Employee Motivation and Performance

This assignment delves into the crucial relationship between employee motivation and organizational performance. It requires a thorough examination of various theoretical frameworks that underpin employee motivation, including intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, psychological needs, and job design principles. Students are expected to analyze how these theories contribute to understanding employee behavior and ultimately influence their performance. Additionally, the assignment encourages exploration of practical implications for fostering employee motivation within organizations.

Running head: BUSINESS RESEARCH
Business Research
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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IMPACT OF MOTIVATION ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE
Theories of motivation
Theory of “X” and Theory of “Y”:
According to Douglas McGregor a psychologist and a Management professor said about
two different approaches, which he named as “Theory X” and “Theory Y”. In both the theory he
talks about involvement of the employees so that they feel as a integral part of the organization.
Theory X tells that – “Hell or high water, we are going to get it done”. He motivates the
employee that whatever the situation may have arose, we will achieve success. Theory Y tells
that – “I need your help… how are we going to do this”?
We can see in both the situation he is saying we and involving the employees. In theory
Y he asks help giving them a higher position which itself is motivating in nature (Ankli &
Palliam, 2012).To be an effective leader it is very important to identify the leadership theory that
will be applicable for a given situation in an organization.
Theory of expectancy
According to Victor Vroom he mentioned in this theory that an employee wants to
maximize pleasure and minimize pain. An employee will only be motivated if that person
believes that a particular work can be achieved (Canrinus et al., 2012). If someone believes that a
particular task is possible to achieve in that case the employee will try to achieve in doing the
work and this will motivate them. If an employee does not believe that a particular task is not

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achievable, in that case the person will not be motivated to perform that particular job and will
try to ignore the work. This may be the reason for de-motivation of the employees.
There are some other factors that decide the motivation criteria. These factors are as follows;
 It depends what kind of support the employee is getting from the employer. If the
employee is getting good support from the employer, in that case it can be a motivating
factor for the employees, and otherwise they may get de-motivated (Chen et al., 2014).
 If the employee does not have the skill required for doing a particular task, in that case
the employee can get de-motivated (Daley, 2012).
 If the equipment those are being used in performing a particular work is outdated or may
be not up to the mark in that case the employee may lack motivation. Upon giving full
effort for the side of the employee they are not getting the desired results.
The motivation also plays a role in the job, a particular job. If the person like time job that they
are doing in that case it becomes a motivation for them. If they don’t feel good about the job that
he or she is doing in that case it can be de-motivation (Dinibutun, 2012).
McClelland’s Theory of Needs:
As mentioned by McClelland that an Individual is driven by three theories, those are
achievement, Affiliation and Influence.
1. Achievement
The motivation of the people is derived by the achievement. The more A person achieves the
drive becomes more. The person tries to achieve more. The motivation increases with the

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achievements. The feedback of his doings brings a positive reaction in the mind of that person
and positive reaction helps to bring motivation within that person (Guillén, Ferrero & Hoffman,
2015).
2. Affiliation
The team work helps to increasing motivation in a person. As a person works in co-ordination it
brings a form of competition and achieving want within that person. This increases motivation
within the person.
3. Power
Every individual need power so that they can feel to be in control and can influence others. The
power is a very important factor. Every individual wants to enjoy power as much as they can.
Power or control is something that drives the individual. This is a great motivating power for the
individual (Hovivyan, 2014).
4. Goal setting theory
It is proposed by Edwin Locke that setting some precise goal for the individual will improve
their performance. If the individual is given some goal in that case the individual feels that it is a
challenge for them and as it is a fact that all challenges drive people. So in this case the
individual will take the goal as a challenge and will try to achieve that challenge. In this situation
the performance will increase. The individual will feel that urge to achieve the goal that is being
set in front of them. The goals should not be easy but they should be achievable. Easy goals
which can be achieved easily will not improve the performance of the individual (Jiang et al.,
2012).

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The goal should be achievable otherwise it will act in opposite to the situation and thereby will
de-motivate the individual and the result of this will be that the individual will stop performing
as being sure that they won’t be able to achieve the goal. The individual should be rewarded with
something upon achievement of the goal as it is the common human behavior that human beings
want return of their hardship. So is a person does not get any return or any reward of their hard
work in that case the person will not get motivated to do the particular work. So to get him
motivated to do the work we should set some reward for him.
5. Reinforcement theory
This is a better way of how the goal setting theory works. According to Pavlov it tells that this
theory tells us about the factors that control the human behavior. In relation to the theory
mentioned that is goal setting theory, it is a better way to approach of look in the situation that
what motivates the human behavior. The human behavior is a very complicated thing and it is
very hard to understand that what drives human behavior. According to this theory it explains
how the human behave and in contrast to the theory of goal setting it explains in much deeper
way how the goal setting theory work and how the humans behave in different situation. It also
explains how the goal setting theory works and how the people can be influenced through this
theory. It explains the goal setting theory in much deeper sense. The individual behavior when a
goal is set in front of them (Johnson, 2012).
6. The theory of equity
This theory involves around the principle of balance and the equity. This theory says that the
principle of motivation of an individual depends on their perception of the equity. This theory
also tells us that the motivation level of an individual depends on the level of fairness practiced

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by the management. In other words the more the management will be fair the more the individual
will get motivated (Khan, 2012). The motivation of an individual comes from their perceived
equity and the amount of fairness that is being show from the side of the management. If the
management does not prove to be fair, in that case in such a situation the individual will get de
motivated and will not like to give their full effort in doing the work. So the management should
be totally fair to help the individual to perform better, so that the individual gives full effort so
that the particular job can be achieved. The more the fairness that is being perceived by the
individual the better the individual will perform. As the individual will perceive more equity and
more fairness in that case the particular individual will get more motivated and will stay
motivated to perform their task with greater effort. The individual in such a situation will
perform very highly and will fetch great reward.
Employee Performance
In a regular situation of working condition shows that there are various levels of
motivation. This level of motivation varies in nature. In a situation that is unique in nature, in a

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situation like that, it motivates maximum level of employee motivation. As the employee gets
motivated they tend to generate maximum performance. They try to give maximum effort
possible and this effort tends to generate maximum results. As they tend to maximize their
efforts in a result there result also gets maximum outcome (Cerasoli, Nicklin & Ford, 2014),
The performance of the employee is a major concept, when it comes to the level of work
and strategy of the organization. Now-a-days it can be seen that the structure or concept behind
the performance of the employee is going through some noticeable changes. The concept of
performance behind an Individual too is facing some major changes.
As in the current scenario the situation is such that each and every organization needs
individual who can perform to the highest level possible. Every organization needs the best
performance from their employees. The performance of the employees also decides the
performance of the organization. So we can say that the an organization is totally dependent
upon its employees performance (Tims, Bakker & Derks,2013).
Organization is need extreme need of those individual who performs at a very high level.
On the other hand performance is also very important for the employees. The performance gets
the employees motivated and also serves the interest of the organization. As an employee
achieves a task they get a satisfaction which is very important for the employee in relation to the
amount of motivation. This motivation derived from their own performance gives them huge
confidence and helps them develop skills and also perform better in the future.
On the other hand if the employees could not achieve their goals or target then they tend
to generate a dissatisfying emotions within themselves. This emotion tends to lower their
confidence and motivation level. This type of situation tends to affect them extremely in a

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negative way. This is not a very favorable outcome for the organization as well. With the failure
of the employees the organization also faces losses and negative impact.
The individuals who are great performers in an organization get promotion very easily on
the basis of their performance. Whereas the person who are not performing well they tend to
become a burden for the organization and the organization does not provide any appraisal or any
kind of reward. If the performance of an Individual is good in that case it will easily gets
reflected in the work of the particular individual.
Topic: Organization structure
Source: (Barrick et al., 2015)
There are six theories of performance. These theories act a frame work that explains what
performance and how is it important. According to this theory the performer can be a particular
employee or a group of employees (Oswald, Proto & Sgroi, 2015).The level of performance

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depends upon six factors, which determine the level of performance of an employee. The Six
factors are as follows:
 Context
 Level of Knowledge
 Level of skills
 Level of Identity
 Personal Factors
 Fixed Factors
These factors determine the mindset of an individual. It is seen in the past that human beings
can do extraordinary things if they are motivated (Judge et al., 2014).There are some people who
are self motivated and others who need to be motivated. So in the act of employee performance
the act of motivation plays a very important role. If an employee is motivated properly the
employee may give extraordinary results. In order to perform the individual has to use their
knowledge and the skills that they have in order to perform a task so that they may come out
great results.
Performance is the process of learning and we can say that performance is not the end result.
Through performance an individual tends to learn and gather some new skill through experience.
This process is not the end, rather it is a journey where there are learning’s through which an
employee tends to learn many new things and gather new experiences that helps him to become
more skilful in the future ahead, so that they may become an individual with better skills and can
perform better (Judge et al., 2013).
An organization is totally dependent upon its employees and its employees are the pillar of
the organization that withholds the organization so that it can succeed. So we can say that in
order for an organization to succeed it is very important for their employees to succeed. If there

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employees performs well then automatically the organization will proceed in a situation where it
can outperform any of its competitors. If a employee is motivated in such a way that they grow
high in confidence and skills. These will be an extremely benefiting situation for the organization
(Hamari, Koivisto & Sarsa,2014,).
Peter Principle
This is concerned with the study of occupational incompetence and the study
of hierarchies. The analysis of hundreds of cases of occupational incompetence led to
the formulation of the principle.
In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to their level of incompetence.
Employees competent in their position are promoted and competence in each new position
equalizes for promotion to the next highest position until a position of incompetence is reached.
The principle is based on perceived incompetence at all levels of every hierarchy –political,
legal, educational and industrial – and ways in which employees move upwards through a
hierarchy and what happens to them after promotion (Caillier, 2014).
If you will take the example of Great Work – work that has created a difference in
organization also got the attention management. What motivated that employee to go beyond to
do Great Work? It can affect an entire organization in a way that is positive in nature. It will
inspire fellow employees, to create a growth which is positive growth for a organization as
whole. For organization trying encouraging workers to innovative work, knowing what
employees will produce Good Work is very important (Korzynski,2013).

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It is important that to recognize that work performance of the employees varies greatly,
as the organization for which employees work. In order to compare and understand the cause’s
different employees who are present in different organization who are producing great work that
is taking the organization to another level of excellence. The factor causes different employees at
a different organizations to perform Great Work, it was very important to categorize both
employees and the organizations t.hey work for, employees in terms of their background of
producing Great Work on a constant basis, and organizations in relation to types and power of
motivating perks and practices that they make use of the situation to help encourage their
workforce to generate Great Work more constantly (Latham, 2012).
In our centre groups, we found that almost all employees think that they create huge effort on a
constant basis; and although our participants understood the definition of huge work, the
examples of Great Work that they shared with us indicated that few of them in fact created Great
Work constantly.
In the book Management & Organizational Behavior by Laurie l. Mullins
Hellriegel, Slocum and Woodman suggest:
“One way to recognize why people behave as they do at work is to view an organization as an
iceberg. What sinks ships isn’t always what sailors can see, but what they can’t see”.

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The Effect of Motivation on Employee Productivity
Motivation is a helpful instrument in the hands of management for efficiency of the
workforce. Motivation increases the willingness of the workers to work, thus increasing
effectiveness of the organization (Korschun, Bhattacharya & Swain, 2014).
Motivated employees are inclined to be more productive than non-motivated employees.
Most businesses make some pains to motivate workers but this is normally easier said than done.
Employees are all individuals with different like’s dislikes and needs, and different things will
motivate each.
 Motivated Employees Are More Productive: If employee will satisfied and happy then
he/she will do his /her work in a very impressive way, and then the result will be good, on
the other hand motivated employee will motivate other employees in office.
 Decision-making and practical Expectations: It is important to engage employees in the
decision-making process, but create realistic expectations in the process (Vidyarthi,
Anand & Liden, 2014).
 Job Description, Work Environment and Flexibility: A safe and non-threatening work
environment is necessary to maintain a high level of employee motivation.
Flexible human resource policies, flexible time, work from home, childcare also be liable
to have happier and more motivated workers.
 Pay and Benefits: Keeping employees motivated with good benefits is easy.
 Company Culture: Creating a positive and employee-friendly company culture is a great
motivational tool.

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