Understanding Why People Work: Factors, Motivation Theories, and Coping Strategies

This report discusses the meaning of motivation, types of motivation, and Maslow's need hierarchy theory. It also covers the various factors that motivate employees to work, positive and negative factors experienced by workers, and strategies to cope with negative factors. The report is relevant to the subject of World of Work (BMP3004) under Business Management with Foundation (top 16889).

Business Management with Foundation
BMP3004
World of Work
Understanding why people work
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................3
Meaning of Motivation .......................................................................................................3
The various factors which motivate employees to work....................................................5
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...................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................6
References:........................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
In the world, working of people is very essential as they work for making money
for fulfilling their basic requirements and needs. On life, interdependence and control is
provided by working. The working of an individual helps them in learning of new things,
and skills are enhanced. There is contribution by people working by selecting
occupation of their interest and development of human relation leading in satisfaction.
The motivation is an part of management where employees are motivated as it is
related to guiding, initiating and maintaining goal-oriented behaviour (Erol, and Kurt,
2017). This is driving force behind human actions. The report covers meaning of
motivation, types and Maslow theory. It also discusses several factors which motivates
for work to employees. Furthermore, positive and negative factors which is experienced
by worker and discusses strategies to cop[e with negative factors.
Meaning of Motivation
The term motivation defines to act of stimulating someone or oneself. It is an
internal and external factor which is important element for accomplishing and setting
objectives. With help of motivation there are certain conditions which can be satisfied
such as wishes, desires and urge to behave. The people are encouraged for
improvement of efficiency towards the goals by working effectively. Motivation can be
apart into drives and motives. The individual in the organisation are stimulated by
physiological factors that can be success, recognition, teamwork and money. Following
are the types of motivation mentioned below-
 Intrinsic motivation- This kind of motivation arises for the personal satisfaction
within the individual. This is related to self-actualization and take place at time of
work performance. Participation, responsibilities etc. are non financial rewards
which are involved in intrinsic motivation (Grills, S., 2020). The skills of individual
is enhanced in specified job and through intrinsic motivation accomplishes better.
 Extrinsic motivation- This refers to that arouse from outside of individual that
comprises rewards, money, acknowledgement, fringe benefits, profit sharing etc.
In nature it is financial and affected by outside issues. The motivated people
perform better in order to obtain something from others.

Maslow's need hierarchy theory
As motivational model this theory was formulated by Abraham Maslow in 1943.
This theory is affiliated with human motivation by comprising of five stages of human
wants. The stages of this theory is revealed in form of pyramid in level of hierarchical.
The lower requirements are fulfilled before attending to higher needs.
 Physiological needs- This is a basic need for the human existence as it is
biological requirement which includes water, clothing, food sleep and shelter.
This needs becomes important for human to satisfy. The motivation is provided
to individual in workplace by offering them tea, snacks, coffee and drinking water.
 Safety needs- This is need of security which converts important after satisfying
physiological needs. The family and society fulfil this needs and people
experiences order, predictability and control in lives. It comprises of emotional &
financial security, social stability, law and order, health and well-being. In context
to workplace the manager provide guarantee to employees of no security threats
and resources , personal property are protected (Hobson, P., 2019).
 Social needs- This is third level in human needs which is also known as love &
belongingness. This refers to emotional need for being part of group and for
interpersonal relationship, affiliating, connectedness etc. The social activities are
offered by companies and opportunity is given for developing relationship outside
office for having high rate of employee engagement. In workplace when
employees feel they belong and fits in organisation then feel motivated. It involve
example of friendship, trust and acceptance.
 Esteem needs- This refers to fourth level need which includes self worth,
accomplishment and respect. It is been categorised on two basis esteem for
oneself and respect from others such as status, prestige etc. It is important to
make employee feel that they are increasing and outcome is attained by
receiving of positive feedback. The complete engagement is impacted by
providing regular acknowledgement and appreciation for the task that employee
performs (Jencks, and Riesman, 2017).
Self-actualization needs- This is top and uppermost need in motivational model
which recognise to understanding of personal potential, self-fulfilment and looks

to personal development and experiences. The employees do their best in
workplace which makes them feel motivated and having long success in career
path. The self-actualized promotes progress and engagement which makes
employees feels trusted and empowered.
The various factors which motivate employees to work
Salary- The person is motivated by earning of high salary which pleases superior
in retaining their position. The salary offers feeling of security along with earns high
status ranking which an employee enjoys. The earning of high revenue make person do
respectable work and offers short term satisfaction.
Promotion- The promotion motivates employees by appealing to their sense of
ambition. The promotion is linked with increased autonomy as employees are
encouraged to higher position of responsibility and gets opportunity to work more
independently with less supervision and more authority (Kolts, and Gilbert, 2018).
Work environment- The positive work environment provided to employees
make them feel motivated. The environment is of physical and non-physical. The
physical environment involves office space for better working of employees and non-
physical environment motivated employees value engagement and communication.
The positive factors employees experience as a result of their job roles
Rewards and recognition- For the individual motivation this is an essential
factor which is linked with the performance. The rewards involves increment in pay and
promotion that requires allocation for the achievement of specific goals. The objective of
rewarding and recognising is to motivate and encourage employees for promoting
positive behaviours that can help in reinforcing better performance.
Company culture- The positive company culture in workplace stimulating
employees by making them feel more respected so that they can enjoy their working by
working together. The positive company and team culture includes employees well-
being, equality and compassion between employees (Lovett, S., 2020).
Professional development opportunities- The contribution of employee in
workplace is more effective as they become self dependent. The genuine interest is
developed by manager which appreciate employees and values by bringing loyalty,

retention and motivation. The improvement in skills and inspired employees works
better leading to company success.
The negative factors employees experience as a result of their job roles
Conflicts at workplace- On the employee motivation theirs is negative impact
by creating of conflicts and tension in workplace. If workers not receiving equal level of
motivation, it creates offended towards the work which generates disagreement.
Poor management- The organisation team has significant role in in motivating
employee as they are accountable for various functions of planning, organising and
controlling. The employee performance is affected because of poor management when
no attention or appreciation is given to them. On employee performance little feedback
is provided due to poor leadership skills.
Job stress- This is condition arises when various aspects interact with personnel
and their physiological stability is concerned. The job stress make employee feel
tension which disturbs emotion and their thought procedure leading to disappointment.
The high workload provided to employees creates job stress because of that deadlines
are not met leading to negative impact on employees, low participation in activities of
organisation (Spector,P.E., 2021).
Strategies to cope with negative factors employees experience as a result of their
job roles
Providing opportunity to express opinions- In workplace the opportunity is
provided to employees for expressing their opinions and ideas for avoiding negative
factors. The opinions of employee can be related to policies, changes and procedures
of organisation which recognise impact of working hours, pay etc.
Trust and respect- In recruitment of new member it must be treated as
trustworthy and with respect. The trust is start developing with the hiring of employee
and after their background & performance is confirmed which contributes over time by
confirming their position. This makes employee motivated and negativity is reduced.
Opportunities for growth- The motivated employee is provided opportunity for
their growth as feedback is given on time, appreciation is provided. The career path
plans are developed and training is rendered by manager to employees for having
promotion opportunities which leads to organisation commitment.

CONCLUSION
It is been from above analysis that in organisation motivation of employees leads
to satisfaction that helps in improving their performance and works with more use of
skills and abilities. The working of people helps in fulfilling their basic needs and
motivation can be rendered inside or outside the workplace. In the report Maslow theory
shows five needs which moves from bottom to top. With different factors the employees
are motivated that put and positive and negative impact while experiencing in their job
roles.
References:
Books and Journals
Erol, and Kurt, 2017. The effects of teaching programming with scratch on pre-service
information technology teachers' motivation and achievement. Computers in
Human Behavior, 77, pp.11-18.
Grills, S., 2020. Understanding Everyday Life: Generic Social Processes and the Pursuit
of Transcontextuality. Symbolic Interaction, 43(4), pp.615-636.
Hobson, P., 2019. Enabling people with dementia: Understanding and implementing
person-centred care. Springer Nature.
Jencks, and Riesman, 2017. The academic revolution. Routledge.
Kolts, and Gilbert, 2018. Understanding and Using Compassion‐Focused Therapy in
Forensic Settings. The Wiley Blackwell handbook of forensic neuroscience, 1,
pp.725-754.
Lovett, S., 2020. Understanding values embedded in the leadership of reciprocal
professional learning by teachers. Professional Development in
Education, 46(4), pp.593-606.
Spector,P.E., 2021. Industrial and organizational psychology: Research and practice.
John Wiley & Sons.