Impact of Employee Motivation on the Effectiveness of an Organization - Research Paper Example

Impact of Employee Motivation on Effectiveness of an Organization Name Institution Date Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Abstract 3 Introduction 4 Research Objectives 5 Research question 5 Motivation 5 Employee motivation 6 Organizational effectiveness 6 Factors that affect employee motivation 7 Importance of employee motivation 9 Conceptual framework 10 Results and data analysis 11 Factors that influence motivation 11 Employee motivation and recognition 11 Empowerment and motivation 12 Incentives and influence on performance 12 Effect of motivation on organization’s effectiveness 13 Discussion 13 Conclusion 14 Abstract Employee motivation is perceived to be the drive by which employees can give something extra to their jobs. Many factors contribute towards the motivation of employees and these factors could come from within the organization or they could be external. Most organizations that seek to be successful use motivation of their employees as the main means. In addition, they also use motivation to facilitate retention of employees and fend off competition from other organizations that seek the services of the employees. Human resource has been considered as an integral part of any organization and organizations are facing the challenge of using the human resource to achieve effectiveness. Using motivation to achieve effectiveness is one major way. The paper is a research on how motivation impacts on the effectiveness of an organization. Studies will be conducted from past research works (secondary data acquisition). The analysis is meant to demonstrate that motivation influences the way employees work and it results in effectiveness of the organization. Introduction Every organization seeks to achieve effectiveness and success through steady progress. The present economic era has become so competitive and organizations face the challenge of effectively utilizing the resources they have to obtain maximum output from them. How then does human resource relate to effectiveness of an organization? The idea of humanizing the concept of effectiveness was introduced by Mayo (1945) who presented effectiveness as a function of productivity which results from satisfaction of employees. This brought up the notion that for an organization to be successful, one of the contributing factors is in the way its employees are satisfied. Having considered human resource as a central part of the organization, they have to be persuaded into fulfilling various tasks. While carrying out their tasks, they need an extra drive that will propel them into performing to the expected standards by the organization. Organizations too need to ensure that employees are working towards the achievement of organizational effectiveness. Therefore, the employees need to be satisfied with their organization and this calls for the need by the organization to motivate their employees in an attempt to fully engage them in ensuring the effectiveness of the organization (Manzoor, 2011). This study will focus on how organizations can use their employees to achieve success. The main focus will be on use of motivation to facilitate effectiveness of the organization. It purposes to examine the impact that motivation of employees can have on the effectiveness of an organization. Research Objectives To determine factors that increase employee motivation in an organization To examine the relation between employee motivation and the effectiveness of an organization To contribute to the literature on employee motivation. Research question Does employee motivation act as the main factor by which employees can contribute to the success of an organization? Will employees get motivated when they get recognized at work? Can employees be motivated by the empowerment given to them by the organization? How do motivated employees contribute to the organization’s success? How does the working environment influence the motivation of employees? Can effective leadership influence the motivation of employees? Literature Review Motivation Fard et al (2010) gave the definition of motivation as the power that is able to strengthen one’s behavior, give direction to the behavior and trigger some propensity to carry on. This indicates that one needs some energy and direction so as to attain some guaranteed targets. Motivation is seen to be a procedure that starts with a physiological want which stimulates an objective oriented performance. Motivation has also been considered to be the progression towards behavior that is directed by goals. It comes as an inner strength driving individuals to achieve personal and organizational needs. Employee motivation Financial factors, economic as well as human resources play an important role in the development of an organization; but human resources have been seen to play a key role towards giving an organization a competitive edge over others. Employee motivation has been seen as one of the policies that managers use to ensure that employees contribute to the effectivity of an organization (Yazdani et al, 2011). Employee motivation therefore is the process by which an organization sets out to energize the employees to work better than they are doing. The provoked employee looks to provide improved practices in their work as they are aware of the goals set by the organization and they channel their efforts towards the achievement of the goals. Organizations face a big challenge in trying to get their employees to do their best. Through this challenge, employee motivation comes as a solution. Organizational effectiveness An organization constitutes people who formulate a business entity for a purpose. Effectiveness refers to acquisition of the desired outcome in defined resources. Organizational effectiveness is the concept of an organization effectually accomplishing its aimed results. Effectiveness of an organization plays a significant role towards accelerating the organization towards development. It can be summed up as the net satisfaction that the organization gets from the all its constituents while transforming inputs to outputs in a manner that is efficient. The organization uses its resources to fulfill its objectives with no depletion of resources or straining of concerned members. Factors that affect employee motivation One factor to consider when pursuing motivation of employees is money. Reasonable payment gives employee the feeling that they are getting the value for the services they are offering. Money is seen to be a fundamental inducement that no incentive or technique for motivation approaches its value. It is further stated to have the power to magnetize, motivate and maintain individuals in their works to higher performance. Fredrick Taylors’ work on scientific management placed money as the most essential factor when motivating workers to achieve greater productivity. Reward of an employee causes satisfaction and this directly influences their performance. Rewards are seen as tools used by management to influence group or individual behavior. Bonuses, pay, promotions and other types of rewards are used by management to encourage employees to perform at high level. For effective use of salaries as motivators, managers should consider their structures to include payment based on performance; include special allowances, pensions and even extra benefits. Leadership too plays a role in motivation. It involves making things done in the right way and ensuring that the people follow you. This requires trust of the people in their leader. A leader and follower can raise themselves to elevated levels of motivation as well as morality. Motivation is presented as a leadership behavior and that if people are motivated, they can easily trust their leader. Since both parties will want to do what is right for the organization, the two; leadership and motivation, become active processes. Empowerment of employees gives a sense of belonging as well as pride to them. This benefits the organization since it presents a win-win association between the employer and the employees and this is regarded as an ideal environment in organizations. In addition, empowerment flourishes the virtual capacities of humans. Research by Yazdani et al (2011) found out that employees who were empowered gave additional importance to their job and work-life. This ensured a steady progress in organization and work procedures. These employees executed their thoughts with a sense of belonging, delight and enthusiasm. Their sense of responsibility towards the organization increased and more often, they would consider the organizations benefits to theirs. Recognition of employees also enhances their satisfaction and motivation towards work. Reward and recognition has been found to have a significant relation on employee motivation and satisfaction. By recognizing an employee’s contribution, the employee feels positive about their work and work further to ensure they are given more recognition. The task could involve giving employees participation in making decisions and this gives a feeling of internal satisfaction to the employees. The enthusiasm and motivation to the accomplishment of duties increases. The working environment also plays a significant role in motivating employees. An environment that is free from hazards does not present any risks to the employees and they therefore carry out their duties worry-free. An environment that poses a physical or mental health risk to employees does not give them comfort while carrying out their duties (Green, 2001). Trust can be considered as the perception that one has about others and making a decision based on their behavior, speech as well as their decision. An organization seeking to be successful should deploy the mutualism of trust, trusting the employees and getting their employees to trust the organization. Such a kind of trusting relationship would influence some of the decisions made by employees while outside the organization, and in most cases, to the benefit of the organization. Another factor that plays a role in motivation of employees is employee interrelationships. The show of courtesy among employees shows that they appreciate and value each other’s presence. Managers are advised to adopt a leadership style that is person-oriented and shows a positive regard of others. Employees should have a great platform by which they can exchange their ideas and share their problems so that solutions are obtained from an objective perspective and work is carried out in harmony. Importance of employee motivation The purpose for the existence of management is productivity. Every manager seeks to achieve the goals set by the organization through increasing of efficiency as well as effectiveness. The most influential factor that contributes to productivity is work performance. Motivation of an employee influences the amount of effort they input in their work. Besides performance, research on a group of motivated employees showed that there were fewer cases of work accidents, low ethical problems rates in addition to low employee turnover and low absenteeism levels. Employees who are motivated have less stress and they enjoy their work. As a result, they have better health both physically and mentally. Such employees are committed to their employers (organizations) and they display less insubordination. They are more innovative, creative and responsive to their customers and this directly contributes to the success of the organization in the long-term (Fard et al, 2010). Theoretical Framework The literature gathered suggests the factors that favor motivation of employees. Factors such as fair pay, special allowances, incentives, leadership trust, joint decision making recognition and empowerment have been seen to influence the motivation of employees. Conceptual framework Employee motivation contributes towards the effectiveness of the organization. This can be represented as shown below: The model of the study that will be discussed further is represented below: Hypotheses: H1: Recognition of employees’ work affects their motivation at work H2: Empowering employees affects their motivation at work H3: A relationship exists between motivation of employees and the effectiveness of an organization. Results and data analysis Factors that influence motivation Khalid and Irshad (2010) carried out a research on employees of a Pakistan bank to investigate the factors that motivate the employees. From a collection of 50 employees, 21 suggested that salary increase was their main motivation (42 %). 15 (30 %) of them said that they got their motivation from promotions while 3 (6 %) said they were motivated by leave from work. Besides, 5 (10 %) said they were motivated by motivational talk while 6 (12 %) of them agreed that recognition by their employers was their motivation. It is clear that most employees prefer money as the key motivation factor. This is not strange as it is in accordance with what Fard et al (2010) stated. Employee motivation and recognition A report by Worldatwork (2011) indicated that 86 % of organizations had incorporated recognition as a key part of their programs. Their research found out that most organizations use different recognition schemes. Some of the programs include: service length (79 %), retirement (42 %), above and beyond performance (79 %), sales performance (40 %) and suggestions (27 %). Amongst their goals for recognition, it was found out that motivation was one of the reasons as to why organizations seek to recognize their employees. Among the benefits that were discovered from recognition included reduced turnover and higher retention of employees. This means that the organizations have their employees available for a long time and they use their experience to impact on the productivity of the organization. The fact that employees prefer to stay in the same company means that they find good reasons to work for the organization. Empowerment and motivation From a research conducted by Tutar et al (2011) indicated that there was a positive perception on the idea of empowerment with respect to achieving motivation. The perception of employee empowerment was found to have the same values of means and standard deviations in relation to achievement of motivation and contextual performance, viz: empowerment perception (X= 3.9, SD= 0.834), achievement motivation (X= 3.6, SD= 0.764) and contextual performance (X=3.2, SD= 0.934). This means that these factors are correlated. Incentives and influence on performance From a research carried by Kumar (2012) in which 50 employees from Hyderabad Industries were interviewed on whether incentives influenced their performance, 32 people agreed that it influenced their performance. 12 employees said it did not influence while 6 had no opinion. From this, 64 % agreed that it influenced while 24 % did not agree. Clearly, incentives have a great effect on the performance of employees. Since employees get motivated when they are given incentives, it means that there is a relationship between employee motivation and effectiveness of an organization. Effect of motivation on organization’s effectiveness From a study carried out by Malik et al (2011), the relation between the effectiveness of an organization was measured. A sample size of 163 was used on employees in a Pakistan bank and in the analysis, a correlation of level 0.01 was found to exist. This was done according to the Pearson correlation. Further, employee motivation was found to impact on their performance. This therefore justifies our hypotheses that there exists a positive relation between employee motivation and the effectiveness of an organization. Discussion The study was targeted at the effect of motivation on the effectiveness of an organization. Various factors such as money, reward and other incentives, recognition, empowerment, leadership and even trust have been seen to contribute to the motivation of employees. Most organizations have realized the importance of employees towards the effectiveness of the organization. Having realized this, they work to ensure maximum output from their employees by making sure the employees play their part in ensuring that the organization achieves its goals. Managers should acknowledge that employees are one of their greatest assets and they can positively influence the performance of the organization if properly tuned. Motivation is a good way of tuning the employees the employees into working towards the achievement of the goals. Getting the employees to know of the organization’s goals and giving them the extra drive to work towards the achievement of these goals yields success to the organization. Conclusion Motivation of employees has been widely studied. This indicates the importance of the issue in most organizations. Even despite the widespread research on the issues, motivation still remains a complex issue since it has a very wide implication to many people. Even though not all employees will be motivated by the same factors, the bottom line is that motivation impacts on how effective an organization can perform. Managers should ensure that employees get the right urge to work at their best and the employees should reciprocate the efforts by their employees. References Fard et al, 2010. Employees Morale in Public Sector: Is Organizational Trust an Important Factor? European Journal of Scientific research, 46 (3), 378-390. Green Berg J, 2001. Organizational Justice as Probation and reactions: Implications for research and application. In Cropanzano R (ed.). Justice in work place: Form theory to practice (Vol. 2, pp. 271-302). Khalid S., & Irshad M. Z., (2010). Job Satisfaction among Bank Employees in Punjab, Pakistan: A Comparative Study. European Journals of Social Sciences, 17 (4), 570-577. Kumar S. N. Arjun, 2012. Entrepreneurial Spirit and Motivation in Small Scale Industries: A Study of Mahabubnagar District. AP, India. Malik et al (2011), Organizational Effectiveness: A Case Study of Telecommunication And Banking Sector of Pakistan. Far East Journal of Psychology and Business. Vol. 2 No 1. Pakistan. Tutar et al, 2011. The effects of employee empowerment on achievement motivation and the contextual performance of employees. Ankara, Turkey. Worldatwork, 2011. Trends in Employee Recognition. Scottsdale, Arizona, USA. Yazdani et al, 2011. Factors affecting the Empowerment of Employees. European Journal of Social Sciences, 20 (2), 267-274. Appendix Research Questions Questions Yes No Does employee motivation act as the main factor by which employees can contribute to the success of an organization? Can employees be motivated by the empowerment given to them by the organization? Will employees get motivated when they get recognized at work? How do motivated employees contribute to the organization’s success? How does the working environment influence the motivation of employees? Can effective leadership influence the motivation of employees? Read More