Understanding why people work

This report discusses the factors that motivate employees to work, including intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and the theory of motivation by Maslow. It also covers positive factors such as fair policies and practices, appreciation, and care, as well as negative factors such as job stress, role ambiguity, and abusive supervision. Strategies to cope with negative factors are also discussed. The subject is World of Work and the course code is BMP3004 for BSc (Hons) Business Management with Foundation.

BSc (Hons) Business Management with
Foundation
BMP3004
World of Work
Understanding why people work
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Contents
Introduction 3
What does Motivation Mean? 3
The various factors which motivate employees to work
4
The positive factors employees experience as a result of their
job roles 5
The negative factors employees experience as a result of their
job roles 5
Strategies to cope with negative factors employees
experience as a result of their job roles 5
Conclusion 6
References 7

1
Introduction
Understanding employees possesses a crucial role for the motivation of
employees. It is very important for the employers to understand that a
motivated employee provides a higher probability of making valuable
contributions to the company (Evans, Nistrup and Allen-Collinson, 2018). It is
very important to understand the needs and expectations of employees. This
report contains few factors that motivate employees in the organisation. It also
discusses the positive and negative factors that an employee experiences
while doing his job.
What does Motivation Mean?
Motivation is the most significant factor which is used to influence employees
to deliver their performances and help organisation to achieve their goals. A
strong and positive motivation by the managers will facilitate the increased
result of employees, but on the other side negative motivation will reduce their
hard work and performance.
Type of Motivation
 Intrinsic motivation: It is that type of motivation in which one engaged
himself in any activity which is enjoyable. He may do it because it is
challenging or fun. An individual is going to perform the activity for own
sake and not because he will get any prizes or rewards externally.
When he performs himself, the feeling generated itself is the reward.
 Extrinsic motivation: It refers of performing something because an
individual want to earn rewards and ignore punishment not because he
enjoys it. It is just opposite of extrinsic motivation.
Theory of Motivation by Maslow
The theory of Maslow represents the basic needs of a person in a pyramid
shape. It represents the basic needs at bottom of the pyramid and high level
or intangible needs at the top.
1. Physiological Needs: Physiological needs are the most common
needs of human survival which includes food, water, clothing, sufficient
rest, overall health, shelter and reproduction (Gan and Et.al., 2020).
Maslow said that the basic needs of a person must be satisfied before
moving onto the next level of needs.
2. Safety needs: Safety needs consist protection from theft or violence,
health security, emotional stability and well-being, or financial security.
3. Love and belonging needs: This involves social requirements of a
person in which he requires bond with his friends, families, children,
chosen family (partner or spouse). It is the most common need to give
and receive love, a person need to feel like they are involved or belong
in a team or a group. When deprived of such needs, a person may feel
experience depression and loneliness.

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4. Esteem needs: It is the fourth table in pyramid which is known as
esteem needs. It is associated to the needs of person such as status,
recognition or respect. The founder divided esteem needs in two
categories; the need for respect from oneself and the need for respect
from others (House, Spencer and Pfund, 2018). Respect from others
associates to prestige, fame and recognition, but on the other side,
respect from oneself associates to confidence, dignity, independence,
competence and freedom.
5. Self-actualization needs: Self-actualization is the fifth and final level
of Maslow hierarchical of needs. It associates to the realization of full
potential as an individual. It includes skill development, education that
are used to refine the skills and talents in areas like music, design,
athletics, gardening, cooking, caring for others and big objectives such
as travelling to new places, learning a new language and winning
prizes or awards.
The various factors which motivate employees to work
The following are the factors through which an employee can be influenced
to work:
Salary: An employee is more likely to do his work, if he is satisfied with his
salary that he is earning in an organisation. When a person is getting high
salary then he is influenced and motivated to perform his work and wants to
please his manager to retain his position in the organisation. Earned salary
bring him a feeling of security and provide him a high status and let him to
feel completed. An employee willing to put his overtime or extra hours in the
organisation if he feels that financial rewards are a fair trade-off.
Promotion: Employee promotion can be understood as the rise of a worker
to higher position. It involves an increase in responsibilities, benefits,
position, status and salary. It drives employee’s loyalty and ultimate reward
of dedication in the organisation. An individual is required to perform extra
hours, more work and put extra efforts in his job (Motakef, 2019). There are
various types of employee promotion which is based on organisation
policies, the length of experience, service, performance and seniority.
Work Environment: The most valuable thing that motivates employee and
create happiness is the positive workplace. Setting and accomplishing
objectives, recognitions, encouraging management, feedbacks, all contribute
to maximize the motivation in the workplace. It delivers a positive work
surrounding that is why great leaders acquire new methods to motivate their
employees. Also, it reduces cost related to a turnover, medical claims,
absenteeism, compensation and improves productivity.

3
The positive factors employees experience as a result of their
job roles
Fair policies and practices: An employee experiences more satisfaction
from their works when they see that promotion decisions are based on fair
responses. Most of the employees are dissatisfied and demotivated with their
specified jobs because of management unfair practices and policies.
Appreciation: An employee loves to be appreciated. When an employee
gets recognition in front of everyone in the organisation it boosts moral, the
ultimate outcome is shown in the efficiency of work.
Care: Care can be demonstrated in many ways but it takes into account
adults treatment, care development, being taken seriously as well as
appreciated in the organisation. When employees feel that organisation
cares for them and take necessary actions to enhance their lives and works,
this creates higher satisfaction and make them happy (Poulin, 2018).
The negative factors employees experience as a result of their
job roles
Job stress: It can be defined as a condition that happens when different
factors interact with employees and they disturb the employee’s mind. It will
lead to experience tension that negatively impacts the thought process and
employee’s emotion. Job stress happens when a company provide high
workload and employees experience mental fatigue and losing their
contribution in work and forced to use their arrest time to complete their
tasks.
Role ambiguity: It is a situation of uncertainty which is experienced by an
individual regarding their expectations in their jobs. It is a result of lack of
knowledge in a specific job position that clarity is lost. This results in
employee’s uncertain objective, roles and responsibilities (Sunstein, 2018). It
happens when an employee do not get the clarity about their actions since
there is no clarity in their job description and commands by leader.
Abusive supervision: It defines the thoughts or perceptions of employees of
the extent to which leaders or supervisors demonstrates aggressive verbal or
nonverbal behavior. This does not include physical contact. The perception
of leader could be different. It is identified that if the supervisor is highly
abusive will result in unfavorable attitude of employee and higher turnover at
the workplace.
Strategies to cope with negative factors employees
experience as a result of their job roles
Growth opportunities and skills development: An individual never wants
to be stuck in the same position, performing the same activities day after day
with no development in the vicinity. It is very essential that management
team should drive training and development programs to keep every
employee updated on their work of fields they positioned in. These

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development opportunities provide employee to build their trust, make
stronger connections and feel more motivated towards their work.
Performance management: Performance management in any organisation
are secured with compensation and many other rewards that motivates
employees to perform in a better way. It is very important that the employees
in the organisation are set with clear goals, having clear ambitions to the
organisational goals and mission (Watson and Vehmas, 2019). It is very
essential to promote a surrounding of complete clarity and encourage team
collaboration by setting individual and organisational goals at all levels and
track activities so that they can be inspired by their leaders and celebrate
their achievements.
Conclusion
It has been concluded that understanding or knowing the employees at work
is very important as it impacts their performance. Motivation is very important
in the organisation as it impact the productivity and profitability of the
organisation. Motivation can improve the performance by filling up the gap
between the willingness and ability to work. The report is discussed with two
types of motivation intrinsic and extrinsic. It also discussed how positive
factors such as appreciation or care, negative factors such as job stress, role
ambiguity and many more through which the performance of employee can
affected. It is also discussed with strategies to cope up with the negative
factors.

5
References
Evans, A. B., Nistrup, A. and Allen-Collinson, J., 2018. Socio-cultural
approaches to ageing: Changing our understanding of the life-
course. The Palgrave Handbook of Ageing and Physical Activity
Promotion. London: Palgrave.
Gan, Z. and Et.al., 2020. Understanding urban mobility patterns from a
spatiotemporal perspective: daily ridership profiles of metro
stations. Transportation, 47(1), pp.315-336.
House, S. C., Spencer, K. C. and Pfund, C., 2018. Understanding how
diversity training impacts faculty mentors’ awareness and
behavior. International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in
Education.
Motakef, M., 2019. Recognition and precarity of life arrangement: towards an
enlarged understanding of precarious working and living
conditions. Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory, 20(2), pp.156-172.
Poulin, R., 2018. The Language of Graphic Design Revised and Updated: An
illustrated handbook for understanding fundamental design principles.
Rockport Publishers.
Sunstein, C. R., 2018. Nudging: a very short guide. In The Handbook of
Privacy Studies (pp. 173-180). Amsterdam University Press.
Watson, N. and Vehmas, S. eds., 2019. Routledge handbook of disability
studies. Routledge.