Reflective Essay: Impact of Motivation at Workplace

Running head: REFLECTIVE ESSAY: IMPACT OF MOTIVATION AT WORKPLACE
Reflective Essay: Impact of Motivation at Workplace
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1REFLECTIVE ESSAY: IMPACT OF MOTIVATION AT WORKPLACE
Introduction Defining the Scope of the Essay
The psychological phenomenon that regulates the orientation of the voluntary action
that drives an individual towards his or her goal is called Motivation (Peters 2015).
Motivation can originate both intrinsically as well as extrinsically and its intensity depends
on the nature of the goal and the purposefulness of the one trying to achieve it. An emotional
state that exhibits gratification and contentment as a result of positive outcome acquired in a
job evaluation, implies job satisfaction (Pettinger 2013). Motivation is an important
determinant of an employee’s performance as well as their job satisfaction or dissatisfaction
(Pinder 2014). In this essay, I would attempt to iterate the important theories of motivation
and reflect on how they have been relevant in influencing my motivation in the role of a
Customer Service Representative in a banking Sector.
Brief Discussion on Job Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction with reference to three Theories
The fact that an employee is adequately motivated or is demotivated, depends largely
on the amount of job satisfaction he or she has. Job satisfaction usually occurs when the
conditions of work are in consonance with the employee’s needs and expectation, thus,
encouraging him or her to excel in job performance. Thus, these two aspects are
interdependent on each other and attributes to a number of favourable or unfavourable
consequences (Rahman and Nurullah 2014). The positive outcomes consist of high
productivity, optimum utilisation of available resources, proactiveness, good interpersonal
relationship with superiors, co –workers and subordinates, cooperativeness and helpfulness
and committed to one’s are of discourse (Muogbo 2013). On the other hand, demotivation
and subsequent job dissatisfaction leads to absenteeism, lack of adequate involvement in
one’s role, poor concentration, low morale and an inferior quality in production. In order to
avert such adversaries and improve employee morale, the HR Managers of companies work

2REFLECTIVE ESSAY: IMPACT OF MOTIVATION AT WORKPLACE
towards formulating effective tools and mechanisms to modify the existing policies and
facilities and channelize their resources to feel involved and valuable (Weiner 2013).
Abraham Maslow, in his theory explaining the hierarchy of needs, has
emphasized on six level of needs in human beings starting with the basic physiological needs
and eventually ascending to safety and security needs, need for love and belongingness, self –
esteem needs and finally need for self-actualization. Although he had theorized it in a general
framework, The Need Pyramid is profoundly consistent with a work setting and demonstrates
the causes of job satisfaction or dissatisfaction quite appropriately (Jones & Jones 2013). The
basic physiological needs of an employee are usually met by the financial compensation and
the benefits of healthcare provided by the company. The safety and security needs account
for the job security granted by the company through its policies and regulation. The needs of
belongingness is determined by the quality of interpersonal relations an employee has with
the other staff which ascertains his or her focus and involvement in work. The self-esteem
needs are addressed by how much their work in the company is appreciated and accoladed.
The final need, which is to seek self-actualization, is fulfilled when the organization values its
employees enough to provide them with further growth opportunities (Yadav and Dabhade
2014). As opined by Maslow, the progression of an employee to his or her higher order needs
would first require the fulfilment of their lower order needs. If, due to a certain cause, any
base-level need is hindered, it would lead to demotivation in the employee and delay his or
her progression. However, lack of sufficient empirical data has deterred the popularity of this
theory. In addition to this, further research in this field has suggested that even in absence of
the fulfilment of basic needs, an employee can display a fair level of motivation with respect
to his or her other higher order needs (Imam et al. 2013).
Within an organisational framework, an individual is affected by multiple factors and
biases. Each of these factors either work in isolation or in combination with other factors to