Employee Motivation and Performance

 

Human resources can be used to their greatest potential only if they are motivated. This can be accomplished through increasing employee willingness to work. This will assist an organization in getting the most out of its resources which leads to increased production, lower operational costs, and improved overall efficiency. Motivation is a driving force within a person that encourages them to do something to the best of their ability in order to meet a need or fulfill an expectation (Mullins, 2007). Humans are driven by the satisfaction of a variety of needs. As a result, each person has their unique motivating elements that drive them to do their best work (Lin, 2007). Many factors influence needs, including the person, environment, organization, kind of work, risk, employees' educational backgrounds, experiences and talents, and job position. Motivated staff who "can create enduring positive experiences for consumers" are capable of providing outstanding service (Petcharak, 2002). Low turnover, loyalty, and harmony are also outcomes of motivated personnel, as are good performance and contributions to the company's growth and development (Lai, 2009).

According to Nohria (2008) , People are guided by four primary drives for motivation which are the result of our common evolutionary history. These drives underlie everything we do. The following table shows the emotional drives employees require to attain and it’s corresponding lever which specifies the actions the employer could take to make the most out of the available resources to motivate employees.

 

Source:  Nohria et al (2008)

 

The drive to acquire -We're all compelled to get our hands on scarce products that make us feel better. When this drive is satisfied, we are delighted; when it is not, we are dissatisfied. This tendency applies not only to tangible items like food, clothing, housing, and money, but also to experiences like travel and entertainment, as well as social status-enhancing events like being promoted and receiving a corner office or a seat on the corporate board.

The drive to bond - At work, the desire to bond is responsible for both the great rise in motivation that occurs when employees feel pleased to be a part of the organization and the loss of morale that occurs when the institution betrays them. It also explains why it's difficult for employees to break out from divisional or functional silos: People form bonds with their closest associates. However, the ability to establish attachments to larger groups might lead to employees caring more about the organization as a whole than about their local group within it.

The drive to comprehend -The desire to make a significant contribution at work is driven by the desire to make a meaningful contribution . Employees are driven by occupations that challenge them and allow them to grow and learn, whereas those that seem routine or lead to a dead end are demoralizing. Employees who feel imprisoned typically leave their businesses in search of fresh challenges.

The drive to defend - We all naturally defend ourselves against external threats. The need to protect reveals a lot about people's resistance to change; it's one of the reasons why employees can be crushed by the thought of a merger or acquisition—a particularly significant shift—even if the deal is the organization's sole hope for survival.

Although any company must satisfy all four of its employees' primary emotional drives, research reveals that each drive is best fulfilled by a different organizational lever.

Reward system -The ability of an organization's reward system to discern between good and poor performers, relate rewards to performance, and provide opportunities for promotion is the most effective way to satisfy the want to acquire. Sonoco, a packaging maker for industrial and consumer goods, reinvented itself in part by focusing on how to better match the want to acquire—that is, by building extremely explicit ties between performance and incentives. The corporation had previously set lofty business-performance goals, but incentives had done little to encourage them to be met. After a change in the management in the Human Resources department, Sonoco absorbed a pay for performance system based on individual and group metrics. This resulted in positive employee satisfaction and engagement. And the company was named as the top 20 talent management organizations in the United States.

Culture - Creating a culture that promotes teamwork, collaboration, openness, and friendship is the most effective strategy to satisfy the desire to bond—to produce a strong sense of camaraderie. A supermarket chain named Wegmans , a family owned business, appeared on Fortunes list of top 100 companies to work for. The business's owners make a point of instilling a familial tone in the company's culture. Employees frequently indicate that their bosses care about them and that they care about one another, demonstrating a sense of belonging and teamwork.

Job design -Designing occupations that are meaningful, exciting, and demanding is the best way to address the want to grasp. The entertainment company, Cirque du Soleil, committed to creating careers that are both challenging and rewarding. It draws and retains performers by accommodating their originality and pushing them to better their skill, despite the demanding practice and performance schedules. Employees have a lot of say in how shows are staged, and they're free to shift from show to show to pick up new abilities.

Performance management and resource allocation processes - Processes for performance management and resource allocation that are fair, trustworthy, and transparent help to meet people's desire to defend. It’s important to make employees understand the rationale behind the decisions the company’s top management makes. It makes the process look very transparent.

The above study indicated that addressing the desire to bond has the biggest impact on employee commitment, but meeting the desire to grasp has the highest impact on employee engagement.

References

Bhuvanaiah, T. and Raya, R.P., 2015. Mechanism of improved performance: Intrinsic motivation and employee engagement. SCMS Journal of Indian Management, 12(4), pp.92-97.

Hossain, M.K. and Hossain, A., 2012. Factors affecting employee’s motivation in the fast food industry: The case of KFC UK Ltd. Research Journal of Economics, business and ICT, 5.

Hussain, S., Rizwan, M., Nawaz, M.S. and Hameed, W., 2013. Impact of effective training program, job satisfaction and reward management system on the employee motivation with mediating role of employee commitment. Journal of Public Administration and Governance, 3(3), pp.278-293.

Lai, C., 2009. Motivating employees through incentive programs.

Lin, P.Y., 2008. The correlation between management and employee motivation in sasol polypropylene business, South Africa (Doctoral dissertation, University of Pretoria).

Mullins, J. (2007). Management and Organizational Behavior. New Jersey: FT Prentice Hall.

Nohria, N., Groysberg, B. and Lee, L.E., 2008. Employee motivation. Harvard business review, 86(7/8), pp.78-84.

Petcharak, P., 2002. The assessment of motivation in the Saint Paul Hotel employees.