Critical Analysis: The Role of Motivation in Employee Performance

This essay provides a critical analysis of employee motivation, examining its impact on workplace productivity and performance. The author discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the article, highlighting the importance of motivation in enhancing employee efficiency and aligning individual goals with organizational objectives. The essay emphasizes the significance of various motivational tools and strategies, including financial incentives, psychosocial approaches, and organizational practices. It also reviews relevant literature and theories, such as those by Ackah (2015), Deci and Ryan (2014), and others. The analysis critiques the methodology and structure of the original article, suggesting improvements for clarity and impact. The author concludes by reinforcing the importance of motivation for managers and its role in achieving organizational success. The essay highlights the need for managers to understand and implement the correct motivational strategies to maximize employee potential and productivity.

Running head: CRITICAL ANALSYSIS
CRITICAL ANALSYSIS
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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Present day managers are of the opinion that motivation can develop the confidence of
employees and make them perform better in their work place. They have conducted researches
which have shown that managers who motivate Employees with the correct set of tools can help
employees in better productivity from them and help them to match with the organization
mission as well as vision (Ackah 2015). They will try their best to develop their skills and
knowledge so as to meet the expectation of the company. Therefore motivational tools have
become one of the most important methods that managers are extensively using now a day to
help the employees master their ability and reach the goal of success (Desi and Ryan 2014) The
present article are also of the same opinion. They have supported the fact that motivation
increases efficiency of the employees but also have provided particular set of motivational tools
which are helpful for different categories of employee in increasing their productivity. The essay
will first point out the weakness as well as strength of journal article. This will be followed by a
personal opinion and a literature review based on the present topic.
The thesis statement that can be identified after going through the entire article is that motivation
is an important tool for the development of the efficiency of employee and also helps to increase
the productivity and different managers should therefore use different types of motivational tools
for different categories of employees for bringing out the best outcome in the organizations.
Strength of the article is that the author has chosen a topic of discussion which is finding great
importance in the present day business administration. Employees are one of the most important
components of the organization and therefore motivation can help them to excel in their career.
Secondly, another important strength of the article is that the author has provided a wonderful
literature review that has helped to shed a light on the topic of discussion. In the literature review
the author that correctly described each and every component of motivational strategies. This can

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be learnt by the managers which would ultimately help them in guiding the employees and they
help them in developing perfect motivational tools which would help them to bring out the best
performance. The author had systematically proceeded with the literature review by first defining
the term efficiency in a variety of ways as put down by authors over the years (Lazaroiuou
2015). This discussion has followed the wonderful linking of the word motivation with
efficiency and has helped the readers to understand how motivation works for increasing the
efficiency and productivity of the employee. Not only that, the paper have also provided a good
amount of information for helping managers in order to understand the benefit of motivation on
efficiency and productivity in the workplace. For better understanding of the concept of the
utility of motivation the author had correctly utilize the bullet points for explaining the benefits
so that a clear understanding of the concept can be developed by the reader . It also described the
different types of behaviors which should be harbored by the managers for motivating the
employees like Listening to Employees attentively, providing them with effective feedback,
behaving with them with warmth, expressing concern for the employees, helping them formerly
as well as informally and many others. This is one of the strength of the article because it to be
helping the managers to understand how they would modify their behaviors in order to bring the
best outcome for the employees (Njoroge and Yazdanifard 2014). Moreover another interesting
feature of the article is that in order to support the discussion the author had taken into
consideration and number of theories which are helping in providing a strong discussion of the
utility of motivation. While discussing the theories, the author had written the important
principle of the theories within brackets so that the readers can easily understand and link the
theories with the present discussion. Therefore it is seen that the author had put put a much

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greater effort in researching on the topic and give a detailed overview of the importance of
motivation for employees in workplace for the readers to understand.
The main weakness which has been found in the paper is that it does not follow a sequential
procedure for conducting the research. As statistical test which is not discussed properly in the
methodology section, it becomes very difficult for the readers to develop an idea from the
statistical test. The tests have been represented in a very complicated manner which is not at all
reader friendly. It is saying that the author had taken in consideration of three different categories
of motivational tools like the economic tools, the psychosocial tools and the organizational tools
but they have not mentioned specifically about the different kinds of motivational techniques
present in each of the categories of tools. They have made the calculation section extremely
difficult for the readers to understand. There is also no proper discussion about the findings of
the paper and therefore it does not give the detail of clear idea about the importance of each of
the components of the findings. The author should have discussed it off the result in details so
that the readers can connect the findings with the main theoretical approach in the real world
(Noe et al. 2014). The conclusion part has been provided the results of the findings but they have
not concluded the entire discussion which is very necessary for the reader to develop an
understanding of the entire paper. Therefore the discussion and conclusion part of the papers are
not supporting the main purpose. It is also see that the research part has a very difficult language
and extensive long sentences which makes it difficult for the readers to understand the meaning
of the sentence. It can be explained with the help of examples such as “Similarly, it has been
observed that, the psycho-social tools motivation level of the low income segment is validly high
in terms of statistics than the high income segment and the organizational & managerial tools
motivation level of the middle income segment is validly high in terms of statistics than the high

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income segment. It is easier for the low income segment to accept and be motivated by the
present motivation tools and opportunities, than of the high income segment”. A large amount of
information has been provided by a single sentence which somehow clouds and overwrites the
ideas on to one another and thereby does not provide a clear picture. The author should have
provided the information in a tabular chart form so that the readers can easily understand it at
one go.
The idea provided by the article is indeed very helpful. Different employees often lose
enthusiasm to work in their workplace and tend to lose focus over time. Therefore it becomes
extremely important for the managers to come out with different strategies so that they can
motivate the employees and also at the same time increase the productivity as well as the
efficiency of the employees. Increasing the efficiency of the employees automatically increase
productivity and therefore different managers should come out with important Strategy which
helps in meeting the organizations missions (Pinder 2014). An important correlation exists
between employee motivation and their performance and the managers who are likely being able
to motivate their employees with higher benefits in comparison to those who do not motivate
employees. Motivation can be provided in different ways and managers should go through
important articles to find out the evidences about how their behavioral modifications and also
how different innovative strategies they can apply in the workplace in order to make the workers
motivated and enthusiastic in their work. This will help them to achieve the goals (Schultz 2014).
An important article has been put forward by authors like to Chukuwuma, Maduka and Okafar in
the year 2014. They had mainly conducted a questionnaire survey in order to understand the
perceptions about the managers as well as the junior staff about the benefits of motivation. In the
article, the authors have supported the view that motivation is very much beneficial for

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developing the efficiency of the employees and states that he has found out through his study that
overtime allowance, holiday, as well as different types of salary increases act as a motivational
tools for employees. It has also been stated that the junior stuff usually prefer financial incentives
in comparison to any sort of non financial incentive and therefore the managers should strategize
their plans in a form which would help them to provide financial incentives to make the best
outcome. Another article which was published by Osabiya as well as Joseph in 2014 has stated
that when the employees remain highly motivated, they perform function which remains
characterized by responsibility, humility as well as efficiency. The authors have also stated that
workers who are highly motivated have a greater sense of belonging, achievements as well as
recognition in the organization. In such a scenario they are ready to strive more so that they can
be sure that they are identified with the organizations’ Vision and Mission. Seminars, periodic
performance reviews workshops as well as basic recognition up on systematic evaluation can be
taken up by the managers to motivate the workers in different ways. An article which was
published by Wang and Noe in 2014 has stated that incentives can act as an important economic
tool as well as accountability can be used as an important organizational motivational tool which
can help the employees to get motivated. Employees who have personality traits would show less
desirable behaviors like they would be low in conscientiousness and high in neuroticism.
However motivational tools assess the personality traits of such employees and would help them
to facilitate knowledge sharing and bring possible outcome Also stated that reward system can
also be used which would help them to be motivated and increase the concentration and decrease
their impatience thereby increasing open-mindedness.
From the entire discussion, it was seen that the author of the article provided the important
information which can be followed by budding managers in order to manage the performance of

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employees. Motivation is now been used as an important people in enhancing the skill and
knowledge of people and also helping them to surpass their capacity and reach the organization’s
goals and also result in development of a sense of accountability and perform better. It is very
important for the managers to correctly use the right motivational tools for different types of
employee so that the highest benefit can be achieved. All these would help the organization to
reach the zenith of success.

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References:
Ackah, D., 2015. The impact of motivation on employee performance in the manufacturing
industry in Ghana. Global Journal of Management Studies and Researches, 1(5), pp.291-310.
Deci, E.L. and Ryan, R.M., 2014. The importance of universal psychological needs for
understanding motivation in the workplace. The Oxford handbook of work engagement,
motivation, and self-determination theory, pp.13-32.
Lazaroiu, G., 2015. Employee Motivation and Job Performance. Linguistic and Philosophical
Investigations, 14, p.97.
Maduka, C.E. and Okafor, O., 2014. Effect of motivation on employee productivity: A study of
manufacturing companies in Nnewi. International Journal of Managerial Studies and Research
(IJMSR), 2(7), pp.137-147.
Njoroge, C.N. and Yazdanifard, R., 2014. The impact of social and emotional intelligence on
employee motivation in a multigenerational workplace. Global Journal of Management And
Business Research.
Noe, R.A., Wilk, S.L., Mullen, E.J. and Wanek, J.E., 2014. Employee Development: Issues in
Construct Definition and Investigation ofAntecedents. Improving Training Effectiveness in
WorkOrganizations, ed. JK Ford, SWJ Kozlowski, K. Kraiger, E. Salas, and MS Teachout
(Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1997), pp.153-189.
Osabiya, B.J., 2015. The effect of employees motivation on organizational performance. Journal
of public administration and policy research, 7(4), pp.62-75.
Pinder, C.C., 2014. Work motivation in organizational behavior. Psychology Press.

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Schultz, P.W., 2014. Strategies for promoting proenvironmental behavior. European
Psychologist.
Wang, S., Noe, R.A. and Wang, Z.M., 2014. Motivating knowledge sharing in knowledge
management systems: A quasi–field experiment. Journal of Management, 40(4), pp.978-1009.