Unit 4 (P 37) Employee Motivation

Motivation

• Motivation is a term that refers to a process that elicits, controls, and sustains certain behaviors.
• Motivation is defined as the process that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. Motivation is what causes us to act, whether it is getting a glass of water to reduce thirst or reading a book to gain knowledge
• The process that accounts for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal.
• The key elements in motivation are:
• Intensity: How hard a person tries.
• Direction: toward beneficial goal.
• Persistence: how long a person tries.(Persistence is the ability to maintain action regardless of your feelings. You press on even when you feel like quitting.)
• Dynamic force which sets a person into motion”
• “An inner state that energizes, activates and directs or channels behavior towards goals”

Feature of motivation

•  Component of directing: Motivating is an important component of directing functions of management. It is the responsibility of the managers to motive their subordinated to get all things done. Psychological aspect: Motivation is a psychological aspect of management. It is the internal feeling which arises from the need and desires of a person. Motivation generates from within an individual. It starts and keeps individual at work
• Goals directed: Motivation generates goals-directed behavior. Feeling of need by the persons causes him/her to behave in such a way that he/she tries to satisfy himself. Human needs influence behavior to achieve desired goals.
• Continuous process: Motivation is a continuous process. Where a particular need is satisfaction, a new need is seen. It is the result of an interaction between human needs and the incentives offer to satisfy them.
• Positive or negative: Motivation may b positive or negative. Positive motivation means inspiring people to work better by providing rewards and incentives. Negative motivation means forcing people to work by punishing them.
• Complex and Dynamic process: Motivation is a complex and dynamic process. Individuals differ in their needs and wants. Different individuals work to fulfill their own needs. They satisfy their need in different ways. Moreover, human need change from time to time. Influence Behavior: motivation focus to influence the behavior of the employee to meet the standard level of behavior to be shown at the work place.
• Concentrates on whole individual: Motivation puts effort to change the behavior not only at work place, but person as a whole. 
• Pervasive function: Motivation is carried out by all mangers and in all types of concerns where business activities are carried out. Every manager provides guidance and inspiration to his subordinates.

 Importance of motivation

•  Increased Productivity: When employees are motivated from inside or from outer sources they show passion for their work and give better performance. When they are given a target to achieve they give their best efforts to reach their targets  and complete the given task on or before time. Though they are not promised any monetary compensation on the completion of their targets they are themselves motivated to do their task because they know that the management trust’s their ability to perform and they want to prove it by completing the given task. This attitude of the employees leads to increased productivity which is very beneficial for the company. 
• Improved employee morale: Continuous motivation of employees boosts their morale and they work and perform better. A happy team with a high morale are ready to face any challenge in their job without any issue. They are ready for the most difficult task given to them as there are happy from within and have a high esteem of themselves because of this the company or organization experience less employee conflicts and less absenteeism.
• More loyal staff: A highly motivated employee groups are loyal towards their organization. When they are motivated on a regular basis they know that their employers care for them and want them so they are more loyal to the organization. Employing new staff and training them is very expensive task for any organization so a loyal workforce will reduce this expenditure and the company can concentrate on other important issues. A company with good and loyal workforce will gain good reputation in the market and people would want to associate more with the company.
• Better Creativity: When an employee is highly motivated they feel free to express their views and ideas since they are passionate about their jobs. They know that they are an important part of the organization and want to contribute more towards the betterment of the organization, this makes them more creative. For increasing the creativity amongst the employees, managers have to design a leadership style in such a way that is encourages employees to provide more suggestions, new ideas and new cost effective ways of delivering better performance.
• Individual growth and improvement: A motivated employee is ready to take up more tasks for the company and tries to complete it with best efforts. For this they study and train themselves more, this makes them more experience in their field. By taking and accomplishing more tasks they increase their individual growth and improve their knowledge. They are more likely to be recognized within the organization and also outside the organization. Their chances of appraisal and promotion are also increased.
• Leads to achievement of organizational goals: Motivation helps to achieved organizational goals by, proper utilization of resources, maintaining a co-operative work environment, directing employees in a purposive manner. Goals can be achieved if co-ordination and co-operation takes place simultaneously which can be effectively done through motivation.
• Builds friendly relationship: Motivation is an important factor which brings employees satisfaction. This can be done by keeping into mind and framing an incentive plan for the benefit of the employees. This could initiate by; Monetary and non-monetary incentives, Promotion opportunities for employees, Disincentives for inefficient employees.
• Leads to stability of work force: Stability of workforce is very important from the point of view of reputation and goodwill of a concern. The employees can remain loyal to the enterprise only when they have a feeling of participation in the management. The skills and efficiency of employees will always be of advantage to employees as well as employees. This will lead to a good public image in the market which will attract competent and qualified people into a concern.

Motivational process

• Needs
• Drives
• Incentives

Theories in motivation

• Hierarchy of Needs Theory by Abraham Maslow
• Two-Factor Theory (Frederick Herzberg) (Motivation Hygiene Theory).(Check post no. 11)

Techniques for improving employee motivation

1. Financial incentives: Monetary benefit offered to encourage behavior or actions of employees. A financial incentive motivates actions which otherwise might not occur without the monetary benefit. It is a monetary reward provided for performance above targeted objectives. The scientific / Theory X approach, in particular, argues that workers respond to financial rewards. Getting employee pay right is a crucial task for a business.
2. Participation: the act of sharing in the activities of a group. Sharing of ideas and information motivates employees to look for more creative ideas.
3. Delegation of authority: Delegation of authority is assigning work to subordinates and giving them necessary authority to do the assigned work effectively. Delegation means assigning of certain responsibilities along with the necessary authority by a superior to his subordinate managers
4. Job security: It can be enhance with formal training and development programs.
5. Job enlargement: Job enlargement involves adding extra, similar, tasks to a job. In job enlargement, the job itself remains essentially unchanged.  However, by widening the range of tasks that need to be performed, hopefully the employee will experience less repetition and monotony.
6. With job enlargement, the employee rarely needs to acquire new skills to carry out the additional task.
7. A possible negative effect is that job enlargement can be viewed by employees as a requirement to carry out more work for the same pay!
8. Job Enrichment: Job enrichment attempts to give employees greater responsibility by increasing the range and complexity of tasks they are asked to do and giving them the necessary authority. 
9. Job Rotation: ob rotation involves the movement of employees through a range of jobs in order to increase interest and motivation. .
10. Reinforcement: Reinforcement refers to the consequences of desired behavior. Reinforcement may be either positive or negative, depending on its application.
11. Quality of work life: Extent to which employees can enhance their personal lives through their work environment and job related experiences.
12. Team work and empowering: Empowerment involves giving people greater control over their working lives. Organizing the labour force into teams with a high degree of autonomy can achieve this.

  Reward system to motivate performance

Extrinsic and Intrinsic reward:

1. Extrinsic rewards are money and grades, coercion and threat of punishment. It results to extrinsic motivation. Competition is in general extrinsic because it encourages the performer to win and beat others, not to enjoy the intrinsic rewards of the activity.
2. Intrinsic rewards are: Opportunity for achievement, giving of challenging responsibility, Opportunity for advancement, Opportunity for growth in stature and peer recognition.  It leads into intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic reward is driven by an interest or enjoyment in the task itself, and exists within the individual rather than relying on any external pressure. Intrinsically motivated employees are more likely to engage in the task willingly as well as work to improve their skills, which will increase their capabilities.

 Financial and Non-financial Reward

1. Financial reward or Compensation is a systematic approach to providing monetary value to employees in exchange for work performed. Compensation may achieve several purposes assisting in recruitment, job performance, and job satisfaction
2. Non-financial rewards will help you provide your employees with a sense of achievement and recognition for their high performance, encouraging them to perform even further in the future.

 Essential of effective reward

1. Satisfy needs: Rewards must be according to needs for which the employees are working. Financial incentives are more effective motivators for employee with basic needs, but may be inefficient if the employee have higher needs.
2. Effort- reward relation: Expectancy theory suggest that employees expect that their effort will lead to certain output and rewards. It employees believe that the effort will lead to rewards that satisfy their needs, they will do best to get that reward.
3. Equitable reward: Equity Theory by J. Stacy Adams states Individuals compare their job inputs and outcomes with those of others and then respond to eliminate any inequities. Management must ensure fairness and uniformity in the application of the reward system.
4. Variety of rewards and methods: Management should focus to use multiple combination to financial and non financial rewards and methods as per the need and the expectation of the employee.

 Motivation through employee participation:

Quality of work life:

• Extent to which employees can enhance their personal lives through their work environment and job related experiences.
• It indicates the quality of relationship between employees and the total work environment.  Its main focus is to promote learning and development.
• The Quality of Work life department implements programs and practices that encourage a positive and productive work experience l.
• Quality of work life programmes has two objectives: to enhance the productivity and the satisfaction of employees.
• Quality of Work Life helps employees to feel secure and like they’re being thought of and cared for by the organization in which they work.
• QWL has following essential elements:

• Adequate income and fair compensation
• Safe and healthy working conditions.
• Opportunities of use and develop human capabilities.
• Opportunity for Continued Growth and Security
• Social integration in the work organization
• Right to personal privacy, free speech and equitable treatment
• Work and the Total Life Space

Mechanism through which QWL can be achieved are:

Quality circle:

• Pioneered by Japanese; quality circle is a volunteer group composed of workers , who are trained to identify, analyze and solve work-related problems and present their solutions to management in order to improve the performance of the organization, and motivate and enrich the work of employees.
• Usually the members of a particular team (quality circle) should be from the same work area or who do
• similar work so that the problems they select will be familiar to all of them. In addition, interdepartmental or cross functional quality circles may also be formed.

Employees share ownership:

• Employee share schemes let employees benefit from the business success they're helping to create.
• An employee share ownership plan is the practice of companies giving staff members shares in their company as part of their salary.
• An ESO is a defined contribution employee benefit plan that allows employees to become owners of stock in the company they work for. It is an equity based deferred compensation plan. Under the ESO plan, companies provide their employees the opportunity to acquire the company's shares at a reduced price over a period of time.
• Feeling of ownership will lead to commitment and they will have opportunity in decision making.

Flexible work schedule:

• Flexi time is a variable work schedule. There is typically a core period of the day, when employees are expected to be at work , while the rest of the working day is "flexitime", in which employees can choose when they work, subject to achieving total daily, weekly or monthly hours in the region of what the employer expects, and subject to the necessary work being done.
• A flextime policy allows staff to determine when they will work, while a flexplace policy allows staff to determine where they will work.
• Employers appreciate the boost in productivity and morale while employees reap the benefits of structuring work around their lives instead of the other way around. Flexible work scheduling is a win-win situation.

Self managed work team:

• Self managed team, mean a group of people working together to deliver a project without needing a specific leader or manager to control and direct the group’s activities.
• Team members have greater freedom to complement each other’s skills.
• Team members are interdependent and the role of supervisor is missing.
• The role of manager or supervisor, in the case of a self-directed team, is replaced by all the members of the team. Together, they plan and execute the work, day in and day out, carrying out the directions set by management above them.
• self managed teams as “groups of employees who have the responsibility and authority to manage the work they do.
• The teams are also responsible for handling their interpersonal issues within themselves and work without any direct supervision.
• They are generally composed of 10 to 15 people who take on the responsibilities of their former supervisors. Typically, these responsibilities include:
• Collective control over the pace of work,
• Determination of work assignments,
• Organization of breaks, and
• Collective choice of inspection procedures used.

 Fully self-managed teams select their own members, and the members evaluate each other’s performance. As a result, supervisory positions take on decreased importance and may even be eliminated, see