Essay Motivational Theory/ Management

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.

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.

The Equity Theory touches on the effects these situations have on the employee’s motivational level. In society today employees are constantly comparing how they are

Rather, Equity, and the sense of fairness which commonly underpins motivation, is dependent on the comparison a person makes between his or her reward/investment ratio with the ratio enjoyed (or suffered) by others considered to be in a similar situation”(Balancing Employee Inputs and Outputs).

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.

Motivation is a very broad term that is discussed in a variety of settings. There is the motivation to perform in a business setting, the motivation to perform on the field of competition, the motivation to provide for friends and family, and the motivation to accomplish goals that have been set. These are all various motivations that any one person can be involved with at any time. According to Maslow, motivation always exists within a person and in various forms, “...motivation is constant, never ending, fluctuating, and complex, and that it is an almost universal characteristic of practically every organismic state of affairs” (Maslow, 1954). As complex as motivation seems, it is everyone’s intention to identify their personal

Adam’s Equity Theory is a model of motivation which basically states that employees will perform at a more productive rate if they feel that they are being treated fairly (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2010). Equity is achieved when a worker perceives their reward for their amount of work to be equal to that of a relevant worker. Negative inequity is perceived by the employee when the relevant worker receives greater rewards for the same amount of work. Positive inequity is perceived by the employee when the relevant worker receives fewer rewards for the same amount of work (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2010).

I believe equity and expectancy theories are being used at Marshall Metro High School to motivate students and teachers, but inconsistently. Equity theory is the fairness of the input and output ratio of work in exchange for pay or rewards (Adams, 1965, as cited in Bretz & Thomas, 1992). I believe Marshall Metro High School has shown the use of the equity theory to motivate freshman teachers by giving them set goals, for example, what percentage of freshman is acceptable to keep on track for the tenth grade. This has motivated teachers to think outside the box and work very hard to achieve these goals, even though sometimes they were not achieved, they continued to try their hardest. However, the teachers seemed to be frustrated and demotivated by the actual results of their inputs. Perhaps the equity theory is more consistent when

The first video elaborated on equity theory. Equity theory is important for motivation in the workplace. According to the video on equity theory, employees compare outputs;what employees receive from organizations to the inputs; what the employee gives to the company. Inputs can range from time to skills and education. Outputs include throngs like pay, benefits and recognition earned on the job.

Have you ever wondered why two people with the same job and in the same environment may perform differently or have a different viewpoint of their job? Of course everyone is different, but what is different? Perhaps it could be their motivation to perform their duties. According to David McClelland (1993), cognitive intelligence is not the best predictor of occupational status or job performance. Many people ignore the social factors that contribute to job performance, like motivation.

Motivation and Leadership are intrinsically linked in the fact that one allows an easement in the process of the other. Without the ability to use the mutual relationship of leadership to influence the motivators of followers, leaders stagnate and are limited by their own inability to accomplish all that must be for real change to occur. In less Rostonian terms (that is, based on Rost (1993)), without a motivated group of followers leaders are stranded and not achieving to a level of excellence. This paper will discuss some areas of importance for motivation in leadership as well as an application to leadership theory and a discussion on personal motivators.

Motivation can be defined as the inner power or drive that pushes one towards taking a particular course of action. It is much related to desire and ambition and they all work in tandem (Sasson, 2001). Motivation is influenced or caused by factors known as motivators. According to Sigmund Freud, we are compelled to act by unconscious forces within us, which he called our id (Hofstede, 1980).

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.

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.

1. Expectancy Theory: * a theory of motivation that holds that employees should exert greater work effort if they have reason to expect that it will result in a reward that they value. Employees also must believe that good performance is valued by their employer and will result in their receiving the expected reward. 2. Pay Equity Theory: * Equity is balance between the inputs an individual brings to a job & the outcomes they receives from it. * Employees inputs includes experience, education, special skills, efforts and time worked. * Outcomes includes pay, benefits, achievement, recognitions, and any other rewards. * Inputs and outcomes are in different units, and are hard to compare to each other directly. * Equity theory suggest that individuals determine whether they are being fairly treated by comparing their own inputs/outcomes ratio to the input/outcome ratio of others.