Internal Motivation And Job Satisfaction

Motivation is derived from an internal force that provides an individual the opportunity to achieve their needs or goals. People are motivated by a variety of things and often have different motivating factors. Employers should be mindful of individual motivating factors when attempting to motivate staff to increase performance. While some people may be motivated by money, many are motivated by things like: recognition, promotion, and increased responsibility. Once an employer has identified motivating factors they are able to analyze a variety of motivational theories to design and implement a program that will motivate employees to go above and beyond what is expected of them.

According to researcher Lindner (1998), motivated employees are needed in our rapidly changing workplaces to aid in the survival of organizations. Not only is it important to meet the needs of the consumer, it is equally important that to make sure that associates are taken care of and remain motivated. For this reason, Gibson, Ivancevich, Donnelly and Konopaske (2012) “states much of management’s time is spent addressing the motivation of their employees” (p. 125). According to the Encyclopedia of Small Business (2007), employee motivation is the level of energy, commitment, and creativity employees bring to their jobs; the inner force that drives individuals to accomplish personal and organizational goals (Lindner, 1988). Despite its obvious importance, employee motivation can be an elusive quest for managers due to the multiplicity of incentives that can influence employees to do their best work. The reality is that every employee has different ways to become motivated and the knowledge of how to motivate them is key to organizational success. It is imperative that employers get to know the personal needs and wants of their employees in order to establish tactics in which to motivate each of them. Once achieved, “managers are in a better position to encourage and reward employees to behave in effective ways” (Gibson et al, 2012, p.

In “Understanding Management”, there is a chapter on motivation that covers both extrinsic and intrinsic reward. The material does highlight the increasing trend of motivating people through appealing to those intrinsic needs and how it

Success is within the individual mind and expectations. The definition of success differs from just one person’s interpretation of what success means. A large block of life is spent working to become successful: acquiring an education, being able to take care of family, achieving a life’s ambition, or making money. People are told throughout childhood to work hard so they can grow up and make lots of money. Everyone aspires to be successful at whatever we are doing: starting a new business, repairing the car, writing a term paper or practicing basketball. Every bit our efforts are directed at achieving success. Success is not the end; it is the journey we take and there is no right or wrong idea of success.

Human Resources is dependent on the success, happiness, and contentment of employees that keep the business on course. Motivation is one of the best ways to push employees forward while making sure everyone is in a comfortable position in their job. Motivational theories just attempt to explain what motivates or makes people act the way that they do. The goal of understanding these theories and their outcomes is to ensure a better performance from each employee, and to give each of those employees the best situation they can have in the workplace. Visionaries such as Abraham Maslow, Frederick Herzberg, and Henry A. Landsberger also brought forward new ways of management and ways to handle internal situations that changed the landscape of human resources as a whole. Motivational theories instituted in the workplace have a commonly positive effect on both employees and management, showing that it is important to strive for proven motivational practices.

Abraham Maslow’s theory about motivation suggested that motivation is about to meet human needs. (Pichère P, et al., 2015) In today’s society, motivation is usually defined as the desire of achieving a goal, leading to goal-directed behavior. So why is motivation so important at work? This is because actual productivity of an organization is thought to be dependent on the level of motivation of employees. In another word, people who are motivated will try harder to accomplish the given task, which will increase the productivity and make it more efficient to achieve the organizational goals.

One skill that managers and leaders must be able to exhibit is the ability to motivate their employees. Administrators in all fields must find ways to hire, retain, and motivate employees (Kroth, 2007). Workplace motivation is a result of a set of internal and external forces that cause an employee to choose an appropriate course of action and engage in certain behaviors (Newstrom, 2015). Motivation also requires discovering and understanding employee drives and needs, since it originates within an individual (Newstrom, 2015). The beginning stages of motivation stem from the manager and their behaviors, and also the employee and their drive. As we know, people tend to develop certain motivational drives as a product of the cultural environment in which they live (Newstrom, 2015). Engstrom Auto mirror plant began to face a recession in productivity and employee motivation, while also facing a downturn in the industrial field as well. The plant adopted the Scanlon Plan, the plan was originated by Joseph Scanlon in the 1930’s in order to help small, distressed companies (Beers & Collins, 2008). Problems began to develop at Engstrom when the company began to redesign product lines to incorporate new technology. The long production delays resulted in alienated customers, and the plant manager lacked the proper knowledge in regards to the new technology. The plant manager was let go and Ron Bent was hired to attempt a turnaround. Bent and Hayley had confidence in incentive

Organizations can use various motivational theories for inspiring their employees. According to the Hertzberg 's theory, employers should start by concentrating on sanitization features such as wage and employment security, before concentrating on influential issues such as exciting work and fully grateful that the work completed. In contrast, Adams ' equity theory states that management must focus on subjects that may be thought to be imbalances, such as wage and full appreciation of work completed, before concentrating on job security. The Vroom 's theory proposes that management must focus on the reward system, employee attempt in accomplishing the goals and objectives of the organization. As mentioned by the Motivation in the Real World by Gellerman (1992), the most successful motivation techniques in companies in the United States are: “selectivity in hiring, generous pay and benefit programs, and encouragement of long-term employment.” Additional tactics are flexible implementation of procedures, rules and regulations, and a sensible policy of placing employee motivation is a priority (Beck, 2004).

Most of successful organization share a common attribute that employees play a significant role in business performance. Therefore, even each firm has their different strategy to motivate their employee, these strategies still mainly focus on the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. As Apple Inc., a leader in technology industry, has proved the efficiency in their strategy of worker’s encouragement by turning into the most innovative and admired company in the world.

Varying employee needs lead to different kinds of motivation. Different kinds of motivation influence employees’ job satisfaction. Employees’ motivation will be affected by factors such as occupation, gender, social culture and organisational structure. This study will attempt to explore the differences in motivation between core-workers and periphery workers, and whether these differences in motivators are distinctive. Previous researchers have directed most of their attention towards the questions like, why people behave as they do on the job and what can be done to influence employees’ work motivation? Several theories of work motivation have been formulated to identify factors that influence work behaviours and factors that contribute to the maintenance and termination of these behaviours (Maslow, 1954; Herzberg, 1966). Although motivation as a concept represents a highly complex phenomenon that affects, and is affected by a multitude of factors in the organisation (Kanungo, l994), it is accepted by most scholars and practitioners that thereisa positive relationship between motivation and job satisfaction, individual performance, and physical and mental health. They believe that behavioural influences, such as job satisfaction, have a very important impact on quality of service, organisational commitment and total organisational effectiveness (MacRobert, et al. 1993; Beall 1994; Joseph and Deshpande 1997; cited: Lewis et al.2001; Morgan et al. 1995).

Motivation is a state of mind, desire, energy or interest that translates into action. (Nahavandi, Denhardt, & Aristigueta 2015). An employee’s willingness to respond to an organization’s requirements, or productivity is directly related to how motivated they are in their workplace. It is important for managers to motivate their employees if they want their company to be successful. In order for this motivation to happen, the manager must understand the employee’s needs and perceptions. There are several different theories in which link job satisfaction and motivation. This essay explains two of them in more detail: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and McGregor’s X/Y theory. Both theories see motivation as the main factor in maximizing productivity in the workplace.

Job satisfaction is widely considered to be influenced by four subdivisions; mentally challenging work, equitable rewards, supporting working conditions, and supporting work colleagues. As a result of these four subdivisions, this paper will address why managers are able to create satisfied employees subjective to the policies they choose to implement and behaviour they demonstrate. This concept will be discussed independently, before addressing the theory that job satisfaction is dependent on predetermined genetic attributes, and then a brief discussion on the idea of screening out potentially negative employees.

The theory of job satisfaction is highlighted in this case. Morale and job dissatisfaction is a major symptom that contributed to the high turnover in the Lima plan. Yet, there are other symptoms that were directly related to morale and job dissatisfaction that should be analyzed to understand the root cause of the problem. First, the nature of the work is a symptom that contributed to the morale and dissatisfaction. According to the case, the foremen had to manage and resolve a variety of issues ranging from administrative to personnel issues. Furthermore, this work had to be completed in a 12-hour shift, which was very challenging. Because the foreman were not satisfied with the work itself, overall job satisfaction was low. This is important to understand since satisfaction with the work itself is a component of overall job satisfaction.

Employees are one of the most important assets in the organisation (Hume, 1995; Shields, 2007), it is believed that a lot of organisations and employers wish to maximise employees’ effort on its work and therefore enhance organisational performance. According to Armstrong (2012:50), high-performance is accomplished by well-motivated people who are prepared to exercise discretionary effort. Therefore, it is critical for the organisation to find a pathway to motivate its employees. Some scholars state that employee motivation can be encouraged by offering appropriate rewards and establish systematic reward systems (Amstrong, 2012; Pratheepkanth, 2011 and Manzoor, 2011).

Motivation is one of the most discussed topics in the present era’s organisations, especially since renowned psychologists like Maslow and Herzberg are dedicating their efforts to understanding it. Companies are investing a significant amount of resources in improving productivity in order to maximise profits. One of these important resources is of human nature. In order to get the very best out of employees, some motivational approaches need to be used. But what is motivation and how do I successfully motivate? I will try to relate one of my personal experiences with a friend to some of the most influential motivational theories. After introducing my story and making a definition of motivation I will address the ideas of Taylor,