Management Challenge of Motivating Employees

Motivation is a main point in which I am interested and in order to understand more about the topic I have based my review in 2 different sources: Forbes article “Motivation Mystery: How to Keep Employees Productive” and Daniel Pink Ted Talk “The Puzzle of Motivation”.

This essay’s aim is to analyse and establish an understanding of various motivation theories and their possible application within organisations. Along with implementing, the information related to motivation, this essay would demonstrate the importance of motivation and it is necessary for organisations to motivate their employees effectively

An organization success relies heavily on their employees. Employers should find better ways to motivate their staffs to achieve organizational objectives efficiently and effectively. Many psychologists understand the importance of motivation in the industry; they worked on various motivational theories which could help employers to have a fruitful and productive employee. According to Feldman, motivation is a factor that direct and energize the behaviors of humans and other organisms, in other words, an inner state that stimulates us to fulfill a goal, something that gets us doing something. Our needs motivate us to act. The complexity of the concept has led psychologists to develop a variety of approaches. Each of them tries to explain

Employee motivation is, or at least must be, one of the key issues for directors, managers and personnel managers. The leader must be able to find the sensitive strings of his subordinates, which can be motivated by influencing them to achieve high performance. The correct use of motivation encourages staff to make more efficient use of their knowledge, skills, and talents. In today's turbulent, often chaotic environment, commercial success depends on the employee's talent and effort. Despite the many existing theories and practices, some of the motivation of leaders today remains a mystical term. This is partly due to the fact that people are motivated by different things and techniques.

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.

Health care organizations in recent decades have found they must do more with fewer resources, in particular fewer human resources. Economic instability in the United States coupled with governmental changes in health care reimbursement structures have compelled considerable reductions in force in health care organizations and in some instances elimination of services previously provided. In this economic environment, dedicated and motivated employees in health care facilities are the most valuable resources of the organization. However, for employees to be valuable to the organization they must be engaged in the goals,

Motivation is defined as, “the reason for the action; that which gives purpose and direction to behavior.” Motivation is key in personal life as well as the career world. Motivation in the work place is highly dependent on employers being able to understand the needs and wants of their employees. When employers can understand and satisfy an employee’s needs, the employee is more inclined to perform well in his position. “The ranked order of motivating factors were: (a) interesting work, (b) good wages, (c) full appreciation of work done, (d) job security, (e) good working conditions, (f) promotions and growth in the organization, (g) feeling of being in on things, (h) personal loyalty to employees, (i) tactful discipline, and (j)

McGregor (1960) described two views on human motivation: Theory X and Y. Theory X, the more conventional one, holds the view that people are in themselves not intrinsically motivated to work and even attempt to avoid it, that people have no ambition, are resistant to change, are not particularly intelligent and that people only work for money and security. Management’s objective is to direct employees efforts, motivating them, controlling them and modifying their behavior to ensure that they behave in line with the organization’s needs and goals.

Employee motivation is a hugely important factor regarding the efficiency and productivity of any organization. Though there are many management theories regarding how employees are best motivated, the majority of these specific theories fall under two broad categories. On the one hand, there is the scientific management theory, or classical approach, in which employees are treated as mechanical components of an organization and motivated purely by economic incentive (Almusaileem, 2012). On the other is the human relations approach, which theorizes that employees are best motivated through group dynamics, human relations and the meeting of social needs (Almusaileem, 2012). However, management theory is significantly more complicated. Each individual responds to motivation differently, and often, the grouping of all employees under one motivating factor or another is ineffective. Personally, I find the human relations approach to be significantly better motivator through the focus on psychological and social needs of the individual (Almusaileem, 2012). Additionally, I find that the human relations approach leaves room for creativity and entrepreneurship, which classical management theory lacks. Most importantly, the human relations approach provides significantly more reward than classical production incentives. Taylor’s theory of scientific management may have made sense in the early part of the twentieth century, in which most employees worked in the industrial

Human behavior in organizations may be affected by the individual’s motivation. All human activity is directed toward satisfying certain needs. Motivation must be

An organization’s purpose and/or goal is to accomplish its undertakings or objectives in an effectual approach. To achieve this it ought to have or retain employees prepared and eager to work to attain this. It requires people (motivated employees) who are prepared and wanting to meet those objectives by way of exceeding efforts and rising above the usual principles and values.

Motivation in the workplace is one of the major concerns that managers face when trying to encourage their employees to work harder and do what is expected of them on a day-to-day basis. According to Organizational Behavior by John R. Schermerhorn, James G. Hunt and Richard N. Osborn the definition of motivation is "the individual forces that account for the direction, level, and persistence of a person's effort expended at work." They go on to say that "motivation is a key concern in firms across the globe." Through the years there have been several theories as to what motivates employees to do their best at work. In order to better understand these theories we will apply them to a fictitious organization that has the following

Employees are valuable resources for companies and them could be competitive advantages for modern companies. It is important for modern companies to improve employee satisfaction and performance so that they can improve their organisational performance and competitiveness (Armstrong, 2006). As a result, Employee’s motivation management is significantly for companies. Motivation is a cognitive process to guide, initiate, direct and maintain goal-oriented activities. It can also be defined as the driving forces directing people’s actions (Huczynski and Buchanan, 2013). Employees making contribution for firms because they are motivated by something, such as successful companies can always identify the factors motivating their employees and conduct responsive practices to motivate employees to improve performance (Podmoroff, 2005).

Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology is devoted to the study of employee behavior in the workplace and understanding the issues facing organizations and employees in today’s complex and ever changing environment. Motivation refers to the set of forces that influence people to choose various behaviors among several alternatives available to them. An organization depends on the ability of management to provide a positive, fostering and motivating environment for its employees in order to increase profits, productivity and lower turnover rates of its employees. The purpose of this paper is to discuss and compare six academic journal articles and explore the behavior, job, and need based theories of motivation that can aid management in motivating and understanding their employees. Finding that delicate balance to can sometimes be elusive so effectively learning how to motivate by understanding, controlling and influencing factors to manipulate behavior and choices that are available to employees can produce the desired outcome.

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,