Understanding why people work: Factors, types of motivation, and coping strategies

This report delves into the factors that motivate employees to work, including salary, promotion, and a positive work environment. It also explores Maslow's hierarchy and the types of motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic. Additionally, it covers strategies to cope with negative factors, such as workplace bullying and pay issues.

BSc (Hons) Business Management with
Foundation
BMP3004
World of Work
Understanding why people work
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Contents
Introduction 3
What does Motivation Mean? 3
The various factors which motivate employees to work
5
The positive factors employees experience as a result of their
job roles 6
The negative factors employees experience as a result of their
job roles 6
Strategies to cope with negative factors employees
experience as a result of their job roles 7
Conclusion 8
References 9

Introduction
Motivation is a process of inspiring the people to actions for achieving all goals. It is a
tendency which supply an individualistic person to do or proceed an activity related to the
needs and wants of the individual. Managers use various schemes of motivation to inspire
employees for accomplishing their extreme possibilities leading to improved organizational
performance. Motivation of employee is important because it allows management to reach at
the goal of company which leads to the production and allows an organization to reach at the
higher level of output(Dasí and et. Al 2021).
What does Motivation Mean?
Motivation is the study which guides an individual to do something.
It is the internal feeling in which a person wants to satisfy their needs to achieve a goal which
is very important.
Maslow's Hierarchy:
It is a theory of motivation in psychology which is given by Maslow to propose that needs of
all the human beings are organized into the hierarchy (Yilmaz and Kaygin, 2018). In this
theory, higher needs of people will come out when they feel that they have adequately
satisfied the previous needs.
This theory consists of five tiers pyramid which depicts the human needs as:
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(Source: Maslow's Hierarchy Theory, 2020) Physiological needs: This is the first tier which includes the basic needs for the
survival of humans. These needs are most important which an individual needs to
live. It includes shelter, water, food, rest, health etc. which should be satisfied for the
human body. For example, Asda provides all these needs to their employees specially
an income which will help their employees to survive. Safety needs: This is the second level of hierarchy which defines the safety and
security of a person in their surroundings. It can include financial security, safety for
their health, injury or any accident, police, business etc. In case of Asda, it provides
all the security and safety to their employees by providing living space to their
family which is a priority for every employee(Chopra, 2019). Love and belonging needs: The third hierarchy is the need of love and belongings. As
humans are social being who wants interaction with others. This include friendships,
family, social groups etc. as this plays a very important role in each and everyone's
life. In context to Asda, it hosts various social activities and offer various
opportunities for building the relations outside the office.
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Illustration 1: Maslow's Hierarchy Theory. 2020.

 Esteem needs: This is the fourth level of hierarchy where an individual need respect
and appreciation which is very important for every person to motivate themselves. It
is divided into two categories: for oneself like dignity, independence, achievement
etc. and respect from others like status, prestige, fame etc (Dharma, 2018). In relation
to Asda, they provide regular appreciation feedback and encouragement through mail
which is very important for everyone.
 Self Actualization needs: This is the uppermost level in the hierarchy which is related
to the understanding of the potential of an individual. It can also be called as the self-
fulfillment needs which is different for everyone with the feeling to become the most
that one can become. It includes enjoyment, self growth and satisfaction to gain a
sense of fulfillment. Like Asda always focus on the employees' skills and
abilities which helps them to advance their career.
Types of Motivation:
Motivation is a core which manages passion, gives joy and positivity to meet the goal. It is
divided into two parts: Intrinsic motivation and Extrinsic motivation.
Intrinsic Motivation:
It comes from the internal factors in which a person has the desire to do a particular task from
inside. This means the act of doing something which is enjoyable and interesting for the sake
of achieving some external reward(Suchyadi, 2017). It is a inner drive which motivates a
person to follow an activity which is not for the external reward but due to the work which is
enjoyable. For example, Practice for tennis , playing the piano etc.
Extrinsic Motivation:
It comes from the external factors in which an individual has the desire to complete a task
from an outside source. Extrinsic motivation means behavior which arises from the external
factors like rewards, avoidance of negativity etc. These rewards can be money, grades, praise,
fame which are used as a motivation for specific activities For example, being paid to do a
job, competing in sports for trophies etc.
The various factors which motivate employees to work
Salary: Salary is an important factor for motivating employees because it helps in inspiring
people for doing work to increase the performance. It can be considered as an important
factor which works as a reward, status and success of an employee to inspire the people to
perform productively (Yuan and Zhang, 2017). Like, in various companies, if a person is
earning high salary will feel more motivated for doing a better job through which salary of
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an employee brings the feeling of security, high status and powerful move to encourage
extrinsic motivation.
Promotion: Promotion plays an important role in the case of motivation because it improves
the desire of an individual and encourages their passion to reach a goal. It is an important
role for every person as it means trust, identification of the ability and skill of employees to
keep a place high. Promotion consists of more responsibility among the managers and the
possibility of getting promotion will motivate the employee so if a manager is providing
promotion as a reward then it can be the personal priority for every employee as everyone
wants their growth and development in their sector.
Work Environment: This factor is very important which inspire the employees to work
because a positive working environment promotes the safety, growth and goal of the
employee. To set and achieve goals, clear expectations, feedback etc. all come up with an
increment in workplace motivation. Work environment provides the direction through which
workers have goals to achieve. It not only bring the performance of the employee at upper
level but also effect a person in their work process(Klompstra, Jaarsma, and Strömberg,
2018). For example a company can conduct some fun activities like games through which an
employee can always work in a motivated manner.
The positive factors employees experience as a result of their job roles Relaxed and positive atmosphere: This is a very important factor which an employee
can experience as people enjoy coming office and doing work and then feel rewarded
and appreciated. It also influence the attitude of an employee towards their job,
performance and productivity. If an HR of the company is providing comfortable
work environment, encouraging their communication, providing facilities for working
will lead to the positive environment for an employee which provides the easiness to
the workers to work in a better way.
 Growth opportunities and skill development: This is also an essential factor where no
employee want to remain in the same role. Development in growth help the
employees to improve skills and bring various opportunities for them. This is an
important part as if an IT analyst helps the employees to increase the knowledge, skill
and ability in themselves which provides the inter career development.
The negative factors employees experience as a result of their job roles
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 Workplace bullying: It is related to the bullying in the workplace which includes
arrogant attitude, gossips or violence which can be possible with bosses or coworkers
both. For instance if a marketing manager is passing verbal comments regarding the
work of their employees which could be hurt mentally and will surely affect the work
life of an employee as everyone wants to live and work peacefully (Moffitt ,
Neumann and Williamson, 2018).
 Pay and rewards: Payment and salaries are perceived to be the important part for
every employee working for a company which helps in providing the satisfaction
towards the work they are doing. Like if a marketing manager is not providing pay
scale and rewards to their employees on time and facing regular issue regarding that
then this will definitely impact their work life because in the end everyone need their
outcome.
Strategies to cope with negative factors employees experience as a result of their job
roles
There are various strategies used to manage with negative factors by employees are: Providing trust and respect: By treating all the employees and giving respect and
trusting them when they are hired as trust at workplace means employees are
enjoying doing their work and they are getting honesty, appreciation and regard
(Bariroh, 2018). For example, If an HR is hiring someone then they should trust on
them regarding the work they are providing and respect them by providing feedback
to them. Leadership: The word leader itself sounds like a motivation as everyone wants to feel
like they are the part of something big. For example, if a finance manager of a
company can make leaders weekly on the basis of their performance which influence
all the employees to work more better on a daily basis(Lou and Noels, 2019).
 Employee recognition: This can be a very important strategy where an employee
should be acknowledged for who they are and what they do. Through this, employees
identify and appreciate each other which inspire them to survive at a workplace. Like
if an executive director is appreciating an employee who has been allotted a task will
help in inspiring them.
Conclusion
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It can be concluded from the above report that motivation is a very important factor for every
organization. It provides many ways to keep employees inspired for what they do. Motivation
of all the employees is a part for the successful organization through which a firm will be
able to understand better ways to inspire people and its importance. It has also been analyzed
that Maslow's hierarchy plays a very essential role in motivation which contains five levels to
fulfill all human needs. In the above report, it is also comprised of two parts as intrinsic and
extrinsic motivation which acts as a internal and external factors.
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References
Bariroh, S., 2018. The Influence of Parents' Involvement on Children with Special Needs'
Motivation and Learning Achievement. International Education Studies, 11(4),
pp.96-114.
Chopra, K., 2019. Indian shopper motivation to use artificial intelligence: Generating
Vroom’s expectancy theory of motivation using grounded theory
approach. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management.
Dasí, À and et. al 2021. Teams and project performance: An ability, motivation, and
opportunity approach. Project Management Journal, 52(1), pp.75-89.
Dharma, Y., 2018. The effect of work motivation on the employee performance with
organization citizenship behavior as intervening variable at Bank Aceh Syariah.
In Proceedings of MICoMS 2017. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Klompstra, L., Jaarsma, T. and Strömberg, A., 2018. Self-efficacy mediates the relationship
between motivation and physical activity in patients with heart failure. The Journal
of cardiovascular nursing, 33(3), p.211.
Lou, N. M. and Noels, K. A., 2019. Language mindsets, meaning-making, and
motivation. The Palgrave handbook of motivation for language learning, pp.537-
559.
Moffitt, R. L., Neumann, D. L. and Williamson, S. P., 2018. Comparing the efficacy of a
brief self-esteem and self-compassion intervention for state body dissatisfaction and
self-improvement motivation. Body Image, 27, pp.67-76.
Suchyadi, Y., 2017. Relationship between Work Motivation and Organizational Culture in
Enhancing Professional Attitudes of Pakuan University Lecturers. JHSS (Journal Of
Humanities And Social Studies), 1(1), pp.41-45.
Yilmaz, E. and Kaygin, H., 2018. The Relation between Lifelong Learning Tendency and
Achievement Motivation. Journal of Education and Training Studies, 6, pp.1-7.
Yuan, R. and Zhang, L. J., 2017. Exploring student teachers' motivation change in initial
teacher education: A Chinese perspective. Teaching and Teacher Education, 61,
pp.142-152.
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