Exploring Motivation in the Workplace

Introduction

The study highlights the different aspects of motivation and the reason behind people working and continuing their job roles. A job might give numerous amounts of challenges to the employees. However, there are some positive and some negative factors that are experienced by the employees every time. These factors need to be identified along with presenting a highlight on extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Different motivational theories such as Maslow’s hierarchy are going to be used for giving a complete description of the process. Physical and mental health management is encountered as a crucial part of the study.

Meaning of motivation

Definition of motivation

It is identified as a process that is going to initiate, guide, and provide maintenance up to the goal-oriented behavior. It is one process, which is accountable for an individual's intense behavior, the persistence of records towards attaining a goal. Pushing one to get the desired work done is defined as motivation.

Motivation can be explained in terms of using Maslow’s Hierarchy theory that is concerned with satisfying the self-needs of a person. Two distinct types of motivation can be discussed that work with safety, belongingness, and esteem (SHKUNOVA et al. 2017). Motivation theory ensures that competition arises while people intrinsically try to reach their goals. Maslow's theory focuses on self-actualization incorporation until a person is motivated to reach out at the top of his life goals and give the complete potential of work. Physical needs along with the management of social needs are part of this process.

Extrinsic and intrinsic motivation is associated with Maslow's theory. In the case of intrinsic motivation, the link is established with gaining full potential in work and motivating each person to reach the top of their life goals. In the case of extrinsic goals, the needs outside individualism are assessed. According to Lutgen‐Sandvik (2017), self-actualization is assessed with full potential and in the case of intrinsic motivation; a person participates in a process, not because of the duty calls but also for his interest. Examples can be identified in terms of fair play or gaining some sort of award or recognition. While extrinsic features of motivation are considered, it is believed that workers should be paid more and there should be benefits given more often to work harder and earn money for them. Major differences between these two categories are associated with performing a task to complete their interest in intrinsic and complete a job to avoid punishments in extrinsic cases.

Factors motivating employees to work

Employees are motivated towards work as they are supposed to be taking benefits of salary, promotion, and work environment. These are prime factors of improvement that are associated with authorization of employee motivation. As explained by Unkelos-Shpigel, and Hadar (2018), motivation does matter inside of a work environment, as employees need to achieve their targets. It is identified whether an employee is a perfect fit or not through understanding, whether people are motivated towards their job or not. Employee management has been identified as a crucial aspect of employee essential. Certain factors leave a mark upon the employee's motivation and demotivation. However, here three of them can be discussed such as:

Salary: An improved salary scale helps in paying off the bank debt of employees. There is the importance given on achievement of life qualities as well. Currency is required for the management of work indefinite aspects and allowing people to work in their respective backgrounds. Factors affecting employee satisfaction are associated with a person’s performance whether they are capable of taking those responsibilities (Hussainy, 2020.). Responsibilities that are given to a person should come with good remuneration and awards. However, some researchers conclude that salary is not a motivator and it is a hygiene factor only. The salary expectations and bonuses become easier with the creation of realistic goals and attributes. Payment of work is identified as a powerful extrinsic motivator. A good amount of money is required for satisfying the employee's needs and demands.

Promotion: Promoting a person in their jobs helps to create a job recycling and allows employees to assess their values of managing organizational practices. A risk always underlies for losing employees if they are not given appropriate promotion. Getting a promotion in job roles helps an employee explore more career options and find strong motivators for the people in the workplace. As described by Barton, Schaefer, and Canavati (2018), indeed power and authority are filled within employees once they are promoted. This boosts their confidence and motivates them to work essentially. In such cases, Taylor's scientific types of motivation can be improvised and key motivators are essential in terms of building strong career growth and influencing people around them. Promotion is also attached to achieving certain levels of job security and holding influence on the people around.

Work Environment:

One of the biggest motivators is the work environment that engages workers coming to the work premises. In case, the work environment is not suitable enough then it becomes a matter of indulgence that affects employee’s motivation. According to Honeycutt (2020), a good quality work environment with people helping each other and providing an environment of marketing is essential to create job opportunities. Herzberg’s two-factor theory is associated with effective working conditions inside of an organization. The offering of rewards has become essential in creating a work environment positive. Moreover, an environment free of racism, gender discrimination creates a positive attitude toward work. Employees are both required to be engaged in mental and physical satisfaction to overcome distress.

Positive factors experienced by employees

Employers are experiencing several positive factors like providing the employees with a good amount of resources so that they can have a happy life. Providing an employee with a sense of identity along with social engagement is an important aspect of creating self-esteem and self-actualization (Ferreira, 2017). A positive work environment is something that brings about work engagement for most people. Leadership quality along with allowing each individual to grow in his or her life has been improvised. Connections with others have been improved as learning together helps in the development of quality leadership goals. Creating a better network is important for leading a good life. Personal commitment is also important, as understanding the concepts of job management is important. Quality of leadership and creating sustainable attributes help in maintaining positivity as well.

Negative factors experienced by employees

Being engaged in any of the work-related stress and presenting issues that cannot be controlled within employee level, impacts negatively for the employees. Risk assessment-based approaches are identified to be more effective while there are case-based assessments done. Companies are looking forward to stress management within employees for gaining better results on mental health improvement. The company sometimes gives excessive daily work pressure on an employee and giving threat of being fired (Gopalan et al. 2017). Lack of conflict management with colleagues has been included inside organization as a negative experience for employees. Lack of training for becoming an expert in a certain field has also been experienced. Communication can become an issue for conducting whatever there is in mind for the employees with other employees. Language barriers along with gender discrimination at the workplace can de-motivate employees. There is racism that affects employee’s social needs. Conflict with team members is also affecting negatively them. There is the identification of traveling commitment incompetency that might impose a situation, which is quite negative for a person working inside an organization.

Strategies to cope with negative factors employees

A team's success depends on the overall control of factors that binds all employees together. It should be ensured that all negative thoughts are kept at bay while companies' overall development is occurring. Strategies to cope up with negative factors of employees are associated with recruiting well that is recruiting a candidate after thorough checking of records. Setting out clear goals of achievement as it is important to give value to the areas of performance (Bernabé-Valero, Blasco-Magraner, and Moret-Tatay, 2019). Any employee that is not obeying the system and the person avoiding abiding by the company rules should be given a warning. Communication is most important as any issues in handling the human resource should be clearly stated and better engagement of employees in work should be done. Avoidance of a defensive behavior can be an important step in the management of negativity inside an organization. The creation of a fair pay policy and no discrimination rules can help in the management of any further issue.

Conclusion

There are significant reflections given on the reasons people working and the motivational theories are leaving an effect on people. Positive and negative factors always interact within systematic enforcement of actions for managing the workplace. Here, motivational theories and different factors that influence a person towards work have been justified. It is important to understand employee feelings as well to keep the organization growing. The legitimate actions that should be taken to mitigate a negative environment inside an organization are also discussed here in this context.

Take a deeper dive into Exploring Demographic Influences on Purchasing Behavior in Virtual Stores with our additional resources.

References

Journals

Bernabé-Valero, G., Blasco-Magraner, J.S. and Moret-Tatay, C., 2019. Testing motivational theories in music education: the role of effort and gratitude. Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, 13, p.172.

Gopalan, V., Bakar, J.A.A., Zulkifli, A.N., Alwi, A. and Mat, R.C., 2017, October. A review of the motivation theories in learning. In AIP Conference Proceedings (Vol. 1891, No. 1, p. 020043). AIP Publishing LLC.

Ferreira, T.S., 2017. Motivational factors in sales team management and their influence on individual performance. Tourism & Management Studies, 13(1), pp.60-65.

Honeycutt, R.C., 2020. Effects of Chair Testing in Orchestra on Student Motivation: Student Perspectives and Applications from Motivational Theories.

Barton, M., Schaefer, R. and Canavati, S., 2018. To be or not to be a social entrepreneur: Motivational drivers amongst American business students. Entrepreneurial Business and Economics Review, 6(1), pp.9-35.

Hussainy, S.S., 2020. Review on Motivational Theories & Models: Its application for Employees’ Retention in Organizations.

Lutgen‐Sandvik, P., 2017. Positive organizational communication scholarship. The International Encyclopedia of Organizational Communication, pp.1-8.

SHKUNOVA, A.A., YASHKOVA, E.V., SINEVA, N.L., EGOROVA, A.O. and KUZNETSOVA, S.N., 2017. General Trends in the Development of the Organizational Culture of Russian Companies. Journal of Applied Economic Sciences, 12(8).

Unkelos-Shpigel, N. and Hadar, I., 2018, May. Leveraging motivational theories for designing gamification for RE. In Proceedings of the 11th International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (pp. 69-72).