Understanding Motivation in the Workplace

This article discusses the importance of motivation in the workplace and the various factors that motivate employees to work. It covers Maslow's hierarchy of needs, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and positive and negative influences of motivation. Strategies to cope with negative factors employees experience as a result of their job roles are also discussed.

BSc (Hons) Business Management with
Foundation
BMP3004
World of Work
Understanding why people work

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 4
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

Introduction
Motivation plays a pivotal role in a human being's life. It is essential in both personal
and professional life. It helps to make productive human being at workplace (Ali, and et.al.,
2020). The following assessment is based upon the aspects of motivation that determines
how and why people acts towards their work in the company. It also covers the positive and
negative influences of motivation in an organisation.
What does Motivation Mean?
Motivation delineates the process that initiates, directs and maintains the goals-
oriented behavior. It defines why individuals initiate, continue and or modify a particular
behavior at a specific time. The term shows the psychological, emotional and mental force
that determines a person regarding their behaviour and actions in an association (Fjendbo,
2021). In a workplace setting, it is very essential to motivate employees towards their
respective work so that individual and overall effectiveness and efficiencies can be
improved.
Motivation has two forms:
 Intrinsic motivation: It is that type of motivation which makes person itself to
perform a task because it is personally rewarding. For example; studying a course as
a person finds riveting, solving a word puzzle as it is exciting and challenging and
many more.
 Extrinsic motivation: It makes a person to accomplish a task or exhibiting a
behaviour because of external causes. For instances; working towards receiving a
prize or reward, to avoid termination, job promotions and many more.
Maslow hierarchical theory of needs:
This theory was announced by the Abraham Maslow which signifies that a person is
motivated by five essential categories of needs such as physiological, safety, love, self-
esteem and self-actualization. It explains that people are motivated to satisfy their essential
needs before going on to next one, more advanced needs. The explanation on such needs
are as follows:
 Physiological needs: It comprises the needs which are essential to the survival of
human such as food, water, air, sleep, warmth and more. The scholar suggests that
such needs must be satisfied before individuals move on to the next level of needs.
 Safety needs: It covers the protection from theft and violence, well-being, emotional
stability, financial security, health security. For an employee, it could be safety
against workplace injuries or accident.
 Love and belongingness needs: It relates to the human emotional needs for
connectedness, interpersonal relationship, being part of the group and affiliating
(Gable and Dreisbach, 2021). For an employee, it could be friendship, trust, giving
and receiving affection, acceptance and more.
 Self-esteem needs: Maslow classified the self-esteem needs into two categories; (i)
esteem for oneself (mastery, achievement, dignity, independence), (ii) the desire for
respect from others and reputation (prestige and status). For instances, participation
in professional activities, team participation, personal interests and many more.
 Self-actualization needs: It is highest level needs which delineates the realization of
an individual's potential, seeking personal growth, self-fulfillment, peak experiences.
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Winning awards, acquired the position of manager are some examples of self-
actualization needs.
The various factors which motivate employees to work
Salary: Salary plays a pivotal role in an employee’s life as it deals with the motivation that
makes an individual to do their respective tasks with full potential. It has researched that
many scholars believes that salary is the only cause that makes a person to perform their
duties and work in the business. It is used to attract and retain valuable employees in the
business. A person gets motivated when receives a enough amount of pay as per his skills,
qualifications and proficiency in the company (Hatemi and Ojeda, 2021). The pay allows an
individual to feel valuable, accomplished and brings a feeling of financial security.
Promotion: It is an extrinsic motivation to a person. Promotion acts to motivate workers is
by facilitating an opportunity for boosted compensation. It covers not only the raised pay
that employees make when they get promotions, but also such as expense accounts, health
insurance, paid time off and company cars. An employee needs to pay additional work
hours, more contribution and efforts in the company in order to show his worth and
potential. If a person is recognized by his superiors then that person gets a chance to have
promotion.
Work Environment: It is also important to motivate a person in the business . It is necessary
for the managers to offer positive work environment to their employees as it makes them
motivated to their work. Positive work environment includes setting and accomplishing
objectives, feedback, encouraging management, clear expectation from employees and
more, all such contribute to rise motivation at the workplace. It flourishes in a positive work
surroundings, hence many leaders want to learn new techniques to motivate their staff.
Also, when a business is having a positive vibes in the environment, it reduces the
employee’s turnover as well.
The positive factors employees experience as a result of their
job roles
Appreciation or recognition for a job well done: Recognition is only to make individuals feel
good about their roles and duties. It is essential to praise and recognize employees to
reinforce a certain result that supports the company. The more employees are recognized,
the more often a worker will repeat them.
Relationship with colleagues: As the working person spends one-third of their day at the
business, interactions and relationships they have with their fellow members can have a
pivotal impact on their outlook and mood. Positive experience or behaviours will gradually
lead to belonging and acceptance, making it satisfied to find fulfillment from work which in
turn will increase motivation (Hina, Selvam and Lowry, 2019). Social needs are also
important in an individual's life to belong and accepted in a society. In a workplace setting,
brainstorming sessions, team lunches, physical challenging activities and more can improve
motivation among employees.
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The negative factors employees experience as a result of their
job roles
Personal life: It is found that most of the employees state that problems their
personal lives impacts their performance at workplace. This may lead to lack of
engagement, issues with concentration, absenteeism, poor attention and many
more.
Salary: Getting a regular payment, particularly in case of permanent employees is
ascertained as the common requirement that is assumed to be fulfilled by superiors.
Salary can satisfies a person for a short-term period, and in long run, it does not
satisfies and increases the individual's performance (Nevo and Vaknin-Nusbaum,
2020). However, if the lower pay is giving to the employee, it may cause
disengagement and dissatisfaction. Also, equitable salary might not motivate the
employees to do better in their work, it leads to frustration as well.
Strategies to cope with negative factors employees
experience as a result of their job roles
Learning and development opportunities: Self-actualization is an earthy by
product of higher performance. Most of the workers naturally want to perform high to
feel they are accomplishing their full potential. Learning and development is an
useful way to educate and direct workers on the aspects and areas that will supports
them to grow and progress. It is found that when employees see that their company
provides learning opportunities, that will improve their overall skills and delivers a
continue personal growth can leads to motivation.
Encourage mindfulness: One of the key to drive motivation in the business is to
encourage employees to take breaks and de-stress during their working hours. This
could be a short walk outside on a good day or a visit to a nearby coffee house.
Employer might consider meditation or yoga classes over a lunch break or
encourage a group of individuals to participate in such activities when they sense
stuck about the way of a task (Yan and Halpenny, 2019). Often, taking a few
moments of quiet facilitate the motivation employees required to meet the deadlines
of the company.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it is concluded that motivation is important for
both employer and employee. An employee needs motivation to complete their
assigned tasks effectively. Maslow's theory covered in this report which delineates
the five basic needs of human being. It suggested that a person is no longer
motivated if one need is addressed, the person moves to next need. Motivation is
discussed with two forms; intrinsic and extrinsic. Both have their own value to
motivate a person in his work and personal life. Motivation can deliver both positive
and negative influence on the performance of an employee. With the use of right
strategies, employers can cope-up with the negative impact of motivation.
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References
Ali, F. and et.al., 2020. How “Green” thinking and altruism translate into purchasing
intentions for electronics products: The intrinsic-extrinsic motivation
mechanism. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 24, pp.281-291.
Fjendbo, T. H., 2021. Leading employees of different genders: the importance of gender for
the leadership‒motivation relationship. Review of Public Personnel
Administration, 41(4), pp.651-673.
Gable, P. A. and Dreisbach, G., 2021. Approach motivation and positive affect. Current
Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 39, pp.203-208.
Hatemi, P. K. and Ojeda, C., 2021. The role of child perception and motivation in political
socialization. British Journal of Political Science, 51(3), pp.1097-1118.
Hina, S., Selvam, D. D. D. P. and Lowry, P. B., 2019. Institutional governance and protection
motivation: Theoretical insights into shaping employees’ security compliance
behavior in higher education institutions in the developing world. Computers &
Security, 87, p.101594.
Nevo, E. and Vaknin-Nusbaum, V., 2020. Enhancing motivation to read and reading abilities
in first grade. Educational Psychology, 40(1), pp.22-41.
Yan, N. and Halpenny, E., 2019. The role of cultural difference and travel motivation in event
participation: A cross-cultural perspective. International Journal of Event and
Festival Management.
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