MAN204: Strategies for Improving Employee Motivation and Performance

This essay delves into the critical role of motivation in the workplace, emphasizing its impact on company performance and goal achievement. It explores various strategies for enhancing employee motivation, such as providing rewards based on performance, offering comprehensive training programs, and fostering a positive workplace culture. The essay also differentiates between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, examining how internal feelings and external incentives influence employee behavior. Furthermore, it touches upon the self-determination theory, highlighting the importance of addressing employees' needs to create a motivated workforce. The discussion includes real-world examples and references to support the arguments, providing a comprehensive overview of the subject.

Organizational behavior and management

Motivation
Motivation in the workplace
Motivation plays an important in the workplace which impacts the entire operation of the
company. It can be examined that without motivation it cannot be possible for the company to
accomplish its goals and objectives. Motivation helps to enhance the overall level of productivity
and also efficiency of the employees towards the activities. So, in this paper the discussion will
be made on the ways that should be considered so that motivation of the staff can be improved
and also the difference related to extrinsic and intrinsic motivation will be explained. Motivation
is the feeling that enhances the positive attitude of the employees and helps them to give their
best towards the organizational goals and objective.
It has been investigated that there are many ways that can assist to improve the motivation of the
employees. One of the methods that can assist to improve motivation in the workplace is related
with giving rewards. It can be stated that employees can be motivated if proper rewards are given
to them according to their performance. In this case performance should be measured by the top
management so that it can be easy to reward the employees. By giving rewards to the employees
who performed their best can improve the motivation level (Herzberg, 2017).
It is essential for the managers to recognize the hard work done by the workers so that they can
feel happy and confidence towards their activities. It can be stated that positive attitude is also
one of the factor that relates to motivation and by giving reward by the top management the
employee can work with positive attitude towards the assigned activities. It will also help the
company to achieve goals and objectives and with the help of efficient employees the company
can easily achieve the competitive advantage prevailing in the market (Lepper & Greene, 2015).
The next way that should be considered by the top management to improve the motivation level
in the workplace is related to training. It has been seen that by giving training to the employees it
can be easy for them to manage their activities. Also, they acquire skills and knowledge of
completing the work with efficiency which directly motivate them to give their best towards the
organizational activities (Ganta, 2014). Training is considered as the best way that can also help
the employees to maintain their efficiency and for the organization it can be easy to achieve
profits by the activities performed by the employees (Haff & Triplett, 2015). One of the
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Motivation
examples is related with training. In this it has been seen that in my organization there were two
employees who are managing the same activities in the workplace. But one employee is given
training and the other is managing the work without training. So the employee who is managing
the work without training is not efficient towards work and there is lack of motivation which also
affect the entire performance of the individual (Leary & Baumeister, 2017).
Positive workplace culture is also one of the best ways that can help to improve the motivation
level of the employees. It has been seen that if there is positive environment in the workplace
then employees will complete their work with positive behavior (Cerasoli & Ford, 2014). Also
the positive workplace culture encourages the employees to share their views and opinions with
the top management. So, it can give a platform to the employee to communicate in a proper
manner with the top management. So, it can be concluded as the best way of motivating the
employees or to boost the motivation level of the employees in the workplace (Reeve, 2014).
There are various types of motivation in the workplace. Like intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is
also one of the major factors related to motivation. Intrinsic motivation takes place when
individual is motivated with the personal behavior and they perform the task for their own sake
and not for earning more external rewards (Poch & Martin, 2015). Also, it can be seen that
extrinsic motivation is related with motivation that take place when employee perform the task
with the aim of earning rewards or incentives. Intrinsic motivation is related with the internal
feeling of the individual and extrinsic feeling is generated by seeing rewards and incentives
(Pinder, 2014).
For example: intrinsic motivation is when the employee completes the task because he feels good
and extrinsic motivation is when the employee completes the task when he or she is earning
more.
One of the theories that relates with the extrinsic and intrinsic motivation is self-determination
theory in which the focus is to elaborate the individual goal directed behavior. In this theory the
focus is given on the universal and innate physiological needs (Olafsen, Halvari, Forest & Deci,
2015). In this it has been stated that people feel motivated which allow them to satisfy three
needs related to creating something, understanding something and also to experience something.
In extrinsic motivation the focus is given by the employees to avoid punishments. So, it can be
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Motivation
stated by this theory that motivation level of the employees can differ from person to person and
also it is important to perform the task by emphasizing on the overall activities of the company
(Miner, 2015).
So, by analyzing the paper it can be stated that motivation should be there in the workplace so
that it can be easy to maintain the overall profits. It can be seen that there are various ways which
are related to motivation like by giving training, rewards and also by maintaining the positive
workplace culture. It is necessary to consider these ways so that it can be simple to maintain the
motivation factor of the employees in the workplace. Also intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
plays a great role and it can vary from people to people. So, the managers should focus on these
concepts by taking into consideration self-determination theory so that motivation level can be
maintained within the employees.
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Motivation
References
Cerasoli, C. P., & Ford, M. T. (2014). Intrinsic motivation, performance, and the mediating role
of mastery goal orientation: A test of self-determination theory. The Journal of
psychology, 148(3), 267-286.
Ganta, V. C. (2014). Motivation in the workplace to improve the employee
performance. International Journal of Engineering Technology, Management and Applied
Sciences, 2(6), 221-230.
Haff, G. G., & Triplett, N. T. (Eds.). (2015). Essentials of strength training and conditioning 4th
edition. Human kinetics.
Herzberg, F. (2017). Motivation to work. Routledge.
Leary, M. R., & Baumeister, R. F. (2017). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal
attachments as a fundamental human motivation. In Interpersonal Development (pp. 57-
89). Routledge.
Lepper, M. R., & Greene, D. (Eds.). (2015). The hidden costs of reward: New perspectives on
the psychology of human motivation. Psychology Press.
Miner, J. B. (2015). Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and leadership.
Routledge.
Olafsen, A. H., Halvari, H., Forest, J., & Deci, E. L. (2015). Show them the money? The role of
pay, managerial need support, and justice in a self‐determination theory model of intrinsic
work motivation. Scandinavian journal of psychology, 56(4), 447-457.
Pinder, C. C. (2014). Work motivation in organizational behavior. Psychology Press.
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Poch, R., & Martin, B. (2015). Effects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on user-generated
content. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 23(4), 305-317.
Reeve, J. (2014). Understanding motivation and emotion. John Wiley & Sons.
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