The Role Of Motivation In Improving Employee Efficiency In An Organization

Definition of Motivation and Its Importance in Organizational Management

Question:

Discuss about the Relation Of Efficiency In an Organization.

Motivation is defined as the key driving force that lead an individual towards any respective determined goal. In other words, motivation can be defined as the key driving force for an individual to behave or act in a certain manner (Pinder 2014). As per the article, it can be stated that motivation is one of the key driving force in organizational management that is instrumental in manipulating the efficiency of the employees. With the help of this essay, critical analysis of the provided article has been cited to help explain in a simpler manner about the inter relation of efficiency, underperformance and motivation in an organization.

Every organization performs and produces its output depending on one of the major factors within the organization. The employees are one of the most vital elements of an organization who are fundamental in driving the organization towards its respective goal (Kinicki & Kreitner 2012). Motivation is one of the important factors that influence the performance of the employees in the organization. It can be explained that motivation acts as a reinforcement that pushes the employees towards a defined direction.

With positive affirmation regarding the validity of the statement, it can be cited that effective performance management and motivation are the primary dynamics to drive the employees to perform efficiently and effectively in an organization (Miner 2015).

With reference to Maslow’s theory of Self Actualization, Cherry (2014) stated that every individual has definite needs that can be classified in to five different layers depending upon the necessity and priority. The first layer being the basic physiological need, the second layer in the pyramid being safety and security, the third layer being the sense of belonging, the fourth being self esteem and the fifth layer consists of Self Actualization. This principle mostly affects the employees in an organization and they are motivated as long as these levels of needs are met and fulfilled.

Employees or the workforce is one of the key elements of the organization, which is the active in the performance of the organization. In this manner the performance of the employees are extremely crucial in terms of productivity. The fluctuations in the performance of the employees affect not the individuals but the organization as a whole as well (DuBrin 2013).

The foremost strength of the article the detailed definition and application of motivational incentives to the employees to drive them or encourage them towards a invisible and redirected goal. The use of incentive is manipulating for the employees who are unwilling to perform due to the belief of getting lesser appreciation and incentives for the efforts contributed to the work. Jerome (2013) with reference to Maslow’s Hierarchy theory stated that the effective measures to calculate and study the needs and listen to the opinion of the employees. This is one of the crucial steps to understand and analyze the gap or the pit fall that can rectified, indirectly motivating the employees in a indistinguishable manner

Influence of Motivation on Employee Performance in an Organization

The weaknesses that can be determined according to the article provided is that, the psychometric test that is to be conducted on the employees might not always bear the honest opinion of the employees who are sometimes driven by self consciousness and the sense of job security. This is because an individual might realize or believe that an honest opinion could lead to a penalization through predetermined ways of harassment and bullying at workplace. This is due to the levels of security with reference to Maslow’s Theory of Self Actualization.

Adding justification to the given statement, underperformance is defined as a condition where an individual is unable to perform as per the incorporated standards of performance or the levels that have been determined by the organization. Since efficiency and performance are interrelated, therefore underperformance is the outcome of inefficiency of the employees or the inability of the managers to ineffectively manage the flaws or motivate the employees.

To progress underperformance and inefficiency of the employee, contribution of assistance as well as flexible work practices and defining the roles can be encouraging. Combating underperformance can be a complicated job depending upon the managerial steps that can be taken.. Underperformance can be tackled with proper support and flexibility in the workplace. In order to achieve such, the managers should have proper knowledge and training to handle underperformance issues efficiently and understand the ways of motivating the employees.

The efficiency of the employees can also be improved by proper understanding of the issues that obstruct the employees in terms of productivity and performance. The issues that cause de motivation among the employees should be acknowledged and rectified accordingly.

The flexibility of the management should ensure that employees come up for suggestions about improving performance. A rigid management would by no means be able to evolve itself and strengthen its gaps if it fails to mismanage the de-motivated employees. In order to achieve better efficiency among the employees, the process of Resupply, Retrain, Refit, Reassign and Release, should be functional. 

The management should be volatile and flexible enough to give unbiased and equal chance to all of its employees to exhibit their potential in terms of performance. Sometimes disappointment can lead to demotivation amongst the employees that in turn can affect efficiency (Hvidman & Andersen 2013).

The diversity in an organization can also lead to inefficient performance of employees due to discontentment and clash between employees under grounds of knowledge, understanding, capability and superiority. This difference can result in the demotivation of employees on grounds of giving necessary efforts from one’s end, which in turn can result in the underperformance and the inefficiency of the employees in terms of work and performance (Moore et al.  2012).

Maslow’s Theory of Self Actualization and Its Effects on Employee Motivation

Inefficiency can also result from a sense of insecurity and safety like an unsafe and unhealthy working environment, that might affect the employees in an negative manner. Detrimental relationships and lack of cooperation from the managers can also obstruct the employees to direct themselves successfully. Less remuneration is one of the major reasons of inefficiency among the employees and it can be considered in general that most of the employees are working for a better standard of living and earning. With a low pay grade the motivation of the employees are blown to bits. The wrong employee-job consistency can also lead to a de-motivated employee due to failure to achieve the allotted standards of the job requirement, since better efficiency and productivity can be achieved by placing the appropriate candidate in their key domain (Driskell & Salas 2013).

In order to help the employees cope with the discontentment and de-motivation, the employees should be imparted with motivational inspiration and incentives by identifying their respective needs and demands. As well as managing the organization protocols and resources to keep the employees motivated in terms or better facilities could also be beneficial in terms of efficient productivity.

To impart justice and evenness in the methodology conduction proper vocational communiqué would be helpful in better understanding of the situation and their outcomes. The rewards and recognitions in terms of better performance and efficiency amongst the employees acts a reinforcement and the primary driving force of the employees (Shields et al. 2015).

The validity of the application of the methods of motivating the employees is a good strategic tool to combat ineffectiveness. Khan (2012) highlighted the main purpose of motivation that it can only be implemented after understanding the issues and the levels of requirement of the employees. For example, the increment of remuneration would be motivational for the employees with low scale salary than that of the employees with middle or higher pay grade (Luthans,  Luthans & Luthans 2015).

This critical analysis has been done with reference to the article that has been provided. Guclu and Guney (2017) states that motivation is one of the key strategies to increase efficiency and productivity among employees, in an organization. On the contrary, other organizations lay emphasis on supplementary organizational strategies other than channeling and focusing on the pre existing workforce to make them efficient. They choose to act through other organizational strategies apart from using the motivational strategy as cited in the article.

Causes of Inefficiency and Underperformance in Employees

With the help of this essay and under critical analysis of the article it can be concluded that motivation is in one of the key dimensions to effectively handle the efficiency of the performance of the employees in an organization. Imparting of motivation amongst the employees can boost the self-actualization of the employees thus improving the productivity of the employees and benefiting the organization in turn. The key for unleashing the hidden talents and the abilities of the employees is possible through positive motivation.

With better incentives and reinforcements, the employees can be driven to outperform their responsibilities and duties more efficiently. In order to achieve such by the manager proper analysis of the individuals needs to be carried forward for proper observation, identification and familiarization of the individual needs and demands. The motivational techniques that can be implemented through principles of reward, recognition, punishment and competition whichever might be necessary, in diverse situations. The management should be aware of the fact that every individual is different and the motivational techniques that should also be different from each other. Thus, it can be justified that motivational techniques used by the managers in order to enhance the efficiency among employees is one of the best and basic strategic tools to effectively handle underperformance and inefficiency, in a workplace.

References

Cherry, K., 2014. Hierarchy of needs. The Five Levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. About. com Guide.↑| Link.

Driskell, J.E. and Salas, E. eds., 2013. Stress and human performance. Psychology Press.

Guclu, H. and Guney, S. (2017). The Effect of the Motivation Techniques Used by Managers to Increase the Productivity of their Workers and an Application. Business Management Dynamics, 6(7), pp.1-18.

Hvidman, U. and Andersen, S.C., 2013. Impact of performance management in public and private organizations. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 24(1), pp.35-58.

Jerome, N., 2013. Application of the Maslow’s hierarchy of need theory; impacts and implications on organizational culture, human resource and employee’s performance. International Journal of Business and Management Invention, 2(3), pp.39-45.

Khan, M.I., 2012. The impact of training and motivation on performance of employees.

Kinicki, A. and Kreitner, R., 2012. Organizational behavior: Key concepts, skills & best practices. McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Luthans, F., Luthans, B.C. and Luthans, K.W., 2015. Organizational behavior: An evidence-based approach. IAP.

Miner, J.B., 2015. Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and leadership. Routledge.

Moore, C., Detert, J.R., Klebe Treviño, L., Baker, V.L. and Mayer, D.M., 2012. Why employees do bad things: Moral disengagement and unethical organizational behavior. Personnel Psychology, 65(1), pp.1-48.

Pinder, C.C., 2014. Work motivation in organizational behavior. Psychology Press.

Shields, J., Brown, M., Kaine, S., Dolle-Samuel, C., North-Samardzic, A., McLean, P., Johns, R., O’Leary, P., Robinson, J. and Plimmer, G., 2015. Managing Employee Performance & Reward: Concepts, Practices, Strategies. Cambridge University Press.