Employee Motivation’s Impact on Performance

1.0 Introduction

In any company or organisation, the responsibility of managers is to ensure that employee does tasks or jobs effectively. To achieve this, employees of the company need to be sufficiently motivated. Different organisation uses certain motivation process for their employees to understand human mind and behaviour, which has great impact on satisfying its organisational objectives. There are a number of motivation theories that have influenced the way organisations manage employees to achieve a motivated work force. Bagraim et al (2007) noted that, there is need to find out the needs and goals of employees in order to address them and achieve the required motivation. This paper is divided into five chapters: an introduction to the problem, a chapter about employee motivation, its impact on performance, at last the conclusion is presented with a discussion and its implication. It will explain some the factors that motivates workers of different industry, its application and will examine some theories. Arnolds and Venter (2007) stated that there is a huge crisis of motivation in most large corporations. Business firms spend billions of money every year on incentives and courses in order to enhance employee motivation, but those interventions do not bring about high level of motivation. There are different types of perception between managers and subordinates on the way goals can be achieved in organisations. Delany and Turvey (2007) noted that, managers want a workforce with speed, high productivity and adaptability to change.

1.1 Identify a specific researchable topic area

This paper focuses on how business motivates its employees without investing surplus money. It will discuss some of the essential factors that motivates workers to produce goods and services for its organisation without spending additional money. Companies are facing high competition in this global world and it is vital to motivate their workers to get the best out of them. It is not an easy task when it comes to organisations motivating workers for effective performance. Vroom and Deci (1970) put it: ‘’ the question of what motivates workers to perform effectively is not an easy one to answer’’.

Establish the importance of the problem

Motivation of employee plays an important role in any organisation. Companies use different process of motivation to make their companies profitable. Companies need to understand the importance of motivation and engagement of employee in their workplace. Motivation of employee is essential to any business. To have a motivated staff or workforce means highly productive workers which help the organisation to achieve its goals. And that should be the main objective of any organization. The desire of the employee in their mind can be determined by the action taken or direction followed by their managers to make their company reach its highest level of profit. What are the factors that can motivate employee in a business to perform well in their workplace? Vroom and Deci (1970) put it: “the question of what motivates workers to perform effectively is not an easy one to answer’’. Employee motivation is very essential for any company. The management of the company can meet the goals of the company. It can lead the company to an increased productivity and achieve higher level of production or output.

Aim of the problem

The competency of a company to achieve its intended aim (Etzioni 1964) is defined as an effective organisation. The main aim of this research is to analyse how well some motivation can help enhance employee performance and to know the factors which triggers high performance in a company and to understand the different ways in which organisations can motivate their workers. The paper will also analyse the importance of non-monetary rewards on employee’s motivation and determine which reward is best to motivate employees. Successful work performance can arise from a variety of motives. This study will help companies to understand better on how to motivate their workers appropriately for a better performance within the company. Profit, growth and high performance are the main goals of any company to achieve through appropriate employee motivation. To achieve these company goals, employee motivation is a pre-condition. Every company has short-term and long -term plan and in order to achieve their main plan, their workforce needs to be highly motivated. The paper will also analyse the correlation between motivation and employee performance and customer satisfaction. Motivation can also link with the working environment. There are also many factors that can motivate employees such as flexible hours, training programmes and others factors that can motivate employees. The paper will analyse all those points mentioned above gradually and break new grounds on the link between motivation and performance within the company. This research will help other researchers who have interest in the subject to make further studies to know the link between motivation and performance. A person’s belief and values has an impact on motivation and if employee are not motivated, they cannot work effectively as a result of that performance of the organization will decline.

2.0 Research Objectives and Research Questions (200 words)

Employee of every organizations have big differences in terms of motivating their staff and there is one way to deal with them. An approach that motivates to perform one employee may not motivate another employee. This is a big challenge to managers of today and it triggers the problem question.

1. What is motivation and different forms of motivation?

2. The necessity of employee performance and job satisfaction.

3.How employee performance can be influenced by motivation

Motivation is the way in which employees can be encouraged to do a good job (Denby, N. and Thomas, P., 2001). Motivation is a complex issue and managers need to understand well those factors that influence employee performance in any organisation. The performance of any organisation depends on not only the availability of a satisfied and motivated workforce but also determining and understanding the factors that motivates employees. The job satisfaction is link with the positive feelings or emotions that are related to one’s job. Vecchio argued that “job

3.0 Literature Review

The main pillar of this study is to understand the concept of motivation and job satisfaction. Hence, it is essential to review the most essential theories in order to understand what generates and control human behaviour. To understand better the motivational theories, it is necessary to discuss the job satisfaction development and review different schools of thought, which has a great influence. Martin and Bartol (1998) reflect motivation a powerful tool that strengthen behaviour and triggers the tendency to continue. It is an internal drive to satisfy an unsatisfied need and to achieve a certain goal. In comparison to financial resources, the human resources have the capability to create competitive advantage for their organisation. Employee motivation depends on a number of factors such as job satisfaction, training and development so on. satisfaction is the emotional reaction to work experience.” (1995: 124).

Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs

Motivation has been a concern for many companies. What motivate one employee may not motivate another employee within the same company.

Theories on work Motivation

Contrary to one of the factors that motivate people, which is, money for some people, there are other factors that for motivation. For a lot of people, the feeling of being recognised and valued appears more vital than money in motivating them to keep on in a particular job. (Laurie, 2007,255). McShane et al defines motivation as ‘’… a factor that exist in an individual which has the potential to affect the way, strength and eagerness of behaving towards work’’. (McShane & Von Glinow 2003, 132) the above definition of motivation has been supported by Perti & Govern, ‘’motivation is the thought that explains the propelling force in an individual that explains differences in intensity of behaviour’’.

Relation between motivation and Job satisfaction

It is arguable that there is a close bond and a strong correlation between motivation and job satisfaction based on the previous discussion. Some researchers often assumed that they are very similar and can be used interchangeably. Nevertheless, some other researchers see job satisfaction as a consequence of job motivation. For example, according to Sorge and Warner (1997), job satisfaction is the main result of work motivation. Need can cause tension when the individual needs something they argued. On the other hand, other writers see job motivation as a consequence of job satisfaction. Kreitner et al. (2002), for example, argued that managers can enhance employees‟ motivation by increasing their job satisfaction. in contrary to the previous argument, some researchers presume that job satisfaction and motivation are different phenomena; Hersey and Blanchard (1988) argued that while satisfaction is related with the past, motivation is related to the future, as they see satisfaction as a result of past organizational events, while motivation is a result of individual’ expectations about the future. Hence, it can be said that motivation and job satisfaction are not the same, as each has its own identity. Companies need to be aware that highly motivated employee does not necessarily mean most satisfied and vice versa; hence it is important to understand the whole phenomena. Here, we will see the motivational theories, which helps us to discuss the job satisfaction development over the past century in relation to the different schools of thought that has a big influence on many motivation theories. Hence, the next paper will highlight on the major school of thought in management and its contribution to the field of motivation, job satisfaction.

2.5 THE MAJOR MANAGEMENT SCHOOL OF THOUGHTS

Although there were numerous schools and models of management, Stoner and Wankel (1986) and Steers et al. (1996) had defined three major models in the order in which they evolved. These models are the „Traditional Model‟, the „Human Relations Model‟, and the „Human Resources Model‟. In the following section, these models and their influences on motivation and satisfaction will be discussed. So far, various publications are related to motivation concerning the existing business environment that will be considered for review in this study. Vroom (1964) wrote that the phrase motivation is a derivative of the Latin expression “movere,” which implies “to move” that is an internal stimulant that depends on the necessity of a person that drives one to attain a particular goal. People only act when they are motivated to partake a specific deed, and this motivation can only come from external factors; this notion brings us to another conflicting issue in motivation, which is intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. As per the arguments of Ryan & Deci (2000), intrinsic motivation is the actions that are conducted for their intrinsic fulfilment instead of their outcomes. Intrinsic motivation is also referred to as self-motivation. Self-motivated individuals are people who are willing to challenge themselves to achieve their targets or results without any additional coercion or pressure. Contrary, extrinsic motivation is an act done solely for the sake of getting the needed reward or non-attached result, as compared to intrinsic motivation where actions are conducted for the sake of achieving self-satisfaction or out of passion. The definition of motivation in relations to employees can, therefore, be seen as facets, or elements that urge employees to accomplish or pursue certain professional goals and responsibilities and are the cause of staffs action and behaviour in a manner that could be predisposed. Figure 1 gives a summary of these elements or facets that could lead to employee motivation. (Source; Heathfield, 2015).

Continue your journey with our comprehensive guide to Methodology and Data Collection for Historical Stud.

Training and Development

Sekhar, Patwardhan, & Singh (2013) argued that in most cases, companies do not consider the feelings of their employees in regards to the development of skills. The military-style organisational style is among the first organisational structures to be used, and up to date, it is still common among various organisations. In respect to the existing organisational structure, Katcher and Snyder (2003) argued that training and developing employees could help in encouraging growth within the organisation. Through the course of training and skill progression, employees might acquire new knowledge, and the application of this knowledge can help them in rising through the set organisational ranks. In the long run, training and development will improve an individual’s productivity, and therefore, it is well-thought-out as one of the imperatives of employee management. Rowold (2007) wrote that training and development have a double constructive effect, where the thoughts of an individual are stimulated, and in turn, teamwork is enhanced, which ultimately leads to enhancement of leadership qualities. The crucial element is that workers are self-driven to attain the targets set by the establishment.

Methodology

The aim of the research paper is to elaborate on the correlation between employee motivation and the performance of employee and to deliver companies and managers a valuable information on the topic. All research questions will be answered based on literature research. The results of this paper might lead us to experimental research on the correlation between employee motivation, their performance and job satisfaction.

Research design, Research approach and research Type

The aim of this study is to analyse how a business can motivate its employees without adding surplus money, which is concluded to be affected by various extrinsic and intrinsic facets, it is challenging to observe or conduct an observation on how such aspects can affect employee motivation. Therefore, the researcher resorted to using the quantitate methodology and explicitly using secondary sources as the primary source of data for this study. Here, the concept of motivation will be explained. The Herzberg (1943) and Maslow’s (1943) motivational theories will also be discussed and clarify the correlation between them and their effects. Since the investigator cannot control the outcome of the variables of this research, which are the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that affect employee motivation, the quantitative methodology is fitting for such a situation. Apart from the ability to control the unknown variables of the study, the quantitative methodology gives various fundamental insights on the correlation of the variables in question, and ultimately it proves to be elastic in a sense that it assists in the identification of the missing segments of what is unidentified or what partly acknowledged. Through the quantitative methodology, the researcher can capitalise on the objectivity to generalise the outcome and give several predictions of the correlated variables. In the study, the quantitative design also assists in describing the numerical tendencies, opinions, and attitudes of the sampled population and encompasses of both longitudinal and cross-sectional studies to collect the data of a specified sampled population.

Rationale

Kitchenham, Brereton, Budgen, Turner, Bailey, & Linkman (2009) stated that there are several reasons that can compel a researcher to use secondary data, and the most obvious one is when a researcher is conducting a study on an area that has already been explored, and there is sufficient data from the previously published report on the same concept. In respect to this, employee motivation is a familiar concept among human resource practitioners and policymakers. Therefore, the fact that this area is already explored gives the researcher more time to devote their respective efforts to other steps that entail scientific concepts. Other advantages include the fact that various shared datasets, precisely those that are accessible by the public have very a broad sample measure of different constructs and longitudinal designs that eventually helps the researcher to address challenges that they might otherwise lack the time or resources to research on. Besides, this is also the only platform where the researcher can draw longitudinal data to analyse the expected change and instability in the topic being investigated over a period. Moreover, for first-time researchers, secondary data provides the needed platform to address longitudinal research questions. Secondary data also helps the researcher to study the predecessors’ development patterns, for example, the analysis of a disorder or a specific common occurrence or the background to unexpected or infrequent events (Stewart, 2011). Another advantage is some publicly available datasets have been collected using very complicated sampling methods, which results in representative samples and highly generalised outcomes. Data collected from large samples would also provide an opportunity to study a specific sub-population. The same data-sets also allows researchers to test complex hypotheses that involve various variables, and the same samples facilitate the use of different statistical techniques

Access to Data and Research Ethics

Access to data

To attain the objectives of the research, the investigator used a systematic literature review methodology to collect and analyse data. Egger, Juni, Bartlett, Holenstein,& Sterne (2003) wrote that a researcher using secondary data ought to use only the data published in the last ten years so that the new study can remain relevant, up-to-date and authenticated. In reference to the argument, this study will use studies published between 2014 to the present day to collect data. The study will examine different online databases like Jstor library, Google Scholar, and Luria Library. In all these libraries/ databases, the phrase “employee motivation” was used as a search phrase in all the articles, journals, and books, among other publications. Further exploration utilising the referenced literature of the appropriate materials was also analysed. Different electronic searches identified the respective ‘grey literature,’ this includes unpublished papers that were initiated by different public, governmental, and organisational institution. To categorise an article as grey literature, the researcher analysed the first 200 searches from the libraries stated earlier. Other alternative vital words were also utilised in the search. Other hand-picked search lists in some libraries also led to more grey literature, particularly various studies and documentation from different committees and policy briefs. Figure 1 provides a summary flow chart of how these studies were selected

Research Ethics

Secondary sources are subjected to copyrights; therefore, the researcher would have to seek permissions from various authors and publishers so that they can use their studies. Besides, the study could be subjected to acts of plagiarism, which could be compromise the quality of the study and render it invalid. Therefore, the researcher would have to avoid cases of plagiarism and using unauthorized publications.

Limitations

The focus of this investigation is generally to find out information about the link of motivation, employee performance and job satisfaction in general. There are huge complex areas under employee motivation which have not yet been investigation and even, additional replication of studies will provide a great deal of future studies. Genders and cultures has not been distinguished by most of the traditional theories research methodologies. Secondary sources could have various biases from their original authors, these biases are present in the sampling procedures, the informing literature and the valid conclusions of the study. Such biases could go undetectable, and therefore this study could also build its evidence based on these biases. Additionally, in the field of employee motivation, there are various theories that inform the theme, which contradict each other. Therefore, it is challenging to pick up on set of theories that could be used to guide the study.

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