BMP3004 - Motivation in the Workplace: Factors and Strategies

This report provides an analysis of motivation in the workplace, beginning with a definition of motivation and progressing to various factors that motivate employees, such as salary, promotion, and work environment. It explores positive factors like growth opportunities and appreciation, as well as n...Read More

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

Introduction 1
What does Motivation Mean? 1
The various factors which motivate employees to work
p
The positive factors employees experience as a result of their
job roles p
The negative factors employees experience as a result of their
job roles p
Strategies to cope with negative factors employees
experience as a result of their job roles p
Conclusion p
References p

Introduction
Understanding why people work is a universal topic that is concerned and talked
in the whole world. It is a complex topic that has different reasons as the reason for
people to work in the world can be different from person to person due to the change in
mindset and demands (Guul, Pedersen, and Petersen, 2021). The following report is
based on analyzing factors of motivation. It starts form the definition of motivation and
goes to mentioning various factors that motivate employees of an organization to work. It
then involves certain types of positive and negative experiences that are faced by the
employees in their work or in surroundings of their work. At last, it involves some
strategies that can be used to cope up with the mentioned negative experiencing factors
to maintain good working conditions in the company.
What does Motivation Mean?
Motivation can be said as a process that gives power to a person to work, it
makes a person to do certain task. Every activity that we do in our daily life is the reason
of motivation. Considering all the factors according to the demands of human being, the
main reason that gives motivation to a human being is to fulfill their own and their family's
basic needs. The basic needs of a human being are – food, shelter and clothes. These
needs are essential to live a basic life. But in modern world, the demand of people have
been highly increased. People work to fulfill their extended wants that are no longer need
of a human being. For clear understanding, the term is divided into two of its parts. These
parts are mentioned in the following points with their explanation :
 Extrinsic motivation – This tells about the derivation of motivation form outside
sources. These motivational factors that are generally outside the control of
self such as salary.
 Intrinsic motivation – In this type, it tells about the derivation of motivation
from inside of a person such as for fulfilling self gratitude (Voica, Singer and
Stan, 2020).
Being a complex and important topic, it is studied in various forms all around the
world. Several researchers have given their theory in relation of motivation. One of the
basic motivational theory that is widely renowned is the Maslow's hierarchical theory. It
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was given by well known researcher, Abraham Maslow. It involves five types of needs of
a human being in a pyramid formation according to their importance. Following are the
five needs of the theory in an accordance form :
 Psychological needs – This involves the essential needs of a human
being that are necessary for living. These essential needs are – food to
eat, clothes to wear and shelter to live in or stay.
 Safety and security needs – It comprises of the needs that ensure
safety to a person. These are the second most important human need
by the theory.
 Love and belongings needs – These are the needs to build relationship
with other people for avoiding loneliness or fulfill sexual desires.
 Esteem needs – This is the want of person to have value or respect in
the society (Hebbecker, Förster and Souvignier, 2019).
 Self actualization needs – These are the highest level of needs that
tells about the realization of a person for self's growth or identification
of potential.
The various factors which motivate employees to work
Salary: This is the pay or remuneration that is provided by the business owners to their
employees for doing certain piece of work that is given to them. It is the main reason for
which people work as the money from salary helps in fulling the essential and mostly all
other types of needs too. It is the factor that gives basic type of motivation to the
workforce. More the salary more the necessity to work increases.
Promotion: This is the increasing of one's position or role in the job. This is based on
the quality of work that a person does in his / her job. The promotion can lead to higher
salary, authorization, value and responsibilities. It highly motivates people by giving them
new experience in the work and feeling growth in their career.
Work Environment: This is the condition or situation that is provided to the
employees to work in. It can include the hygiene, surroundings relationship between
employees and higher authorities. It highly impacts on the productivity of an employee. A
high and qualified working environment motivates an employee to keep sticked with the
work (Thuillier, Almudever and Croity-Belz, 2021).
The positive factors employees experience as a result of their
job roles
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These are some factors faced by employees at the time of working in their
organization that provides them motivation to work. Some of the general positive
experience that employees face in their job role on a general basis are mentioned in
the following points :
 Growth opportunities – Growth is appreciated everywhere. This factor
tell about the chances that a company can provide to its employees for
growth in their career. These are the chances that an employees have for
growth in their lives and job. The growth opportunities can be provided
through training programs or area of growth when targets provided get
achieved.
 Appreciation – This element tells about the activity that makes an
employee feel valued or honored for their work in the job (Henderson and
Jeong, 2021). Everyone wants to get appreciated. There can be different
ways to giving appreciation such as by giving awards, recognition and
praise. This works in motivating the employees highly and making them
feel valued, this directly helps them to increase their performance and
connectivity with the work and people of the organisation.
The negative factors employees experience as a result of their
job roles
These are some elements that have negative impact on the working and
productivity of the workers. Some of the negative elements that employees faced
during their job role on a general basis are mentioned in the following points :
 Work load – This factor mention about the pressure on employees that
comes form high work load. Some managers or leaders do not care about the
well being of their employees and just focus on building their profits. This
leads to rendering the employees with high work load. Due to this the
employees are not able to put their best performance and have negative
feelings. This negatively impacts the loyalty and productivity of them.
 Safety and security – This element focus on the safety and security of the
employees. It is a very important factor that impacts negatively when not
focused. When there is a risk to the safety and security of the employees,
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they will not be able to focus and put their best performance in the work that
leads to negatively effecting the productivity (Dahiya and Rangnekar, 2019).
There are also some legal implications as it is one of the crucial needs of
human nature.
Strategies to cope with negative factors employees
experience as a result of their job roles
The negative experiences that employees experience in the job have a strong
negative effect on them and their performance. For rectifying or correcting the
negative experience of the employees, an organization can use several strategies
that are according to them and can help in avoiding the employees to have negative
experience. Some of the strategies that a business entity can use to cope up with the
above mentioned negative experiencing factor are mentioned in the following points :
 Expertise management system – The management that handles and
divides work in the organization must be specialized and consists or
expertise members in the related area. Due to this, the work divided
between the employees will be according to their production capacity
and will encourage them to give their best efforts. This will also work in
effectively managing the operations and to avoid putting work load on
the workers.
 Safety measures – This factor tells about the use of tools and
resources such as fire extinguisher, alarm and security guard that can
make the employees feel safe and secured (Kim and Qu, 2019). These
may be costly and increase the cost of the organization but will help in
avoiding certain legal issues that are made for security reasons and
also make the employees feel better to put their full focus on the work.
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Conclusion
From the above report it has been concluded that people work for different
reason but the main and essential reason that is necessary for living life is having
food, shelter and clothes. After completing this need, people work in getting other
wants or needs of them for living a happy life. Motivation is a complex term that is
crucial for making a person do certain task. Managers or leaders work in analyzing
motivating factors for their workforce to increase their performance.
References
Guul, T.S., Pedersen, M.J. and Petersen, N.B.G., 2021. Creaming among
Caseworkers: Effects of Client Competence and Client Motivation on Caseworkers’
Willingness to Help. Public Administration Review. 81(1). pp.12-22.
Voica, C., Singer, F.M. and Stan, E., 2020. How are motivation and self-efficacy
interacting in problem-solving and problem-posing?. Educational Studies in
Mathematics. 105(3). pp.487-517.
Hebbecker, K., Förster, N. and Souvignier, E., 2019. Reciprocal effects between
reading achievement and intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation. Scientific Studies
of Reading. 23(5). pp.419-436.
Thuillier, J., Almudever, B. and Croity-Belz, S., 2021. Perceived Workplace
Discrimination and Disclosure at Work among Lesbian and Gay Employees: The
Role of Prior Coming Out Experiences in Different Life Domains. Journal of
homosexuality, pp.1-23.
Henderson, A.A. and Jeong, S.S., 2021. Political affiliation dissimilarity: Exploring
lone affiliate employees' work attitudes and experiences. Stress and Health.
Iimura, D. and Miyamoto, S., 2021. Public attitudes toward people who stutter in the
workplace: A questionnaire survey of Japanese employees. Journal of
Communication Disorders. 89. p.106072.
Dahiya, R. and Rangnekar, S., 2019. Validation of the positive and negative affect
schedule (PANAS) among employees in Indian manufacturing and service sector
organisations. Industrial and Commercial Training.
Kim, H. and Qu, H., 2019. Employees’ burnout and emotional intelligence as
mediator and moderator in the negative spiral of incivility. International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management.
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