Motivation is an important factor in one’s life. You learn what motivates you at a very young age. Although you may not know the word or understand what it means, you still accomplish a goal to receive a reward or know not to do something that will get you in trouble. Why do you do the things you do? Why do you get excited when presented with a positive reward or upset when presented with a negative reward? It’s all about you and what you desire most or want to avoid; and it differs in each individual. When a young teenager is told to clean his room and then he can go to the movies, this is a positive reinforcement or motivator to get the parent’s desired outcome. When you apply the motivation theories in the workplace, the main goal is to have the employee perform their duties to achieve the company’s desired outcome. There are several motivational theories offered as templates for organizations to utilize the way they see fit. The ultimate outcome of these theories is that the employee with the right motivator, whether it’s positive or negative reinforcement, will encourage the employee to perform at their best. The leadership-follower aspect is crucial in motivating correctly in the workplace.
Keywords: motivation, socialization, employee compensation, self-fulfillment, rewards, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, Frederick Taylor, Elton Mayo, Abraham Maslow, Frederick Herzberg
Integrating Motivational Theories in the Workplace Welcome to the 21st
“Motivating Employees” is a book about how employee motivation is driven by companies that invest and grow their employees. One of the most important traits of highly effective and successful companies is that employees are happy and have fun at work. Leadership is not assaulting your employees, but to lead your employees you need to motivate by using caring,
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.
Motivation has become a term as ubiquitous as it is undefinable. What exactly is motivation and how is it used to achieve a desired result? In many circumstances, individuals are motivated by different aspects at different times in their lives. Compounding this issue further are the environmental factors embedded in an individuals motivation. Depending on an individual's background, he or she may be motivated differently than others of similar socio economic circumstances. As such, it is quite difficult to appraise the merits of a single motivational characteristic or theory. This difficulty has given rise to numerous theories of motivation throughout history, each with its own distinct value. The problem with many of these theories is that they are imperfect by nature and do not encompass all possible options of behavior. This document will focus primarily on the achievement motivation theory established by Harackiewicz, Barron, Carter, Lehto, & Elliot in 1997 and how it can and cannot be used effectively within workplace situations.
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.
The biggest problem to a manager is managing employees. This is because employers often do not know how to handle their employees. An effective manager knows that motivation is a difficult skill to acquire. So over the years, many theorist have studied motivation in order to
that employees remain motivated if they are rewarded to achieve goals of a company. And when they are
Motivation most certainly plays a huge role in the workplace, therefore, it is imperative to understand fully the basic theories and methods, and of course how to apply these theories and methods to everyday workplace scenarios. These motivational skills and techniques will definitely play a key role for leaders and or managers, knowing how to motivate people in today’s workforce will provide job growth.
Leadership is a key component to the successfulness, profitability, and sustainability of an organization. Having effective leadership in a company is beneficial for the internal and the external customers. An individual, may ask the question: “why is effective leadership important to the internal and external customer?” The answer to this question is very simple: effective, well balanced leaders produce highly proficient and motivated employees. Consequently, when workers are happy they will be compassionate, and engaged resulting in an outstanding experience for the external customer. One fundamental aspect of effective leadership is understanding the significance of employee motivation. If I were charged with the task of the implementation
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
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.
Herzberg’s two factor theory of motivation at the workplace shows the difference between two factors of motivation. The two factors being satisfiers, which are the main causes for job satisfaction (motivation), from hygiene factors which are the main causes for job dissatisfaction (demotivation to stay in the job). Examples of motivating factors are achievement, recognition, responsibility and the work itself. Hygiene factors include: working conditions, salary, relationship with colleagues, supervision, etc. An organisation needs to influence satisfiers through performance management using range of tools such as: job descriptions, supervision, performance appraisals, continuous development/training, rewards and career development.
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.
Over the past years different theories on motivation have been developed. These theories reach different conclusions on what motivate employees in their workplace. Job satisfaction, motivation, and reward systems are included in one area of organizational theory. A review of the classical literature on motivation reveals four major theory areas:
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,
In an organization, motivation involves ensuring the employees perform highly to achieve the organization's desired goals. Several motivational theories have been advanced as to explain workers' attitudes towards motivation. One such theory is Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory (Bauer & Erdogan, 2015). He posits that there are certain factors in the workplace that cause job satisfaction. These include the advancement of an employee’s career. He believed that workers were no longer just satisfied with the minimum basic salary but aimed to achieve more. Herzberg also found there are certain factors in the company that causes dissatisfaction for the employee. These include supervision, company policies, salaries and work conditions. If a business wants to motivate its employees, it should focus on satisfaction factors (Bauer & Erdogan,