Motivation and Job Design: Key Concepts in Organizational Behavior

Running head: Organizational behavior
Organizational behavior
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Organizational behavior
“Meaningful work drives people to perform. Motivation that
is intrinsically driven results in higher performance”
In this paper the discussion will be made on the key concepts related to motivation, as it
has been seen that if employees are motivated then they can give best towards the activities.
Also, as stated in the above statement that by meaningful work it can be easy to drive the people
to perform but it is also important for the employees to be motivated so that positive results can
be attained. Also, in the workplace it has been seen that it is the responsibility of the managers to
design jobs that engage the employees to create meaningful and motivating jobs. By this also it
can be stated that it is the responsibility of the managers to focus on designing of jobs so that
employees can feel motivated towards the assigned activities.
The manager has the responsibility to design the job in a proper manner but employees
are also responsible to engage themselves in the activities of the company. If the employees are
motivated towards their work then they can be easily engaged. But employees can only be
motivated if the individuals find their work important and purposeful (Buckingham & Goodall,
2015).
So, in the first phase the discussion will be made on the thesis statement related to
“meaningful work can affect the overall performance of the employees”. Also in this there are
various concepts which will be explained. In the next phase of the paper the discussion will be
made on the thesis statement related to “Job design is considered as the function of the manager
to engage employees”.
According to the mentioned statement it is true that meaningful work can affect the entire
performance of the employees. If the work which is assigned to the employee is according to
their interest then it can be easy for them to complete it which directly impacts the entire
performance level. But on the same time it has also been seen that motivation is also important
for the employees so that they can complete their activities with dedication. So, it can be stated
that employees should be given meaningful jobs which enhances the motivation to work.
According to many researchers it has been stated that motivation of the employees can be
enhanced by focusing on intrinsic factors related to rewards. It is important for the top
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Organizational behavior
management to offer rewards according to the performance so that employees can be motivated
towards the activities of the company (Shields et al., 2015).
But with rewarding the employees the managers should also focus on assigning the
activities in which the employees are interested. The managers of the company should assign the
jobs also by analyzing the capability of the employees. It has been seen that employees will not
be interested the job if they don’t have the capability to perform it. So, it is necessary to assign
the meaningful to the employees so that they can feel motivated and also productivity can be
enhanced in a proper manner (Lazaroiu, 2015).
For instance: if employee has the knowledge of technical field but if the activities of sales
department are given then it can negatively affect the performance. Also it will not motivate the
employees towards the meaningful work. Therefore, it is necessary to assign the job in which the
employees have interest as it can help to complete it with efficiency and dedication.
Also according to the thesis statement mentioned above it has been stated that to design a
job is the basic function of the manager. The managers should focus on designing of jobs for the
employees. To design a job it has been seen that it is important for the mangers to focus on the
capability of the employees so that jobs can be designed in a proper manner. Also job designing
should be considered so that efficiency of the employees towards work can be enhanced. To
support the second thesis, it is important to focus on the theory related to job characteristic
model. This model is the popular model that focuses on job design in context to motivation. In
this model there are five factors which can help to enhance the overall performance of the
employees. This model relates to the model skill variety which is important for the person so that
proper utilization of the skills can be made which can help to achieve best results (Demerouti,
Bakker & Gevers, 2015).
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