Successful People are Always Motivated

The ultimate aim of any given business is earning profit. The founders of the business look forward to benefitting from the business through the profit, although sometimes the profit is used for purposes outside personal needs of the founders. Furthermore, the measure of a business is the level of attainment of set goals and objectives. Achieving these goals and objectives is a sum of several elements of the business. Burns and Dewhurst (2016) acknowledge that one of the main elements of a business is employees and stakeholders in that business. Whether the business is grown or is still developing, employees and other persons involved in the daily activities of the business are the primary contributors of the success of that business. This is because these employees deal directly with the market and customers, hence they build the business. Seeking business dissertation help can further enhance understanding and management of these crucial elements.

The manner in which a client is served determines whether or not they will remain loyal to that business organisation. Quality services by the employees retain current customers and attract more. On the other hand, poor services undermine the market growth of the products and services offered by that business. Therefore, it is important to enhance the performance of the employees through ways such as motivation and job satisfaction. Although these two are different, they are complementary to each other, hence will be used interchangeably. As Kemp (2016) records, the best performing businesses have motivated personnel involved in the operations. The internal environment of a business is the driving power of that business. The external forces such as market can be influenced by these internal factors such as quality of products and services. Motivation as a core cause of success in business is supported by two main theories.

Theories of motivation

The two-factor theory by Herzberg suggests that performance can be affected by two factors. Motivators are those factors that make the employee satisfied by their work such that they are productive (Badubi 2017). For example, an employee of a business organisation with stable training and reward of employees will feel the obligation to perform at their duties because they are assured of recognition of their work. Hygiene factors, on the other hand are those that undermine the satisfaction of the employee by their work. Hygiene factors are responsible for poor performance in a business hence poor production. For example, employees that are not recognised in a business organisation may not be motivated to perform because their efforts are not recognised.

Maslow’s theory of human needs classifies employees as human beings, whose needs occur in the form of a hierarchy. These needs motivate employees as human beings, hence affect their productivity. Therefore, the employer should ensure that these needs are met so as to guarantee good performance by the employee (Velmurugan and Sankar 2017). Physiological needs are the most basic, and they determine the survival of the employee and those around them. These include food, shelter, and health among others. These are also included in the human rights. Safety needs involve the well-being of the individual in terms of security such as financial security. Safety of an employee in a business organisation enhance concentration and commitment.

Love needs are social in nature, where the employee needs to relate with other employees within the business organisation. Healthy relationships enhance satisfaction and motivation as will be explained later in this essay. Esteem needs involve the way an employee feels about themselves. This includes their level of competence and performance as well as the respect they command from other people. An employee will enhance their performance if their efforts will be accorded corresponding respect and appreciation, thus enhancing their self-esteem. Finally, self-actualisation needs involve the desire to reach one’s ambitions. Employees have dreams and goals about their private lives and careers. Therefore, these needs tend to motivate the employees to perform at work so as to realise their personal goals and objectives, mostly in relation to careers.

Motivation factors and examples of companies

The two theories approach motivation as the force behind production. Furthermore, motivation as a concept occurs in two forms, but can be further classified into more specific factors as hereby explained. Motivation can either be extrinsic or intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation results from outside of the employee, that is, it is induced. On the other hand, intrinsic motivation emanates from within the employee. These two broad categories of motivation can be further categorised into the following motivators including affiliation, fear, incentive, competence, attitude, power and achievement.

To begin with, affiliation motivation is achieved through social relationships. Employees in the same area of operation such as transport form relationships that instil cohesion within each of them as a result of the relationship. As they work together, they gain the desire to achieve the objectives set for that department. The commitment to each other based on the social understanding becomes a driving force to be productive. Fear as a factor to motivation involves performance in order to avoid negative enhancement such as demotion. The fear of failure results to efforts to succeed in the business. For example, employees fear losing their jobs, hence they perform to sustain their work. This factor is mostly evident where financial motivation is inapplicable, or in cases of autocratic leadership style (Khan et al., 2015).

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Incentives involve presents and other positive reinforcement methods that may be used to enhance performance. For example, giving money and other trophies to the best performer in the business organisation is a common way of motivating employees. Incentives instil extrinsic motivation to the employees. Competence as a factor contributing to motivation leads the employee to best conduct themselves. The results of the employee render them as competent in their work, for example the comments of the customers concerning the services in the business organisation can be attributed to the involved employees. Los Angeles Times (2015) records that prominent businesses such as McDonald’s motivate their employees in order to enhance and grow their market.

Attitude is psychological in nature but is manifested in the physical behaviour of the employee. A performing employee will exhibit a positive attitude towards their work through features such as commitment to work. Such features influence their production, hence the success of the business. Still, power enhances motivation in employees. Power can be in various forms including inclusion in making decisions. Where employees are involved in making decisions in a business organisation, their self-esteem is enhanced because their opinion is esteemed as in SV Systems International (Steven et al., 2013). As a result, they work to sustain that status, hence achieving the goals of the business in the process. Finally, achievement is related to self-actualisation in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Personal goals and objectives motivate an individual to perform at their present positions so as to be promoted to higher levels, thus achieve their life goals. Therefore, an employee will perform well at their present state while aspiring to develop with time. Consequently, the business grows as competence and productivity of the employee develops.

Conclusion

The success of a business organisation depends on the daily performance of the individual employees in that organisation. The performance and productivity of the employees is influenced by both internal and external factors, hence intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Companies that are considered successful have a record of enhancing motivation in their employees. This is realised through ways such as enhancing training and development channels for the performing employees of their organisations. For example, employees at McDonald are considered equal partners and are involved in the making of decisions in the organisation (The Guardian 2015). Such actions instil in the employees a sense of responsibility and commitment to their employer because the success of the company directly affects them. Therefore, motivated persons such as employees within a business are key in enhancing the attainment of business goals and objectives. When these goals are achieved, although there are very few cases of full achievement of goals, the business is considered successful.

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References

Badubi, R.M., 2017. Theories of Motivation and Their Application in Organizations: A Risk Analysis. International Journal of Management Science and Business Administration, 3(3), pp.44-51.

Burns, P. and Dewhurst, J. eds., 2016. Small business and entrepreneurship. Macmillan International Higher Education.

Khan, M.S., Khan, I., Qureshi, Q.A., Ismail, H.M., Rauf, H., Latif, A. and Tahir, M., 2015. The styles of leadership: A critical review. Public Policy and Administration Research, 5(3), pp.87-92.

Steven A., Damien L., Dmitry M., Jasleena S., Olga M., and Sevag K., 2013. Participation in decision making: A case study of job satisfaction and commitment (part two). Available at

The Guardian 2015. McDonald's plans to launch a charity partnership to draw in millennials. Available at

Velmurugan, T.A. and Sankar, J.G., 2017. A Comparative Study on Motivation Theory with Maslow’s Hierarchy theory and Two-factor theory in Organization. Indo-Iranian J Sci Res, 1(1), pp.204-8.