Employee motivation


Employee motivation is an intrinsic and internal drive to put forth the necessary effort and action towards work-related activities. It has been broadly defined as the "psychological forces that determine the direction of a person's behavior in an organisation, a person's level of effort and a person's level of persistence". Also, "Motivation can be thought of as the willingness to expend energy to achieve a goal or a reward. Motivation at work has been defined as 'the sum of the processes that influence the arousal, direction, and maintenance of behaviors relevant to work settings'." Motivated employees are essential to the success of an organization as motivated employees are generally more productive at the work place.

Motivational techniques

Motivation is the impulse that an individual has in a job or activity to reaching an end goal. There are multiple theories of how best to motivate workers, but all agree that a well-motivated work force means a more productive work force.

Taylorism

was one of the first theorist to attempt to understand employee motivation. His theory of scientific management, also referred to as Taylorism, analyzes the productivity of the workforce. Taylor's basic theory of motivation, is that workers are motivated by money. He viewed employees not as individuals, but as pieces of a larger workforce; in doing so his theory stresses that giving employee's individual tasks, supplying them with the best tools and paying them based on their productivity was the best way to motivate them. Taylor's theory developed in the late 1890s and can still be seen today in industrial engineering and manufacturing industries.

Hawthorne effect

In the mid 1920s another theorist, Elton Mayo along with
Fritz Roethlisberger and
William Dickson from the
Harvard Business School, began studying the workforce. His study of the Hawthorne Works, lead him to his discovery of the Hawthorne effect. The Hawthorne effect is the idea that people change their behavior as a reaction to being observed. Mayo found that employee's productivity increased when they knew they were being watched. He also found that employees were more motivated when they were allowed to give input on their working conditions and that input was valued. Mayo's research and motivational theories were the start of the Human Relations school of management.
However, today there are studies and systematic reviews are conducted to find out whether the Hawthorne effect exists, and the level of impact it can make under certain conditions.

Gratitude in advance

Thanking employees can help them, especially if done before they engage in difficult or distressing tasks. A study conducted in 2024 showed that gratitude can help increase employees' sense of social worth regarding themselves, which helps them to persist challenges more effectively than if the gratitude is expressed after the task.

Job design

The design of an employee's job can have a significant effect on their job motivation. Job design includes designing jobs that create both a challenging and interesting task for the employee and is effective and efficient for getting the job done. Four approaches to job design are:
  1. Job Simplification: The goal of this job design approach is to standardize and specialize tasks. This approach does not always lead to increased motivation because the jobs can become mundane over time.
  2. Job Enlargement: The goal of this job design approach is to combine tasks to give the employee a greater variety of work.
  3. Job Rotation: The goal of this job design approach is to move workers to different tasks periodically.
  4. Job Enrichment: The key to job design employee motivation, this approach aims to enhance the actual job by building up the employee through motivational factors.
Several studies validate the effectiveness of using job design techniques to increase employee motivation. A study conducted by Campion and Thayer used a job design questionnaire to determine how job designs fostering motivation affected employees. Campion and Thayer found that jobs with more motivational features have lower effort requirements, a better well-being, and fewer health complaints. The study also found that jobs scoring high on the motivational subscale of the questionnaire contained employees who were more satisfied and motivated, had a higher rating pertaining to job performance, and had fewer absences.
Hackman. conducted a study pertaining to work redesign and how redesigning work could improve productivity and motivation through job enlargement or enrichment. The study's results found that redesigning a job can improve the quality of the product or service that is provided, increase the quantity of work, and can increase work satisfaction and motivation. The last study on job design was conducted by Dunham, who wanted to determine if there was a relationship between job design characteristics and job ability and compensation requirements. Dunham believed organizations were overlooking job ability requirements and compensation when they enlarged or enriched employee's jobs. The study found that organizations were not taking into account the increased job ability requirements that job enrichments or enlargements entail nor were the organizations increasing compensation for employees who were given extra tasks and/or more complex tasks.

Rewards

Using rewards as motivators divides employee motivation into two categories: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic rewards are internal, psychological rewards such as a sense of accomplishment or doing something because it makes one feel good. Extrinsic rewards are rewards that other people give to you such as a money, compliments, bonuses, or trophies. This applies to Douglas McGregor's Scientific Theory that formed Theory X, which applies to the extrinsic wants of employees. The basis for the motivation is supervision structure and money. Scientific Theory is based on the grounds that employees don't want to work so they have to be forced to do their job, and enticed with monetary compensation.Theory Y, also derived from McGregor's theory, says that employees are motivated by intrinsic or personal reward. With this theory different factors can be used to heighten the intrinsic benefit that employees are receiving at their job."
Many studies have been conducted concerning how motivation is affected by rewards resulting in conflicting and inconsistent outcomes. Pierce, Cameron, Banko, and So conducted a study to examine how extrinsic rewards affect people's intrinsic motivation when the rewards are based on increasingly higher performance criteria. Pierce et al. found that rewarding people for meeting a graded level of performance, which got increasingly more difficult, spent more time on the study's activities and experienced an increase in intrinsic motivation. Participants who were not rewarded at all or only rewarded for maintaining a constant level of performance experienced less intrinsic motivation.
Another study that examined the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation was conducted by Wiersma. Wiersma conducted a meta-analysis to summarize the inconsistent results of past studies. The meta-analysis by Wiersma concluded that when extrinsic rewards are given by chance, they reduce intrinsic motivation. This result is supported when task behavior is measured during a free-time period. However, it is not supported when task performance is measured when the extrinsic reward is in effect. Wiersma also found that these results cannot be generalized to all situations. A study conducted by Earn also examined the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. Earn wanted to know if extrinsic rewards affected a person's intrinsic motivation based on the subject's locus of control. Earn found that pay increases decreased intrinsic motivation for subjects with an external locus of control whereas pay increases increased intrinsic motivation for subjects with an internal locus of control. The study also found that when the controlling aspect of the extrinsic reward was made pertinent by making pay dependent on a certain amount of performance, higher pay undermined the intrinsic motivation of subjects and their locus of control was not relevant.

Intrinsic rewards: Job Characteristics Model

The Job Characteristics Model, as designed by Hackman and Oldham attempts to use job design to improve employee intrinsic motivation. They show that any job can be described in terms of five key job characteristics:
  1. Skill Variety - the degree to which the job requires the use of different skills and talents
  2. Task Identity - the degree to which the job has contributed to a clearly identifiable larger project
  3. Task Significance - the degree to which the job affects the lives or work of other people
  4. Autonomy - the degree to which the employee has independence, freedom and discretion in carrying out the job
  5. Task Feedback - the degree to which the employee is provided with clear, specific, detailed, actionable information about the effectiveness of his or her job performance
The JCM links the core job dimensions listed above to critical psychological states which results in increased employee intrinsic motivation. This forms the basis of this "employee growth-need strength." The core dimensions listed above can be combined into a single predictive index, called the Motivating Potential Score.

Employee participation

1. Increase employee participation by implementing quality control "circles". Quality control circles involve a group of five to ten problem solving employees that come together to solve work-related problems such as reducing costs, solving quality problems, and improving production methods. Other benefits from quality control circles include an improved employee-management relationship, increased individual commitment, and more opportunities for employee expression and self-development.
A study by Marks et al. focused on assessing the effect that quality circles had on participating employees and found that the attitudes of employees who participated in quality circles were influenced in the areas concerning participation, decision making, and group communication. Although group communication was influenced, communication through the organization as a whole was not and neither was employee's personal responsibility for their work. The results of this study suggest that quality circles can provide employees with informational and social support that can help increase their motivation.
2. Increase motivation through employee participation by using open-book management. Open-book management is when a company shares important financial data with employees. Sharing the information empowers employees by putting trust into them. Employees become personally and meaningfully involved with the organization beyond just doing their assigned tasks, which increases their motivation and production
Open book management is a four-step process. The first step involves employers sharing financial data with their employees. Employees need to know how the company, as a whole, is doing financially. Next, employers must teach their employees how to read and interpret the financial data. Employees can look at all the data a company gives them; however, to understand the data, they must know how to interpret the numbers. Third, employees have to be empowered to make necessary changes and decisions for the success of the organization. Employers should treat their employees like partners to promote increased employee motivation. The last step involves employers paying their employees a fair share of profits through bonuses and incentives. Bonus numbers must be attached to numbers that employees see regularly and can influence the financial data. With these steps in mind, the friction between employees and between employee/management can be drastically reduced.
Four factors must exist for any employee participation program to be successful:
  • Have a profit-sharing or gain-sharing plan where both the employer and employee benefit
  • Implement a long-term employment relationship to instill job security
  • Make a concerted effort to build and maintain group cohesiveness
  • Provide protection of the individual employee's rights
"Work motivation is a set of energetic forces that originate both within as well as beyond an individual's being, to initiate work-related behavior and to determine its form, direction, intensity, and duration".