Organizational Culture: Definition and Importance
Organisation’s coordination towards its workforce and consumers is known as organizational culture. It also includes verbal and written distributed rules that act as a guide for its employees and encourage them to develop principles, values, and constant beliefs. Organisational culture is directly linked to the motivation. Organisational culture and motivation together affects not only the performance of individual employee but affect the sustenance and performance of the whole organization. Motivated employees of an organization are more persistent, productive and creative. On the other hand, non-motivated employees are generally costly and inefficient (Lee & Raschke, 2016). There is no any universal method or process for motivating a person since procedures have improved over time and depend on the situation of an individual employee. An employee may be motivated and satisfied by the compensation that he/she is receiving; but, management needs to consider other factors to keep him/her motivated in long run. Hence, it is the duty of the manager to recognize motivational factors of their employee’s and applying those factors in the organizational culture. This paper describes the importance of motivation in the achievement of organizational goals and it also gives information about the tools that can be used by managers to motivate employees of a firm (Yamsul, et al., 2013).
Organisations are categorized by regular changes in their strategies, orientation, and structural set-up. Employees are required to adjust themselves as per those particular changes. This results in stress on employee’s mindset and affects work quality. At this stage, it is the duty of the management to clear their doubts and establish a sense of trust among employees, which is necessarily required for the success of the organization. This is possible by the use of motivational activities and motivation is also helpful in order to achieve strong and effective internal communication (Jabeen, 2011). Motivating the workforce with the help of organizational change needs a remarkable commitment to maintaining workforce ethics. The process of motivation in an organization involves creativity and information of the areas in which, the performance of employees exceed the expectations of the company. Managers may also apply motivational functions in finding the areas of development before they convert in major issues. Both approaches show the message that human resource is valuable and organization is sincerely interested in facilitating employees in achieving excellence (Muscalu, 2014).
There are various relevant theories explaining the nature and scope of motivation. These theories are moderately true and help in describing the behavior of some people at sometimes. However, the research for a universal theory and technique of motivation at workplace seems a useless quest. Motivation differs from time to time depending on the situations and circumstances. These theories show that there are a number of motives which may influence employee’s performance and behaviour. It is essential to keep in mind that these different theories are not certain or conclusive in nature. These cognitive motivational theories are divided into two approaches: process theories and content theories. Process theories try to ascertain connection between the active variable, which causes motivation. These theories of motivation are more centralized with initiation, direction, and sustainability of behavior. On the other hand, the content theory explains the significant things that really motivate the employees at the workplace. These theories are considered with recognising employee’s needs, their strength and the objectives they follow to satisfy the identified needs (Haque, et al., 2014).
Motivation: Importance and Effect on Individuals and Organizations
Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory: This is a famous and well-known theory of motivation given by Abraham Maslow. According to this theory, people or employees get motivated by their five basic necessities known as
- Physiological needs: clothing, food, shelter.
- Need for security and safety: a sense of job safety, health care, and independence.
- Need to belong: Acceptance by group, friends, and love.
- Need for esteem: Recognition at the workplace, the feeling of accomplishment and achievement.
- Need for self-actualization: Fulfilment of capabilities and capacities.
Above needs are arranged in a manner of their importance considering the assumption that a needs at a lower level are required to fulfill before the needs at a higher level. Generally, people put efforts to satisfy physiological needs at first. When their physiological or basic wants are assured, then they search for security and safety, belonging, esteem and self-satisfaction (Jerome, 2013).
Alderfer’s ERG Theory of Motivation: Clayton Alderfer divided Maslow’s hierarchical needs into three main categories: Existence needs, Relatedness needs, and Growth needs.
Existence needs: These includes first two level of Maslow’s theory which is physiological needs and needs for safety and security like food, water, clothing, air, safety, attention, and love.
Relatedness needs: These contains the ambition of an individual for developing important interactive relationships with family, managers, and superiors and thus getting recognition and fame in the workplace. External components of esteem needs and social needs of Maslow’s theory falls under the category of relatedness needs.
Growth Needs: These needs include, needs for personal growth, self-development, and advancement. Internal components of esteem needs and self-actualization needs of Maslow’s theory comes under the category of growth needs.
ERG theory concludes that one or more needs can be act as a motivator at a single point in time. It also shows that if the accomplishment of a need for the higher level is submissive, then there is a rise in the desire for fulfilling lower level needs (Osabiya, 2015).
At the workplace, according to this theory, managers are required to recognize immediate multiple needs of his employees. This model states that focusing completely on a single need cannot motivate employees. For example, if growth and promotions are not provided to employees for a long time, then they can feel dissatisfied from relatedness needs. Management is required to identify these needs early so that action can be taken to fulfill the unsatisfied needs before it converts into frustration and aggression (Maduka & Okafor, 2014).
Heinberg’s theory of two factors: Frederick Herzberg with his companions developed theory of two-factor model based on interviews with around 200 accountants and engineers employed more than 11 organizations in Pittsburgh, USA. During the interview, employees were asked about both the factors making them happy or satisfied and unhappy or dissatisfied. On the basis of the result of interviews, Herzberg found that there are some factors that can cause in satisfaction. Similarly, there are some other factors that can prevent dissatisfaction. These factors can be classified into two categories:
Theoretical Models of Motivation
Hygiene factors: Organisational administration and policies, working atmosphere, supervision, status, security, salary and interpersonal bonds with other employees are included as hygiene factors. These factors are not a basic requirement of a job but are related to the situations under which work is being performed. According to Herzberg, maintaining hygiene factors at the workplace can prevent or avoid dissatisfaction but cannot increase motivation or satisfaction. Hence, Herzberg has named these factors as maintenance or dissatisfactory factors (Nadeem, et al., 2014).
Motivators: These factors are directly associated with the main content of the job. Motivator factor includes recognition, achievement, advancement, growth, and responsibility. The existence of these factors can lead to satisfaction among employees whereas the lack of these motivators can avoid both, motivation and satisfaction. According to this theory, challenging jobs having opportunities for recognition and advancement motivates professional and personal (Vitai, 2016).
These theories can be applied to the management according to needs and situations of the organizations. However, all theories are interrelated to each other in some manner but these works in a different manner at the time of application. Motivating the employees to need to know the factor that either the reason for motivation is cultural change or changes in working methodologies of the organization. Cultural differences require some additional skills at the time of motivating employee’s behavior. Management needs to interpret the condition accurately and formulate a strategy that suit to needs and values of an individual. This procedure is straightforward and easy when applied to people of same backgrounds but becomes difficult when it comes to motivate and understand employees from different cultures and beliefs (Muogbo, 2013). Some factors which help the managers in formulating motivation strategy includes interpretations, expectations and positive strengthening of employees. Management has the power to interpret the cultural factors that are demotivating the employees at the workplace and resulting in a decrease in their performance level. After analysing those factors, managers needs to identify their expectations from employees and motivates in order to achieve them. By using above theories, management can distinguish the needs of employees and motivate according to them. Employees from diversified or different cultures have dissimilar perceptions and opinions for what is the actual meaning of satisfaction for them (Odukah, 2016). For example, achievement is the most important factor by Chinese employees as it develops the sense of self-actualisation, on the other hand, American employees, Holland employees, and German employees consider the fun of work as a most important factor. A conclusion can be drawn that employees from different cultures mostly have dissimilar wants and the level of satisfaction they receive from their work is different (Shahzadi, et al., 2014).
Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory
Another important aspect to be considered while development of people is keeping workforce productive and motivated during the process of organizational change. In order to survive with high profitability in unstable markets, organizations have to adopt innovative changes at various levels. It is the time when an organization requires everyone to give their best performance. But most of the employees get demotivated during changes because changes are always stressful and evoke a resistance and fear among employees. It is the time when an organization requires everyone to give their best performance. At this stage, managers need to exercise some activities to motivate the employees. These includes:
- Identify general signs of pressure in employees
- Recognise examples and techniques of time management and use those techniques to manage the stress of employees and management.
- Identify areas to focus on employee’s motivation and become an example during the process of change.
- Find out ways to make healthier communication environment among employees and adopt favorable organizational culture at the time of change.
- Supporting to employees during challenges by recognizing their achievements and experiences(Furlich, 2016).
As feedback is considered is a valuable stage of the motivational cycle, managers should allow their employees to share their thoughts and experiences about developments and accomplishments. Organisational change is finally driven by the involvement of individuals, so promotion and appraisal provide opportunities to develop effective motivational skills. Managers are the key factors that motivate or demotivates the employees in their team. Therefore managers are required to understand and adopt the changes before communication to the employees (Dobre, 2013).
Example: I personally faced lack of motivation during change at my previous organization. I was working with a leading telecommunication company since last 2 years. Management of the company decided its business to merge with another telecom company. When the news of merger circulated among all departments and employees, everyone was worried about his/her job security because other company also had its resources and human capital. The management of my company did not take any step to motivate the employees so that they can work without any fear of losing their jobs. As a result of this, many employees of my company switched their jobs to some another organization so that they can secure their job.
It can be concluded that motivated employees are important for identification and application of innovative ideas and cultural practices of an organization can foster motivational activities by recognizing the need for innovation. Using an attractive incentive and reward system, permitting for self-directed work, providing expert level qualification and training, facilitating immediate and general feedback system, introducing communication networks and initiating innovative projects are some actions that can be taken by the managers to motivate employees within the organization. The culture of an organization plays a significant role in the process of motivating employee’s innovative actions and performance, as it establishes a commitment among employees of the organization in terms of having faith in innovations. The essay also states that changes are required to initiate in such a way that can be adopted by the employees of an organization so that it gets easy for managers to apply changes on cultural and management level. Further, it is the duty of the managers to circulate all necessary information related to changes to employees so that they can work according to information (Manzoor, 2012).
Alderfer’s ERG Theory
References
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Haque, M. F., Aminul, M. H. & Islam, M. S., 2014. Motivational Theories – A Critical Analysis. ASA University Review, 8(1), pp. 61-68.
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