The Goal Setting Theory for Employee Motivation

Clearly defined goals as they relate to the organization can motivate employees through goal setting. Goals challenge to employees to make them want to explore new technology, ideas, and gain insight from a diverse workplace. Additionally, giving employees more responsibility will make them believe they have contributed with a sense of higher importance. Without motivation in the workplace, a business will suffer from the lack of efficiency from employees. Perhaps the most significant of increased employee motivation is that of increased productivity (staff@incentives.com, 2010). Therefore, it is important that employers give their employees an opportunity to work hard for their reward to obtain a high level of performance, which is an essential to the success of any business.

If the goal setting theory is followed, managers are required to work with their employees in devising goal objectives with the aim of providing targets for motivation. Additionally,

Job Enrichment should be distinguished from enlargement job enlargement attempts to make a job more varied by removing the dullness associated with performing repetitive operations. In job enrichment, the attempt is to build in to jobs a higher sense of challenge and achievement. The accumulation of achievement must lead to a felling of personal growth accompanied by a sense of responsibility.

It’s clear that, both the employee and the employer benefit from job rotation. Spending a few weeks or months working at a job enables employees to learn more about the workplace, their colleagues, as well as a better appreciation of what their fellow employees actually do. They can also get different experiences and wider variety of skills. Employers learn about individual employee skill sets, and strengths and weaknesses. Employers also can use what they learn through job rotations to find the best placement for each employee. Despite benefits that a job rotation brings to both employees and the employer, if it does not implemented carefully, the result is wasting time and stakeholders

In the case study written by Elizabeth Layman “Job redesign for expanded HIS Functions” She explains the constantly changing environment of the Health Care Delivery System. I plan to discuss the principles set for goal setting, job enrichment, job enrichment in HIS and the impact of job enrichment on motivation and communication in the HIS department. Applied Principles of Job Enrichment Job enrichment is “the job redesign technique that allows workers more control over how they perform tasks, giving them more responsibility” What Layman talks about in this case relating to UNIT 7 WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 3 job enrichment is giving HIS employees more freedom with their tasks Halway mentions skill leveling, boredom and mediocrity in the workplace however, she weighs the pros and cons and one of the main cons she has found is that employees may still feel stress or overwhelmed with more tasks being piled on them which can lead to poor productivity. With job enrichment comes more responsibility but also it can come with a wage increase.

Every organization no matter how large or small has goals they wish to meet. Each organization will have changes in its future and has to have certain set goals and objectives in place to help map out their course of action that will lead to their desired end result (Martin, 2009). In order for a company to successfully meet their final goal it is important for them to continually motivate their employees. According to Organizational Behavior by David Baack, motivation is what starts, maintains and stops behavior (Baack, 2012). Organizations each have their own way to set goals and motivate their

It is widely known that goal setting is a vital part of achieving success and improving overall performance. Our modern understanding of goal setting came from Dr Edwin Locke’s research in the late 1960’s. In his 1968 article, “Toward a Theory of Task Motivation and Incentives”, he showed that employees are motivated and their performance improves when they are set clear, achievable goals, and receive appropriate feedback. He found specific, challenging goals lead to the highest performance, as long as the goals are not too challenging.

As mentioned above some of the outcomes of using job enrichment in the HIS departments were as Layman has described, “Risks to balance: Fragmentation, quantitative overload, qualitative overload, role ambiguity, role conflict, questionable acceptance in highly centralized organization, HR concerns about pay grade, risk management concerns about licensure and credentialing.”

The outcome of job enrichment in the context of HIS is that the 29 new requirements that needed to be managed, is that with the redesign and in this case, job enrichment, the staff had felt that enrichment meant a greater workload which was the primary reason behind staff stress.

redesign (Layman, 2011). Job enrichment falls into the job redesign level. Before dwelling on job

We review the case study completed by Elizabeth Layman (2011) and review how principles of goal setting are applied, how the principles of job enrichment are applied, and what were some of the outcomes of job enrichment in the HIS Departments covered in this case? Additionally we explore the impact of job enrichment on motivation and communication in the HIS Departments as covered by this case?

To motivate employees, goals must take into consideration the degree to which each of the following exists: clarity, challenge, commitment, feedback and task complexity. If all five of these elements are present, goal theory says that we will be motivated to produce to a maximum. The specificity of the goal acts as an internal stimulus, the more difficult the goal, the higher the level of performance. Difficult goals energise us because we have to work harder and persist to attain them.

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.

Job rotation is an approach to employee development, where a person is developed through a scheduled rotation through tasks in order give the widest exposure to the entire operation. It is also practiced, so that qualified employees are provided more insight into a company 's processes, and to reduce employee burnout and increase job satisfaction through varying work to provide new challenges.

Today’s business environment is highly competitive and rapidly changing. Many organizations are competing to survive in this environment. Motivation and the employee job satisfaction are essential for the long-term success of the organization team. Evaluation of the employees’ job satisfaction is a major problem of the Organization, until it affects the achieving of goals.