Motivation in an Employee

Introduction

A significantly large portion of the time of millions of individuals across the globe are spent at their places of employment, irrespective of the nature of employment. Spending such a large amount of time has made the need of Motivation more essential to make them engaged in the job role that they are due to perform. This is because productivity and motivation are closely connected (Gagne, 2014).

It is human nature that defines and determines the levels of its behavior, effort and persistence which could be termed as Motivation and this motivation is an essential element to any employee to effectively engage in their work and the responsibility of providing an environment that makes an employee feels motivated, falls within the respective management of the Organization (Lauby, 2015). 

Armstrong and Taylor (2014) defines motivation to include a force that could sustain, direct and energize human behavior, which connects the facts that individuals who are motivated highly and who are given a power to decide on how to perform the task are automatically high performers and they volunteer to perform in such a manner.   

The definition of motivation could be in inferred from “movere” a Latin word which means movement. In order to do a particular task, there should be a motive which in turn should have a reason to retain that motive and as stated above, it could be further elaborated that humans are motivated to complete a particular task or engaging in a given course of action will result in an achievement of a qualified and/or quantified reward which could be of a high value to them Armstrong and Taylor (2014).

Components of Motivation as described by Arnold et al (1991):

1 Direction – the task in which an individual is attempting.

2 Effort – the manner in which this individual is attempting the task.

3 Persistence – the duration in which the individual investing to attempt the states task.

Categories of Motivation

Armstrong and Taylor (2014) categorizes motivation in the below manner: 

1. Intrinsic Motivation

This is the type of motivation which is self-developed by the employee. Given the free will, freedom and discretion to act and perform on the job, the level of contentment, satisfaction and achievement that is felt by the employee in discharging the job roles assigned to them falls under this category. The make use of their skills and abilities along with their strengths to the opportunities given to them.

It could be termed as the need of the employee to feel skilled, capable and proficient in performing the duties assigned and it is determined by the employees themselves Deci and Ryan (1985).

This type of motivation could be increased and made largely effective based on the manner in which jobs are designed Katz (1964).

Application:

An employee introducing a novel procedure or a policy in the relevant department for effectively performing the job assigned. 

E:g : Creating a handbook containing procedures for the operations of a given department

2. Extrinsic Motivation

This is where the environment of the organization plays a significant role to motivate the employees. Certain acts which are done in order to encourage employees to perform successfully in their job roles falls under this category.  Based on the degree of the motivation provided it can have an exceptionally powerful impact.

Application:

Naming an employee of the month

Star achievers of sales department to be displayed on a periodic basis

Award employees of the Quarter and provide monetary rewards  

Promotions, incentives and increased pay to be given to performers

Introduce various award categories and be awarded ceremoniously 

References:

Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S. (2014) Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice – 13^th Ed. – UK - Ashford Colour Press

Arnold, J., Robertson, I T., and Cooper, C L. (1991) Work Psychology, London, Pitman

Deci, E L., and Ryan, R M. (1985) Intrinsic Motivation and Self-determination in Human Behaviour – NewYork - Plenum

Gagne, M, (2014) The Oxford Handbook of Work Engagement, Motivation and Self – Determination Theory – New York - Oxford University Press  

Katz, D (1964) The Motivational Basis of Organizational Behaviour, Behavioural Science, 9, pp 131–36

Lauby, S (2015) Motivating Employees in the Digital Age – VOL 32/ Issue 1512 – Association of the Talent Development – Alexandria