Introduction
There are a number of different views as to what motivates workers. The most commonly held views or theories have been developed over the last 100 years & were subjected to an intensive amount of research and studies. Unfortunately these theories do not all reach the same conclusions!. However, they share a group of characteristics that can be used to give an understanding of what often causes some employees to perform better than others in the workplace.
Motivating employees has become a more challenging issue facing today’s managers. According to a recent major survey, 92 percent of employers said that motivating employees has become more challenging. Globalization, new generation’s workplace expectations, workers’ unions, humanitarianism, information technology, and corporate restructuring are the major factors shaping the today’s work environments.
Theorists and researchers have learned a lot throughout the years about motivation. Managers need to consider motivation insights and theories when attempting to create positive motivational atmospheres for their employees.
No matter what their nationality or personal background, people are driven to fulfill need and to achieve goals. Determining these goals and need and understanding their relations with the organization’s objectives is a complex & difficult question to answer.
In this paper, the case of Corning Co. flexible working hours, Steelcase Co. job sharing, and downsizing will be discussed. These ideas will be examined against the different theories of motivation to measure the impact of them on today’s workers.
Literature Review
Corning and Steelcase companies have started using new ways of motivating their employees. They basically, started co...
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...vation. Revenues, net income and job growth for these companies were substantially higher than they were for companies with average levels of employee satisfaction
Conclusion
Success in business hinges on the ability to use assets more effectively than competitors. Because employees typically represent a company’s most valuable asset, they also represent the largest opportunity to improve company performance — and shareholder returns. By understanding the factors that motivate employees and the processes by which we can influence those factors, we will be better able to increase our employees’ discretionary effort and, as a result, our company’s performance.
Because every company is unique, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to employee motivation. It’s up to management to determine the combination of practices that will have the greatest impact on employees.
Latham, G. P & Pinder, C. C 2005, Work Motivation Theory and Research at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century, Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 56, Issue 1, pp. 485-516, viewed 8 March 2014,
Employee Motivation: A Powerful New Model? Harvard Business Review. Latham G.P. and Pinder C.C. (2005). The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary'. Work Motivation Theory and Research at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century.
Organizations everywhere use different methods to push members of their organization to complete various tasks on a daily basis. Whether these approaches are successful or not successful, displays how effective the organization’s motivating factors really are. Motivation is an essential element that must be incorporated into every organization to ensure that goals are accomplished and so that members of the organization always stick to their mission. James Porter and Lyman Porter define motivation as “the degree and type of effort that an individual exhibits in a behavioral situation…and has to do with the direction and quality of that effort” (Perry, 2005). People often wonder what factors cause an individual to perform their job in a certain
Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, “Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.” Studies have found that high employee motivation goes hand in hand with strong organizational performance and profits. Therefore, managers are given the responsibility of finding the right combination of motivational techniques and rewards to satisfy employees’ needs and encourage great work performance. This becomes a bit more challenging as employees’ needs change from one generation to another. Three of the biggest challenges a manager faces in motivating employees today are the economy and threats to job security, technological advances, and company cultures that primarily focus on the bottom line.
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....
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
The job of a manager in the workplace is to get things done through employees. To do this the manager should be able to motivate employees. But that’s easier said than done! Motivation practice and theory are difficult subject, touching on several disciplines.
Different companies and departments of those companies have very different approaches to motivate their workers to being the best they can. For example, I worked for three years at a food Store called Wegmans when I was younger. I worked as a cashier which was interesting to say the least. Managers were always trying to motivate the cashiers to go that much faster, be that much friendlier, and to be more efficient at every opportunity. They took many different approaches to find what would motivate each cashier, which was a difficult task considering how young each cashier was, the large number of us their were, and how different each employee was from the other.
Staying ahead of the competition and increasing profits are the fundamental objectives for every organization. However, many firms today continue to invest extensively in business development activities and less on employee productivity. This mindset ignores the firm’s chief asset and its core foundation, its workforce.
...s in the corporate world by setting new standards to promote and better satisfy their employees. We chose four leading companies in four different industries. The above analysis definitely reveals that perhaps one of the reasons why these companies are the leaders in their industry is because they are well aware of the importance of the work force. They mention in their mission statements as well that yes in deed customers are important but in order to make the customer happy they first need to motivate and satisfy the employee as well. According to Citibank, the general belief is that a happy worker is a motivated and loyal one. So keeping employees' spirits high is a sure-fire way of maintaining a productive workforce. A productive work force would ultimately lead to a healthy organization which would not only promote the society its working for but also itself.
Kovach KA (1987). What motivates employees? Workers and supervisors give different answers. Business Horizons, 30. 58-65. Print. 8 Feb. 2014.
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).
Today businesses believe that the sustaining of performance and competitive advantage to becoming a great organization. As an organization’s success depends on their employees’ performance, the value of specific individual employee has played an important role within an organization to be competitive. At that time, the value of each and individual employee and their satisfaction with their jobs are one of the key factors for an organization and organizations need to find ways to improve employee job satisfaction to achieve organizational goals.
Motivation, as defined in class, is the energy and commitment a person is prepared to dedicate to a task. In most of organisations, motivation is one of the most troublesome problems. Motivation is about the intensity, direction and persistence of reaching a goal. During the class, we have learned a substantial theories of motivation and many theories of motivations are used in real business. Each theory seems to have different basic values. But, they all have been analysed for one reason, recognising what motivates and increases the performance of employees. Ident...
It has been observed that motivated and satisfied employees have directly relate with the business performance, profitability and eventually, its stability (Shemiah, 2009). However, dissatisfied and less committed employees have a negative impacts on the performance and profitability of an organization (McKinley, Sanchez, & Schick, 1995). It should be taken into account that disengaged and less efficient employees cost the organization thousands while losing the productivity (Hislop,