The old proverb you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink stands true for some leaders today as many employees are led to something but only accomplishes what the employee wants to accomplish. However, if the leader of employees, similar to the leader of the horse, knows their followers, the leader will know when the employees are thirsty and for what they thirst. If the leader knows their employee they lead the follows to water, the followers will drink the majority of the time. Ironically, if a leader is truly observant and earnest, the follower might lead the leader to where the follower wants to go.
The concept above is not that difficult to understand, but for some it is very difficult to achieve. Why? Some leaders either forgot or just do not take time to know their employees (Bell & Smith, 2010). De Meuse, Dai, and Wu (2011) discussed how managers become less flexible in communications with subordinates as the managers and executives progress in the corporate hierarchy caused by more stringent obligations and performance expectations of the new positions. This break in communication affects how the executives and managers get to know their subordinates and leads to more employees not drinking when lead to water.
The focus of this paper is to cultivate a better understanding of motivational theories, not thirsty horses, for effective implementation to find what makes and what keeps employees motivated (Bateman, 2010; Bell & Smith, 2010; Bohm, 2012; Fiol, Pratt, & O'Connor, 2009; Nickerson, Yen, & Mahoney, 2012; Park & Rainey, 2012; Țebeian, 2012; Žikić, Marinović, & Trandafilović, 2012). First, the paper will focus on four specific motivations theories for needs, expectancy, equity, and attitude...
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Motivation play an important role in today’s work environment as motivated employees are more productive employees. However, the ways how we motivate the employees have to be improved from time to time as employees are being more demanding and that they are more concern about their needs than before. Motivational strategies have probably affected the most by employee concerns and values (Greiner 1986, p. 82). ‘A motivational strategy is any effort to induce employees to initiate and sustain activities that can directly or indirectly improve service productivity’ (Greiner 1986, p. 82). Motivation can have an effect on the output of your business and concerns both quantity and quality. For example, if you are in a manufacturing company, your business actually relies heavily on your production staff to make sure that quality product are being produce and being delivered to your client at the right time. However, if your production employees are lack of motivation they will be not motivated to produce the amount of product demanded, thus will be very costly. In the essay below, we will be discussing on the strength and weaknesses of McClelland’s acquired needs theory and the expectancy theory.
Timpano, K. R., Keough, M. E., Mahaffey, B., Schmidt, N. B., & Abramowitz, J. (2010).
Employee motivation has always been a central problem in the workplace, and, as an individual in a supervisory position, it becomes one’s duty to understand and institute systems that ensure the proper motivation of your subordinates. Proper motivation of employees can ensure high productivity and successful workflow, while low worker motivation can result in absenteeism, decreased productivity rates, and turnover. A large body of research has been produced regarding motivation, and much of this research is applicable to the workplace. Due to the nature of man, motivation varies from individual to individual, and, because of this, there is no one system that is the best for ensuring worker motivation in every organizational situation, and, as a product, many theories have been created to outline what drives people to satisfactorily complete their work tasks. Throughout the course of this document, the three main types of these motivational theories will be outlined and examples of each, as well as how these theories can be used to further strengthen and sustain worker motivation....
Research has shown that motivation in an employee is an important factor which determines his performance. Motivation is the “driving force within individuals” (Mullins, 2007, p. 285). It is the concerned with finding out the reasons which shape and direct the behaviour of the individuals. The people act to achieve something so that they can satisfy some needs (Gitman and Daniel, 2008). It is important for the manager to understand this motivation of individual employees in order to inspire them and devise an appropriate set of incentives and rewards which would satisfy the needs that they have individually (Kerr, 2003). Once these needs are expected to be met in return for some specific behaviour or action, they would work more diligently to have that behaviour in them and to achieve that objective (Meyer and Hersovitch, 2001). Since it would lead to early and fuller achievement of the company objectives as the individual would work more diligently, it would lead to better organizational performance (Wiley, 1997).
majority of employees need motivation to feel good about their jobs and perform optimally. Some employees are money oriented while others find acknowledgment and accolades personally motivating. Motivation levels within the workplace have a point-blank impact on employee effciency. Workers who are driven and excited about their jobs carry out their obligations/duties to the best of their capacity and generation numbers increment therefore. An impetus is an inspiring impact that is intended to drive
Barker, V., Giles, H., Hajek, C., Ota, H., Noels, K., Lim, T-S., & Somera, L. (2008).
Motivation is the force that transforms and uplifts people to be productive and perform in their jobs. Maximizing employee’s motivation is a necessary and vital to successfully accomplish the organization’s targets and objectives. However, this is a considerable challenge to any organizations managers, due to the complexity of motivation and the fact that, there is no ready made solution or an answer to what motivates people to work well (Mullins,2002).
Zhang, X, & BARTOL, K., 2010. Linking empowering leadership and employee creativity-The influence of psychological empowerment, intrinsic motivation, and creative process engagement. Academy of Management Journal, 53, 107-128.