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Understanding employee motivation and the process - the mediating role of employee Happiness and organizational performance
Understanding employee motivation and the process - the mediating role of employee Happiness and organizational performance
Understanding employee motivation
Declaration of Independence of the United States of America (July 4,1776), proclaimed that among the inalienable rights of man, are "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness''(Wijewardena, 1953).Happiness is a transitory notion and the degree to which it applies varies from individual to individual and on diversity of conditions around(Kolar, 2015).The Declaration further states that "All men are created equal, but the whole trouble has been that no two men are equal", Wijewardena (2015), which succinctly elaborate the behavioral variables present when it comes to a group of people forming an organizational structure and environments (Wijewardena, 1953).Organizational understanding of the factual reality that its efficacy or success alone is not what makes its employees happy: instead, happiness makes employees more effective, is of paramount importance (Kolar, 2015). Grounded on the aforementioned ephemeral concept of Happiness and the pursuit for it, lay the foundation to apprehend its mediating role in a successful employee motivation. Motivated employees exhibit an innate penchant for building up optimistic voluntary behaviors and hold fast to them (Armstrong, 2013). They set a direction and decide how best to pursue.
Combination of all these aspects well defines what employee motivation is and the mediating role of Happiness as exhibited in the initial innate penchant, which in fact is the driving force. The video footage below, exhibits how the strength of happiness within as an innate positive discretionary behavior drives the employee to walk that extra mile in making a difference and winning people.
Video 1 : Amusement by an employee of WestJet
Derived from, and co-extensive with employee motivation is the dividing line specifying the types of it. Organizations needs to understand the types, in order to cast the human resource management strategies accordingly (Armstrong, 2013).
Types of Motivation
Types of Motivation
-
Intrinsic Motivation
- Extrinsic Motivation
The feeling of accomplishment for all those hard works you put into a job is the core basis of the intrinsic motivation. The moment an employee starts to value the job engagement with a sense of empowerment and job role of an interestingly challenging dimension with opportunities for continuous growth and skill enhancement, emerges the intrinsic motivation from within oneself (Armstrong, 2013).
Sri Lankan travel agencies have been unfavorably affected over the low or zero commission levels set under new Airline rules. Travel agencies noticed that there had been a drastic turnover of employees since they couldn't adapt to the absence of additional income made through the commissions. Agents are now dumped into a situation where low quality/low skilled employees for lower salaries left as the alternative circumstantially ( PressReader.com, 2018).
It is evident based on above, that motivation to sell tickets and cover targets abounded while receiving commissions, conversely employees left the organizations in the absence of commissions, manifesting that the initial motivation while receiving commissions was extrinsic, hence it did not last long though it helped the employees to engage in their job role enthusiastically at the initial status while receiving the money.
References
Armstrong, Michael 2013, Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice,13th edition, Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data, accessed 02 November 2020.
Indeed.co.uk. 2020. Working At Ryanair: 141 Reviews | Indeed.Co.Uk, viewed 02 November 2020.
Kolar, C., 2015. Workplace Happiness And Employee Motivation. Blog.rpoassociation.org, viewed 03 November 2020.
Motivation 2020, 'Motivation',wiki article,03 March, viewed 03 November 2020.
Pressreader.com. 2018. Pressreader.Com - Your Favorite Newspapers And Magazines, viewed 03 November 2020.
World's Funniest Flight Attendant Ever! [video], viewed 03 November 2020.
Wijewardena, D., 1953. The Revolt In The Temple. Composed To Commemorate 2500 Years Of The Land, The Race And The Faith. [On The History And Religion Of Ceylon.]. 1st ed. Pp. 700.Sinha Publications, pp.538-539.
Hi Asitha, I would like to add-up to your post that, Aamodt (2012, p.329), also divides Employee motivation into two groups. Intrinsic motivation, which is “the work motivation in the absence of such external factors as pay, promotion, and co-workers”. Extrinsic motivation, which on the other hand, arises from a range of compensational factors such as financial rewards, career opportunities, co-workers etc. Moreover, motivation in organizations can be divided into three different perspectives: need-based, process-based and learning-based. Need-based perspective on motivation is central to the idea that “humans are primarily motivated by deficiencies in one or more important needs or need categories” (Griffin and Moorhead, 2011, p.93). Theoretical framework of Hierarchy of Needs is effectively utilized by Virgin Atlantic in order to motivate its workforce at all levels depending on the nature of their immediate needs. Specifically, while motivational tools for junior level employees, mainly include financial incentives, emphasize is given to the perspectives of personal and professional growth when motivating medium level managers. However, it is important to note that financial incentives remain to be one of the most effective motivational tools for employees at all levels and this fact is fully acknowledged by Virgin Atlantic management. Martins (2010) confirms this viewpoint by informing that the compensation won by Virgin Atlantic from British Airways for libel suit has been shared with all employees of Virgin Atlantic.
ReplyDeleteExtrinsic motivation is defined as the result of behavior that is based on separate actions. Extrinsic
Deletemotivation is instrumental and multidimensional and has variations
Intrinsic motivation is a behavior to involve one to provide satisfaction and pleasure. Intrinsic
motivation has a non-instrumental nature, which means that actions that are intrinsically motivated
do not depend on results that can be separated from the behavior itself( Badavi et al. 2020).
The act of being motivated by internal factors to perform certain actions and behavior is called Intrinsic Motivation. Whenever an individual performs an action or behavior because the individual is affected by the eternal factors such as rewards or punishments, such form of motivation is called Extrinsic Motivation.
ReplyDeleteThere is neither pressure nor any sort of reward for the actions you perform due to intrinsic motivation. You get rewarded as promised for the actions you perform due to extrinsic motivation.
The needs or causes that lead to intrinsic motivation are:
Autonomy: the need to have complete control over one’s own life.
Relatedness: the need to maintain companionship or connection with others.
Competence: the need to do be the best and/or succeed.
The needs or causes that lead to extrinsic motivation (and not limited to) are:
Money
Praise
Competition
Threat of a punishment
Intrinsic incentives are hard to figure. In a class or workplace, different individuals will/might require different approaches. Extrinsic incentives can be used to motivate a whole group, thus increasing productivity in workplace or creating a better learning environment in classrooms.
Fostering intrinsic motivation can be a lengthy process, requiring special treatment. Extrinsic Motivation often occur instantly as soon as the subject understands the perks of performing certain actions.
Intrinsic Motivation lasts for longer periods and often leads to higher level of success. Extrinsic Motivation might only occur for limited period of time, and the individual stops performing actions after the punishment or reward is applied(Shrestha 2017).
When intrinsically motivated a person is propelled to act for the fun or challenges entailed rather
Deletethan for aspects like external prods, pressures, or rewards.As per White (1959),as human beings we all are exploratory, playful, and curiosity-driven behaviors even in the absence of reinforcement or reward.This clearly tells us the core reason as to why Intrinsic motivation last longer than extrinsic factors( Deci, E & Ryan, R 2000).
Extrinsic motivators can have an immediate and powerful effect, but they do not last long. Innate motivations to care about ‘quality of working life’ are likely to have a profound and long-term impact, as they are inherent to individuals and work, and are not imposed externally in the form of incentive pay(Armstrong, 2014).
ReplyDeleteHi Ranga, extrinsic motivation can vary greatly in the degree to which it is autonomous(Deci, E & Ryan, R 2000).Studies have demonstrated that offering excessive external rewards for an already internally rewarding behavior can reduce intrinsic motivation—a phenomenon known as the overjustification effect(Badavi et al. 2020).
DeleteConceptual paper: How theory concerning employee motivation and organizational performance may be advanced. Current motivation theory development is based on conventional quantitative analysis. We suggest that researchers take a set-theoretic approach to complement existing conventional quantitative Analysis (SUGIURA, 2011).
ReplyDeleteThank you Malinga, yes it would better if it is based on conventional, directed, and summative approaches qualitative content analysis( Hsieh, H & Shannon, H 2005).
DeleteAccording to Armstrong and Murlis(2007) there are two types of benefits basically –financial and moral benefits. Every incentive plan, and any good organization has such a program in place, should provide for the right balance between these two advantages. The effective incentive scheme as individual employees have individual preferences, can not ignore these two motivation aspects.
ReplyDeleteAs had mentioned motivation is a crucial aspect where the organizations should constantly endeavor to achieve and maintain. To motivate employees by rewards, organizations have setup two categories; Monetary and Non- Monetary (Yousaf et al, 2014). These again oscillate between the Intrinsic and Extrinsic needs of employees and the demographic of employees (Silverman, 2004).
DeleteExtrinsic motivators can have an immediate and powerful effect but will not necessarily last long (Mullins, 2005; Armstrong, 2006). Intrinsic motivators are concerned with the quality of work life, are likely to have a deeper and longer-term effect because they are inherent in individuals and not imposed from outside (Armstrong, 2006).
ReplyDeleteWhen intrinsically motivated a person is propelled to act for the fun or challenges entailed rather
Deletethan for aspects like external prods, pressures, or rewards.As per White (1959),as human beings we all are exploratory, playful, and curiosity-driven behaviors even in the absence of reinforcement or reward.This clearly tells us the core reason as to why Intrinsic motivation last longer than extrinsic factors( Deci, E & Ryan, R 2000).
Motivation is fundamentally meant to facilitate the behavioral alteration and it is a force that enables an individual to act toward a particular objective, goal (Shahzadi et.al, 2014). Motivation will encourage the employee to be loyal and to work for a longer period at the same organization and it will lead to saving money in recruitment costs, training, lost productivity and increase overall effectiveness of the organization (Sabri 2017).
ReplyDeleteAccording to Hoffman-Miller (2013), job satisfaction is the extent to which an employee is happy with their job roles, resulting in the willingness to perform at a top- notch level (Wakida and Lawther, 2014). Schermerhorn, J (2008) model for Integrated relationship of Motivation to Job satisfaction and Commitment clearly manifest the complimentary roles of each component. It is evident that Motivation plays a key role when it comes to enhancing performance and job satisfaction in any organization.
DeleteStobierski (2019) explained, one of the most effective ways that managers can boost their direct reports’ motivation is through effective communication. Managers to keep employees motivated and working toward your organization’s shared strategic goals need to activate following 5 steps.
ReplyDelete(a)Recognize a job well done
(b)Allow your employees to demonstrate a healthy level of autonomy
(c)Include your employees in goal setting
(d)Facilitate respectful relationships
(e)Rethink your performance review process
If you are concerned that your performance reviews do not have the positive impact, you’d like them to, there are steps you can take to improve the process. For example, instead of annual reviews, you might make a switch to six-month or quarterly reviews to make employee feedback more actionable, or you might embrace more individualized scoring to account for unique employee needs and duties.
All above steps intentionally or not, do speaks of and depend on the organizational relationship. A good management-employee relationship is necessary for the satisfactory performance of any firm and for the employees to feel engaged. Autonomy of the employees in their work domain versus hierarchical control by the management towards the aims of the firm should in balance. This can affect the productivity and loyalty of the workers. For this reason, the management employee relations are important (Tansel, A 2013).
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ReplyDeleteOne of research for the Civil Aviation Authority of Kenya found that 62% of respondents needed monetary and non- monetary benefits to adequately motivate, while 25% of respondents wanted non- monetary rewards and only 14% needed monetary rewards and 50% of respondents who choose the monetary rewards are 51 years of age and older who have vast experience and at the edge of employment hence required more monetary rewarding for motivation (Muli, 2018).
ReplyDeleteYes Ernaga, people's needs varies both quantity wise and quality wise, furthered by an empirical number of aspects influencing which again oscillate between the Intrinsic and Extrinsic needs of employees and the demographic of employees (Silverman, 2004).
DeleteAn intrinsic reward is an intangible award of recognition or a sense of achievement motivation, in any endeavor when one feels in the Maslow’s hierarchy as attainment in conscious satisfaction. It is the knowledge that one did something right, or one made some body's day better. Hence reward management systems (specifically intrinsic rewards) positively motivate employees and ultimately affect their individual and organizational performance. Pool and Pool (2007).
ReplyDeleteTo fulfill the drive to acquire, an organization must discriminate between good, average and poor performers by tying rewards clearly and transparently to performance and giving the best employees opportunities for advancement. This rewards system must provide competitive employee compensation relative to the industry (Lawrence and Nohria 2002)
ReplyDeleteAccording to findings of Lawrence and Nohria (2002), employees are guided by four basic emotional drives : the drives to acquire, bond, comprehend, and protect. And identified through the researchers survey these four drives led to high levels of engagement, satisfaction, commitment and a reduced intention to quit, and ultimately better corporate performance. This theory can be help to create the enormous boost in motivation when employees feel proud of belonging to the organization (Lee,M.T.et al.2016).
ReplyDeleteAccording to Wijesundera (2018), Organizations use motivation in the attainment of these desired business outcomes and key factors such as extrinsic motivators described as salary, bonus and commission directly impacts an individual while intrinsic factors like working conditions, employee engagement and job security also plays a major role.
ReplyDelete