Analyzing the Impact of Motivation on Achieving Organizational Goals

This essay explores the critical role of motivation in achieving organizational goals, emphasizing the connection between organizational culture and employee motivation. It discusses various motivation theories, including Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Alderfer's ERG Theory, and Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory, highlighting how managers can apply these theories to create a motivating environment. The paper also addresses the challenges of motivating employees during organizational change, stressing the importance of communication, recognition, and support. Practical examples, such as the author's experience with a company merger, illustrate the impact of motivation on employee performance and organizational success. The essay concludes by suggesting strategies for managers to foster a culture of motivation through incentives, self-directed work, training, and feedback.

Running head: MANAGEMENT OF PEOPLE
Management of People

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Organisation’s coordination towards its workforce and consumers is known as organizational
culture. It also includes verbal and written distributed rules that act as a guide for its
employees and encourage them to develop principles, values, and constant beliefs.
Organisational culture is directly linked to the motivation. Organisational culture and
motivation together affects not only the performance of individual employee but affect the
sustenance and performance of the whole organization. Motivated employees of an
organization are more persistent, productive and creative. On the other hand, non-motivated
employees are generally costly and inefficient (Lee & Raschke, 2016). There is no any
universal method or process for motivating a person since procedures have improved over
time and depend on the situation of an individual employee. An employee may be motivated
and satisfied by the compensation that he/she is receiving; but, management needs to consider
other factors to keep him/her motivated in long run. Hence, it is the duty of the manager to
recognize motivational factors of their employee’s and applying those factors in the
organizational culture. This paper describes the importance of motivation in the achievement
of organizational goals and it also gives information about the tools that can be used by
managers to motivate employees of a firm (Yamsul, et al., 2013).
Organisations are categorized by regular changes in their strategies, orientation, and
structural set-up. Employees are required to adjust themselves as per those particular changes.
This results in stress on employee’s mindset and affects work quality. At this stage, it is the
duty of the management to clear their doubts and establish a sense of trust among employees,
which is necessarily required for the success of the organization. This is possible by the use
of motivational activities and motivation is also helpful in order to achieve strong and
effective internal communication (Jabeen, 2011). Motivating the workforce with the help of
organizational change needs a remarkable commitment to maintaining workforce ethics. The
process of motivation in an organization involves creativity and information of the areas in
which, the performance of employees exceed the expectations of the company. Managers
may also apply motivational functions in finding the areas of development before they
convert in major issues. Both approaches show the message that human resource is valuable
and organization is sincerely interested in facilitating employees in achieving excellence
(Muscalu, 2014).
There are various relevant theories explaining the nature and scope of motivation. These
theories are moderately true and help in describing the behavior of some people at
sometimes. However, the research for a universal theory and technique of motivation at

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workplace seems a useless quest. Motivation differs from time to time depending on the
situations and circumstances. These theories show that there are a number of motives which
may influence employee’s performance and behaviour. It is essential to keep in mind that
these different theories are not certain or conclusive in nature. These cognitive motivational
theories are divided into two approaches: process theories and content theories. Process
theories try to ascertain connection between the active variable, which causes motivation.
These theories of motivation are more centralized with initiation, direction, and sustainability
of behavior. On the other hand, the content theory explains the significant things that really
motivate the employees at the workplace. These theories are considered with recognising
employee’s needs, their strength and the objectives they follow to satisfy the identified needs
(Haque, et al., 2014).
Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory: This is a famous and well-known theory of motivation
given by Abraham Maslow. According to this theory, people or employees get motivated by
their five basic necessities known as
 Physiological needs: clothing, food, shelter.
 Need for security and safety: a sense of job safety, health care, and independence.
 Need to belong: Acceptance by group, friends, and love.
 Need for esteem: Recognition at the workplace, the feeling of accomplishment and
achievement.
 Need for self-actualization: Fulfilment of capabilities and capacities.
Above needs are arranged in a manner of their importance considering the assumption that a
needs at a lower level are required to fulfill before the needs at a higher level. Generally,
people put efforts to satisfy physiological needs at first. When their physiological or basic
wants are assured, then they search for security and safety, belonging, esteem and self-
satisfaction (Jerome, 2013).
Alderfer’s ERG Theory of Motivation: Clayton Alderfer divided Maslow’s hierarchical needs
into three main categories: Existence needs, Relatedness needs, and Growth needs.
Existence needs: These includes first two level of Maslow’s theory which is physiological
needs and needs for safety and security like food, water, clothing, air, safety, attention, and
love.

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Relatedness needs: These contains the ambition of an individual for developing important
interactive relationships with family, managers, and superiors and thus getting recognition
and fame in the workplace. External components of esteem needs and social needs of
Maslow’s theory falls under the category of relatedness needs.
Growth Needs: These needs include, needs for personal growth, self-development, and
advancement. Internal components of esteem needs and self-actualization needs of Maslow’s
theory comes under the category of growth needs.
ERG theory concludes that one or more needs can be act as a motivator at a single point in
time. It also shows that if the accomplishment of a need for the higher level is submissive,
then there is a rise in the desire for fulfilling lower level needs (Osabiya, 2015).
At the workplace, according to this theory, managers are required to recognize immediate
multiple needs of his employees. This model states that focusing completely on a single need
cannot motivate employees. For example, if growth and promotions are not provided to
employees for a long time, then they can feel dissatisfied from relatedness needs.
Management is required to identify these needs early so that action can be taken to fulfill the
unsatisfied needs before it converts into frustration and aggression (Maduka & Okafor, 2014).
Heinberg's theory of two factors: Frederick Herzberg with his companions developed theory
of two-factor model based on interviews with around 200 accountants and engineers
employed more than 11 organizations in Pittsburgh, USA. During the interview, employees
were asked about both the factors making them happy or satisfied and unhappy or
dissatisfied. On the basis of the result of interviews, Herzberg found that there are some
factors that can cause in satisfaction. Similarly, there are some other factors that can prevent
dissatisfaction. These factors can be classified into two categories:
Hygiene factors: Organisational administration and policies, working atmosphere,
supervision, status, security, salary and interpersonal bonds with other employees are
included as hygiene factors. These factors are not a basic requirement of a job but are related
to the situations under which work is being performed. According to Herzberg, maintaining
hygiene factors at the workplace can prevent or avoid dissatisfaction but cannot increase
motivation or satisfaction. Hence, Herzberg has named these factors as maintenance or
dissatisfactory factors (Nadeem, et al., 2014).

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Motivators: These factors are directly associated with the main content of the job. Motivator
factor includes recognition, achievement, advancement, growth, and responsibility. The
existence of these factors can lead to satisfaction among employees whereas the lack of these
motivators can avoid both, motivation and satisfaction. According to this theory, challenging
jobs having opportunities for recognition and advancement motivates professional and
personal (Vitai, 2016).
These theories can be applied to the management according to needs and situations of the
organizations. However, all theories are interrelated to each other in some manner but these
works in a different manner at the time of application. Motivating the employees to need to
know the factor that either the reason for motivation is cultural change or changes in working
methodologies of the organization. Cultural differences require some additional skills at the
time of motivating employee’s behavior. Management needs to interpret the condition
accurately and formulate a strategy that suit to needs and values of an individual. This
procedure is straightforward and easy when applied to people of same backgrounds but
becomes difficult when it comes to motivate and understand employees from different
cultures and beliefs (Muogbo, 2013). Some factors which help the managers in formulating
motivation strategy includes interpretations, expectations and positive strengthening of
employees. Management has the power to interpret the cultural factors that are demotivating
the employees at the workplace and resulting in a decrease in their performance level. After
analysing those factors, managers needs to identify their expectations from employees and
motivates in order to achieve them. By using above theories, management can distinguish the
needs of employees and motivate according to them. Employees from diversified or different
cultures have dissimilar perceptions and opinions for what is the actual meaning of
satisfaction for them (Odukah, 2016). For example, achievement is the most important factor
by Chinese employees as it develops the sense of self-actualisation, on the other hand,
American employees, Holland employees, and German employees consider the fun of work
as a most important factor. A conclusion can be drawn that employees from different cultures
mostly have dissimilar wants and the level of satisfaction they receive from their work is
different (Shahzadi, et al., 2014).
Another important aspect to be considered while development of people is keeping workforce
productive and motivated during the process of organizational change. In order to survive
with high profitability in unstable markets, organizations have to adopt innovative changes at
various levels. It is the time when an organization requires everyone to give their best

MANAGEMENT OF PEOPLE 5
performance. But most of the employees get demotivated during changes because changes
are always stressful and evoke a resistance and fear among employees. It is the time when an
organization requires everyone to give their best performance. At this stage, managers need
to exercise some activities to motivate the employees. These includes:
 Identify general signs of pressure in employees
 Recognise examples and techniques of time management and use those techniques to
manage the stress of employees and management.
 Identify areas to focus on employee’s motivation and become an example during the
process of change.
 Find out ways to make healthier communication environment among employees and
adopt favorable organizational culture at the time of change.
 Supporting to employees during challenges by recognizing their achievements and
experiences (Furlich, 2016).
As feedback is considered is a valuable stage of the motivational cycle, managers should
allow their employees to share their thoughts and experiences about developments and
accomplishments. Organisational change is finally driven by the involvement of individuals,
so promotion and appraisal provide opportunities to develop effective motivational skills.
Managers are the key factors that motivate or demotivates the employees in their team.
Therefore managers are required to understand and adopt the changes before communication
to the employees (Dobre, 2013).
Example: I personally faced lack of motivation during change at my previous organization. I
was working with a leading telecommunication company since last 2 years. Management of
the company decided its business to merge with another telecom company. When the news of
merger circulated among all departments and employees, everyone was worried about his/her
job security because other company also had its resources and human capital. The
management of my company did not take any step to motivate the employees so that they can
work without any fear of losing their jobs. As a result of this, many employees of my
company switched their jobs to some another organization so that they can secure their job.
It can be concluded that motivated employees are important for identification and application
of innovative ideas and cultural practices of an organization can foster motivational activities
by recognizing the need for innovation. Using an attractive incentive and reward system,
permitting for self-directed work, providing expert level qualification and training,

MANAGEMENT OF PEOPLE 6
facilitating immediate and general feedback system, introducing communication networks
and initiating innovative projects are some actions that can be taken by the managers to
motivate employees within the organization. The culture of an organization plays a
significant role in the process of motivating employee’s innovative actions and performance,
as it establishes a commitment among employees of the organization in terms of having faith
in innovations. The essay also states that changes are required to initiate in such a way that
can be adopted by the employees of an organization so that it gets easy for managers to apply
changes on cultural and management level. Further, it is the duty of the managers to circulate
all necessary information related to changes to employees so that they can work according to
information (Manzoor, 2012).

MANAGEMENT OF PEOPLE 7
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