Organizations in today’s world need to be competitive, efficient, productive, and innovated while reducing costs. How should organizations accomplish this never-ending goal? One technique is motivating employees to be efficient, productive, and innovated, however, individuals have different feelings, thoughts, and motivational drivers which makes it difficult for managers to achieve effective motivation in the workplace.
According to Newstrom (2014/015) inner and outer influences trigger employees to perform and participate in appropriate behaviors this refers to work motivation. Work motivation is a complicated mixture of psychological forces within each person. There are several different theories that address motivating employees,
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According to Newstrom (2014/2015) valence is receiving a preferred reward, whether that be an object, situation or status, expectancy is the belief that a specific behavior or effort will create an expected outcome or completion of task, and instrumentality is the belief that completing the task and serving a purpose will be useful and rewarded. Vroom’s Expectancy theorizes that valance with expectancy with instrumentality will create motivation. According to Expectancy theory (2016) this theory is based on choosing one behavior or another behavior because of the anticipated result, individuals will work harder knowing that they will be rewarded for their additional efforts. Vroom believed that “Individuals make choices based on estimates of how well the expected results of a given behavior are going to match up with or eventually lead to the desired results” (Expectancy theory, 2016). The last theory being reviewed is the Equity theory by John Stacey Adams and according to Newstrom (2014/2015) is based on that employees tend to evaluate equality by comparing the rewards they receive with their contributions and completed goals and also by comparing this ratio with the ratio of other employees. According to Equity theory (2016) this theory shows that individuals appreciate fair treatment and when employees are treated equally than they are motivated to continue to provide the same standard of fairness.
Employee motivation is, or at least must be, one of the key issues for directors, managers and personnel managers. The leader must be able to find the sensitive strings of his subordinates, which can be motivated by influencing them to achieve high performance. The correct use of motivation encourages staff to make more efficient use of their knowledge, skills, and talents. In today's turbulent, often chaotic environment, commercial success depends on the employee's talent and effort. Despite the many existing theories and practices, some of the motivation of leaders today remains a mystical term. This is partly due to the fact that people are motivated by different things and techniques.
Motivation is derived from an internal force that provides an individual the opportunity to achieve their needs or goals. People are motivated by a variety of things and often have different motivating factors. Employers should be mindful of individual motivating factors when attempting to motivate staff to increase performance. While some people may be motivated by money, many are motivated by things like: recognition, promotion, and increased responsibility. Once an employer has identified motivating factors they are able to analyze a variety of motivational theories to design and implement a program that will motivate employees to go above and beyond what is expected of them.
According to researcher Lindner (1998), motivated employees are needed in our rapidly changing workplaces to aid in the survival of organizations. Not only is it important to meet the needs of the consumer, it is equally important that to make sure that associates are taken care of and remain motivated. For this reason, Gibson, Ivancevich, Donnelly and Konopaske (2012) “states much of management’s time is spent addressing the motivation of their employees” (p. 125). According to the Encyclopedia of Small Business (2007), employee motivation is the level of energy, commitment, and creativity employees bring to their jobs; the inner force that drives individuals to accomplish personal and organizational goals (Lindner, 1988). Despite its obvious importance, employee motivation can be an elusive quest for managers due to the multiplicity of incentives that can influence employees to do their best work. The reality is that every employee has different ways to become motivated and the knowledge of how to motivate them is key to organizational success. It is imperative that employers get to know the personal needs and wants of their employees in order to establish tactics in which to motivate each of them. Once achieved, “managers are in a better position to encourage and reward employees to behave in effective ways” (Gibson et al, 2012, p.
“Motivating Employees” is a book about how employee motivation is driven by companies that invest and grow their employees. One of the most important traits of highly effective and successful companies is that employees are happy and have fun at work. Leadership is not assaulting your employees, but to lead your employees you need to motivate by using caring,
Adam’s Equity Theory is a model of motivation which basically states that employees will perform at a more productive rate if they feel that they are being treated fairly (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2010). Equity is achieved when a worker perceives their reward for their amount of work to be equal to that of a relevant worker. Negative inequity is perceived by the employee when the relevant worker receives greater rewards for the same amount of work. Positive inequity is perceived by the employee when the relevant worker receives fewer rewards for the same amount of work (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2010).
There are as many different methods of motivating employees today as there are companies operating in the global business environment. Still, some strategies are prevalent across all organizations striving to improve employee motivation. The best employee motivation efforts will focus on what the employees deem to be important. It may be that employees within the same department of the same organization will have different motivators. Many organizations today find that flexibility in job design and reward systems has resulted in employees ' increased longevity with the company, improved productivity, and better morale.
Adams was a workplace and behavior psychologist who pushed the ideas of the Equity Theory onto employees. Equity Theory works to explain the importance of keeping equity between the contributions that an employee brings to a job and the benefits that the employee receives. According to www.MindTools.com, “Much like many of the more prevalent theories of motivation (such as Maslow 's Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg 's Two-Factor Theory), Adams ' Equity Theory acknowledges that subtle and variable factors affect an employee 's assessment and perception of their relationship with their work and their employer.” Adams’ findings also point out that employees will take into consideration how others are being rewarded in the workplace and then compare it to their own rewards. If things do not feel equal for an employee, motivation is very likely to dwindle for the employee in spite of the unfairness.
The success of any business depends on the productivity and satisfaction of its employees. Employees need to be motivated to work. Motivation can be defined as the inner force that drives individuals to accomplish personal and organizational goals. Motivation can be either intrinsic or extrinsic. For an individual to be motivated in a work situation there must be a need, which the individual would have to perceive a possibility of satisfying through some reward. Intrinsic motivation stems from motivations that are inherent and arise from performing the task of the job itself, which the individual gets a feeling of either positive or negative motivation as a result of
Over the last several years, the issue of employee motivation inside the workplace has been increasingly brought to the forefront. The reason why is because, globalization has been having an effect on the ability of firms to compete (which is placing more pressure on them). To deal with these challenges, most organizations are relying on their employees. The results are that those employers who are able to use this resource will be able to make adjustments quickly. This is when the firm will be able to maintain their dominance in the marketplace.
The equity theory conceived by J. Stacy Adams is based premise that "people gauge the fairness of their work outcomes relative to others, any perceived inequity is a motivating state of mind" (Schermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn, 2005, p.10, chpt.6). This theory when applied to a sales force would not be the best method to motivate this employee group as to what is deemed fair by a team leader could be perceived as unfair by the
The Equity Theory can be defined as “a model of motivation that explains how people strive for fairness and justice in social exchanges or give-and-take relationships” (Kinicki & Fugate, 2016, p. 156). In an article written by Al-Zawahreh & Al-Madi (2012), a noteworthy factor about the Equity Theory is that, “The fairness of exchange between employees and employer is not usually perceived by the employees as simply as an economic matter, an element of relative justice is involved” (2012, p. 158). In other words, the topic of equality is bigger than just compensation. The
Equity Theory attempts to explain relational satisfaction in terms of perceptions of fair/unfair distributions of resources within interpersonal relationships. Equity theory is considered as one of the justice theories; it was first developed in 1962 by John Stacey Adams, a workplace and behavioral psychologist, who asserted that employees seek to maintain equity between the inputs that they bring to a job and the outcomes that they receive from it against the perceived inputs and outcomes of others (Adams, 1965). The belief is that people value fair treatment which causes them to be motivated to keep the fairness maintained within the relationships of their co-workers and the organization. The
The identification of key factors or indicators in the motivation of employees in an organization of your choice.
Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology is devoted to the study of employee behavior in the workplace and understanding the issues facing organizations and employees in today’s complex and ever changing environment. Motivation refers to the set of forces that influence people to choose various behaviors among several alternatives available to them. An organization depends on the ability of management to provide a positive, fostering and motivating environment for its employees in order to increase profits, productivity and lower turnover rates of its employees. The purpose of this paper is to discuss and compare six academic journal articles and explore the behavior, job, and need based theories of motivation that can aid management in motivating and understanding their employees. Finding that delicate balance to can sometimes be elusive so effectively learning how to motivate by understanding, controlling and influencing factors to manipulate behavior and choices that are available to employees can produce the desired outcome.
Currently due to the internet, access in a wide range of information we live in a time where advancements about the knowledge of humans, communication amongst each other, transportation and overall quality of life has been its best it has ever been. Because of the availability of this information innovation has taken place in all most all facets of life to make society better. Contrary to above there are still that refuse to innovate, the biggest problem for many companies is motivating employees to be as productive as possible. I chose the topic of motivation because in almost every job I have had I’ve noticed the lack of motivation in the work place. The role of fostering motivation is pivotal,