Q1. XYZ Ltd has hired you as a consultant in order to devise a strategy to motivate their employees. Can you guide them with monetary and non-monetary Employee Motivating factors? (10 Marks)
Employee motivation is something important for any organisation which will enable a company to enhance the performance and retain in the competitive markets. It is a very sophisticated subject where employee motivation is subjective and may differ from one person to another based on their economic levels, family sizes, social interaction, attitudes, values, etc. therefore companies should carefully identify the need for rewards based on the category of employees it possesses. At the same time, top level managers need to review previous practices held at the company towards the motivation and initiate new programmes accordingly (Kim, 2006).
It is fundamental that rewards schemes need to be matched and enhance the level of motivation of its employees. Employee motivation is significant, which will influence their behaviour to ultimately decide whether the organisation is a success or a failure. It is evident that organisational success and its future highly depending on the concept of employee motivation and managers should understand the way they can contribute for the organisational success. Daft and Marcic (2004) stated motivation as “the forces either within or external to a person that arouse enthusiasm and persistence to pursue a certain course of action”. Also at the same time motivation refers to psychological processes which energise and direct the behaviour of employees to achieve organisational goals. For that organisation needs to make a climate which will support the employee motivation where they need to enhance their potential of working with high level of job satisfaction, elimination of frustration, enthusiastic working conditions and etc. (Islam & Ismail, 2008).
Getting the things done from the people at their best levels need motivation where studies have explored four main specific areas where the motivation is to be measured at the work place as engagement, satisfaction, commitment, and intention of working. Those will naturally motivate the people and also act as the indicators of employee retention (fewer turnovers). Emotional aspects of employees play a vital role in motivation (particularly selfmotivation) moreover organisational contribution is required through reward system, internal organisational culture, job design, performance management and resource allocation. In reward systems, it is the easiest way to satisfy the employees where it discriminates the poor performers and the best while giving the opportunities for employees in advancement. This system needs to be designed in a way that motivates the employees to done their work at maximum level. All the financial indicators are included here. Secondly culture refers to the bond between the company as well as individuals it will promote teamwork, collaboration, openness, and friendship, etc. thirdly job design should be done at meaningful, interesting as well as challenging manner. Finally, a fair, transparent, trustworthy performance management and resource allocation system will meet the employee enthusiasm as well as job satisfaction with motivation (Nohria et.al, 2008).
It is evident that employees are at different stages of their lives and needs are becoming complicated with the maturity. Therefore, different management approaches are essential time to time with continuous updating. In this span of time different motivational drives are needed as financial and non-financial. Therefore, it is managers’ responsibility to understand the requirements and approach them with a combination of incentives. No one can initiate the motivation where it depends on the individual perception and attitudes. The concept of human resource management is all about managing people effectively towards goals and objective where motivation is intrinsic where managers need to provide guidance and support to enhance the motivation of the individuals. One can argue that managers don’t have sufficient time to spend on motivating their subordinates and employees themselves should motivate and be committed on the organisational performance. But it is rare that intrinsic values come into the play. Theories of motivation in everywhere will prove that there is a need for motivation in the workplaces in terms of financial and non-financial means (Burton, 2012).
Definitions of Motivation
Just like any other word, there are variations of definitions to describe a concept. Motivation too has many different definitions, but it is important to focus on those that are related to the workplace. Understanding exactly what motivation is will help managers decide what actions to take to encourage their employees (Burton, 2012). The definition of motivation starts with the root word, motive. Webster’s Dictionary defines motive as, something that causes a person to act. Therefore, motivation can be defined as, The act of providing motive that causes someone to act (Shanks, 2012). In other words, according to Nancy Shanks, motivation causes someone to act and someone else cannot make someone motivated. It is the discretion of the person to decide if they are going to be motivated or not. Motivated and unmotivated are not opposites, but instead, there are determining factors that could cause someone to be unmotivated, such as life events and attitudes towards a specific job. Motivation is the process that account for an individual’s intensity, direction and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal (Robbins, 2005) Motivation is the result of the interaction of a person’s internalized needs and external influences that determine behaviour (Plunkett &Attner, 1997).
Motivation is a key strategy in human resource management which has direct results in operating capability and utilizing organization’s manpower to their full capacity by concentrating on motivation to attract quality and good applicants to join the organization and to retain existing personnel (Snell &Bohlander, 2013). The majority of organizations, use monetary and non-monetary reword system to motive their people (Harunavamwe&Kanengoni, 2013)
Each person is motivated by different things and it is important to know how they are motivated in order to direct motivation towards the realization of organizational goals (Rabideau, 2005). Reviewing the theories of motivation helps us to understand what drives people to initiate action and to engage in certain practices in the workplace
Types of Motivation
There are two main types of motivational classification is available as intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic refers to inner drive to motivation that comes from inside a person rather than from any other rewards, such as money or grades. If a person intrinsically motivated then he/she will be able to work find a solution to the prevailing problems and take that opportunity as a challenge with pleasure mentality. Since a person is intrinsically motivated then it’s easy for organisations to drive him/her towards achieving goals and objectives. Meanwhile extrinsic motivation refers the vice versa of the previous concept where the motivation coming from outside of a person (Schneider, 2012).
Figure 2 .1 – Combination of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation with personal and interpersonal attractions This figure illustrates the combination of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation with personal and interpersonal attraction (Schneider, 2012).
In the intrinsic cage, personal satisfaction is vital with social interaction where according to the Herzberg Dual Factor theory this is more tending to motivational factors in which contributes to positive mental and health conditions such as achievement, recognition of achievement, work itself, responsibility, advancement, etc. with higher job satisfaction of the need for psychological growth.
In extrinsic part of the 16 above figure examines personal rewards, public recognition as the main aspects where it is more related to hygiene factors provided due to job dissatisfaction (Schneider, 2012).
KEY MOTIVATION TECHNIQUES
Company policies and administration, interpersonal relations, supervision, working conditions, salaries, status, security, etc. will provide personal rewards as well as public recognition (Nelson & Quick, 2013). Lin (2007) identified that motivation is a drive for knowledge sharing where intrinsic and extrinsic components are there for knowledge sharing as well. Employees extrinsic knowledge sharing is highly depending on their perception and the value association with it. Where people assess the value based on cost benefit analysis in which rewards are seen as benefits and effort of exchanging knowledge is seen as a cost. But when it comes to intrinsic component of it is the satisfaction, acquiring of new knowledge, exchange of ideas with people, etc. which are work as triggers for motivation.
Reference: http://dl.lib.uom.lk/bitstream/handle/123/13332/TH3439.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
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