Motivation as a major driver of enhanced employee performance
This paper deals with organisation behaviour theory and its application in today’s business. Organisation behaviour can be associated with several facts regarding employee reaction towards managers, company policy, cultural orientation and workplace environment. The first part of the paper will research on motivation as a major driver of employee performance. The next part of the paper will consider a company, The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaves, and discuss how motivation works within the business model of that organisation. Third part will be devoted towards managerial behaviour regarding motivational factors and what are their activities as far as motivating employees for generating better performance is acknowledged.
Employee motivation is critical part of work culture and HR department to lead employees towards enhance performance. Consequently, it has a tendency to boost organisation’s production and increase the revenue. Executives, managers, employees and every stakeholders, engaged in operational and managerial services need motivation for executing their daily work efficiently. Motivated employees are consequence of healthy interactions between employees and managers. Motivation can enhance employee engagement which is helpful for accomplishing organisational goals. They can lead an organisation towards increased productivity as mentioned before. On the contrary, if organisation is full of lazy people, who would like to have personal pleasure more than delivering the assigned tasks then it will be difficult for company not only to balance with customers’ demand but also it is a waste of an organisations’ time and resources. According to Castanheira, Filipa (794), it proves distinct relationship between motivation and work engagement of the employees to keep the commitment to customers. Findings suggest perceived social motivation is related to better job performance and work engagement. Besides, as described in Chang, Kuo-Chien (121), prior commitment to customers also works as motivation behind better performance. It has been observed at the end of the study that engaged motivated employees are rewarded as good performers. Therefore, it supports the fact that motivation is necessary for increasingly better performance and highlights customers demand as one of the major motivational factor in service sector.
When workforce is highly motivated to deliver desired service for customers they tend to give their best effort. This factors help an employee to develop their capability to accomplish personal goals as well. Employees with understanding of effort and results will never turn back to their responsibilities and tend to learn new things for development. As described in Hansen, Jared and Michael Levin (6062), businesses are likely to generate benefit when employees develop knowledge on social media technologies to keep an eye to stakeholders’ need and feedback. Employees who uses social media for personal pleasure in workplace and who use for collecting a market overview and stakeholder details; there are difference between them as far as their motivated nature is concerned. Therefore, employees have a better perception of customer base and other stakeholders who are motivated enough to use social media as a part of business strategy.
Employee motivation is dependent on managers’ approach as well. Considering an example of emerging economy it can be stated that faults in leadership style can be the major issue behind demotivated employees of public sector. Leaders are facing issues consistently to understand nature of employees and according are failing to choose the right leadership strategy for them. Consequently, employees have started to feel less engaged. As per Fiaz, Qin Su, and Saqib (150), if leaders are autocratic employees feel pressured and develops negative relationship with managers which affects the entire production and service highly. Whereas, democratic has shown a positive result in terms of motivating employees and generating improved work culture. Therefore, a friendly yet responsible leaders who value his or her workforce, listen to their opinion and takes care of an employee’s psychological needs are likely to generate results when it comes to boosting employee performance.
Techniques for motivating the staffs
The study conducted by Ramadanty, Sari, and Martinus (82), suggests the effective role of communication between managers and employees. According to the findings of Mikkelsen, Maria Falk, Christian Bøtcher Jacobsen, and Lotte Bøgh Andersen (201), the communication process is determined by the leadership style, modes of communication, communication climate and inter personal relationship while communicating with employees. The findings suggest that these factors have a significant role in motivating the employees positively. The body language, facial expression, eye contact everything has both a positive and negative impression on employees. In a well communicated workplace employees tend to share individual knowledge and accelerate positive growth for organisation. Again, if the findings of Salleh, Suzila Mat, et al. (42), can be taken employees efficiency cannot be measured only by their educational qualification and skills. Lack of motivation and least interest in doing everyday work can lead them towards unhealthy work culture. Therefore, managers must motivate them, influence them in a way that their workforce realize value of commitment. Commitment to the organisation and customers increases employee’s tendency to retain the job with same organisation in future.
The mode of motivation can be different. Both the monetary and non-monetary modes of motivation can be considered in terms of enhancing the performance of workforce. Even it is not the salary, added benefits, compensation, leave policy, health coverage are some of the modes of encouraging employees. Moreover, small piece of appreciation works really well as far as employee engagement is concerned. Cummings et al. (280), has argued with a strong point that with increasing work pressure, employees are diagnosed with depression. Monotonous life is leading them towards boredom and inducing lethargy at work. This article has researched on multiple dimension of boredom in multi-disciplinary work environment. It has been observed from the results that boredom in workplace indicates weakness in managerial system. Managers are needed to be effective enough to create a balance of work and fun, which will create a healthy workplace culture as a motivational factor. It must be remembered that boredom and work engagement both are psychological concern. Managers are assigned to their job not to deliver instructions only but to understand employee morale as well. Evangeline and VP Gopal Ragavan : (2), has admitted that managing employees is one of the toughest task in present day business environment. In order to ensure better business outcome the company must revise their HR strategies to win every crisis in marketplace. By focusing on developing appropriate organisational culture, companies can retain efficient employees and based on their expertise they can boost financial performance of the organisation.
In the intense volatile business environment, productivity of the staffs plays a major role in terms of attaining competitive advantage. This is the key of strengthening the position of a company in the market. As highlighted by Lazaroiu (102), there lies the significance of motivation, which can have a firm impact on keeping the staffs committed towards accomplishing organizational goals and objectives. Managers of The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf are highly committed towards keeping the staffs motivated and thereby committed towards providing the customers with high quality of services. There are certain techniques that are being used by the company in terms of motivating the employees. Porter et al. (80) shaded light on the fact that consistent competition among the staffs is one of the most significant ways, through which motivation can be generated among the employees.
This technique is being widely used by The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in order to keep the employees motivated. The inclusion of monetary reward technique is needed to be considered in this context. As afternoon is the busiest hour for them, the organization provides additional $50 to the employee, who has showed highest performance in this hour. This helps the staffs to be recognized by the higher authority of the firm. This monetary reward technique plays a very important role in the way of keeping the staffs motivated towards accelerating their competency level and thus get more success. Kauppila (93) put stress on the fact that ongoing Training is another major way of motivating the employees and thereby lead them to satisfy organizational goals. In the industry like coffee house chain, it is imperative to train the employees consistently. Thus, the HR department of The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf is highly committed towards providing the staffs with regular training. This leads the employees of this coffee house chain to feel that they are also a valuable member of the business. In addition to that, as discussed by Mikkelsen et al. (190) ongoing training session also paves the way of promoting development of career of the employees. The HR department of The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf hires local trainers with the intention of offering the employees with on-site training.
Celebrating success of the team is also a biggest technique of keeping the employees motivated. HR department of The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf follows this technique largely. After the completion of the training session, they take tests and promote the most efficient employee to upper hierarchy. McGregor, Lindsay, and Neel (240) shaded light on the fact that this acts as a greatest motivational technique for the staffs of this coffee house chain. In addition to that, friendly working environment is also a fundamental factor of integrating motivation among the staffs. The management of The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf conducts lunch or dinner party outside the working hour. This paves the way for the staffs to spend some refreshing moments amidst the regular boredom of work. Lau, Chong M., and Ketvi (230) observed that such refreshing moments is a critical factor of leading them to communicate the other coworkers as well as remain motivated towards satisfying business objectives.
Healthy communication in between the management and the employees also acts as a biggest motivational factor for the staffs. This is the key of maintaining transparency with the employees which is very much needed in terms of mitigating any kind of confusion among them. The management of The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf follows the strategy of sharing goals and objectives with that of the staffs. This is the way, through which HR department of the firm maintains transparency with the human resources. This is one of the fundamental techniques followed by The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in terms of generating motivation among the staffs. Empowering the employees within decision making process is the major way of keeping the staffs motivated (Stea et al. 465). This is the way of generating a positive perception among the staffs towards organizational mission and vision. Therefore, this strategy is largely being followed by The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in order to enable the staffs to give their valuable feedback regarding internal functionality of the firm. Management of this coffee house chain ask suggestion from the employees regarding the areas of improvement. By allowing the employees within decision making process, The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf integrates unique perception of all the staffs and thereby improve the business process.
Team building is another major way of keeping the employees. This strategy is also being followed by The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in order to run internal functionality of the organization in a comprehensive manner. They break larger range of employees into small teams, which can have a firm impact on fostering creativity of the employees. Lazaroiu (100) observed that working in a team helps the staffs to exchange their knowledge, which is the key of strengthening the competency level of individual employees (Chumg, Hao-Fan, et al. 438). Offering compliments to the staffs is also a fundamental way of generating motivation among the employees. The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf also follows this strategy for the sake of generating positive perception among the staffs. They review the feedback of the customers and offer the employees with compliments accordingly for the sake of keeping them motivated. Bonus and intensives based on the performance is also a vital motivational technique implemented by The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf to integrate motivation among the staffs.
The company tend to suffer with employee vs. management conflicts if trust issues occurs between them or managers become way too autocratic and makes the environment claustrophobic. As per the study of Landry, Anaïs Thibault, et al. (229), motivation is not always about money. A well synchronised workforce, a trust worthy manager, effective communication, well-handled cultural diversity are some of the factors which can encourage employees to deliver better performance. How managers must behave in a workplace scenario in order to enhance employee performance is something which can be learnt over years of experience or by consulting with seniors and reading books, following recent journals. As business environment is increasingly being competitive, nature of employees are transforming gradually as well. Managers can opt for following resolutions to mitigate conflict and manage employees.
- Employees feel valued if necessary information like regarding the project are well communicated. Information like deadline, purpose, progress status all can be measured and communicated with the employees, they can share and prepare themselves for the coming challenge. Therefore, managers must maintain and possess good communication skills in order to make the staffs feel valued and make them more engaged into work.
- Not only in professional level, but also managers must try to know their employees in personal level too, in order to understand their expertise, strengths and weakness. It will help them to allocate work. Keeping employees happy, being negotiable with their workload is not compromising with the production. It is a process of ensuring quality work from employees. When their perception is valued in a workplace they will be motivated to do deliver better performance too.
- Acknowledging good work, praising them is also a motivating factor other than money. Managers are not the one who decides salary, yet they can be friendly and approachable while dealing with employees as they are one of the most valuable resource for any business.
- It is not true that workplace with cultural diversity only faces the conflict. It can raise in any organisation at any level. As per the study of Strauss, Karoline, Sharon K. Parker, and Deirdre O’Shea: 21, Right after addressing the conflict managers must take actions against it. They have to grow a pro-active nature against such conflicts.
- An effective leader must have strategies and defined leadership style to seek for employee perception. Before taking any decision, seeking employee concern is a way of making them feel valued and appreciated. It works as an encouragement for making more contributions towards shared goals of organisation.
- It should be remembered as a manager that staffs learn from him first. In case a manager is not effective or engage himself in unethical practices, staffs consider it as an example and get influenced by that. Hence, managers should correct their behaviour first and make their character unquestionable in order to set a good example before employees. As discussed in Deschamps, Carl, et al(200), this is called transformational leadership which has been proven as effective as democratic leadership as far as employee motivation is concerned.
- Establishing relationship with the employees is important yet most important is preparing the correct workplace culture. A discrimination free, harassment free and happy workplace accelerate production.
- According to Tu, Yidong, and Xinxin Lu (133), an ethical leader tends to set a better example for their employees for enhancing performance. It further supported the nature of employees to support extra role performance as well.
- As described in Yidong, Tu, and Lu Xinxin (445), employees who work under an ethical leader likely to deliver more innovative work and his behaviour has become more duty centric after influenced by the characteristics of the manager. This article has supported the relationship between innovative work behaviour of individual employees and ethical leadership. The jounal Feng et al. (9) supports the same idea as mentioned in the former one.
After reviewing several research papers, multiple theories and contradicting views have been identified. The fact has been derived that motivation is itself a result as mentioned before. Motivated employees and managers, both of them can create a productive work culture with better quality. In order to make it a practice of the organisation, conflicts must be resolved at its stage zero. Managers must keep an approachable and friendly outlook towards employees so that they can come up with their problems and difficulties regarding work.
Conclusion
Conclusion can be drawn in this context that motivation and improved workplace behaviour has a strong connection between them. Motivated employees are sign of a good workplace management and indicate leaders’ capability to manage different psychological elements. The first part where motivation has been researched on, consistently supports the fact that effective leadership characteristics are behind motivated and better performing employees. With better HR strategies, benefits, compensation and pay scale comes work motivation. On the contrary, it has been observed poor work management, heavy workload lead towards boredom and lethargy. Hence, the secret of a motivated workforce lies behind the leadership quality of a manager. The second part, has been presented as an example of a real life workplace scenario. Acknowledging the context of motivation, workplace scenario has been evaluated to understand the techniques which have been chosen by the managers over there. Third part deals with managers’ consideration to make a workplace scenario better by encouraging employees. Several solutions have been suggested to keep the managers’ behaviour in place to encourage employees to organisational objectives.
References
Castanheira, Filipa. “Perceived social impact, social worth, and job performance: Mediation by motivation.” Journal of Organizational Behavior 37.6 (2016): 789-803.
Chang, Kuo-Chien. “Effect of servicescape on customer behavioral intentions: Moderating roles of service climate and employee engagement.” International Journal of Hospitality Management 53 (2016): 116-128.
Chumg, Hao-Fan, et al. “Factors affecting employees’ knowledge-sharing behaviour in the virtual organisation from the perspectives of well-being and organisational behaviour.” Computers in Human Behavior 64 (2016): 432-448.
Cummings, Mary L., Fei Gao, and Kris M. Thornburg. “Boredom in the workplace: a new look at an old problem.” Human factors 58.2 (2016): 279-300.
Deschamps, Carl, et al. “Transformational leadership and change: how leaders influence their followers’ motivation through organizational justice.” Journal of Healthcare Management 61.3 (2016): 194-213.
Evangeline, E. T., and VP Gopal Ragavan. “Organisational culture and motivation as instigators for employee engagement.” Indian Journal of Science and Technology 9.2 (2016).
Feng, J., Zhang, Y., Liu, X., Zhang, L., & Han, X. (2016). Just the right amount of ethics inspires creativity: a cross-level investigation of ethical leadership, intrinsic motivation, and employee creativity. Journal of Business Ethics, 1-14.
Fiaz, Muhammad, Qin Su, and Aruba Saqib. “Leadership styles and employees’ motivation: perspective from an emerging economy.” The Journal of Developing Areas 51.4 (2017): 143-156.
Hansen, Jared M., and Michael A. Levin. “The effect of apathetic motivation on employees’ intentions to use social media for businesses.” Journal of Business Research 69.12 (2016): 6058-6066.
Kauppila, Olli?Pekka. “How does it feel and how does it look? The role of employee motivation in organizational learning type.” Journal of Organizational Behavior (2018):89-120.
Landry, Anaïs Thibault, et al. “Why individuals want money is what matters: Using self-determination theory to explain the differential relationship between motives for making money and employee psychological health.” Motivation and Emotion40.2 (2016): 226-242.
Lau, Chong M., and Ketvi Roopnarain. “The effects of nonfinancial and financial measures on employee motivation to participate in target setting.” The British accounting review 46.3 (2014): 228-247.
Lazaroiu, George. “Employee motivation and job performance.” Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations 14 (2015): 97-105.
McGregor, Lindsay, and Neel Doshi. “How company culture shapes employee motivation.” Harvard Business Review 11 (2015): 230-243.
Mikkelsen, Maria Falk, Christian Bøtcher Jacobsen, and Lotte Bøgh Andersen. “Managing employee motivation: Exploring the connections between managers’ enforcement actions, employee perceptions, and employee intrinsic motivation.” International Public Management Journal 20.2 (2017): 183-205.
Mikkelsen, Maria Falk, Christian Bøtcher Jacobsen, and Lotte Bøgh Andersen. “Managing employee motivation: Exploring the connections between managers’ enforcement actions, employee perceptions, and employee intrinsic motivation.” International Public Management Journal 20.2 (2017): 183-205.
Porter, Tracy H., Kelly Diane Riesenmy, and Dail Fields. “Work environment and employee motivation to lead: Moderating effects of personal characteristics.” American Journal of Business 31.2 (2016): 66-84.
Ramadanty, Sari, and Handy Martinus. “Organizational communication: Communication and motivation in the workplace.” Humaniora 7.1 (2016): 77-86.
Salleh, Suzila Mat, et al. “The Influence of Work Motivation on Organizational Commitment in the Workplace.” J. Appl. Environ. Biol. Sci 6.5S (2016): 139-143.
Stea, Diego, Nicolai J. Foss, and Peter Holdt Christensen. “Physical separation in the workplace: Separation cues, separation awareness, and employee motivation.” European Management Journal 33.6 (2015): 462-471.
Strauss, Karoline, Sharon K. Parker, and Deirdre O’Shea. “When does proactivity have a cost? Motivation at work moderates the effects of proactive work behavior on employee job strain.” Journal of Vocational Behavior 100 (2017): 15-26.
Tu, Yidong, and Xinxin Lu. “Do ethical leaders give followers the confidence to go the extra mile? The moderating role of intrinsic motivation.” Journal of Business Ethics 135.1 (2016): 129-144.
Yidong, Tu, and Lu Xinxin. “How ethical leadership influence employees’ innovative work behavior: A perspective of intrinsic motivation.” Journal of business ethics 116.2 (2013): 441-455.
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
