Wednesday, November 30, 2022

The types of motivation - Extrinsic motivation

The emphasis on employee motivation has grown exponentially in the recent past with researchers establishing that motivated employees are more engaged in their work and are more committed to their organizations (Vance, 2006). When researchers such as Ryan & Deci (2000) established that employee motivation takes the general form of Intrinsic motivation and Extrinsic motivation, they went on to argue that the performance of an employee who is intrinsically motivated is different to one that is extrinsically motivated. More recently, researches such as George & Jones (2012) claimed that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are not contradictory since an employee can be both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated at the same time.

The most elementary differences between the two general forms of motivation is that intrinsic motivation refers to doing something purely because that activity is fundamentally enjoyable, interesting and pleasurable. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation refers to doing an activity because it results in a distinguishable outcome (DeCenzo et al., 2016). On the same lines, Ryan & Deci (2000) goes on to establish that doing something because it leads to a separable outcome can be referred to as extrinsic motivation while Giancola (2014) argues that extrinsic motivation is linked to external results of carrying out a task, such as financial rewards and incentives, rather than the pleasure or satisfaction one gets from performing the task.

Despite the cruciality and the importance of intrinsic motivation, is should be noted that most activities individuals engage in are not essentially intrinsically motivated. As the freedom to be intrinsically motivated declines after childhood due to social and other demands, individuals focus on roles that are more extrinsically motivated. This is evident in schools where it appears that the levels of intrinsic motivation in students decline with each advancing grade (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

For an example, if a student forces himself to submit an assignment before the deadline only because he can then avoid the penalty that is brought about by not doing so, can be considered as extrinsically motivated since he is submitting the assignment on time to gain the consequence of avoiding the penalty. Alternatively, if an employee puts in extra hours at work everyday and never calls in sick in an effort to please his superiors and ensure a raise or a promotion, can also be considered as extrinsically motivated since he does this purely to achieve the distinguishable outcome of getting a raise or a promotion and not to gain pleasure or satisfaction doing it. 

In a nutshell, we must keep in mind that employees can be either intrinsically motivated or extrinsically motivated or even parallelly both. Employees who are intrinsically motivated tend to value challenges at work, making contributions to important decisions at the workplace and realizing their full potential at their jobs while extrinsically motivated employees tend to value things like earning a good salary, getting promoted and having a high status in society. In this context we must bear in mind that a workplace consists of both these types of employees and motivating them effectively according to their orientation falls on the organisation and its management (George & Jones, 2012).

In the next post we take a closer look at the theories of motivation.

References 

DeCenzo, D.A., Robbins, S.P. & Verhulst, S.L. (2016) Fundamentals of human resource management. John Wiley & Sons.

George, J. M. & Jones, G. R. (2012) Understanding and Managing Organizational Behaviour, 6th ed, Reading, MA: Prentice Hall, pp.159-60.

Giancola, F. L. (2014) Should HR Professionals Devote More Time to Intrinsic Rewards? Compensation & Benefits Review, 46(1), pp.25-31.

Ryan, R.M. & Deci, E.L. (2000) Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary educational psychology, 25(1), Academic Press, pp.54-67. 

Vance, R. J. (2006) Employee Engagement and Commitment - A guide to understanding, measuring and increasing engagement in your organization. SHRM Foundation, 1, p.1. 


Tuesday, November 29, 2022

The types of Motivation - Intrinsic motivation

Through the years many renowned scholars have done numerous studies on the topic of Employee Motivation. Frederick Herzberg (1959) was one such academic who gave an overall definition to employee motivation as an individual performing some form of work-related action voluntarily, rather than being coerced to do so. 

Later on, researchers such as Ryan & Deci (2000) carried out further studies in to the subject and established that there are two general types of motivation - Intrinsic motivation and Extrinsic motivation and went on to argue that the type of motivation at work has a direct correlation to the underlying attitudes and objectives of the motivated individual. Furthermore, they concluded that the quality of performance when an employee is intrinsically motivated as opposed to being extrinsically motivated can differ from one another while George & Jones (2012) established that an employee can be intrinsically as well as extrinsically motivated at the same time.

Intrinsic motivation 

Ryan & Deci (2000) defines intrinsic motivation as carrying out a task for its inherent satisfactions rather than for some separable consequence and points out that an intrinsically motivated person is driven to do a specific task for the fun of it and/or the challenge it poses, rather than for external pressures, coercions, or possible rewards. 

They go on to say that intrinsic motivation in children takes the form of learning, undertaking challenges and solving problems while in adults it takes the form of spending time and doing things like drawing, gardening, writing poetry, playing sports, mountaineering, and other things which does not give any tangible form of rewards (Deci & Ryan, 1985). In addition, they establish that employees are intrinsically motivated to carry out some activities while they are not motivated to do others and also adds that observations have been made which indicate that not everyone is motivated by the same activities (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

In view of the workplace and employees, DeCenzo et al., (2010) explains that intrinsic rewards are the personal satisfactions that an individual receives from doing the task/job. Further, they go on to explain that these are all self-initiated rewards such as taking pride in one’s work, a feeling of accomplishment, or enjoying being a part of a team. On the same lines, Amabile (1993), argues that an individual is considered intrinsically motivated when he or she looks for enjoyment, interest, satisfaction, or personal challenge in the work they do.

Other researchers have gone on to establish that behaviours, which can lead to strategic differentiation and are of great value to an organisation, such as being innovative, committed, adaptable and enterprising, are initiated by intrinsic motivation (Hansen et al., 2002). Furthermore, scientific research done through the years shows that intrinsic motivation is a powerful driver of learning and positive development (Larson & Rusk, 2011).

References 

Amabile, T.M. (1993) Motivational synergy: Toward new conceptualizations of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in the workplace. Human resource management review, 3(3), pp.185-201.

DeCenzo, D.A., Robbins, S.P. & Verhulst, S.L. (2010) Fundamentals of human resource management, 10th ed, John Wiley & Sons, p.262.

Deci, E.L. & Ryan, R.M. (1985) Conceptualizations of intrinsic motivation and self-determination. Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior, Boston, MA: Springer, pp.11-40.

George, J. M. & Jones, G. R. (2012) Understanding and Managing Organizational Behaviour, 6th ed, Reading, MA: Prentice Hall, p.159.

Hansen, F., Smith, M. & Hansen, R.B. (2002) Rewards and recognition in employee motivation. Compensation & Benefits Review, 34(5), pp.64-72.

Herzberg, F., Mausner, B., & Snyderman, B. B. (1959) The motivation to work. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Larson, R.W. & Rusk, N. (2011) Intrinsic motivation and positive development. Advances in child development and behavior, 41, pp.89-130.

Ryan, R.M. & Deci, E.L. (2000) Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary educational psychology, 25(1), Academic Press, pp.54-67.

Friday, November 25, 2022

What is Employee Motivation? The Definitions:

Employees are the greatest asset of an organisation and modern companies have become dependent on employee performance for their success (Siddiqui, 2014). On the other hand, in spite of its importance, employee performance too is an element that is dependent on several critical factors and one such critical factor is Motivation. 

Derived from the Latin word “movere”, which essentially translates to “move” or “to set in motion”, Motivation is a subject that has seen extensive study by many prominent researchers through the years, which ultimately has led to various definitions, explanations and theories emerging on the topic.

A renowned scholar who did a significant amount of work on the field of motivation was Frederick Herzberg (1959) who defined employee motivation as performing a work-related action because the individual wants to do so. Further, Kreitner (1995) explained that motivation is the psychological process that gives behavior, purpose and direction.

According to Siddiqui (2014), employee motivation can be defined as a person’s intrinsic willingness to archive any particular goal or task. He goes on to say that people with higher levels of motivation tend to have a higher desire and energy to achieve goals. Sandhu et al., (2017) states that motivation is the set of psychological processes of an individual which causes arousal, direction and the determination to attain a goal.

Other definitions argue that motivation is an internal drive to satisfy one’s needs that are not yet satisfied (Higgins, 1994), a set of psychological forces that is created within a person that initiates and drives work-related actions and determines their form, direction, strength and duration (Pinder, 2008) and the internal and external forces that arouse enthusiasm and persistence in an individual to pursue a certain course of action (Daft, 2003).

Richard L. Daft (2003) further goes on to explain that humans have basic needs such as food, security and the need for achievement and that these needs are translated into an internal drive which provokes the person to perform specific actions that will result in these needs being met. He goes on to say that the gratification the individual gets from carrying out the actions that produced the desired results are considered to be the reward and establishes that such rewards can be categorized as Intrinsic rewards and Extrinsic rewards.

In a similar view suggested by Ryan & Deci (2000), people are said to have not only different levels of motivation but also different types of motivation and highlights Intrinsic motivation and Extrinsic motivation as these types. Furthermore, they go on to suggest that the underlying attitudes and objectives of an individual that triggers the initial subject action/s, has a direct correlation to the type of motivation that is at work.

On the next post, we take a closer look at the types of motivation and what they mean.

References

  • Daft, R. L. (2003) Management, 5th ed. Thomson Learning.

  • Herzberg, F., Mausner, B., & Snyderman, B. B. (1959). The motivation to work. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

  • Higgins, J. M. (1994) The management challenge, 2nd ed. New York: Macmillan.

  • Kreitner, R. (1995). Management, 6th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

  • Pinder C. C. (2008) Work Motivation in Organizational Behavior, 2nd ed. New York: Psychology Press.

  • Ryan, R.M. & Deci, E.L. (2000) Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary educational psychology25(1), pp.54-60.

  • Sandhu, M. A., Iqbal, J., Ali, W., Tufail, M. S., (2017) Effect of Employee Motivation on Employee Performance. Journal of Business and Social Review in Emerging Economies, 3 (1), p.85.

  • Siddiqui, M. (2014) Success of an Organization is a Result of Employees Performance. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 1(4), pp.184,193-4

Monday, November 21, 2022

Introduction

An organisation’s human resources, in other words it’s Employees, are its lifeblood. However much innovative, committed and forward-thinking an organisation is, it will be of no use if there are no people to run it and take the company forward. According to Siddiqui (2014), an organisation’s employees are its true asset that can be a very strong source of unbeatable competitive advantage while Das & Baruah (2013) goes on to say that an organisation’s workforce is it’s most vital and dynamic resource.

“Whether it is called “people,” “labor,” “intellectual capital,” “human capital,” “human resources,” “talent,” or some other term, the resource that lies within employees and how they are organized is increasingly recognized as critical to strategic success and competitive advantage.” (Boudreau & Ramstad, 2007, p. 04)

With the above in place, it is safe to assume that a company’s greatest asset is its employees. Hence, Salah (2016) states that the success or failure of modern business organisations depends on the quality of their human resources while Ramlall (2008) states that an organization depends on it’s employee’s creativity, innovation and commitment and consider them to be essential elements for it’s success.

On these lines, it also needs to be understood that employee performance fundamentally depends on some key factors. One such key factor is Motivation. According to Asim (2013), the results of a study that was carried out to understand the impact of motivation on employee performance showed a positive relationship between the two elements. Moreover, there were clear indications that increased levels of motivation among employees resulted in increased levels of performance.

Furthermore, Vance (2006) explains that motivated employees are more engaged in their duties and are more committed to their organizations. He also adds that in addition to being more productive and less prone to resigning, they are a definite source of competitive advantage to their companies.

In this context, it can be universally understood and agreed upon that motivation has a direct bearing on employee performance which in turn, has a direct and significant impact on an organisation’s success. Siddiqui (2014) further explains this by affirming that employee performance has become a very important factor in the success of organisations and that the outcome of studies carried out in this regard suggests that the success of companies depends on employee performance. 

This blog offers a detailed look in to the subject of Employee Motivation, its theories, benefits and its relevance in today’s business context.

References

  • Asim, M. (2013) Impact of Motivation on Employee Performance with Effect of Training: Specific to Education Sector of Pakistan. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 3(9), p.9.
  • Boudreau, J. & Ramstad, P. (2007) Beyond HR – The New Science of Human Capital. Harvard Business School Press, p.4.
  • Das, B. & Baruah, M. (2013) Employee retention: A review of literature. Journal of business and management14(2), p.8.
  • Ramlall, S. (2008) Enhancing Employee Performance Through Positive Organizational Behavior. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 38(6), p.1582.
  • Salah, M. (2016) The Impact of Training and Development on Employees Performance and Productivity - A case Study of Jordanian Private Sector transportation companies located in the Southern region of Jordan. International Journal of Management Sciences and Business Research, 5, p.36.
  • Siddiqui, M. (2014) Success of an Organization is a Result of Employees Performance. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 1(4), pp.193-194.
  • Vance, R. J. (2006) Employee Engagement and Commitment - A guide to understanding, measuring and increasing engagement in your organization. SHRM Foundation, 1, p.1. 

Conclusion, advantages of employee motivation and recommendations

Salah (2016) establishes that modern organisational success or failure is dictated by the quality of it’s employees with researchers such as...