Assignment on Impacts of Motivation on the Performance of Individuals and Teams

Discuss and evaluate how levels of motivation can impact upon an individual's and a
team's performance in the workplace, taking the strategies available to assist in
sustaining motivation within an organisation into consideration.
Introduction
Cambridge dictionary defines the term ‘motivation’ as “enthusiasm for doing
something” (Cambridge Dictionary, no date). Derived from a Latin word ‘movere’,
meaning ‘to move’, motivation may be understood as a driving force to engage in a
specific activity. Applied to corporate settings, motivation is something that moves
Employees into doing what the company wants them to accomplish for its benefit as
an important part of Human Resources Management. As such, motivation plays a
crucial role in the growth of an organization. In the modern management system, a
wide range of employee motivation strategies have been put into practice. Through
incentives and rewards, employers wish to have a team of well-motivated employees
who will achieve organization’s growth through high productivity and efficiency,
committed to the firms through its thick and thin. This paper will examine the
motivation factors and how employee motivation can affect a firm’s success, and will
conclude with suggestions for motivation enhancement strategies.
Importance of employee motivation
With every 10 managerial and professional employees who leave the organization, a
firm loses about one million dollars, without counting the accompanying knowledge
drain (Fitz-enz, 1997, as cited in Ramlall, 2004). Knowledge management cannot be
underestimated, given the economic value of employees’ skills, experience and
knowledge have economic value. The higher the investment in labour training, the
higher the productivity of the employees concerned, and the greater the loss
sustained by the company by losing highly trained employees. Ramlall (2004) further
notes that an organization can either create an intellectual capital environment where
the employees’ collective knowledge can circulate within the company, or continue to
lose important individual knowledge that has been accumulated over a long period of
time. In other words, having skilful employees and keeping their turnover rate low are
crucial to ensuring constant operational conditions of a firm. One of the best ways to
achieve the goal of hiring qualified employees and retaining them within the firm is
successful motivation. The study conducted by Dr Chandrakant Varma (2017) also

demonstrates that increased employee motivation and job satisfaction ultimately
raise their commitment to the firm.
Another advantage of motivation is lowering absenteeism and turnover rate
(Vanhack, 2021). The Great Resignation, also known as the Big Quit and the Great
Reshuffle, is ongoing economic trend in 2022, which describes the record number of
employees voluntarily leaving their jobs (Ellerbeck, 2022). According to the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, four million Americans quit their jobs in July 2021, and the
turnover rate has remained high over the last several months (U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics 2021, as cited in Cook, 2021). The ongoing trend of Big Quit will likely be
maintained, and motivation is the key to employee retention to counter this trend.
Hussain et al. (2018) conducted a survey and demonstrated a high correlation
between motivation rate and retention rate. Employees responded to motivation by
giving high performance when they were highly motivated, which was associated
with lower turnover intentions.
Sources of employee motivation
First of all, setting clear objectives is the most important part of employee motivation
because employees need to know what their efforts are for. SMART Objectives,
which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound, present
guidelines on setting objectives. That is, an objective must be oriented toward a
specific and measurable goal, achieved through realistic means, and traceable over
time, so that both employees and employers know how their goal has been achieved
over time (University of Essex Online, 2015). In fact, for those with high achievement
needs, having a clear goal based on SMART Objectives can already work as a
motivation to achieve that goal.
Once a clear goal is set, managers need to make rewards according to the extent of
achievement. The most commonly mentioned motivation is monetary rewards.
Monetary incentives on performance-based wage increase, piecework bonuses and
other pay incentives is one of the most important part of employee motivation
(University of Essex 2015). The reason for monetary rewards being an effective
employee performance motivator is that not only can money help fill basic needs