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 management, 14(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.
Hi Nelushan Furthermore, Motivation can be specified as a management process, which encourage people to work better for the overall benefit of the organization, by providing them motives, which are based on their unfulfilled needs. The matters arising is: “why managers need to motivate employees?” (Herzberg, 1959)
ReplyDeleteLindner also indicates that the most difficult role of managers is to motivate employee, because what motivates employees changes always (Bowen and Radhakrishna 1991, 16-22).
Thanks for your comment Rayan. Furthermore, Nohria et al., (2008) states that managers attempting to boost motivation
Deleteshould take note that its hard to argue with the accepted wisdom, which is backed by empirical evidence, that a motivated workforce means better corporate performance.
Great approach for the start Nelushan, furthermore, most managers generalize the demands of the staff, which results in poor organizational performance and teach their staff internally within a short period of time, which demotivates most workers because they aren't given enough time to learn new technology (Bruce, 2006). Businesses should build strong bonds with their personnel that prioritize job accomplishment and employee happiness in order to overcome challenges (Fisher, 2012).
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Romeda. Beyond motivation, to achieve success in today’s highly competitive environment, many organizations have identified the need to engage their workforce. As organizations have realized this requirement, employee engagement has become an increasingly popular topic for researchers and practitioners in recent years (Bergström & Martínez, 2016).
DeleteHi Nel, According to Handayani et al. (2020) Employee work motivation can be based on the principle of human needs. If these needs are met, job satisfaction will be created. Basic human needs can be in the form of intrinsic and extrinsic needs.One of the theories regarding needs as a concept of work motivation is Maslow's theory including basic physiological needs, security needs at work, the need for harmonization of work relationships, the need to increase self-esteem and the need for actualization.
ReplyDeleteThanks Malshani. According to Asim (2013) a study was done to find the effect of employee motivation on employee performance in which it was concluded that if employees are more motivated then their performance will increase.
DeleteAgreed. Making employees feel valued and appreciated in an organization is crucial since this motivates them to work harder and with more loyalty for the company. Employees who are in their early or mid-career stages of employment expect more gratitude from their next bosses within the company. For businesses looking for low-cost ways to thank staff for their efforts, thanking them several times per week, frequently by sending notes to their homes, is a recent development. An employee-of-the-month program is the least time-consuming way to ensure that his staff felt appreciated (Sekhar, Patwardhan and Singh, 2013).
ReplyDeleteTo add further to your comment, employee engagement addresses these concerns and has become a leadership priority today. Organisations' management are finding themselves being tested every day on its capabilities to keep its employees engaged while also implementing the policies defined (Chandani et al., 2016)
DeleteAgreed. An essential stimulus that controls human behavior is motivation. Numerous theories on motivation have been developed to explain related elements of motivation. please try explain that too.
ReplyDeleteThank you Zacky for your comment. I have addressed this via the next posts, namely Types of Motivation and the Motivation Theories.
DeleteHi Nelushan, Employees will only perform efficiently if their managers are motivating them effectively. Managers responsibility thus include ‘combining good motivational practices with meaningful work, the setting of performance goals, and use of an effective reward system...to establish the kind of atmosphere and culture that is needed to excel’(mindtools.com).
ReplyDeleteTo add to your comment Naushad, the job of a manager in the workplace is to get things done through employees. To do this the manager should be able to motivate employees. To understand motivation, one must understand human nature itself and human nature can be very simple, yet very complex too. An understanding and appreciation of this is a prerequisite to effective employee motivation in the workplace and therefore effective management and leadership (Shahzadi et al., 2014)
DeleteGreat start to content Nelushan. further would like to refer to Motivation as a meaningful construct is a desire to satisfy a certain want and is a central pillar in the workplace. Thus, motivating employees adequately is a challenge as it has what it takes to define employee satisfaction at the workplace (Forson, 2021). According to Armstrong (2009), Motivation is the goal-oriented behavior of each individual. It consists of a set of internal factors, which are the driving force of a human being, who regulates his/her own behavior and experience. Motivation is achieved by developing some effort – an activity that is expected to lead to a goal representing the satisfaction of individual needs of the person. Well-motivated people are those who have clearly defined goals, which effectively operate and have developed a sense of duty, because they are aware that their efforts lead to satisfaction not only their own needs but those of the company as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your feedback Sachini. According to Shahzadi et al., (2014) performance of the employee is considered as what an employee does and what he doesn’t do and employee performance involves important elements such as quality and quantity of output, presence at work, accommodative and helpful nature and timeliness of output.
DeleteA well satisfied and comfortable employee can give output much more than a unsatisfied employee. To get a better result, employees need should be fulfilled in a priority basis. The ways which can be done are training, recognition, proper communication, proper working atmosphere and so on. All these can be linked to different motivation styles. These will give a huge confidence to employees which will result in great results
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Udaya. Furthermore, employee performance is actually influenced by motivation because if employees are motivated then they will do work with more effort and by which performance will ultimately improve (Azar and Shafighi, 2013)
DeleteGreat Post . Further The organization will gain from employee retention if they are motivated. In the business, recruiting and training new employees costs money. Retaining qualified workers and reducing turnover will lower this expense and boost a company's earnings. The greatest approach is to develop a company culture and proactive workers. Both good and bad places have a good reputation for businesses. People will continuously desire to work for your organization if you can establish the reputation of the former, and those who already do so will be reluctant to quit. These elements will aid in the creation of a strong and successful business culture (McKee, 2018)
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Insaff and furthermore, Chandani et al., (2016) established that employee turnover has taken different industries by storm, as employees are found to be constantly switching jobs thus causing high attrition rates. Hence employee retention and engagement has become a daunting task for organisations in these unstable economic times.
DeleteAgreed with the Content Nelushan, Employee motivation, just one part of the motivation and performance formula, is frequently studied since it provides insight into employee behavior and a foundation for predicting future behavior. There is no single acknowledged theory of employee motivation. Furthermore, motivational philosophies are classified into three types: content motivation, process motivation, and reinforcement theory (Lussier, 2017).
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Christeena. Akinwunmi et al., (2018) argues that it can be practically impossible to find a perfect solution that will enhance both job satisfaction and performance continuously and states that to stimulate better performance, motivational factors must be considered a vital part of organisational growth and sustainability, given high priority and applied systematically.
DeleteGreat article Nelushan, I agreed the content and to add furthermore, every individual in an organization is motivated by some different way. When talking in term of employee motivation, it can be simply defined as “Employee motivation is a reflection of the level of energy, commitment, and creativity that a company's workers bring to their jobs. Motivating the staff leads to broaden their skill to meet the organizational demands (Mohamud, Ibrahim and Hussein 2017). Moreover,
ReplyDeletemotivation is the force that energizes, directs and sustains behaviour. High performance is achieved by
well-motivated people who are prepared to exercise discretionary effort, independently do more than
is expected of them (Armstrong, 2014).
Thanks for your comment Sanath. Employee motivation is very important for organizations as every concern requires physical, financial and human resources to accomplish the goals. It is through motivation that the human resources can be utilized for this purpose. This can be done by building willingness in employees to work. This will help the enterprise in securing the best possible utilization of resources. It results in increase in productivity, reducing cost of operations, and improving overall efficiency (Shahzadi et al., 2014)
DeleteGreat article Nelushan. Agreed with the content, furthermore, Motivation requires that employees achieve certain outcomes, such as performance and productivity. He also showed that motivated workers are more autonomous and self-driven compared to less motivated people. Additionally, highly motivated employees are more eager to take on responsibility and have a strong sense of commitment to their jobs and careers. (Shahzadi et al., 2014
ReplyDeleteThank you Dehara. To add to Shahzadi et al., (2014) motivation is fundamentally meant to facilitate behavioral alteration and is a force that enables an individual to act in the direction of a particular objective.
DeleteEmployee Motivation is a great topic nowadays because people went through lot of harmful external events in recent years. Great article Nelushan. Additionally, Motivation as a meaningful construct is a desire to satisfy a certain want and is a central pillar at the workplace. Thus, motivating employees adequately is a challenge as it has what it takes to define employee satisfaction at the workplace (Forson et al. 2021).
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Manula. Just to add, employee motivation is very important for organizations as every concern requires physical, financial and human resources to accomplish the goals. It is through motivation that the human resources can be utilized for this purpose. This can be done by building willingness in employees to work. This will help the enterprise in securing best possible utilization of resources. It results into increase in productivity, reducing cost of operations, and improving overall efficiency. (Shahzadi et al., 2014)
DeleteGood approach Nelushan, As per (Armstrong, 2014) Positive discretionary behavior is used by highly motivated individuals when they choose to exert effort. Such individuals may be driven by their own actions, which is the ideal type of motivation as long as it indicates that they are moving in the right way to accomplish their goals
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. To add further, employee performance fundamentally depends on many factors like performance appraisals, employee motivation, employee satisfaction, compensation, training and development, job security, organization structure and others. A motivated employee is responsive of the definite goals and objectives he/she must achieve, therefore he/she directs their effort in that direction (Sandhu et al., 2017)
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