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Theories on the impact of motivation on employee performance
Motivation theories and employee performance
Theories on the impact of motivation on employee performance
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In this essay I will set upon doing the following two questions:
1) Explain in detail one of the theories of motivation and assess its value in the current business environment
2) Explain one of the contingency theories of leadership.
1) The one theory of motivation that I will be explaining in the first question is Abraham Maslow’s needs hierarchy; some may call it his content theory of motivation aswell. The theory was based around nine needs that Maslow found out through research that effected people motivation in work. The nine different needs are listed below.
1) Biological needs: These are basic needs for human life to survive, for example the need for food water rest an oxygen
2) Safety needs: These are needs for the worker to feel protected in the organisation. To feel security and comfort with in the workplace
3) Affiliation needs: These are the workers needs to feel associated by the organisation. It is a feeling of belongingness, almost like a relationship with work.
4) Esteem needs: for the worker to feel strength, achievement, recognition and appreciation. They want to be respected by other employees that they work with, they want to be valued. They want to feel as if they are progressing in the work place, as if they are working towards a goal.
5) The need to Know and Understand: The need for the employee to understand there job and gain more in dept knowledge about it.
6) Aesthetic needs: For structure and attractiveness
7) Transcendence need: This need is usually described as “ cosmic identification ”
8) The Need of Freedom and Expression
9) The needs of Self-actualization: to progress and develop to our full potential
Maslow broke the needs into a hierarchy structure ranging them in order fro...
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...re on his/her subordinates. A task-oriented manager ignores resistance from the subordinates, combats the uncertainty around the workplace and achieves good results.
Many see flaws in Fiedler’s theory as they feel that it does not take in to account the feeling and needs of the subordinates in the group. It also discards technical competence that the leader must have to be successful. Some also feel that the process of LPC (Least Preferred Co-worker) is very negatively worded and this situation can be very hard to measure.
However despite these flaws there is some strengths to take out of the theory, firstly it backs up the importance of identifying the contextual factors in deciding the leaders behaviour. It also provides managers with a process to help them identify there leadership style so that they can develop or correct it if needed.
Accordingly, Fiedler’s contingency template speculates that the circumstances determines the method of leadership and encourages the conduct of a manager. Fiedler 's contingency philosophy is one contingency concept which maintains that applicable management is contingent not merely on the approach of leading but on the influence over the circumstances. Therefore, there must to be effective leader-member interactions, assignment with well-defined objectives and processes, and the aptitude for the leader to administer incentives and reprimands. Deficiencies of these three in an amalgamation and circumstance will bring about leadership catastrophe. Fiedler constructed the least preferred co-worker (LPC) hierarchy, where a leader is queried what personalities can be attributed to the colleague that the leader enjoys the least. (Leadership-Central.com,
Self-esteem includes confidence, achievement, respect of others, and a need to be a unique individual. Being confident looks good on everyone, though some are more confident than others it still is needed to better yourself. Someone that gives there all nonstop and always does there best and never tries to take short cuts are the ones that everyone envies in school. They are the ones that get praised by all the teachers and they get awarded for doing their best. This can be both good and bad, good because then it shows the student that they are doing good and it makes themselves feel a lot better and it gives them confidence. Bad though because then it makes the other students feel bad about them and that causes their self-esteem to drop. Getting respect by a teacher and giving it is important to maintain a great classroom environment. If both parties are getting the respect needed, then everything works out in perfect harmony and the student can continue to work hard and the teacher can continue to help the student work
The theory reduces the expectations from the leader, instead focuses on matching the leader to a task
Steers, T. M., Mowday, R. T., & Shapiro, D. L. (2004). Introduction to Special Topic Forum: The Future of Work Motivation Theory. The Academy of Management Review, 29 (3), 379-387.
This theory says that effective leadership occurs when there is a fair exchange between the leader and those being led. Both sides benefit from the exchange that takes place according to this theory.
Depending on how motivated we are, it may further determine the effort we put into our work and therefore increase the standard of the productivity. There have been a wide variety of theories about motivation developed over the years. Several are drive-reduction theory, arousal theory, psychosocial (both incentive and cognitive) theory, and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
According to House, the essence of the theory is “the meta proportion that leaders, to be effective, engage in behaviors that complement subordinates environments and abilities in a manner that compensates for deficiencies and is instrumental to subordinates satisfaction and individual and work unit performance”
Motivation is an important concept which is critical for understanding of and improvement in organizational behaviour and performance. It is therefore important for the managers to understand motivation. It is an important tool which they can use to get more out of their employees and increase organizational performance. Motivation can be defined as the factors, both internal as well as external which arouse in individuals the desire and commitment for a job (Mele, 2005, p. 15). Organizational performance on the other hand refers to the degree to which the organizational objectives have been achieved.
Maslow needs theory has received wide recognition particularly among practicing managers. Perhaps it could provide some valuable insight in motivation. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs “hypothesized that within every human being there exists a hierarchy of five needs. Maslow separated the five needs into higher and lower orders. Physiological and safety needs were described as lower-order needs and social, esteem, and self-actualization as higher-order needs. As each of these needs becomes substantially satisfied, the next need becomes dominant. So if you want to motivate someone, you need to understand what level of the hierarchy that person is currently on and focus on satisfying the needs at or above that level.” (Robbins & Judge, 2007, p.187)
..., safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization needs. He put these needs in a pyramid shape; meaning that without the prior need met the next need can not be met. Managers must know that people must have these certain needs met before they can be productive. If someone is hungry of worried about their safety than they will not be as great of an asset as someone who has these needs met. Not only do managers need to recognize these needs but they also need to find a way to satisfy the needs of their workers.
Motivation is the reason or purpose behind action, or what causes one to act in a particular manner. Motivation can either be intrinsic or extrinsic in nature, yet it rests solely within the power of the individual actor to be motivated (or not) by intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. Motivation is an extremely important topic of discussion in the larger discourse on leadership. It is important because it provides the basis for human action, or inaction. Leaders must be able to understand what motivates their followers in a hope to use that knowledge to guide them to behave in a certain way that is beneficial for the organization. To do so, it behooves leaders to understand the basic concepts and theories of motivation that abound.
Motivation is an important function in organizations to motivate their employees for their ability to perform well, improving their skills, increasing productivity, job satisfaction and employee extension. Employees also are not a machines that we could just program their task in their brain and they will do it automatically, they require motivation to actually do their job properly. And so, after discussing the process models of the Maslow’s “Hierarchy of needs”, Douglas McGregor theory X and Y, and also the Herzberg’s “two factor motivation hygiene theory.” understanding the ways of motivating people, the human nature, and the substance of nature. I believe that the true motivation can only come from within and also managers can actually motivate all of their employees.
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...
Theories of motivation consists two parts. Content and process motivation theories. Content motivation theories focuses mainly on people needs and explains why people have different needs at different times. Content theories of motivation treated as a need or desire, to act for the sake of promoting a certain goal. One most prominent theorist Abraham Maslow (1943) proposed the hierarchy of needs. It states that all the needs of the people can be divided into five categories, aligned incentive effect in descending order: (psychological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualization needs). Psychological are the basic needs to survive, e.g. food, clothes, shelter, warmth, sleep, etc. Safety are the needs like security, stability, freedom from fear, etc. Social needs are the feelings of belongingness, acceptance, being part
Thompson, P & Mchugh, D 2002, Work organisations: A critical introduction, 3rd edn, MacMillan Palgrave, New York, viewed 4 April 2014, http://site.ebrary.com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/lib/uow/docDetail.action?docID=10038997&p00=organisational+behaviour.