Introduction to Work and Organizational Behaviour - Case Study Example

Discourse Analysis Table of Contents Introduction 2 Outline Of The Main Discourses 2 Alternative Discourses 5 Understanding Alternative Discourses 8 Conclusion 10 Reference list 11 Introduction ‘Discourse’ is an extensive idea through which the language is structured according to different patterns that people’s utterances follow when they take part in different realms of social life, recognizable examples being ‘medical discourse’ and ‘political discourse’ (Jorgensen and Phillips, 2002). It is not just one approach, but a series of interdisciplinary approaches that can be used to explore a number of different social domains in many different types of studies. Discourse is defined as a particular way of talking about and understanding the world or an aspect of the world (Jorgensen and Phillips, 2002). According to (Burr, 2015), if discourses regulate our common understanding of things and events and if these shared understanding inform our social practices, then, it becomes clear that there is an intimate relationship between discourse, knowledge and power. In this article, it is attempted to identify the main discourses from the text ‘what really motivates employees’ and discuss the alternative ways through which the information could have been presented or list the alternative discourses and explain how it can change the level of understanding. Outline Of The Main Discourses Discourse is defined as the way of talking about and conceptualising an issue which is presented through various concepts, vocabulary and ideas that recur in texts (Bratton, 2015). In this text, the factors that motivate the employees are identified elaborately. When the HR professionals, head-hunters or hiring managers are planning to recruit, they need to analyze the factors which would ensure that hired employees stay focused, productive and engaged. An organization functions efficiently and smoothly when the recruited employees are well motivated, because motivation, both in the form of monetary and non-monetary terms encourages the employees to perform or deliver to their highest potential. Motivational attributes like remunerations, working conditions and security of job should be provided while recruiting the employees. Attempting to motivate the employees through negative approach like fear of losing their job will have an adverse effect on the employees and their performance. Scope for the application of creativity plays a significant role in motivating the employees. Restricting rewards in terms of monetary benefits removes the interesting or the challenging factor out of a job. Enforcing too many rules, regulations and laws and making the organizational processes too formal often leads to conflict between the management and employees. Working under trustworthy leadership is enjoyed by the employees. Trust is an important motivational tool and the leadership that has shown more transparency with their employees have achieved overwhelming results (Bruce and Pepitone, 1999). Motivational factors for the employees who are engaged in routine work and the employees working at higher corporate levels cannot be same. The carrot and stick method of motivation cannot be applied uniformly to all levels of the organization. Hiring right people from beginning is the key factor for designing motivational factors. Employees who are creativity driven and are more open at accepting challenging situations should be given priority than the employees who choose money as their driving force. Only increase in financial rewards does not contribute to motivation. High financial rewards can adversely affect the performance of an individual. Though money is a motivator, relationship between remuneration and work satisfaction changes according to the situation of work and people. First, remuneration must be enough to meet the basic needs and secondly, it must be borne in mind that if inequality in reward emerges then it leads to dissatisfaction among employees. Recent studies have revealed that recognition and appreciation act as efficient motivating factors than external incentives like the stock options or increase in incentives. While performing any type of executive recruiting, the employers or the recruiters should seek to hire those employees, who are intrinsically motivated. Alternative Discourses The above mentioned discourses can be designed alternatively by applying the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg’s two-factor theory of motivation. Motivation theory: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (Source: Montana and Charnov, 2008) Depending on the structure of the organization and the hierarchies, different motivating factors can be implemented accordingly to motivate the employees. The five stage model can be divided into two parts such as: basic needs comprising of physiological, safety, love and esteem needs and growth needs comprising of some features of esteem needs and self- actualization needs (Montana and Charnov, 2008). The physiological needs of the employees can be served by providing them with the basic motivating factors such as remuneration in the form of increase in pay scale, incentives and other monetary benefits. The safety needs of the employees can be fulfilled and motivated by providing them with job security and healthy working conditions (Management Study Guide, 2013a). Motivating employees through fear of losing their job if they fail to perform will have an adverse effect on them and they will have less energy and drive to complete their daily tasks and this may result in high labour turnover affecting entire performance and reputation of the organization. By providing the employees with a healthy environment to work instead of imposing too many laws, regulations and restrictions, the employers will be able to motivate the employees by fulfilling the belongingness or affection needs of the employees. The employees will consider themselves as a part of the organization and this will provoke them to perform efficiently. Extreme formalised structure of an organization can slow down the ability to motivate the employees and they tend to lose their independence at workplace. When the employees have successfully achieved their physiological, safety, belongingness needs at workplace then providing them with the same motivational factors can have a demoralizing motivational effect, because at the higher level of managerial hierarchy, limiting the motivational factors with financial incentives may create an unpleasant impact on the employees (Thomas, 2009). In order to fulfil the esteem needs of employees, different motivating factor can be used such as, delegation of authority, allotting employees with challenging assignments which will motivate them to extend and exercise their own potential and enable them to explore, learn and gain more knowledge. Accomplishment of esteem needs is dependent on motivating factors like achievement, mastery, prestige and independence; it can be fulfilled by motivating the employees through appreciation and recognition. (Montana and Charnov, 2008). Pure monetary benefits take away the interesting and challenging factor out of the job. Appreciation and recognition inculcate a feeling of achievement and prestige among the employees. Simultaneously, with the accomplishment of the esteem needs, the motivating factors of the employees also changes and the self actualization needs become the driving force where the employees seek for personal growth and realize their personal potential. At this stage, intrinsic motivation plays a major role and employers also seek to induct those employees for the position of executive who all are intrinsically motivated (Thomas, 2009). Through alternative discourse analysis, the factors motivating the employees can be reorganised or reframed according to the needs of the employees in an organization (Heracleous, 2006). Along with the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the motivational factors can be reframed according to the Herzberg’s two factor theory. According to Herzberg, there are certain job factors that result in satisfaction, at the same time, there are other job factors that prevent dissatisfaction (Management Study Guide, 2013b). According to this theory, the opposite of ‘satisfaction’ is ‘no satisfaction’ and the opposite of ‘dissatisfaction’ is ‘no dissatisfaction’. Herzberg identified the job factors into two categories, hygiene factors and motivational factors (Montana and Charnov, 2008). The hygiene factors also known as dissatisfiers or maintenance factors are essential to avoid dissatisfaction and represent the physiological needs in the form of appropriate pay and salary structure, fair and clear company policies, suitable employee benefit programmes, healthy and safe working conditions, retaining employee status within the organization, must provide job security to the employees, acceptable and appropriate relationship of the employees with his peers, subordinates and superiors. Positive satisfaction is yielded by the motivational factors which satisfy psychological needs. Growth and development opportunities, feeling of achievement, responsibility and recognition motivates the employees for more improved performance (Herzberg, Mausner and Snyderman, 2010). Understanding Alternative Discourses Through the various alternative discourses, it is inferred that different motivational theories play a significant role in influencing the motivating factors of an organization (Paltridge, 2012). While designing the motivating factors within an organization, the management should consider both physiological and psychological needs of the employees. Well-motivated employees are widely thought to be more productive and creative, while poorly motivated employees can hamper growth and business success (Miner, 2007). Organizations with de-motivated and unmotivated employees often face low productivity, loss of reputation and high turnover rates. The multiple theories on motivation should be considered while formulating the motivational factors for an organization. The HR managers are expected to understand which theory best fits the employees and the organization, and construct the motivating factors accordingly, which will help to improve the performance of the organization by increasing employee retention rates and improving productivity of the workers (Bruce and Pepitone, 1999). Multiple motivational theories can be adopted for designing the motivational factors as each of the theories has a specific approach to the causes and effects of motivation and all influence some degree of success in the overall motivational strategies. The management should select the multiple motivational theories aligning them according to the philosophies of the company otherwise; it may lead to confusion among the employees as well as the management. At higher levels of managerial hierarchy, intrinsic motivation plays a significant role which is derived from intangible factors (Thomas, 2009). Employers should use an employee’s intrinsic motivations to derive maximum productivity from employee and assist him to achieve the career goals. Encouragement from the employers towards the pursuit of knowledge, assigning responsibility, giving recognition and feeling of accomplishment to the employees will intrinsically motivate the employees to enhance their performance. Though the text has identified a number of discourses as motivational factors that can improve the contribution of the workers in an organizational framework, such as high compensation, job security, financial and non-financial rewards, study of the alternative discourses depicts a different dynamics of motivations that may change the understanding regarding employee motivations. As per the theories of motivation, it is evident that rather than any external discourses it is mainly the intrinsic connotation of the individual employees that motivate them to enhance their organizational performance. Each and every individual possesses certain goals and aspirations in their lifetime. Once their desired goals are fulfilled, the individuals feel the urge of satisfying the higher need. This is true for organizational context as well. For instance, if an individual is striving to achieve self-actualization in Maslow’s hierarchy needs, providing financial incentive can never motivate that person to improve his organizational performance. Therefore, following the alternative discourses it can be understood that the internal urge acts as the main motivator among employee so strive for organizational excellence, external factors such as increment, incentive, working condition etc. are auxiliary in actual. Conclusion With the help of discourse analysis, the factors motivating the employees are outlined. The purpose of the article is established through alternative discourse analysis of the motivating factors using different theories of motivation and the ways by which it can be put into practice within an organization. Reference list Bratton, J., 2015. Introduction to work and organizational behaviour. London: Palgrave Macmillan Bruce, A. and Pepitone, J., 1999. Motivating employees. New York: The McGraw Hill Companies. Burr, V., 2015. Social constructionism. New York: Routledge Heracleous, L., 2006. Discourse, interpretation, organization. London: Cambridge University Press Herzberg, F., Mausner, B. and Snyderman, B., 2010. The motivation to work. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Jorgensen, M. and Phillips, L., 2002. Discourse analysis as theory and method. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. Management Study Guide, 2013a. Maslow’s need hierarchy model. [online] Available at: < http://www.managementstudyguide.com/maslow_need_hierarchy.htm> [Accessed 19 June 2015]. Management Study Guide, 2013b. Herzberg’s two-factor theory of motivation. [online] Available at: [Accessed 19 June 2015]. Miner, J., 2007. Organizational behavior 4: from theory to practice. New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc. Montana, P. and Charnov, B., 2008. Management. New York: Barron Educational Series, Inc. Paltridge, B., 2012. Discourse analysis: an introduction. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Thomas, K., 2009. Intrinsic motivation at work: what really drives employee engagement. California: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. Read More