Relationship between Motivation, Job Satisfaction, Its Impact on Employee Performance - Thesis Proposal Example

Relationship between motivation, job satisfaction and its impact on employees performance – A study of 4.5 star hotel in Australia - Melbourne ’s name) (Institutional Affiliation) Contents Contents 2 Background 3 Purpose of the study 7 Rationale 8 Research questions 9 Proposed methodology 9 Action plan 12 References 12 Background Job attitudes and job satisfaction have been aptly distinguished by Strauss (1994, p. 487), where he observed that job attitudes involve specific aspects of the job including tasks, working conditions or duties. He says that if it were about the overall job where an individual is currently employed, then that concept would be job satisfaction. According to John and David (2002, p. 209), they view job satisfaction as a set of feelings, both favorable and unfavorable, and emotions through which the employees perceive their work. They define it as an affective attitude, where it would be a relative feeling of like or dislike towards an aspect or towards something. Egan, Yang, and Bartlett (2004) carried out a study on how job satisfaction and organizational learning culture affected turnover intention and motivation to transfer learning where they carried out an examination of the relationship between job satisfaction, organizational outcome variables, and organization learning culture using IT employees sample in the USA. They then realized that Motivation to transfer learning and IT employee job satisfaction were associated together with organizational culture. They also found out that job satisfaction and organizational learning culture negatively influenced the turnover intention. The people who most of their times are cheerful and positive do tend to have a higher job satisfaction, and they express it rather than those who are gloomy and down most of their time. This is according to the research carried out by R. Ilies and T. Judge (2003, p. 754). They continued saying that the match between outcomes of the individual value in the jobs and how they perceive the availability of outcomes of such kind, more especially for the facets of jobs that are highly valued, primarily determine the job satisfaction (Hirsch, 2004, p. 114). Boswell, Boudreau, and Tichy (2005, p. 885) give the concept of honeymoon and hangover effect in job satisfaction. They view honeymoon effect as the propensity of enjoying high satisfaction level on new jobs, which they have taken as a response to dissatisfaction of the old jobs. They also explain the hangover effect as the tendency of the satisfaction level to drop with time, from the time when a position is new to the time more experience is gained. On comparing job involvement, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction, Moynihan and Sanjay (2007) examined the effects of job characteristics, organizational variables, and individual attributes on some aspects on work motivation, which include organizational commitment, job involvement, and job satisfaction. They found out that the degree of influence on the different aspects of work motivation vary with managers, but they have a great influence on job satisfaction and a small influence on job involvement. There are several variables, which are very important for work motivation, and some of them include advancement opportunities, job routineness, role clarity, group culture, and public service motivation. There are two dimensions of motivation, one being from the managers’ point of view and another from the employees’ point of view. The managers’ aim for motivation would be to make the employees to work more efficiently, in a better way and effectively, while according to the employee point of view, it would be enabling them to do their jobs in a better way that they enjoy and desire (Kleinbeck, 1990, p. 450). Economic variables have been viewed to have an effect on job satisfaction and motivation. Although we cannot deny this, it is not adequate to have effects, which are prolonged. As it is evident, expecting more than is required from the economic tools, and appeal to them does not bring out success very much. Therefore, encouraging of economic tools should be used in rewarding according to the needs of the employees. Besides this, there are other ways to increase the satisfaction and motivation of employees other than the monetary tools (Noe 2012, p. 212). Oraman (2011) worked in evaluating the dynamics, which are effective for job satisfaction and work motivation for textile employees. In his work, he carried out an analysis of the effectiveness of the economic, managerial, psychosocial, and organizational tools over the motivation of individuals in terms of maintaining the job satisfaction and motivation of employees in the business. He later concluded that economic tools are significantly and positively related to the motivational increase level perceived by the employee. In determining the job satisfaction level, an important role is played by the second regression model, except the psychological and economic tools, and it has a positive impact on employee motivation increase with various implementations to increase employee satisfaction carried out at work (Oraman, 2011, p. 3365). According to Adeyemo (1999, p. 88), motivation as a process starts with a need or physiological deficiency that eventually activates a drive or a behavior, which is targeted at a goal incentive. It is a psychological characteristic for humans, which contributes to the degree of commitment of a person. Herzberg’s two factor theory which is also known as the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, explains that, as there are some factors which cause job satisfaction in a work place, some other separate set of factors are responsible for causing dissatisfaction. Some of the factors, which cause motivation, can change as time goes by, but there are some, which are constant throughout one’s lifetime. For example, respect for man remains a motivational factor at every life stage. Herzberg argues that the intrinsic motivators ensure employee satisfaction, e.g. recognition, challenging work, and responsibility (Frey, & Osterloh, 2002, p. 80), while extrinsic factors, if not present, result in employee dissatisfaction e. g. salary, job security, fringe benefits and status (Cameron & Pierce, 2002, p. 115). Various motivational strategies can be used to motivate employees. The management can use wages, salaries, and the service conditions. In using salary as a motivator, it is important to consider some factors in relation to the job description, these are, the job rate, payments of encouragement that reward better performing employees, special or personal allowances which associate with some factors like scarcity of some skills or long service and some fringe benefits like holidays with pay. Money can also be used as a motivation strategy as it is the most significant motivation (Akintoye, 2000, p. 252). An incentive wage system can be used as a method of stimulating workers to commitment, higher performance, and satisfaction. Staff training is also very important in employee motivation. Training offered in various areas of services provided in the organization helps to equip employees with the required skills. This will give the employees empowerment to meet the challenges available in the various fields. The availability of relevant information is also another way through which managers can use to motivate workers. Many organizations do not pass information to junior employees. A powerful peer pressure is borne by information availability, where people running together, whether two or more, will run faster than running with no awareness. Information sharing makes subordinates to compete with one another. A manager can also use employee empowerment as a motivation tool (America, 1949, p. 66). Empowerment of the employees gives them a high esteem to work towards the set goals of the organization. Besides this, giving power of freedom can also help to motivate the employees. This makes them feel that they have been trusted to do the right thing (Strauss, 1994, p. 354). On the contrary, too much power of freedom can also reduce the performance of the employees. Due to the self-management, a sense of responsibility is likely to be lost. Even with this power of freedom, close supervision is important for the goals of the organization to be achieved effectively (Cameron & Pierce, 2002, p. 213). However, management reduces the scope of individual improvement. This is through over structure and strict processes. It limits employee innovations and desire to improve. In management, the manager should consider employee freedom, individual improvement and lose of focus on employees when deciding on the power of freedom to give to them (Apa, 2004, p. 35). Purpose of the study The purpose of this study is to explore and examine the relationship that exists between motivation of employees, job satisfaction of the employees, and the overall impacts on the performance of the employees. This study will base on a 4.5 star hotel in Australia, known as Melbourne. The study will critically analyze motivation strategies taken by the hotel management, and how they have been managed. The study will then analyze the effects of these strategies to job satisfaction and the performance of the employees and to the overall performance of the hotel in terms of profits and service delivery. Rationale Due to increased competition in the hotel industry, many hotels have resorted to consider new strategies to make them have a competitive advantage over the others. To achieve this, it is important to first alter the organizational culture to align the attitude of the employees with the new strategies. Managers can be able to achieve this by training the employees in the skills, which match the new goals, hiring other employees that can fit with the new goals of the organization, or motivating the employees to adopt attitudes, and actions, which are in line with the new goal (Barbash, 1976, p. 480). This is what is referred to as internal marketing. Internal marketing should come before external marketing. This is because; it does not make sense to try to promote a perfect customer service before the employees are ready to provide it. Successful internal marketing leads to payoffs, which are important for an organization (Frey & Osterloh, 2002, p. 470). The benefits originate four main sources, which include high employee satisfaction levels, the ability which is improved to implement change, service quality increase, and low rates of employee turnover (Spector, 1997, p. 323). The reduction of the turnover of employees reduces training and recruiting costs. Resources, which would have been used for filling new positions, could now be redirected for purposes like improving the skills of the current employees. Internal marketing focuses on both the employees and the customers. It involves mobilizing, motivating, managing, and co-opting employees, and it is designed to improve the customer service by a company. Increase in satisfaction of employees is a way of motivating workers, which in turn makes them more engaged and eventually affects the service delivery in a positive manner. Internal marketing also helps in developing a culture where there is an understood need for change. This makes an organization more successful at the implementation of new strategies (Noe, 2012, p. 39). Therefore, this study is relevant for the discovery of the effects of employee motivation on the general performance and on the performance of the organization. It is also important for realizing the job satisfaction impacts. This will be important for organizations to improve on the quality of service they offer, methods of achieving new goals and improving on the efficiency. It will also help in positioning an organization on a competitive scale giving it a competitive advantage. Research questions This study aims at exploring on the relationship between motivation and job satisfaction and the effects on the performance. The research questions are listed below 1. What is the relationship between Job satisfaction and motivation? 2. What are the effects of job satisfaction and motivation on the performance? 3. What is the relative importance of job satisfaction and motivation factors? Proposed methodology A lot of study and research has been carried out in job satisfaction and motivation, but still to some extend this area remains unexplored. Furthermore, there is still no general understanding developed in studies conducted at different environments and different times. This has become a great area of research especially on how to absenteeism and turnover (which is a challenge faced by many organizations) and to increase the performance of the organizations. It has also been observed that many employees, satisfied with their jobs are not very good performers. This could probably be due to lack of commitment for the organization and motivation. From this, the importance of this study is emphasized. This is a humble endeavor towards to explore the relationship between job satisfaction and motivation and the effects on performance in a 4.5 star hotel in Australia known as Melbourne. In this study, Motivation will be treated as an independent variable while job satisfaction will be treated as a dependent variable. This will help to examine the relationship between motivation and job satisfaction (Zikmund, 2003, p. 236). Mathematical representation will be as follows: j = f (m) Where; m will represent motivation and j represents job satisfaction. Motivation and job satisfaction will then be treated as independent variables while the rate of performance will be treated as a dependent variable. This will be done so as to check on the impact of employee motivation and job satisfaction of the performance of the employees, and the relationship between motivation and job satisfaction (Zikmund, 2003, p. 236) The inputs, which are motivation and job satisfaction will determine the output which is the performance. Therefore the mathematical relationship between the two will be p = f (jm) where; p will represent the performance rate, m will represent motivation, and j represents job satisfaction. Job satisfaction will be split into two with reference to median of the variable scores. High job satisfaction will be represented above the high median score while low job satisfaction will be represented below the median score. The average of the highly satisfied employees’ motivational score will then be compared with the average of the lowly satisfied employees’ motivational score. This will help to examine the effect of satisfaction and motivation on the performance. The employee performance will be determined through analyzing the efficiency of the hotel through customer ratings and comments and by checking the profit margins. Rise in profits will imply increase in employee performance while lack of change will depict no effect. Similarly, good customer comments and rating will show an increase in performance. The study will rely on primary data collection since the nature of the research is descriptive. Primary data collection will be carried out on employees working in Melbourne hotel randomly from every department. Primary data will be collected using standard structured questionnaires. Two questionnaires will be used one for job satisfaction and the other for motivation. Each of them will have 10 questions, which will be in 5-point likert scale based questions. The responder will be required to tick one from the five-point responses. Response 5 will get five marks and response 1 will get one mark. Each score shall range from a maximum of 50 points to a minimum of 10 points. 30 will be considered as a median score. Any score, which will be above 30, shall be considered as satisfying and motivating, and below that will be non-satisfying and non-motivating. Each questionnaire shall also consist of the demographic information of the workers (Zikmund, 2003, p. 284). Action plan Below is the action plan for this research. It shows the dates of completions of the various stages of this research according to the timetable STAGE DATE Literature Review completed 27th September 2014 Collecting Data completed 13th October 2014 Analyzing Data completed 18th October 2014 First complete draft to frontline tutor 20th October 2014 Revision completed 25th October 2014 Final submission deadline 28th October 2014 References Adeyemo, D.A. (1999). Relative influence of gender and working experience on job satisfaction of primary school teachers. The Primary School Educators, 1, 1, 86-89. 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