Management and Organizational Behavior Essay on Employee Motivation

This essay explores the significant role of employee motivation in enhancing organizational performance and productivity. It begins by highlighting motivation as a crucial factor, supported by research indicating the positive impact of job satisfaction and psychological well-being on employee effort. The essay defines motivation and discusses various incentives, including both materialistic and psychological rewards, which drive employees to perform their best. It then delves into the expectancy theory, emphasizing how the anticipated outcomes of behaviors influence individual actions. The author uses personal experiences, such as the motivational effect of grades and professor appreciation, to exemplify these principles. References to key academic sources, such as Heckhausen & Heckhausen (2018) and Kearney (2018), are provided to support the arguments. The essay also references Yeheyis et al. (2016) which evaluates worker motivation.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR ESSAY
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR ESSAY
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR ESSAY
Keeping employees motivated at work is an important role of management. This is
because motivation is the driving factor in productivity. Research suggests that job
satisfaction and psychological well being can make employees give their maximum efforts at
the lowest efforts (Heckhausen and Heckhausen 2018). For an organization, this indicates
production at the highest efficiency. The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate how
motivation positively affects performance and productivity.
According to Kearney (2018), motivation, in the simplest of terms, refers to the
reasons for an individual to behave or act in a particular manner. In professional terms, it
refers to the factors that influence workers to give their best performance and work hard for
the benefits of the organization. The reason, which is referred to in the definition of
motivation, refers to incentives and rewards which organizations provide to their workers, to
drive them in order to fetch their best performances. These do not necessarily have to be
materialistic rewards, as psychological rewards like appreciation too can serve the purpose.
The expectancy theory states exactly that, adding that what drives people to behave in a
particular manner is the precedential outcome of that behaviour or effort (Yeheyis et al.
2016).
As the expectancy theory suggests, psychological rewards act as the reason or
motivation for people to act in a particular manner and behaviour. For me, this psychological
reward has been grades. Grades play the motivational factor in my studies, which has further
benefits in the future of my life. My efforts and recent progress have also been aided by
psychological rewards such as appreciation by professors. These psychological rewards act as
the reasons for me to behave in responsible manner regarding my academic progress, and has
highly benefited me in my learning processes.
References

2ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR ESSAY
Heckhausen, J. and Heckhausen, H., 2018. Motivation and action: Introduction and overview.
In Motivation and action (pp. 1-14). Springer, Cham.
Kearney, R., 2018. Public sector performance: management, motivation, and measurement.
Routledge.
Yeheyis, M., Reza, B., Hewage, K., Ruwanpura, J.Y. and Sadiq, R., 2016. Evaluating
motivation of construction workers: a comparison of fuzzy rule-based model with the
traditional expectancy theory. Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 22(7), pp.862-
873.