Employee Motivation and Performance
According to Simons & Enz,(1995) Employee motivation is usually based on a force that
pushes people to make a particular job choice ,like to choose to remain in the job or put more
effort in to the job .In the motivational need theory ,study by Ramlall,(2004) shows that a
need can grow from either physiological or psychological shortages that provoke ones
behaviour .After an employee is well content with the psychological needs ,the next need in
the hierarchy consists of the safety and security needs, needs for love ,affection and
belongingness .So as to motivate its employees a company should reflect both intrinsic and
extrinsic variables .The intrinsic variables consists of feeling of being involved of the
employees ,supervisors help with personal problems ,interesting work ,promotion or career
development and full appreciation of a job well done. The extrinsic variables that company
should consider are the job security, good wages, diplomatic discipline and good working
conditions (Wong-On-Wing, 2010)
According to Simons & Enz (1995) it is significant for a company to know what motivates its
employees ,it is necessary to recognise tipped workers and the practice of tipping as it has
been seen that over three million people earn income from tips (Wessels, 1997).According to
Azar,(2003) there are over thirty-three service professions that get tips ,it is assumed that
tipping has repercussions for economic and management .So as to involve in employee
motivation practise ,employers should understand the unfulfilled needs of the employee
group. Empirical research shows that those who hold effort acknowledgements tend to
exhibit more positive learning behaviour ,such as ,goal setting that emphases on learning
rather than performance (Miller, 1997).Use of strategies and determination is a challenging
task ,however ,managers of companies should mount successful performance in terms of
ability rather than effort because success communicates non-negative information about
proficiency to workers (Schunk, 1983).
If the companies will think through this variables and know what drives their customers ,they
will compete excellently with the other companies as employees will work hard towards
attaining the companies mission .If the employees work well in an environment where they
are getting tips ,the company should put this in to consideration and let the employees
practise what makes them strong everyday .If the company does not put this in to practise
there will be nothing to keep the employees going because each and every worker has got
his/her own motivator .If the employer satisfies the employee needs fully the employee will
be able to reciprocate by working well and also reporting any indiscipline in the company as
a result of the good care he/she receives from the employer.
The need for achievement is defined as the drive to succeed ,to attain in relation to a set of
standards and to struggle to excel .The need for power is the need to make others behave in a
way that they would not have else .The need for affiliation is the need for friendly and close
interactive relationships .Achievement theories propose that motivation and performance vary
according to the strength of ones need for achievement (Kovach, 1995).The need for
achievement suggests that motivation and performance differ according to the strength of
ones need for achievement and is defined as the need to achieve a difficult thing.
According to Krietner & Kinicki,(1998) explains the want for achievement as
mastering ,manipulating or organizing physical objects ,human beings or ideas .The need for
affiliation recommended that employees have the desire to spend time in social relationships
and activities .Employees with a high need for affiliation desire to spend more time
upholding social relationships ,joining groups and wanting to be loved .Employees who fall
in this class are usually not the most active managers or leaders as they have a hard time
making difficult decisions without worrying of being hated (Kovach, 1995).The need for
power shows an employees need to impact ,coach ,teach ,or encourage others to achieve.
In the equity theory ,employees are concerned not only with the amount of recompense they
receive but also with relationship of this amount to what others do get .Based on an
employees input such as ,effort ,experience ,education and competence one is able to
associate outcomes such as salary levels increases and acknowledgment .When an employee
recognizes an imbalance in their outcome-input ratio relative to others ,tension is created ,this
provides the basis for motivation as an employee will always go for equality and fairness
(Robbins, 2009).According to Carrel ,(1978) when employee trust that their own treatment is
not equitable ,relative to the exchange they perceive others to be making they are usually
motivated to take actions they think appropriate .At work organisations equity is read as a
positive association between an employee’s effort or performance on the job and the pay he
gets .The result of an employee having the view that they are unfairly treated creates a variety
of options for the employees .The options can include lessening of their input through
directly controlling their work output ,trying to increase their output by seeking salary
increase or seeking more enjoyable assignment .As a result of the feeling that his voice
cannot be heard in the organization he can eventually decide to quit the job and pursue
employment elsewhere (Charles, 1992).
Most employees believe that they are nothing in the companies they work for and thus
anything they say or suggest cannot be taken serious or practised in the company as they are
seen as inferior .Some organisations also go ahead and threaten their workers on job losing if
they act like they want to cause chaos in this organisations and thus employees always feel
they can never be listened.
Motivation is reliable on the length of involvement and difficulty of the task .For long and
complex tasks ,a combination of intrinsic motivation and extrinsic ones is said to reward and
also the most operational .Though ,intrinsic motivation is highly preferred ,not all employees
will find an organisation to be intrinsically motivating and to some extent some employees
will feel unmotivated ,due to this fact ,combination of extrinsic rewards and environmental
factors may be most successful in engaging employees who have a tendency to haing low
intrinsic motivation.
Context in which rewards made may affect how they are experienced by workers .In
particular ,rewards can be managed controllingly or informationally ,According to Deci,
(1999) rewards used to control employees behaviour tend to decrease their sense of self
determination .Rewards that are used to transfer information about competence can serve a
treasured function .He further maintains that rewards should minimize authoritarian and
controlling tones ,recognise good performance ,provide choice about how to complete the
task ,and stress the interesting or challenging aspects of the task. According to Stipek,(1996)
employees see task-contingent rewards ,which may include ,rewards for task participation or
completion are usually experienced as controlling .Performance-contingent rewards ,based on
the quality of performance ,vary in their effects subject on whether the employee performed
well ,employee’s personal histories with rewards ,and whether the reward is experienced as
controlling or informational with respect to competence (Ryan, 1970).According to stipek,
(1996) employers can use unexpected rewards on occasions which are harmless ,though they
should not be given so often that employees will always be expecting them.
If employers reward the employees fairly and according to their job performance ,they will
work well and attain the companies mission without complain of may be salary
increase ,some days off or fair treatment .Managers should know well on what reward to give
which time and on what occasion ,rather than just giving out rewards for the sake because
some may be termed as controlling by some employees or some may be unappreciated .As a
result the employee will not feel motivated in anyway thus knowledge on the type of reward
is very important.
The demand for work-life-balance solutions by employees and managers is a topic that is
progressively hot in boardroom of nearly every organisation and over some years to come it
will still be one of the most significant issues that human resource professionals will be
expected to manage (Bird, 2006).Making decisions such as cultivating people management
practices ,particularly like work location flexibility and work time flexibility highly
contribute to improved work-life balance of employees .Work location is important in
upholding focused ,attentive ,healthy and happy employees (Abercromby, 2007).Being
unable to find better jobs close to homes ,employees sacrifice their work life balance for
greater wages and choose to travel much longer than the average .Employees choose higher
wages over nearer location ,since the costs of travelling which is related with raised blood
pressure ,musculoskeletal disorders ,increased anger and resentment at
work ,absenteeism ,lateness and inability to concentrate and perform to the same standards as
those who live in much closer vicinity to the workplace .Long commutes are also associated
with risk of heart attacks increase ,flu and depression (Durham, 2010).
According to Tahmincioglu,(2007) in order to respond to these complains by employees ,and
to eliminate these negativities ,some companies have decided to apply tele-commuting .It is
believed to be a measurement and a new wave in the corporate world .It is believed to
become a work place of future as a great number of employees telecommute everyday .Many
exceled companies have really improved their profitability by allowing a big portion of their
employees to work from home .By doing these they have eliminated the negative effect of the
long travelling hours .Work location does matter ,particularly in countries where people
travel from one state to another .The actual effect of work location on the employees
motivation and performance is greatly evident when the management successfully handles
the problems related to long distances between the offices and the employees home (Robbins,
2009).
The notion of employers involving employees in decision making is highly appreciated by
the employees as it makes them feel that they belong and that they are not left out especially
on matters that concern them .Failure to involve them in making decisions that affect them
employees will not be able to table their challenges and as a result their cry will not be heard
by anyone in the management and they will continue suffering and as a result eventual
quitting from the job.
According to Ryan,(1970) human behaviour and actions are influenced by mindful
purposes ,actions ,plans or tasks .Ryan explains the goal setting theory where he describes
self-efficacy as people selecting what to do ,how much effort to apply in to activities and how
long to persevere at these goals .The success or failure of the goals is dependent on the
individual’s self efficacy .Motivation of employees ,when put in to practise in the total
management process and coordinated with the other efforts that the organizations apply can
have important influence on the performance of the company .According to Tella,et al.,
(2007) by applying efficient motivation tools and technique and by producing motivated
workforce can contribute to higher staff retention following to decreased recruitment costs
and can also lead to higher levels of productivity ,more innovation and creativity ,higher
profits and better reputation among potential employees ,suppliers and customers
(BusinessLink, 2010).
In this century ,employers should pursue to meet their employees’ needs ,in order to avoid
losing their employees who are highly talented and inventive professionals to other
organizations which would as a outcome lead to dripping over the profits and the competitive
advantage to competitors (Gibbons, 1993).Gibbons further says that companies that choose to
hire and dismiss more often rather than to offer time and effort to the quality of
recruitment ,retention and motivation procedure are at a high position of losing the battle on
the market field. In this article, if employees meet their targets, their promises to employees
they will end up excelling in the market field and eventually the output of employees will be
well seen as they are well motivated and every promise the leaders make to them is satisfied.
According to Wagner and Hollenbeck, (2010) the goal of most employers is to find out what
drives each employee and shape reward systems around the drivers and taking advantage of
each employees sole set of interest and values .He further suggests that companies nowadays
use software applications so as to track and abuse the different values people have, so
companies can as well modify their investments in human resource practices, in a way to
maximize their motivational values.
The importance of motivation is high ,as the role it plays is very crucial when it comes to
retention of employees and improvement of organizations performance ,it can also lead to
development of business ,profits increase and competitive advantage building .Motivation
thus needs time and effort to be implemented and evaluated and to be applied in managerial
tools (Banibaker, 2008).
Due to the failure of the employers to motivate their workers in their work places, most of
them tend to have the need to leave the company as they feel unappreciated for their services
in the organisation .Most employers are not aware of what employees need so as to retain
them in their companies and as a result many of them leave this companies and join others
which can understand them better.
References
Abercromby, M. (2007, 10 10). A Report on the Importance of Work-life Balance. Retrieved
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http://www.scrbdcom/doc/7627373/motivation
Banibaker, A. (2008). Personality traits among entrepreneurial and CEOs Professionals in
SMEs. International journal of business studies, 203-213.
Bird, J. (2006, 3 33). Doing it Right and Avoiding the Pitfalls. Retrieved from Employment
Relations Today: http://www.worklifebalance.com/assets/pdfs/article3.pdf
BusinessLink. (2010, 12 20). Lead and Motivate your staff. Retrieved from Uk Business Link
website:http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?
itemId=1077340434&site=210&type=RESOURCES
Charles, K. M. (1992). Motivational preferences of caribbean hotel workers. International
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Durham, J. (2010). Effects of long commutes to work. Science of motivation.
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performance. Employment Relations Today, 93-107.
Miller, S. M. (1997). Enhancing elementary students motivation to read and write.
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Robbins, S. J. (2009). Organizational behaviour. New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.
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Schunk, D. (1983). A bility versus effort attributional feedback. Educational Psychology,
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Wessels, W. (1997). Minimum wages and tipped servers. Economic inquiry, 334-349.
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