Employee Motivation: Cognitive Evaluation, Self-Efficacy & Leadership

This essay delves into the multifaceted concept of employee motivation, examining both intrinsic and extrinsic factors that drive individuals in the workplace. It explores Cognitive Evaluation Theory, highlighting how external motivators like rewards can impact internal motivation, and emphasizes the importance of motivated leaders in fostering a motivated workforce. The essay also discusses the role of self-efficacy, the belief in one's ability to overcome challenges, and Expectancy Theory, which focuses on the individual's perception of the link between effort, performance, and desired outcomes. Practical examples, such as team-building games like 'Passing the Parcel,' 'Pictionary,' and 'Piñata,' are provided to illustrate how to create a positive and engaging work environment.

EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

MOTIVATION
• Motivation is a the desire to achieve something and move forward in
life.
• Motivation is an Intrinsic and Extrinsic phenomena, that is, motivation
can come from within or by hearing or seeing external factors.
• For example; The urge to learn more is an intrinsic motivation,
whereas, receiving office bonus is an extrinsic motivation

Cognitive Evaluation Theory
• This theory is based on how external factors of motivation effects
the internal motivation on an individual. (Kendall & Hollon, 2013)
• How factors like awards and recognition replaces the urge to
develop skills and knowledge.
• For example; if employees stop getting bonus and appreciations,
then their urge to work for the company gradually diminishes.

Being Leaders of Motivation.
• Motivated employees is a result of motivated leaders.
• Motivating employees to enhance their quality and speed of work
is very crucial for any employer or team leader.
• Providing better standards of working conditions to employees and
resolving their queries at the earliest is one of the easiest way to
keep employees motivated.

Self-Efficacy
• An employee must always possess the quality of believing
himself/herself in any case of obstacles. (Schwarzer, 2014)
• A motivated employer can always show his/her employees
how to come out from difficult situations by not losing the
motivation of doing more difficult task in the future.
• Employee should be able to handle professional failures
and still remain motivated to succeed in the future rather
than giving up.

Expectancy Theory
• Individuals should always look at the main goal which attracts
them to possess a motivated behavior. (Barba-Sánchez & Atienza-
Sahuquillo, 2017)
• Individuals should give up just because the road it difficult, instead
they should look beyond the difficulty and look at the end result of
their hard work.
• Employers should always possess an ability to keep motivating
their employees motivated by showing them the positive outcome
of the future.

Passing the Parcel
• All the members playing this game would stand in a
circular manner and keep passing a parcel to each other
and music will be played in the background. When the
music stops, the person having the parcel has to either do
a dare or say something about himself/ herself.
• The purpose of the game of mainly to get everyone in a
light mood to introduce each other.

Pictionary
• A game to be played between teams or individuals where one
would have to guess the word trying to portrayed from the images
being drawn on a white board.

Piñata
• This is a popular office party game where individuals are blind-
folded and then they are guided by their team mates to walk up to
the piñata and hit it with a stick.

Reference
Barba-Sánchez, V., & Atienza-Sahuquillo, C. (2017). Entrepreneurial motivation and
self-employment: evidence from expectancy theory. International Entrepreneurship
and Management Journal, 13(4), 1097-1115.
Kendall, P. C., & Hollon, S. D. (Eds.). (2013). Cognitive-behavioral interventions:
Theory, research, and procedures(Vol. 21). Academic Press.
Maddux, J. E. (Ed.). (2013). Self-efficacy, adaptation, and adjustment: Theory,
research, and application. Springer Science & Business Media.
Parijat, P., & Bagga, S. (2014). Victor Vroom’s expectancy theory of motivation–An
evaluation. International Research Journal of Business and Management, 7(9), 1-8.
Schwarzer, R. (2014). Self-efficacy: Thought control of action. Taylor & Francis.