the same target is met. The company to reinforce the same behaviour should pay the employee for the target. This will ensure the employee repeating the same behaviour. Secondly, “negative reinforcement where an employee is punished so that a particular behaviour is not repeated and that behaviour of his can be withheld”. (Maurice, Villere, Sandra & Hartman, 1991) For example, suppose sales people for Volkswagen has the desire to sale the product but is given a territory where in spite the efforts the target is not met. The team should ensure that such territories are not assigned and so that the employees doesn’t loose the motivation to sell cars. Organisation also looks towards extinction of unwanted behaviour. “The organisation ensures that certain unwanted behaviour is extinguished and behaviours which the organisation wants the employees to be repeated are not extinguished”. (Romando, 2007) For example, suppose an employee working in Infosys has tje ability to give prompt answers to queries. The organisation should give them a continuous pat to ensure that this behaviour doesn’t dies in the individual. The organisation while designing their compensation package ensures that both the intrinsic and extrinsic demand is met. This will help to ensure that the employees are high on motivation and remains the part of the organisation. This tool will thus help the organisation to design the compensation packages accordingly to the employee and ensure maximum return for the organisation and employees. Thus, we see that “to achieve organisational goals it is essential that the employee feels satisfied with the job. This will motivate him and he will work harder towards the growth of the organisation”. Thus, compensation package helps to improve motivation. It gives a sense of satisfaction and improves performance. This helps the company and also the employee in self development. References Barnett T, (2010), “Reinforcement Theory”, Encyclopaedia of Management retrieved on April 15, 2010 from http://www.enotes.com/management-encyclopedia/reinforcement-theory Gardner & Charles E, (1998), “equity theory: perception is reality”, High Beam Research, the Gale Group Inc Lively J, Powell B, Claudia G & Carr L, (2008), “Inequity among inmates: applying equity theory to family”, Volume 25, page 87-115, Emerald Group Publishing Limited Lowery, (1998), “The hierarchical effect: Maslow Hierarchy”, Belmont, Thomson Learning Maurice F, Villere, Sandra S & Hartman, (1991), “Reinforcement Theory: A practical tool”, Leadership & Organisation Performance Journal, Volume 12, Issue 2, page 27-31 Romando R, (2007), “Motivational Theory”, retrieved on April 15, 2010 from http://ezinearticles.com/?Motivation-Theory&id=410700 Robbins, Judge, Millet, Waters-Marsh T, (2008), “Organisational Behaviour”, 5th Edition, Pearson Education Smith, Robert D, “the psychology of work and human performance”, 2nd edition, New York, Collins, 1994 Stephen R and Timothy J, (2007), Organisational Behaviour, 12th Edition, Prentice Hall of India Private Limited, New Delhi Stephen Robbins and Timothy Judge 2008 Organisational Behaviour, 13th Edition, Prentice Hall of India Private Limited, New Delhi Read More