In an organization, it is very important to learn how to motivate employees. Motivation refers to the set of forces that influence people to choose various behaviors among several alternatives available to them. The performance of an employee is definitely affected by motivation, his capabilities, and the work environment (Shanks, 2007). The management of an organization is constantly under the challenge of motivating the workforce for two purposes. The first reason is to motivate employees into actively and willingly participating in the achievement of organizational goals. Second is to motivate employees into to attaining personal goals (Shanks, 2007). This paper aims at exploring the behavior based, need based, and job based theories of motivation that can aid management in motivating their employees.
Behavior Based Motivation Theories
Behavior based motivation is built on the theory that employee behavior is directly linked to the consequences of their actions. As noted by Satterlee, the behavioral based methods of motivation “involve responding to subordinate behavior with positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, or extinction” (2009, p. 170). It has been proven through experiments that positive and negative reinforcement create positive behavior. Punishment and extinction have been shown to stop behaviors but also have been shown to have a negative effect on the employee’s morale.
Equity Theory
The Equity Theory is based on the idea that the reward potential of employees is compared with the effort they must put in work. Equity is attained when the rewards offered are equal to the effort that is put in work. In this theory, employees are not just concerned about their rewards but those of others as we...
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Nicholson, N. (2003). How to motivate your problem people. Harvard Business Review, 81(1), 57-65. Retrieved February 21, 2012 from http://rx9vh3hy4r.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=How+to+motivate+your+problem+people&rft.jtitle=Harvard+business+review&rft.au=Nicholson%2C+Nigel&rft.date=2003-01-01&rft.issn=0017-8012&rft.volume=81&rft.issue=1&rft.spage=56&rft_id=info:pmid/12545923&rft.externalDocID=12545923
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Shanks, N.H. (2007). Management and motivation. New York: Jones and Barlett.
To be in a position to motivate people, it is key to understand what actually motivates them in
While motivational and job satisfaction theories can help employers or leaders to gauge what motivates their employees, it is impossible for them to be used to explain all motivating factors. By analyzing these theories, it is possible to understand their basic concepts, and see how they can be an advantage in motivating their employees to the best possible outcome for the
“Equity considerations play a major role not only in the evolution of distributive systems but all in the emergence of supporting ideologies and the processes through which distributive systems are challenged and replaced” (Cook,K.S., & Parcel, T.L. 1997, p.2). Therefore, when the employees are rewarded for their work they will most likely work harder to restore the balance of equity. Whereas if an employee is under rewarded the employee will most likely do the opposite and not work as hard. The ongoing issue at Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant was that the employees were being under- rewarded and not appreciated by upper management, which lead to low productivity that severely impacted the companies
Motivational theories can be applied in a multitude of situations, but in this case the problems that must be resolved include poor morale, low performance levels, and frequent absences. After speaking with the employees it was found that none of them cared about their performance in the workplace. To properly address these issues, Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory, McClelland’s Theory, and McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y can be applied. Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory can be used to improve working conditions and decrease employee dissatisfaction. Doing so would potentially motivate employees to perform better in the workplace and be more inclined to be involved in the job. Applying McClelland’s Theory would allow for the employees three basic categories
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).
Robbins and Judge define motivation by means of three elements. The first element is defined as being the process that account for an individual’s intensity which is concerned with how hard a person tries. The second element is direction that benefits the organization and the third element is persistence which is a measure of how long a person can maintain effort. Motivation is also driven by certain situations that vary between individuals and within individuals, at different times. (Robbins & Judge, 2007, p.186) These elements should not only be expected from employees but from managers as well.
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.
In daily life, we need motivation to improve our performance in our job or in studies. Motivation is an internal force, dependent on the needs that drive a person to achieve. In the other words, motivation is a consequence of expectations of the future while satisfaction is a consequence of past events (Carr, 2005). We need to give reward to our self when we did correctly or we has achieve our target. Reward is something that we are given because we have behaved well, worked hard, or provided a service to the community. Theories of motivation can be used to explain the behavior and attitude of employees (Rowley, 1996; Weaver, 1998). The theories include content theories, based on assumptions that people have individual needs, which motivate their action. Meanwhile according to Robbins (2001), motivation is a needs-satisfying process, which means that when a person's needs are satisfied by certain factors, the person will exert superior effort toward attaining organizational goals. Schulze and Steyn (2003) affirmed that in order to understand people’s behavior at work, managers or supervisors must be aware of the concept of needs or motives which will help “move” their employees to act.Theories such as Maslow (1954), McClelland (1961), Herzberg (1966) and Alderfer (1969) are renowned for their works in this field. The intrinsic reward or also be known as motivators factors is the part of Herzberg motivation theory. Motivators are involve factors built into the job or the studies itself such as achievement, recognition, responsibility and advancement. Hygiene factors are extrinsic to the job such as interpersonal relationship, salary, supervision and company policy (Herzberg, 1966. There have two factors that are called hygiene fac...
Motivation is therefore the force that transforms and uplifts people to be productive and perform in their jobs. Maximising an employee's motivation is necessary and vital to successfully accomplish the organisation's objectives and targets. However this is a considerable challenge to any organisation's 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).
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).
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...
People’s behaviour is determined by what motivates them. The aim of this essay is to discuss the essence of the motivation and psychological strengths, its evolution, a brief overview of the key theories of the employees’ motivation and behaviour analysis. The main task is to understand how motivation affects employee behaviour and to clarify the importance of motivation. In this essay I will discuss and produce definitions and examples to answer the main question of what is the driving force and how do people’s needs influence performance at work?
Employee performance defines the individual performance and behavior. It is essential to understand that performance is not merely a tasks and work need to be done to receive bonus or pay increase. Main objective is to enhance the skills set of an individual while helping the business performance (Baker, 1999).