Employee Motivation - Term Paper Example

The concepts underlying diversity suggest that the organizations which employ a diversified workforce are in a better position to understand the dynamics of the market in large demographical settings. As such a firm therefore can take advantage of the diversified base of employees to better tap into the local knowledge and better equip themselves to face the challenges in the market. Promoting diversity therefore can effectively provide organizations a competitive advantage in terms of having a diversified workforce.

One of the key benefits of the diversity therefore is that organizations can tap into the local knowledge and therefore can allow the flourishing of innovativeness and creativity within the organization. However, diversity can be difficult to manage due to cultural differences between the employees. The traditional hierarchy of the management within organizations therefore may not be able to completely comprehend the challenges posed by a rich cultural diversity within the organization. As such diversity can also result into the creation of different power structures within the organization based on ethnic and cultural backgrounds of the employees.

For example, it may be difficult for a manager to manage employees belonging to different ethnic and cultural groups owing to the fact that the manager may be unaware of the cultural norms and practices of different groups of employees. I however, agree that the diversity can provide an strategic advantage to the organizations because it can offer the opportunity to utilize a diversified base of local knowledge besides having allowing the flourishing of creativity and innovativeness. 3) Employee motivation is one of the key tasks leaders and managers have to perform in order to ensure that employee deliver the desired level of performance.

Though it may be hard to define motivation however, it suggests that motivation is ensuring that the overall needs and desires of the individuals are fulfilled by the organization. Motivation is also considered as internal derive to achieve the desired level of satisfaction at the individual level. (Lindner, 1998) Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of motivation outlined different stages of motivation and stage 1 of the hierarchy therefore suggest that the fulfillment of the physical needs of the individuals is the basic requirement.

It is assumed that the basic needs are often fulfilled with the help of money and therefore money serves as the primary motivator which can help the employees to obtain things of material comfort. Herzberg’s two factor theory however, suggest that the money may not be a primary motivator for the individuals. Leaders can therefore result into increasing the overall level of motivation because leaders enjoy different power to reward the employees for their performance and therefore can create the desired level of motivation. 4) Higher level of employee motivation can result into higher performance and as such if employees are rewarded adequately they can perform exceptionally well.

Since leaders have the power to reward and punish the employees therefore leaders can often generate the desired level of motivation and achieve the required performance. Further, the charisma of the leaders as well as the power to influence followers can also allow leaders to achieve the desired level of performance from the employees. It is also important to understand that higher level of knowledge and skills can actually increase the productivity of the employees. Leaders therefore by offering training and development opportunities to the employees can improve their productivity.

Bibliography Lindner, J. R. (1998). Understanding Employee Motivation. Retrieved April 04, 2011, from Journal of Extension: http://www.joe.org/joe/1998june/rb3.php