Wayne Shaddock
PSYC : 3327
Industrial/Organizational Psychology
Professor: J. Dimoff
25 November 2014
Motivation in Industrial/Organizational Psychology
Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology is devoted to the study of employee behavior in the workplace and understanding the issues facing organizations and employees in today’s complex and ever changing environment. Motivation refers to the set of forces that influence people to choose various behaviors among several alternatives available to them. An organization depends on the ability of management to provide a positive, fostering and motivating environment for its employees in order to increase profits, productivity and lower turnover rates of its employees. The purpose of this paper is to discuss and compare six academic journal articles and explore the behavior, job, and need based theories of motivation that can aid management in motivating and understanding their employees. Finding that delicate balance to can sometimes be elusive so effectively learning how to motivate by understanding, controlling and influencing factors to manipulate behavior and choices that are available to employees can produce the desired outcome.
Behavior based motivation such as Equity Theory, Expectancy Theory and Reinforcement Theories are built on the premise that employee behavior is directly linked to the consequences of their actions. Equity theory tries to define the measurement and the satisfaction relationship of
Motivation is derived from an internal force that provides an individual the opportunity to achieve their needs or goals. People are motivated by a variety of things and often have different motivating factors. Employers should be mindful of individual motivating factors when attempting to motivate staff to increase performance. While some people may be motivated by money, many are motivated by things like: recognition, promotion, and increased responsibility. Once an employer has identified motivating factors they are able to analyze a variety of motivational theories to design and implement a program that will motivate employees to go above and beyond what is expected of them.
According to researcher Lindner (1998), motivated employees are needed in our rapidly changing workplaces to aid in the survival of organizations. Not only is it important to meet the needs of the consumer, it is equally important that to make sure that associates are taken care of and remain motivated. For this reason, Gibson, Ivancevich, Donnelly and Konopaske (2012) “states much of management’s time is spent addressing the motivation of their employees” (p. 125). According to the Encyclopedia of Small Business (2007), employee motivation is the level of energy, commitment, and creativity employees bring to their jobs; the inner force that drives individuals to accomplish personal and organizational goals (Lindner, 1988). Despite its obvious importance, employee motivation can be an elusive quest for managers due to the multiplicity of incentives that can influence employees to do their best work. The reality is that every employee has different ways to become motivated and the knowledge of how to motivate them is key to organizational success. It is imperative that employers get to know the personal needs and wants of their employees in order to establish tactics in which to motivate each of them. Once achieved, “managers are in a better position to encourage and reward employees to behave in effective ways” (Gibson et al, 2012, p.
An aspect of motivation that was answered early on in research was learning to understand individual needs. In early research, it was believed that employees worked or were motivated to do so based upon their needs; they were motivated to satisfy their needs in other words. There are four main need-based theories of motivation include: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the ERG theory, Herzberg’s Dual Factor Theory, and McClelland’s Acquired Needs Theory (Carpenter, Bauer, Erodgogan & Short, 2013).
There are as many different methods of motivating employees today as there are companies operating in the global business environment. Still, some strategies are prevalent across all organizations striving to improve employee motivation. The best employee motivation efforts will focus on what the employees deem to be important. It may be that employees within the same department of the same organization will have different motivators. Many organizations today find that flexibility in job design and reward systems has resulted in employees ' increased longevity with the company, improved productivity, and better morale.
According to Bateman & Snell (2009), Motivators to employee job performance are centered on extrinsic and intrinsic rewards. Extrinsic rewards are characteristics of the workplace that attract and retain people. They revolve around organization and management policies, working conditions, pay, benefits, and other so-called “hygiene” factors. Intrinsic rewards are motivators that provide employees personal satisfaction in the performance of their jobs such as opportunities for personal and career growth, recognition and the feeling of achievement in the successful completion of a task. (p. 486). Herzberg’s two-factor theory suggests
Over the last several years, the issue of employee motivation inside the workplace has been increasingly brought to the forefront. The reason why is because, globalization has been having an effect on the ability of firms to compete (which is placing more pressure on them). To deal with these challenges, most organizations are relying on their employees. The results are that those employers who are able to use this resource will be able to make adjustments quickly. This is when the firm will be able to maintain their dominance in the marketplace.
Motivation guides, initiates and maintain positive behaviors. Motivation consists of social, biological, emotional or cognitive behaviors. Many motivational theories can help an organization continue its success if implemented. The reinforcement theory can produces productivity
Internal motivation includes thoughts and emotions (e.g. perform the same task over and over again vs. at being given a wide range of project types).
Motivation in the workplace is one of the major concerns that managers face when trying to encourage their employees to work harder and do what is expected of them on a day-to-day basis. According to Organizational Behavior by John R. Schermerhorn, James G. Hunt and Richard N. Osborn the definition of motivation is "the individual forces that account for the direction, level, and persistence of a person's effort expended at work." They go on to say that "motivation is a key concern in firms across the globe." Through the years there have been several theories as to what motivates employees to do their best at work. In order to better understand these theories we will apply them to a fictitious organization that has the following
Human Resources is dependent on the success, happiness, and contentment of employees that keep the business on course. Motivation is one of the best ways to push employees forward while making sure everyone is in a comfortable position in their job. Motivational theories just attempt to explain what motivates or makes people act the way that they do. The goal of understanding these theories and their outcomes is to ensure a better performance from each employee, and to give each of those employees the best situation they can have in the workplace. Visionaries such as Abraham Maslow, Frederick Herzberg, and Henry A. Landsberger also brought forward new ways of management and ways to handle internal situations that changed the landscape of human resources as a whole. Motivational theories instituted in the workplace have a commonly positive effect on both employees and management, showing that it is important to strive for proven motivational practices.
Motivation is defined as the drive within a person to achieve a goal. The challenge that supervisors and employers have is how to help their employees to develop the drive to complete a goal within themselves. Numerous studies and experiments have been done on how best to motivate employees. Theories have developed around the results of these studies, each is tailored to the circumstances of the time, place, and people that participated in the study so they do not apply directly to every situation.
There are many theories regarding what motivates employees; McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y is the first theory that I will examine in relation to motivation in my organization. Theory X is a “pessimistic view of employees: that they dislike work, must be monitored, and can only be motivated with rewards and punishments” (Kiniki & Fugate, 2016, p. 148). Holding this theory would lead management to focus on extrinsic motivation such as monetary rewards. Theory Y is a “positive set of assumptions about people at work: that they are self-engaged, committed, responsible, and creative”
The identification of key factors or indicators in the motivation of employees in an organization of your choice.
Employee motivation a powerful new model explores drivers of employee motivation, the levers the managers can pull to address them and the local strategies that can boost motivation despite organizational constraints. Finding of new research introduce a model that establishes the four basic emotional need people exhibit; they are the drive to acquire, bond, comprehend and defend. Also it exhort organizations take an holistic approach to satisfy employee’s emotional needs through its reward system, culture, management systems, and design of jobs. The potential benefit of a motivated workforce to an
This essay provides a literature review of motivation theories. The motivation theories are included Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. As motivation important to managers and company to manage the staffs, and motivation is about everyone. In two motivation theories, I found that the difference between Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs are that, Two-Factor Theory identified the fives levels of needs that satisfied in motivating employees. In Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, it divided into two side of factors, which are hygiene factors and motivator factors.