Motivation is the emotional stimulus that causes us to act. The stimulus may be a need or a drive that energizes certain behaviors. At work motivation is a combination of all factors in our working environment that lead to positive or negative efforts. If we understand what motivate us, we are more likely to achieve our personal and professional goals. Likewise, if organizations know how to motivate employees, they can increase productivity. This ability to boost production is increasingly important as U.S. organizations compete in the global market. While all companies make some effort to motivate employees, a growing number or organizations are introducing new strategies, including different compensation packages, as a means of motivating today’s workers. People need to be appreciated to motivate them. Our behavior is influenced by motivation. We have primary and secondary needs that affect our behavior. Some people can be satisfied by salary and working conditions. Motivation is definitely a challenge and employees need ongoing training to acquire new skills and knowledge.
Predicting motivation is difficult. To understand what motivates someone, we must guess what physiological and psychological processes underlie behavior. For example, if Yvonne works much harder that Janet, we assume that Yvonne is more highly motivated than Janet to achieve some goal—perhaps a bonus (http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/03/02/pink.motivation.bonuses/index.html), a promotion, or the prestige associated with being the top producer in the organization. Yvonne seemingly has a stronger need to work hard. However, unless Yvonne tells us why, we can only presume what her motivation or need may be.
Through studies of motivation and beha...
... middle of paper ...
...nson) says that the fastest way to motivate individuals is by applying a little praise. In fact, the book’s advice is to “catch them doing something right!” It stresses that praise should be specific, appropriate, and immediate.
A strong motivational factor influencing worker behavior today is the desire for more leisure time. Increasingly, employers are finding their work places deserted an hour before end of day on Friday’s. Employees slip away for an early start on the weekend’s activities. This practice obviously affects productivity through lost work time, but it can also have an effect on employee morale. Dedicated employees who stay on the job until closing time resent having to handle the work left by those who skip out.
More and more innovative approaches to motivating today’s workers may be seen as we adjust to the changing needs of the workforce.
All employees analyze their environment and strive to be recognized and rewarded for their hard work and dedication they put into the company, in a word they are seeking justice. Justice can be defined as a person receiving what they feel they are entitled to and if they do not receive what they deserve the situation may board on injustice. Unfortunately in today’s society justice and appreciation are not given out to all those deserving (Pinder, 1998). A major problem to address is how to keep the motivation level high in a company when the employees do not feel appreciated.
Every person has a motivating factor that makes them go to work. Some people go to work for the paycheck or the benefits, others go to work for the social aspect or experience, these are incentives. Incentives are the most common motivating factor for people to complete tasks. This is also called, work motivation. Work motivation is defined as “A force that drives people to behave in a way that energizes, directs, and sustains their work behavior” (Steers, R. M., Mowday, R. T., & Shapiro, D. L., 2004). In contrast to the benefits of incentives, incentives are commonly counterproductive because they undermine the intrinsic motivation of an individual, this is the overjustification effect.
Motivation is not something that comes easily. More times than not motivation comes in spurts. When those times happen, it is imperative to make sure that one takes full advantage of the rare time. According to the online site, Business Dictionary, motivation is defined as both internal and external factors that stimulate desire and energy in people to be continually interested and committed to a job, role or subject or to make an effort to attain a goal.
Many of the emerging business practices such as flexible work schedule, tele-commuting, the use of social media at work, the implementation of performance appraisals and reward programs based on goals and objectives reached vs. hours of work, are based on these needs based theories. The effectiveness of motivational practices will depend on how well organizations take into consideration the values, needs and priorities of their workforce to develop rewards and incentives programs
Employee motivation seems to be a constant problem in the working world. It is true, not everyone is going to absolutely love their job and want to do it five out of seven days a week. Everyone has their bad days where all they want to do is just go home and get away from the office, which is okay. The problem with those people that dislike their job every single day, is that their dislike makes them completely unmotivated to work. This lack of motivation can then rub off on other employees in the office and it can be very hard to get people motivated unless they have the desire to be. I have noticed a few employees at my workplace that seem to be having trouble motivating themselves to do their job. This can be caused by many different things, such as: their perception of their
The link between employee motivation and the rewards they receive from their employers are vital to maintaining a loyal, reliable and steady workforce. The two categories of rewards, also referred to as motivators, are intrinsic and extrinsic. “The primary difference between the two types of motivators are extrinsic factors arise from outside the body of the employee, where as intrinsic elements arise from within the employee.” (Cherry, About.com) Extrinsic motivators for example would consist of working to earn money, job security, and rewards like extra time off, earned vacation days, a pay raise etc. Intrinsic motivators involve the personal motivating factors within an employee that keep them satisfied while
“Motivation is the will and desire that a person has to engage in a particular behaviour or perform a particular task” (Lawley & King, P269). In life motivation will be needed to enhance the workforce in various ways, many organisations will use motivation to increase the percentage yield of an individual or to make an individual feel a part of the business or organisation. Incentives have a huge influence on behaviourist & extrinsic approach. In addition other aspects; humanist theorist, intrinsic approach, Taylorism and Fordism have a part in perception of motivation.
Personal Reflection Paper #3 According to the management scholars Richard Kreitchner and Carlene Cassidy, “the term motivation, refers to a physiological process that gives behavior purpose and direction” (328). In chapter 12 of the book entitled “Management,” authors Kreitchner and Cassidy discuss how managers can attempt to motivate their employees effectively. The authors insist that managers can work to keep employees loyal to organizations by “administering rewards fairly, building trust and teamwork, and creating a stimulating work environment” (328).
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....
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
Ability in in turn depends on education, experience and training and its improvement is a slow and long process. On the other hand motivation can be improved quickly. There are many options and an uninitiated manager may even know where to start. As a guideline seven strategies for motivation.
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).
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...