Motivation of Employees in the Public and Private Sector

Motivation is having a reason or reasons to act/behave in a particular way. It creates “drive” in people whether it is in pursuit of a goal, or the need to complete an activity. It produces enthusiasm and a willingness to achieve in both a work environment and in your personal life. Motivation can be increased and decreased in line with the incentives on offer.

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.

(Robbins and Millet and Cacioppe and Waters-Marsh, 1998, p.10). An important area within organisational behaviour is motivation.

In Self-Determination Theory (Carol Sansone, Judith M. Harackiewicz, 2000) the types of motivation were differentiated on the basis of different reasons or goals which actually initiates an action. However the major two types of motivation that have been dealt with in a number of organizational structures seminars are Extrinsic Motivation and Intrinsic Motivation. Where extrinsic motivation serves to meet the non-job or indirect needs of the employees, which could be easily understood from the situation that money is used as a medium to accomplish the desired ends but it does not mean that monetary motivation is the only motivation or money is considered to be a sure tool of providing motivation, similarly in the career perspectives the jobs play as an major role in achieving the desired needs by way of the bonuses and perks. This simply means that higher the monetary allowances, higher is the motivation to the employees to

We can define motivation as the desire and willingness to do something and the inner force that helps individuals achieve their goals. Understanding what motivates employees and what employers can do to motivate their employees has been the focus of research for many years. This is mainly because motivated employees can provide an organisation with a distinctive advantage and a competitive edge and by being more productive they can help the organisation thrive and survive. In a public service organisation such as West North West Homes we would expect staff to be motivated partly by the desire to have a positive impact on others. Someone working within a sales team

What is motivation? As manager’s, motivation is one of the most vital and crucial assets to possess in managing a business. This drive is a critical tool to use in the work place and determine the success or failure of an organization. Motivation is a driving force that initiates and directs behavior. In other words, motivation is an internal energy that drives an individual to do something in order to achieve a certain goal. Therefore, creating a motivating environment in the workplace will lead to happy employees. Creating a work environment like this, managers can expect low staff turnovers, improved productivity, happy customers, and better financial performance. Therefore, the input of motivation use towards employees determines the output efficiency of the company. However, everyone involved in an organization is motivated differently. Everybody has their own individual needs in regards to motivation. Depending on how motivated a person is, determines the effort that individual puts into the work and therefore, how productive they are.

Employees are motivated by both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. In order for the reward system to be effective, it must encompass both sources of motivation. Studies have found that among employees surveyed, money was not the most important motivator, and in some instances managers have found money to have a de-motivating or negative effect on employees.  This research paper addresses the definition of rewards in the work environment context, the importance of rewarding employees for their job performance, motivators to employee performance such as extrinsic and intrinsic rewards, Herzberg’s two-factor theory in relation to rewarding employees, Hackman and Oldman model of job enrichment that

Motivation is: “the psychological process that gives behaviour purpose and direction (Kreitner, 1995); a predisposition to behave in a purposive manner to achieve specific, unmet needs (Buford, Bedeian, & Lindner, 1995); an internal drive to satisfy an unsatisfied need (Higgins, 1994); and the will to achieve” (Bedeian, 1993). Due to the difference in the definitions for motivation, I will use the definition – Motivation is the inner drive that allows individuals to achieve company and personal goals.

Intrinsic Motivation in Public Organizations is an essential principal. It is clear that employee engagement and motivation is a vital part of the workplace. We spend almost more time with them as a full time employee than our own family. Fellow workers become our second family with the workplace acting as a home away from home. Everyone wants a healthy environment to come to. The public sector and organizations are more challenging to motivate due to the application of ethical guidelines and outside influence from others. Society sees the public sector as overpaid and underworked. Unfortunately, this leads to low morale and negatively impact employee positive engagement. The public organizations also suffer from a lack of funds compared to

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

History teaches us that motivation has been a key ingredient proven effective in the accomplishment of tasks, or used to get things done. This paper will discuss the classic and contemporary background/history of motivation. In addition, covered will be the theoretical background and theories, the implications motivation has for leaders, and the motivational tactics used in the working environment that stimulate results.

Peter Drucker the famous 20th century management consultant may have described motivation best saying, “We know nothing about motivation – all we can do is write books about it”. Motivation is a commonly used buzzword thrown around in daily conversations without much meaning behind it. Motivation defined by Jason Colquitt and company in Organizational Behavior is as follows “a set of energetic forces that originates both within and outside an employee, initiates work-related effort, and determines its direction, intensity, and persistence” (Colquitt, LePine and Wesson ).

What is motivation? Motivation is defined as “an individual’s willingness to respond to the organization’s requirements in short run.” (P.71 Dixon, 1998) For the purposes of this research paper, I find the most fitting definition of motivation is to define it as “the force that Energizes, Directs, and Sustains behavior.” (uri.com, 2014) Motivation is imperative to productivity. A highly motivated staff often leads to high productivity from the workforce.

‘Motivation’ is derived from the Latin term ‘movere’ that means ‘to move’. Thus, motivation is a process that starts with a physiological or psychological deficiency or need that activates a behaviour or a drive that is aimed at a goal or incentive (Luthans). Broadly speaking, motivation is willingness to exert high levels of efforts towards organizational goals, conditioned by the efforts’ ability to satisfy some individual needs (Robbins). Need means some internal state that make certain outcomes appear attractive. An unsatisfied need creates tension that stimulates drives within the individual. These drives generate a search behaviour to find particular goals, that if attained,

One of the first authors that dealt with the sources of motivation was Frederick Taylor who focussed on the overall productivity of an organisation. He linked this productivity to the effort an employee puts into their work which in turn is dependent on monetary rewards (Taylor, 1911). This theory was established in the context of the industrial age and thus is outdated for today’s analysis but it still provides a basic assumption which is often referred to by other authors. The total neglecting of a worker’s intrinsic motivators is a starting point for discussion for authors that conducted research in that area after Taylor.