Motivational Theories For Employee Performance And Engagement

Maslow theory of motivations

Assessment Tasks:

“Employees who are adequately motivated to perform will be more productive, more engaged and feel more invested in their work.  When employees feel these things, it helps them, and therefore their managers, be more successful.

It is a manager’s job to motivate employees to do their jobs well!”  Lawrie Mullins.

“It is a widely accepted notion that motivation is a primary driver of behavior.  Human motivation theory describes motivation as effectively laden anticipations of desired situations that guide human behaviours toward these situations.” McClelland, 1985.  

There are a number of key motivational theorists (as discussed in lectures).  You are required to prepare a report for submission in week 8.  The report should include the following factors:

1. A discussion of four motivational theorists of your choice.

2. An assessment of the techniques used to implement each of these theories to a real life organization of your choice.
    
3. Demonstrate and determine the effectiveness of the implementation of these theories at these organizations.

(this could include the implementation of any of the elements below:

• Discuss the degree to which the company has managed to achieve set targeted outcomes through the implementation of the motivational theory.
• The degree to which the company has improved its business performance in terms of market share, sales volume, profitability, customer satisfaction.
• The increase of employee satisfaction.
• The decrease of employee turnover.    

4. Prepare a range of recommendations as to how the implementation of these techniques could be improved in the future at your chosen organization.

In the contemporary business scenario, employees are one of the most important stakeholders of the organization that help the companies to achieve their goals. In order to build strong relationship with employees, leaders are using the various motivational activities since inception (Armstrong, 2012).  The study will help to highlight those motivational theories in the current global business scenario context. Apart from that, the research will also focus on the issues faced by the companies while handling their employees.

Motivational theories and model will help the study penetrate more in the areas of employees motivations. Some of the motivational theories are given below:

Maslow theory of motivation  is based on the needs. The needs here is been discussed here is based on the hierarchy. Maslow theory is based on the different wants and desire of people based on their growth in terms of psychology (Arthur, 2012). The theory is very much developed by Abraham Maslow in early 1950’s.  Maslow hierarchy needs is based on the five stage model that helps to give an insight of the employee needs and human needs.

Figure 1: Maslow Hierarchy Needs

(Source: Banfield and Kay, 2012, pp-344)

Physiological needs: The is the first stage where the employees are looking for most general things like cleanliness, air , light and minimum salary to sustain. Here the employees are looking for the physical needs for survival (Briscoe, 2011). These are the general requirement without which the employees cannot work properly or rather perform their task appropriately.

McGregor theory of motivations

Safety needs: Safety needs here is related to the safety at the place of work. Safety needs is related to the job security along with health insurance which boost the employee morale to be loyal to the company (Burkholder, 2013). Safety needs here includes the health safety, financial security needs and safety against the workplace accidents or uncertainty.

Social Needs: Social needs are related to the those needs  which is more sense of belongingness and friendliness environment where the worker are working  (Charnan, 2011)  . Social needs help the employees to build strong relation  in the long run which motivate them to work better in term of productivity.

Esteem needs: This forth needs of the employees who are related to the designations and rank. After minimum salary, safety and social need, esteem needs are very much present the desire of the human being to grow and earn respect within the organizations (Collings and Wood, 2011).  Esteem is related to self respect, designation, higher status and responsibilities.

Self Actualizations:  It is need related to the challenges and creativity in work conditions. This is one of the higher needs which explain the research work that turn out into innovation and new ways of working environment.

As noted by Cooksey and Gates, (2008), one of the major advantages of the Maslow theory is based on the human psychological needs after achieving every phase’s employees are looking to climb another stages. It also justifies the lower and higher needs of the employees while working in the organizations. It helps the leaders and managers to exemplify the needs of the employees that helps them to achieve their organizational goals.

However, as opined by (Gratton, 2008). Maslow theory is purely based on the narrowed segment as the current employees are starting from the security needs because of fierce competition in the market for performance.  Besides that, hierarchy of needs also tend to fail to show the individual differences as the every employees needs are different from one another.

Douglas McGregor was an American psychologists who is  known for his work on the X and Y theory.  The theory of X and Y are very much commonly present in the current business world. McGregor theory is very much based on the modern understanding of the employees psychology (Greer, 2010). The theory explains the two major fundamental method (i) theory of X which suggest that employees are generally giving the poor and worse results (ii) theory Y  shows the better results and performance which help   the company to achieve their goals. These are based on the leadership style chosen by the organizations.

Figure 2: McGregor theory of X and Y

(Source: Griffin and Moorhead, 2009, pp-407)

 Theory of X  (based on the Autocratic leadership): At this place workers or employees are very much follows the leaders without asking single questions. Here the management take decision and arte directive in nature without taking any feedback from the employees (Becker and Gerhart, 2009). Workers and employees dislike their works, tries to neglect their roles and responsibilities and being forced to work and no delegation of authority is being passed.

Advantages and disadvantages of the Maslow theory

Theory of Y (Participative leadership): This is the theory that assumes that working environment of the worker is very much friendly and delegation authority is passed to the lower management level while decision making. Here the employees are very much self motivated and take responsibility to fulfill the goals of the company (Bhatnagar and Sharma, 2013).  Every employees are very much goal oriented and are loyal to the company because of the working condition of the employees are strong motivated.

 One of the major advantages of theory is that it is very much simple and easy to understand. Apart from that, it focuses on the given working condition of the workers and their behavior towards their work (Boxall and Purcell, 2014).  Apart from that, this theory helps the manager or the leaders to proceed with the kind of leadership which will increase their productivity.

However, as noted by (Brewster and Harris, 2011) the theory fails to apply in every public sector organizations like Army and Police where the participative form of leadership won’t work. This is not being used in the real life because of too much of hypothetical assumptions. The motivational theories are also driven the current situation of the country or the economy which is not taken in consideration.

 The Theory of motivation is very much needed to be implemented within the Sainsbury Plc in order to improve its work culture:

Job design characteristics:

While designing the job for the employees within the organization then the leaders must assess the lower needs and higher needs of the employee within the organizations. Since the Sainsbury is using the designing the job as per the employees capacity and qualifications.  While implementing the Maslow theory of needs, the job will be designed as per the needs and capacity of workers within the organizations (Colbert, 2010).  While designing the job , the HR manager of the Sainsbury  need to identify the needs of the employees.  Some of the core characteristics  must be kept in mind by the HR manager while designing the job that, job must requires the skills, productivity , identity and responsibility as per hierarchy would  enhance the employees job satisfactions and motivations (Colling and Clark, 2011). The job must  create job satisfaction for the employees within the Sainsbury Plc.

So, the company should take a psychological test  for the employees in order to understand their requirement and needs to increase their efficiency and boost their morale by giving their needs  at same positions.

Increase in interpersonal skills:  Apart from that, Sainsbury plc should look to bring cross culture environment by increasing the interpersonal skills of the employee which will help to build the strong team by creating the friendly business environment to work (De Cieri and Hutchings, 2009). This familiarity among the employees would increase the sense of belongingness among the members of the organizations. Increasing the interpersonal skills, Sainsbury should look to renovate the one large cafeteria where all the staff have their lunch and spend the quality time (Ericksen and Dyer, 2012). Besides that, in order to increase the interpersonal skills Sainsbury should also help the games and programmes which would make the strong bond on the team. Employees will feel safer and work in the friendlier environment reduces the conflicts.

Advantages and disadvantages of the McGregor theory

Reward and Recognition system: Here the reward and recognition is based on the employee’s performance at each level of their works. The reward can be based on the monetary and non monetary benefits which will   fulfill the esteem benefits. The esteem needs will be fulfilled by providing the designations that will helps the employees to earn respect and higher post. This will increase the satisfaction level and reduce the absenteeism within the organizations.

Reward and recognition gives the employee to show their talent and capability that will increase productivity of employees from the base level (Farndale and Paauwe, 2010). Reward recognition will also help to boost the employees trust towards the organization that will show the evidence of the job enlargement where the employee will be facing the challenging job that will fulfill the need of the  self actualization needs (Fey and Pavlovskaya, 2013).

Feed forward system: Feed forward system within the organization will give the McDonalds to overcome with transactional form of leadership into participative form of leadership (Farndale and Paauwe, 2010).  With help of feed forward techniques every decision made by the management will confirm from the employees in order to understand their problems, issues and their query which will  helps the  creates the loyalty towards the organizations.

Feed forward system within the organization can bring confidence among the employees and they can feel their presence within the company (Ericksen and Dyer, 2012). The feed forward system implementations will creates tow communication within the McDonalds the chances of conflicts arising will be less that will help to creates positive environment for working for the employees.

Delegation of authority: Delegation of authority will build the decision making process for the Team. This can be achieved via job enrichment process where the sense of authority and responsibility may encourage the workers to work in the efficient manners to accomplish their task Fey and Pavlovskaya, 2013).  The delegation of authority will help to motivate the employees by delegating the authority to lower base of the hierarchy within the organizations. With delegation of authoprity the leader will have less burden and person accountable for not performing their duties.

 The delegation of authority will bring positive environment with organizations.  This will encourage the creativity and sense of responsibility among the employees to complete their duty. Apart from the decision making attitude will also be incorporate with the employees via delegation of responsibilities (Farndale and Paauwe, 2010). With the free participation and proper training for decision making allows the employees to encourage positive way of working and increase the company productivity by 21% every year.

There are major benefit gained from the implementation motivation model within the Sainsbury is it will increase the productivity of the employees from the 11.09% currently by 23% expected. Apart from that, the need theory will help to assess the need of the employees at each hierarchy level so that leaders can boost the morale of the employee by giving them those facilities (Colbert, 2010).. With the rewards and recognition company can creates increase in their working productivity with compensation and benefit employee tries to achieve the goals that are very much will increase the company profitability.

With the method job enrichment and job rotation method of implementation of the delegation authority will help the McDonalds to create sense of responsibility and accountability among the employees (Colling and Clark, 2011).

 Although there are major benefits but after the implementation feedback system can also increase the time of decision making that will again hamper the company progress (Bhatnagar and Sharma, 2013).   Besides that, the delegation of authority will also increase the chances of error within the organizations.  Lastly with the implementation of rewards and recognition company has top spend funds which  may reduce the company profitability ion the short run.

31. Maslow theory of motivation in Sainsbury

The theory has increase its market shares as because initially company was at the 7th place in UK retail sector with 5.08% but current it lies above the competitors by using the Maslow theory of motivations. 

UK retail	2014 Market Shares %
Tesco	29%
Asda	17.1%
Sainsbury	16.5%
Morrison’s	10.09%
Waitrose	7.2%

Graph 1: Market share of Sainsbury after implementing the Maslow model of needs

(Source: Boxall and Purcell, 2014, pp-779)

After implementation of the Maslow theory within the organizations, Sainsbury Plc has been able increase its market shares from 7^th position in 2100 to 3 rd position in 2014.  Employees are very much satisfied with way things are going (Brewster and Harris, 2011). Every need are being fulfilled by the organizations.

Super market	Customer score %
Waitrose	79%
Aldi	64%
Sainsbury	61%
Asda	56%
Tesco	49%
Morrison	31%

Graph 2: Customer satisfaction model for super market

(Source: Colbert, 2010, pp-949)

Besides that, most of customer are being satisfy with products of the Sainsbury in compare to Tesco and Asda because of change its employee activities. The company has been   taking care of self esteem part by recruiting or promoting from the existing employees.

Actions	2012	2014
Strike actions	3	1
Non strike actions Overtime ban Bunking the work Go slow Work in	2 – 3 –	4 1 – –
Employees action Lockout	1	0

From the above,  it has been found that,  the level of strike and the lockout has been reduced after the implementation from the year 2012 (Arthur, 2012).  Employees are being happy and satisfied with participative form of leadership with McDonalds.  

This is survey conducted by the McDonalds in order to assess the motivational factors used by the companies. The survey is conducted among more than 300 employees:

Employees satisfaction level	Very satisfied	Satisfied	neutral	Not satisfied
Salary	28.22%	32%	11.32%	4%
Recognitions from the  managers	33%	21%	7%	12%
Facilities/benefits	22%	16%	21%	9%
Work culture	29%	17%	15%	7%
Relationship with supervisors	23%	12%	7%	8%
Designations	9%	11%	23%	18%

 

Graph 3: Employees satisfaction level within McDonalds

(Source: Banfield and Kay, 2012, pp-334)

Increase in sales volume after implementation of McGregor theory of Y

Companies	2013 $ (bn)	2014 $ (bn)
McDonalds	35.9	42.76
KFC	27.6	28.44
Burger King	21	19

Graph 3: Increase in sales volume after implementation of McGregor theory of Y

(Source: Burkholder, 2013, pp-345) 

From the above , it has been found that,  McDonalds has able to generate more than 40 billion in terms of sales in compare to its competitors like burger king and KFC.  This is because of the reason implementation of  McGregor theory which suggest that, every employee are set out on target  to achieve and over that extra payment will be compensated that has increase the sales volume (Charnan, 2011). Besides that, company are complaints are been decreased and are happy with company policy and engagement process.

Some of the major recommendations are given below:

 360 degree appraisals system: With the help of  360 degree appraisal system the motivation theory can be assumed used as the word to assess whether the motivational theories are working for the not. The 360 degree appraisal system helps the company to assess the actual  position of the company and employees productivity.

E-feedback system: E-feedback system will help the company to take decision quickly with low cost. Since the participative leadership needs feedback from the employee which  will take long duration. With the help of e-feedback system company will be able to electronically take the feedback process the conclusion quickly on the basis of graph which is based on the Likert scale.

Encouraging participation: By encouraging the participation from every employee regarding various programmes like Know Each Other programmes and Perform are some of the major programmes which will help the company to build strong relationship between the supervisor and employee.

Reference List

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