Introduction to Employee Motivation

The term motivation derives from the Latin word movere, meaning, to move.
This means that no one can understand a persons motivation until that person
behaves or literally moves. At one time, employees were considered just another
input into the production of goods and services. What perhaps changed this way of
thinking about employees was research, referred to as the Hawthorne Studies,
conducted by Elton Mayo from 1924 to 1932 (Dickson, 1973). This study found
employees are not motivated solely by money and employee behavior is linked to
their attitudes. The Hawthorne Studies began the human relations approach to
management, whereby the needs and motivation of employees become the primary
focus of managers.

Definition
Many contemporary authors have also defined the concept of motivation.
Kreitner in 1995 defined Motivation as: the psychological process that gives
behavior purpose and direction.
Buford, Bedeian, & Lindner in 1995 defined Motivation as, a Predisposition to
behave in a purposive manner to achieve specific, unmet needs.
Higgins in 1994 defined Motivation as, an Internal drive to satisfy an unsatisfied
need.
Bedeain in 1993 defined Motivation as, The will to Achieve Something.
So in basic words we can easily define Motivation as, the Inner force that drives
individuals to accomplish personal and organizational goals.

Role of Motivation
Motivated employees are needed in our rapidly changing workplaces. Motivated
employees help organizations survive. Motivated employees are more productive.
To be effective, managers need to understand what motivates employees within the
context of the roles they perform. Of all the functions a manager performs,
motivating employees is arguably the most complex. This is due, in part, to the fact
that what motivates employees changes constantly.
For example, research suggests that as employees' income increases, money
becomes less of a motivator. Also, as employees get older, interesting work
becomes more of a motivator.

Nature of Motivation
Employees are essentially the most important aspect of an organization. Managers
strive to motivate their employees so that they are willing to perform at their
highest levels. When employees work hard, come to work regularly and continue
making positive contributions to the organization, the business will be able to cut
costs and yield more profit, both of which are the ultimate goals of any
organization. On the contrary, unmotivated employees will mean the organization
will have people that are not willing to do well in the jobs or have to hire more
people to do different jobs, which contribute to higher operating costs and a
reduction in profit.
According to an article entitled Need-based Perspectives on Motivation
by Moorhead and Griffin, job performance depends on three main factors:
Motivation, Ability and Environment. In order for an employee to reach a higher
level of performance, he/she must want to do the job (motivation), be able to do
the job (ability), and must have the materials, resources, and equipment to do the
job (environment).For this reason, the following relationship can be established:
Performance = Motivation + Ability + Environment
Deficiency in any one of these factors will result in a lower level of job
performance. Managers always need to ensure that these three conditions are met.

Of all the three factors, it is generally accepted that motivation is the most difficult
factor to manage. This is mainly due to the fact that humans attitude/behavior is
full of complexities and thus difficult to manage. As for the other two factors, an
employee has been recruited with the awareness that he/she has the skills and
capacity needed to perform the tasks as well as the fact that resources are readily
available. If the manager feels that the employee lacks training of some sort, he/she
can be sent to training programs to learn those skills. If the person is not suitable
for the level, he/she can be directed to work at lower jobs. On the other hand, if
resources are not available, i.e. the environment factor, the manager can take action
to ensure that they become available.
For example, if an employee needs a photocopier, he/she can formulate request to
the management team and ask for one. For this reason, it is quite clear that the
most challenging job for every employer is how to motivate their employees to
strive their best to work for the organization.

Types of Motivation
Depending upon the situations and types of employees, a manager needs to select a
method to motivate his subordinates. Following are the types of motivation that
managers can take into consideration in order to successfully motivate their
employees.
Money and Motivation
No one works for free, nor should they. Pursuing money with hard work to
provide security and comfort for oneself and their family is not the same pursuing
money with a negative motive. Obviously, employees want to earn fair wages and
salaries, and employers want them to know this is what they are getting for their
hard work. Unsurprisingly, this all leads to the fact that employees and employers
would all view money as the fundamental incentive for satisfactory job
performance.
Motivation through Job Design
Considering the fact that the average adult spends half of their waking lifetime at
work, to effectively motivate them no longer relies on the importance of money or
other material objects. As jobs are the central feature of modern existence,
feelings of having a challenging and interesting work can attach people to their
jobs whereas a boring and tedious job, on the other hand, can become a serious
obstacle to motivating people, not to mention the effect it has on an individual's
physical and mental health. This is when Job design comes in to deepen a good
manager's understanding and persuade them to adopt different approaches of
dealing with employee mediation rather than the typical approach of motivating
people through financial means.
There are two main strategies a manager can take to motivate employees:
Strategy one: Fitting people to jobs
To avoid continual dissatisfaction and reinforce motivation, three alternatives with
proven track records include realistic job previews, job rotation, and limited
exposure, each of which explains how a manager could fit the right people to the
right jobs.

Strategy two: Fitting jobs to people

This second strategy is for managers to consider changing the job itself instead of
the people. Two techniques are provided in this field: Job Enlargement and Job
Enrichment.
Motivation through Rewards
Employees, or volunteers who donate their time and efforts for good causes, expect
to receive rewards of some sort for their contributions. Managers have found that
rewards play a significant role in motivating employees to work harder and longer.
This section, therefore, attempts to identify the numerous types for rewards that
can be administered by managers.
Motivation through Quality-of-work-life innovations
One of the world authorities on this subject has once described Quality-of-work
life (QWL) as "a process by which an organization attempts to unlock the creative
potential of its people by involving them in decisions affecting their work lives." In
other words, QWL program is an interpersonal connection between employees and
the organization; it touches every aspect of modern work life. Three main
categories of QWL program are flexible work schedules, participative
management, and workplace democracy. The common characteristic of these three
categories is that they give employees a degree of control over their own work
lives, or to say that every step and decision they make does not only affect the
company but also themselves, which leads to another kind of employee motivation.