Factors that Motivate and Demotivate Employees in the Workplace

This report discusses the definition of motivation and the various factors that motivate employees to work. It also outlines positive and negative aspects of employee experience because of their job role. Strategies which can be used to reduce negative aspects of employee experience because of their job roles are also mentioned in this report.

Business Management with Foundation
BMP3004
World of Work
Understanding why people work
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Contents
Introduction 1
What does Motivation Mean? 1
The various factors which motivate employees to work
3
The positive factors employees experience as a result of their
job roles 3
The negative factors employees experience as a result of their
job roles 4
Strategies to cope with negative factors employees
experience as a result of their job roles 4
Conclusion 5
References 6

Introduction
Employees work for business firms and assists in attainment of business goals. It
is important for organizations to understand that motivations, positive and negative
aspects of work in order to effectively manage employees and gain desired outcome
from the work of employees (Afsar and Umrani, 2019). The present report looks at the
various factors which motivate employees to work and the definition of motivation. In
addition to this positive and negative aspects of employee experience because of their
job role are outlined in this report. Strategies which can be used to reduce negative
aspects of employee experience because of their job roles are also mentioned in this
report.
What does Motivation Mean?
Motivation is defined as desire of an individual to exert the maximum effort in
completion of assigned tasks in order to gain the best possible outcome. The
psychological process which influences individuals to behave in particular manner
towards a ask or an activity from ts beginning to completion is another definition of
motivation.
Intrinsic motivation refers to the personal willingness of employees to eliminate
barriers and gain the desired outcome and improve performance continuously. This type
of motivation occurs as a result of satisfaction and enjoyment gained by the employees
from their job roles which motivates employees to perform more effectively. The primary
factors which promote intrinsic motivation are autonomy, mentor ship and recognition at
the workplace.
Extrinsic motivation refreshers to employee actions driven by factors existing in
the external world. This includes rewards and monetary benefits provided to employees
which increases their motivation to enhance their performance. External rewards play an
important role in motivating employees and various external motivating factors which as
increment, incentives and appreciation from others are used by business firms to
enhance employee motivation.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
This is psychological motivational theory which states that fulfillment of five stages
of human needs according to the hierarchy of needs helps in attainment of high level of
motivation (Fallatah and Syed, 2017). This model proposes hierarchy of needs
consisting of five levels. Human needs described in each level of the hierarchy are
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required to be fulfilled in order to attain maximum motivation level. From the bottom of
the hierarchy the needs are: Physiological needs, Safety needs, love and belonging
needs, esteem needs and self-actualization. Every element of Malow's hierarchy of
needs is explained below:
 Physiological needs: This is the first level of the hierarchy of needs and
consists of basic human needs essential for survival. This includes food,
water and shelter. Fulfillment of these basic needs is essential to attain
higher level of motivation (Fultz and Kondrat, 2019). Business firms can fulfill
this level of hierarchy by offering suitable remuneration to their employees
which helps them seek quality food, shelter and water.
 Safety needs: After the completion of physiological needs are safety needs
which center around the requirement of safe environment. Individuals wish to
experience order, predictability and control. Health, well-being, financial
stability and order are the primary areas of concern in fulfillment of this need.
Business firms need to develop employee well-being program and provide
safe working environment in order to fulfill this need.
 Belonging need: In his level of hierarchy social need for developing
interpersonal relationships, contentedness and being part of community are
included. Business firms can ensure attainment of this need by building
strong communities in their workforce and managing conflicts effectively.
 Esteem needs: The requirement of individuals to gain self-worth and
accomplishment is the central subject of this level of the hierarchy. The
fulfillment of this need can be facilitated by business firms by creating
suitable rewards and recognition programs for employees (Mira, Choong and
Thim, 2018). Recognition and appreciation of talented and dedicated
employees will give them sense of accomplishments and helps in attainment
of Esteem needs.
 Self-actualization need: This is the final level in the hierarchy of needs and is
centered around self-fulfillment and reaching the highest potential for
personal growth. Business firms need to crate effective career development
initiatives which helps employees attain their career objectives and seek
personal growth. This will assist in attainment of self-actualization needs of
employees.
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The various factors which motivate employees to work
Salary: This is one of the primary motivating factor for employees as it helps
them fulfill their basic physiological need. This is an external motivator an is not related to
employee enjoyment of their jobs. Increase in salary of employees motivates them to
continue improvement of performance in order to gain increased salary.
Promotion: Employee promotion facilitates career development of employees
and personal growth which motivates employee to improve their performance in order to
gain career advancement (Sesen and Ertan, 2021). This motivating factor helps in
attainment of self-actualization by helping individuals realize their maximum potential in
their career.
Work Environment: The working environment of employees plays an
important role in motivating and discouraging employees. Harmonious working
environment with supportive employees motivates employees in compassion to negative
working environment which increases employee stress.
The positive factors employees experience as a result of their
job roles
 Career advancement: One of the main positive factor which is
experienced by employees because of their job roles is career
advancement. Attaining excellence in job roles enables employees to
move upwards in their career. This is positive aspect of employee
experience as it contributes to attainment of career objectives.
 Training and development: This is positive factor of job roles which
improves employee performance. Effective training and development of
employees helps them increase their skills and capabilities to attain
expertise in their field (Sholikhah, Wang and Li, 2019). This is positive
experience for employees as it aids attainment of career goals and
increases employee satisfaction. Employees are motivated towards
increasing their productivity and job responsibilities because of training
and development programs imitated by business firms.
 Flexibility: This factor plays an important role in creating positive
employee experience. This is because to helps employee maintain
healthy work-life balance and manage work related stress. Employees
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are able to create daily schedule for completing their job tasks while
also finishing their personal commitments. This factor of job role
increasing employee satisfaction as they are able to gain success in
their professional life without sacrificing their personal commitments.
The negative factors employees experience as a result of their
job roles Low wages: This negative factor is experienced by employees working in job
roles which require high levels of physical and mental labor in exchange of
low remuneration (Walia, 2018). This reduce employee motivation to improve
their productivity because they do not feel valued by the firm for their labor.
This leads to high employee absenteeism and low employee retention as
employees do not gain satisfaction from their jobs.
 Workplace conflict: This negative factor reduces employee productivity and
their ability to actively participate in various activities of the company.
Workplace conflict is a common issue faced by employees which lowers
employee satisfaction as they feel that their voice and perspectives on the
issue are not being taken into consideration. In addition to this, workplace
conflict also affects smooth teamwork in the company as employees involved
in the conflict have different s opinions on how the issue should be resolved.
 Poor management: This is the main negative factor which encourages
employees to quit their job roles and seek employment elsewhere. Effective
management is essential fort improving employee well-being at business
firms. Poor management leads to low employee engagement which negatively
affects their productivity and skill development (Wang, Fu and Wang, 2020).
These impacts of poor management influence employees to leave the firm as
soon as possible.
Strategies to cope with negative factors employees
experience as a result of their job roles
 Provide membership and training opportunities: This strategy will assist in
reducing the negative impact of low wages as employees will become a part
of ta close knit community and gain training to succeed in their carer. The
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training and tools provided to employees under this strategy will help them
improve their skills to gain more incentives, benefits and career advancement. Conflict management strategy: Adoption of suitable conflict management
strategy in different situation can help cop[e with workplace conflict and its
negative impact on the workplace. Thomas-Kilamn conflict mode Instrument
can be used by business firms to effectively handle workplace conflict as it
provides various styles which can be used to ensure effective conflict
resolution (Wen Lim and et. al., 2018).
 Strategic human resource management: This refers to future oriented
process of developing and complementing HR programs which assists in
attainment of long-term business objectives and solving HR challenges. This
strategy will help cope with poor management in the company by improving
employee experience. In addition to this, strategy human resource
management will also assists in attainment of strategic objectives.
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Conclusion
From the above report it is determined that both intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation is essential in encouraging employees to enhance their performance.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a motivational theory describing various levels of
motivation in hierarchical structure. Scary, promotion and work environment are
factors which increase employee motivation. Employees experience both positive
and negative factors because of their job roles. The positive factors experienced by
employees are flexibility, career advancement and training and development while
the negative factors experienced by employees include poor management,
workplace conflict and low wages.
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References
Books and Journals
Afsar, B. and Umrani, W. A., 2019. Transformational leadership and innovative work
behavior: The role of motivation to learn, task complexity and innovation
climate. European Journal of Innovation Management.
Fallatah, R. H. M. and Syed, J., 2017. Employee motivation in Saudi Arabia: An
investigation into the higher education sector. Springer.
Fultz, A. J. and Kondrat, D. C., 2019. Privilege, white identity, and motivation: A call
to action in social work. Journal of Progressive Human Services, 30(3).
pp.260-277.
Mira, M. S., Choong, Y. V. and Thim, C. K., 2018. The Role of Job Satisfaction as
Mediator Between Human Resource Practices and Employees' Performance
Among the Cargos' Employees at Saudi Ports Authority Based on the
Motivation Theories. The Journal of Social Sciences Research, pp.91-105.
Sesen, H. and Ertan, S. S., 2021. The effect of the employee perceived training on
job satisfaction: the mediating role of workplace stress. European Journal of
Training and Development.
Sholikhah, Z., Wang, X. and Li, W., 2019. The role of spiritual leadership in fostering
discretionary behaviors: The mediating effect of organization based self-
esteem and workplace spirituality. International Journal of Law and
Management.
Walia, K., 2018. The Relationship Between Employee Wellbeing and Spirituality at
Workplace. IUP Journal of Organizational Behavior, 17(3).
Wang, J. S., Fu, X. and Wang, Y., 2020. Can “bad” stressors spark “good” behaviors
in frontline employees? Incorporating motivation and emotion. International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Wen Lim and et. al., 2018. Impact of safety climate on types of safety motivation and
performance: Multigroup invariance analysis. Journal of Management in
Engineering, 34(3). p.04018002.
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