Employee Demotivation in Organizations: Reasons and Effects

The essay discusses the reasons and effects of employee demotivation in organizations, focusing on Amacon.com. It also suggests ways to eradicate these issues.

Running head: EMPLOYEE DEMOTIVATION
EMPLOYEE DEMOTIVATION
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The aim of this essay is to discuss the reasons and effects of employee demotivation in
the organizations. This essay will be focusing on Amacon.com, the largest e-commerce company
and cloud computing platform by the terms of revenue and market capitalization. It is the most
valuable public company in world that has remained ahead of Apple and Alphabet (Forbes.com
2019). The company has aggressive corporate culture has diminished the value of the employees
I the workplace. This is the reason why the work culture of the company has been deteriorated
where the employees are suffering and gradually feeling demotivated. This essay will discuss the
reason why the employees usually feel demotivated in their works, its effect on the operation of
the organization and how these issues can be eradicated.
The main issue of employee demotivation is the company’s inability to fulfill the
expectations of the employees in one hand and creating an adverse work culture in the
organization. Despite the fact that the company is highly popular for its products and services
worldwide but the internal stakeholders especially the employees are not very satisfied with the
leadership and policies of Amazon. In addition to this, the excessive work pressure on the
employees also make them frustrated and they feel demotivated in their workplace.
Firstly, according to the Maslow motivation theory, every human being has hierarchy of
needs based on which they aim to reach their targets and achieve all the resources to fulfil their
needs (Muogbo 2013). The work culture of Amazon has been always been criticized in all over
the world. In order to meet the demands of the customers, the company put pressure of the
employees and this feeling of over work becomes the primary reason of stress as well as
enhanced attraction rates among the employees. In addition to this, the employees work in harsh
atmosphere and they do not get proper leave like medical leaves or other essential ones when

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needed. The issue unrealistic workload in Amazon creates a feeling of exploitation in their minds
for which they cause the strict corporate policies of the company.
Secondly, the employees of amazon feel the lack of security as they are not sure how
long they will be required in their current roles or where they will be in the next financial year.
The policy of using artificial intelligence or any other technology has started to create threat in
the job security among the employees of Amazon (Fortune.com 2019). The company is reputed
for bringing abrupt changes in the workplace. Despite the fact the operation or goal of Amazon is
long term and stable but the method of managing their best talents within the company is highly
unpredictable. Therefore, the skilled employees keep themselves ready for their next move.
Thirdly, the poor management or inability to inspire the workforce can be the reason for
demotivation of the employees. The leadership style of Jeff Bezos is quite famous which has
helped the company to reach the apex of success but there are some aspects which has been
proved to be aggressive and directly connecting to the confidence of the employees in the
organization (Fortune.com 2019). The abrupt changes in the workplaces are not always taken
easily by the employees but the introduction of change in the workplaces has different methods
that the can earn support from the workers starting from the lowest level to the highest.
According to the Cognitive and Achievement Approaches theory of motivation, in some cases,
the employees feel the incompetency of their managers ion solving any issues in the organization
(Kim and Scullion 2013). They are incapable to enhance confidence or inspire the employees.
This is the reason why the employees become subversive are demotivated.
Fourthly, the process of micromanagement in the company has adversely affected the
workforce. This however, solves most of the issues in the organization before getting snowballed
as the managers take care of the employees more accurately. In on the contrary, due to

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micromanagement, the pressure of work is felt more intensely upon the employees and they
cannot make decision of their own in any task. This triggers disengagement from the
perspectives of the employees as discussed in the Motivation-Hygiene Theory of Herzberg
(Graves, Sarkis and Zhu 2013). These disengaged staffs may stay in the company being
demotivated or decide leaving it for more autonomy.
Fifthly, poor communication is another factor that leads to the disengagement of the
employees. This is due to the fact that managers or the company or the leaders are the
responsible persons to communicate everything to the lower level employees in one hand and
must listen to the feedback or reviews of the employees on the other. It is the absence of
information and communication among the lower level of employees with the management
(Dobre 2013). This leads the employees to end up confused, frustrated and guessing. This is due
to the fact that the employees do not get much scope to visit the higher authorities to clarify their
doubts and the situation gets worse (Ganta 2014). The employees therefore, needs more time to
get the actual information about the change in the policies or any other strategic changes. This
makes the communication process to be very exhausting as well as time consuming and the
employees stop bothering about these and feel valueless and demotivated.
Finally, the theory of human motivation by McClelland shares the need for achievement,
affiliation and power in an organization which directly motivates the employees. The employees
being demotivated do not feel the need to accomplish challenging goals or risks. The
demotivated employees do not enjoy status or recognition on the basis of competition as they do
not feel the attachment with the organization anymore.
In order to overcome these issues related to human resource management, the companies
must prevent the employees to be over-burdened with work that leads them to be under achieved.

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Therefore, the organization must bring changes in the work culture where the employees get
proper resources, support and guidance from their management or higher authorities.
Firstly, the leadership style of Bezos needs to be supportive as this is the primary way of
motivating employees. The supportive leaders work closely with the employees thus develop a
feeling or trust and sympathy in the relationship. This creates value among the employees and
respect on the basis of connectedness (Abugre 2014). These leaders act as the role models for the
employees that enhances the accountability of the human resource.
Secondly the company needs to create a positive environment by proper communication
so that the percentage of rumors get reduced and the employees do not get confused with any
situation or any changed policies of the company. This will reduce the exhaustion of the
employees to collect the actual information. This is an important step to create a positive and
productive workplace and allows the employees to share their perceptions directly to their
employers which make s comfort zone.
Thirdly, Amazon operates in different level and has different departments which requires
teamwork. The more the employees operate in teams the more they will be motivated as this is
the place for sharing their own knowledge and capabilities. Through this process the employees
gradually learn to trust one another and think for the welfare of the whole team rather than
focusing on themselves only. The process of team work if followed perfectly, the employees
develop a healthy competition that increases the creativity as well as productivity of the firm
(Kim and Scullion 2013).
Fourthly, the management needs to take care of the work life balance of the employees.
The case of not approving medical leaves or other important leaves, creates dissatisfaction

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among the employees. Such areas of dissatisfaction need to be eliminated otherwise the
employees will remain demotivated and, in this aspect, the best changes will not be accepted.
The management cannot convince the employees to replace leaves with incentives (Kim and
Scullion 2013). The management needs to identify such areas of dissatisfaction and eventually
mitigate them without delay.
Finally, the management needs to give special attention to the highly potential employees
with every way possible so that they get the job security and do not think for their next moves.
These employees are of special use of the company as they will help them the company to get the
opportunities even in the tough economy. In case the employees feel detached with their jobs, it
becomes problematic for the company to sustain.
Therefore, it can be concluded that there are various reasons why the employees feel
demotivated and how these facts the growth of the companies. In case of Amazon, the autocratic
leadership style of Jeff Bezos aiming to engage a new workplace dynamic has created an adverse
situation for the employees. Hence immediate steps must be taken like so that creativity as well
as productivity of the firm can be enhanced. As the human resource is the most important factor
for the company, therefore, all the identified issues are to be solved.

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References:
Abugre, J.B., 2014. Job satisfaction of public sector employees in sub-Saharan Africa: Testing
the Minnesota satisfaction questionnaire in Ghana. International Journal of Public
Administration, 37(10), pp.655-665.
Dobre, O.I., 2013. Employee motivation and organizational performance. Review of Applied
Socio-Economic Research, 5(1).
Forbes.com (2019). What Amazon's Work Culture Tells Us About Employee Disengagement.
[online] Forbes.com. Available at:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/causeintegration/2015/08/21/what-amazons-work-culture-tells-us-
about-employee-disengagement/#42723a1754f0 [Accessed 18 Jan. 2019].
Fortune.com (2019). http://fortune.com. [online] Fortune. Available at:
http://fortune.com/2015/08/18/amazon-workplace-productivity/ [Accessed 18 Jan. 2019].
Ganta, V.C., 2014. Motivation in the workplace to improve the employee
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Kim, C.H. and Scullion, H., 2013. The effect of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on
employee motivation: A cross-national study. Poznan university of economics review, 13(2).

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Muogbo, U.S., 2013. The impact of employee motivation on organisational performance (a study
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