The Impact of Motivation on Employees - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 7 Words: 2072 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Marketing Essay Type Analytical essay Did you like this example? INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT Past researchers have studied different approaches that might sway the commitment of employee towards their organization. Seemingly, apart from skill development, environment, job security, trust and fairness, motivation comes across as one of the significant factors which influence staff commitment. Employees have been identified as the most valuable assets of an organization. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Impact of Motivation on Employees" essay for you Create order However, recent survey suggest that organizations across the globe are struggling to meet production and service demands knowing that these consequences are directly reliant of the ability, skill and commitment of employees that is mainly disengaged and underutilized. With limited number of motivated staff worldwide, several people are working in an unhealthy environment with others dissatisfied and practically disengaged. More often these employees are not just unhappy at work; they discharge their discontent and sow seeds of negativity at every opportunity. Less motivated employees causes lost of productivity, these include absence, illness and other problems when unhappy at work. Retrospectively, employees were merely seen as just another input into the production of goods and services, what perhaps changed this assertion about employees was Elton Mayos concept, referred to as Hawthorne Studies which sensitized managers of the needs and importance of employees motivation (Bedeian, 1993). In the exploration of employees contribution to organizations, commitment of an employee is alleged to be the most desirable asset that any organization can have in order to attain maximum contribution. Furthermore, upholding the commitment of an employee is another challenge to organization, in which most managers are struggling to identify ways to win commitment from their employees. According to (Muchinsky, 1997) and (Locke and Latham 1990) the problem of how to manage employees to gain their commitment has been a concerned to many managers. One of reason why this problem seems difficult, if not mysterious, is that motivation ultimately comes from within and therefore cannot be observed openly. As a result, most organizations are trying to shape the competency among employees via range of training and development programs. Alternatively, the use of other motivational approaches can enhance organization performance. Research Aim and Objectives The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of employee motivation towards the employee commitment at the Department of Urban Roads Ghana. In order to establish the findings, the study sought to examine the following five key objectives. Firstly, to identify strategic approaches that might improve staff commitment and job satisfaction Secondly, to identify the importance of the various theories of motivation Thirdly, to establish the perception of management and staff concerning the manner in which motivation is encouraged and developed. To unlock the secret of what motivate individuals and their attitude towards work. And finally, To provide recommendation for future improvement on applied motivational approaches SECTION TWO LITERATURE REVIEW For as long as institutional dynamics have been studied, over the past decade, researchers have been struggling to comprehend how many aspects of human relations in the workplace affect bottom-line performance. For institutional managers the performance of their subordinates is important for the growth of the organisation. One of the basic ways in improving or enhancing the performances of employees is through the use of organisational approaches such as motivations, because motivational problems are performance problems and can be addressed with current performance improvement tools and approach that is likely to predict organisations ability to achieve high outcomes with productivity, profitability, customer services, staff retention and work place safety, the significance of motivation within organisation can be describe as priceless asset of the company that should not be allowed to decline but rather be passed on to other subordinates. According to (Wright, 2001) Motivation and its different philosophical views create a link between the employees knowledge and skills and the nature of their work. Motivation and its application has been the centre of the issues in human resource department. Human resource management viewpoint of employee commitment is ones ability to deliver as required. Maslow suggested that, there are five levels of employees needs (Maslow, 1943): this include safety, social, ego, physiological, and self -actualizing. Maslow further argued that lower desires had to be fulfilled before the next higher level need would motivate employees, example of lower needs are air, water, food and shelter e.t.c dominate human behaviour until they are satisfied. Herzberg on the other hand categorized motivation into two factors namely Motivators and Hygienes (Herzberg, Mausner, Snyderman, 1967). Motivator factors include recognition, achievement, and job satisfaction. Such factors if implemented appropriately will provide employee with greater hap piness, increase productive, self realisation, and decrease turn over, decrease absenteeism, decrease expenses for psychological casualties, improve smooth working relations. Job satisfaction improves employee commitment which in turn improves performance, performance on the other leads to satisfaction. Hygiene factors emphasis on issues like job security, pay and job dissatisfaction. According to (Herzberg, Mausner, Snyderman, 1967) the opposite of job satisfaction is not dissatisfaction, but rather a simple lack of satisfaction. In the same way, the opposite of job dissatisfaction is not satisfaction, but rather no dissatisfaction. For example, consider the hygiene factor, work conditions. If the air conditioner breaks in the middle of a hot summer day, workers will be greatly dissatisfied. However, if the air-conditioner works throughout the day as expected, the workers will not be particularly satisfied by taking notice and being grateful. (Vroom, 1964) states that motiva tion is a force inside a person that drive him or her to give maximum contribution in organisation. (Vroom, 1964) highlighted that employee effort will lead to performance and performance will lead to remuneration. Vroom further put across that Reward comes in two ways thus either positive or negative. The positive reward has the tendency to soar employee motivation and consequently high productivity. On the other hand, the negative reward has the tendency to plunge employee motivation and consequently less productivity. Adams theory affirms that positive reward is crucial in getting the best out of employee, suggesting that employees advocate for fairness between themselves and other workers and equity is attained when the share of employee outcomes over inputs is the same to other employee outcomes over inputs (Adams, 1965). The basic assumption of Adams theory is that perception of work environment causes people to form beliefs and altitudes, this cognition brings about variou s work related behaviours (Pinder 1998). Adam describes motivation as a function of how a person sees self in comparison to others and that the feeling of inequality among employees brings about tension in organisation. Adam went on to suggest that a person willingness to work is a function of comparisons to the effort of others. Based on the result of the comparison a person may either work harder, less hard or maintain performance. The theory of skinner (Skinner, 1953) suggests that employees are likely to replicate their behaviours that lead to positive outcomes and desist from behaviours that precede negative outcomes. This implies that managers should take note of past operations and results to determine direction, effort, and persistence of employee behaviour. In this turbulent and rapidly changing business environment motivated employees are needed to maintain organisational sustainability. According to (smith, 1994) the role of motivation is crucial in organisational surv ival, he further highlighted that motivated employees are more productive and committed to their organisation, and that managers need to understand what motivates employees within the context of the role they perform. Of all the functions a manager performs, motivating employees is arguably the most complex. This is due, in part, to the fact that what motivates employees changes constantly claimed by (Bowen Radhakrishna, 1991). For example, research suggests that as employees income increases, money becomes less of a motivator (Kovach, 1987). Also, as employees get older, interesting work becomes more of a motivator. the decision for employee retention and promotion is crucial as uncompetitive, inequitable or unfair pay system are frequently cited as causes of dissatisfaction, unfair performance assessment, inadequate induction or development programmes, lack of career prospects, low level of commitments.(Egan, Yang, Bartlet, 2004) the way to become part of an organisation is th rough relationships, Employees who feel disconnected emotionally from their co-workers and supervisor do not feel committed to their work. As such, correctional staff who tend to hang back and do the minimum because they do not believe anyone cares also become vulnerable. According to Keller (1999), motivational systems involve participative management, self-managed teams, just-in-time training, and pay contingent on performance, all of which are performance improvement interventions. SECTION THREE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Research Approach The research will take a quantitative approach. This style of approach is the necessary research philosophy for this study because it offers full detail of the situation to comprehend the authenticity or perhaps the truth behind them, even though qualitative research could offer different style and method of measuring and ascertaining conclusive fact from the research participant. However, this is much expensive compare with the preferred quantitative method. The reason for the quantitative approach is that is less expensive and can provide a high level of measurement precision and statistical power and also ensure a high level of reliability of data, allow the researcher to specify clearly and precisely the independent and dependent variable, last but not the least, allows the researcher to arrive at a more objective conclusion by minimizing subjectivity of judgement (Bell et al, 2007). In a bid to obtain as much responses as possible a well thought out questionnaire and struct ured interview questionnaire will be sent out to employees of Department of Urban Roads to solicit for answers to the research objective. Data Collection Techniques Both primary and secondary research data will be employ for the study to answer the objective questions of the research, the study will focus on employees of department of Urban Roads across Ghana to establish their various motivational approaches and its effect on employees. Due to the sensitive nature of this study and in the a bid to fulfil all ethical requirements concerning this research, consent has been obtained from the Managing Director of Department of Urban Road Ghana on the 9th September 2010 via phone call to conduct the survey on employees, about 250 questionnaire will be distributed to employees as a review tool for this study which will take the form of 5 point likert scale and structure interview questionnaire will be directed to 8 divisional managers to help the researcher to identify the perceptions of the employees. Sampling Techniques Both Random and Quota sampling technique would be employ to administer the Questionnaires. The random sampling technique will emphasis on all the workers of urban roads, this would give equal opportunity to all staff irrespective of gender, age, and position, whiles the quota sampling will be use to target selected divisional managers including the HRM manager. Data Collection Primary Data: Primary data is collected for the purpose of helping the researcher to obtain answers to the research objective. Quantitative research method is a research strategy that emphasises in the quantification and analysis of data (Smith, 1988).This method emphasis on logical and critical approach and also allows a large data to be collected thus a good accurate extrapolation and generalisations can be made from them. The quantitative research is mainly questionnaire which provides richer, in depth data, which often provide insights into subtle nuance that the qualitative approaches might miss. Secondary Data: Secondary data are collected by other scholars. It can be obtain from e-journal, online database and online resources. This would be very useful for this research. It is easily available, less expensive as and provides and insight into the nature and complexity of the subject. Data Analysis With the help of the spread sheet, the results will be tabulated and discussed using correlation data analysis technique. Correlation data analysis would be used to test and compare the relationship between the variables. Correlation is a technique for investigating the relationship between two variables to measure the strength of the association between the two variables e.g Age and blood pressure or motivation and commitment. Time Plan The researcher will allowed sufficient time and resource to this study and adhered to it to ensure that the research is completed on time as schedule. Below is a chart showing how time for the research has been earmarked. ACTIVITY START DATE END DATE Developing Research proposal Dec (2010) Week 1 Dec (2010) Week 3 Literature Review Dec(2010) Week 3 Jan (2011)Week 3 Preparing for Survey Jan (2011) Week 4 Feb (2011) Week 1 Developing the questionnaire Feb (2011) Week 2 Feb(2011) Week 4 Dissemination of Questionnaire Feb (2011) Week 4 March (2011) Week 2 Analysis of Data Collection March (2011) Week 3 March (2011) Week 4 Research Writing starts April(2011) Week 1 April (2011) Week 4 Submission of research April(2011) Week 4