Discussion and Analysis
In every organization, the performance of the employees is essential to the success of the organization. According to Yanfei, Yangliu, and Yu (2018), motivation is the energizing factor that maintains effective performance and behavior control for the employees. However, its role is difficult to accurately measure but is often straight forward. Even though salary is a motivation factor to push employee performance, it is not sufficient to push them towards meeting their full potential in the professionalism. This paper evaluates the motivation issues of working in a continuous improvement environment and suggests effective recommendations that can be adopted to improve performance through motivation.
The idea and application motivational strategies in an organization revolve around some basic concepts of the organizational culture. According to Bodie, Keaton, and Jones (2018), the organization can adopt different motivational strategies with the aim of boosting the moral of the employees in working towards meeting the goals of the organization with zeal and confidence. The experiences one has after birth makes the difference gap wider and the management can use the differences to improve their performance in the workplace. The changing perception among workers in an organization can also be used as a concept of motivation. Motivated behavior which refers to the needs in an individual that needs to be fulfilled (Bechter, Dimmock, Howard, Whipp, & Jackson, 2018). The desire to fulfill such personal needs can motivate the employee to work harder, and the employer can capitalize on them by creating incentives that promote the desired requirements. Some other concepts of organizational behavior include human dignity, mutuality of interest, the value of an individual, holistic concept and the view of an organization as a social system (Zhang, Wang, Lin, & Tai 2015). The management of an organization may take advantage of the above ideas and formulate some incentives that lure workers and motivate them to work harder.
The structure of the company also determines the nature of motivation the company adopts for its employees. This element shows how the company is organized and the various layers of managerial levels. An organization with dense layers of management usually becomes bureaucratic and demoralizes the workers while a generally flat organization with a few layers of management give workers freedom and opportunity to implement personal ideas (Conner & Norman 2017). However, it should be noted that every type of company structure has its advantages and disadvantages. Finally, the methods of communication used in an organization become the last element of organizational behaviour (Garn, Ping, & Haichun 2017). The nature of communication in an organization can either motivate or demoralize the efforts of workers in the workplace. Effective communication within a workplace makes the production process more efficient and motivates the employees. This type of communication is vital for organizations that experience continuous developments as the new ideas are quickly passed down to the implementers.
Micromanagement
The application and admissibility of organizational behavior operate under the content motivation theory and process motivation theory (Soonhwan, Seungmo, & Suosheng 2017). According to the psychologists like David McClelland and Abraham Maslow who did research work to develop the argument, the content motivation tries to explain the reason behind the need for change in people over some period. The theory focuses on the factors that motivate some specific behavior among people. On the other hand, the process theory tries to illustrate how the process of change takes place in human beings (Gray, Wharf Higgins, & Rhodes 2018). Process theory helps in explaining the process of how some factors make an individual behave the way they act. The content theory focuses on what motivates an individual to behave the way he or she behaves while the process theory explains how that motivation takes place. A proper understanding of these theories makes the managers of an organization make informed decisions when formulating the incentives to motivate workers in an organization (Hashim, Jawis, Wahat, & Grove 2014). With such theories well understood, there are high chances of an organization operating in a continuously developing environment to grow and develop.
Some issues tend to demoralize the efforts made by individuals to improve the performance of workers in an organization (Yanfei, Yangliu, & Yu, 2018). Such motivational problems can be corrected to allow smooth development among companies that operate continuously developing environments as illustrated below.
Micromanagement makes employees feel that their works do not meet the required standards and that there is a constant push from the management. It should be noted that micromanagement may be implemented in a company with good, but the interpretation among workers may be harmful (Jaehoon, Xiaofei, In, & Choonghyun 2017). Some previous studies have shown that most employees in organizations throughout the world believe that a consistent reminder from the management to improve makes the workers bored and lack confidence in them. At this stage, some employees opt to quit their jobs in search of more freedom. This boredom leads to lowered performance and productivity among workers. This motivational issue can be improved by implementing an effective communication structure to make nonperforming employees that they need to improve their performance.
It should be noted that in as much as employees work to earn money to settle their bills and do personal growth, there is a feeling among workers that they need to feel the worth of that salary they receive. Most employees like personal growth whether professionally or just a personal level (Jin, 2015). An organization with numerous layers of management tends to discourage innovation among the employees who find it difficult to present and implement their studies. The company should be flexible to listen and test the innovations from within developed by the staffs (Bubeck, Wouter Botzen, Laudan, Aerts, & Thieken 2018). This motivates and encourages the workers to come up with new ideas that would play essential roles in the operations and development of firms that operate in environments with constant growth (Russell & Molina 2018). Company management needs to be very careful with how they implement restrictive policies that aim at reducing wastage in the company. If the use of company internet is prohibited, then the employees cannot do any research in their places of work.
Lack of Progress
People working in companies with unclear future feel demotivated and may not invest their resources in any research that would improve the wellbeing of the company (Li, Yang & Eryue, 2017). Just as the saying, goes that people prepare to jump when the ship is sinking, employees would invest much of their time and other resources in planning their next move now that their employment security is not guaranteed.
The managers in such institutions with uncertain future or companies that have confirmed closure need to be open and transparent with the employees and keep updating them on the status of the company. One of the main advantages of being transparent and share the challenges the company is that there may be an employee with a better idea on how to rescue the sinking ship (Ni & Li, 2017). It may be difficult to convince the decided employees to stay, but being transparent makes them sure of their next move and if there are some chances of the company being revived.
The company leadership should always do the right thing and give the best available directive to the employees even if the policies are not popular among the workforce. Being a firm makes the employees loyal and has faith in the management. Rainear and Christensen (2017) illustrated that when the employees of a company start feeling that the administration is incompetent, there would be very minimal motivation among the workers given that they would be against the policies generated by the management team. As illustrated by George Anders, management that shows faith in their workers, and instills confidence in their employees is deemed competent and are rewarded with a team ready to implement the company policies.
Lacks of effective and efficient communication within an organization makes the employees frustrated, confused, and end up guessing the next move. It should be noted that there is always miscommunication within a group, but this situation becomes worse when there are no channels and avenues of communicating back to the management to seek clarification on matters that are not clear (Sevil, Sánchez-Miguel, Pulido, Práxedes, & Sánchez 2018). In such cases, workers feel less motivated; a fact that works against companies that do business in industries experiencing constant growth. Management can correct this situation by becoming open and clear to employees and setting up simple and clear avenues of communicating back to the leaders in case an employee fails to understand some concepts in the operations of the company.
Job Insecurity
The environment one workers may have either motivating factors or demoralizing effects on an individual. Working among friends motivates an employee, and this encourages innovations during their interpersonal discussions (Arnautovska, Fleig, & Hamilton, 2017). There are instances where people tolerate the low pay in a job just due to the conducive working environment created by pleasant co-workers (Sibley & Bergman 2016). On the other hand, one may opt to quit a well-paying job, not for health reasons but the type of people he or she is forced to cope with at work.
According to Warburton and Spray (2017), every organization with a focus to achieve its mandate and remain competitive needs to ensure the desires of the employees are met and their focus toward duty is motivated. The desire to fulfill personal needs can motivate an employee to work harder, and the employer can capitalize on them by creating incentives that promote the desired need. Motivating the workers require understanding and creativity in areas their performance exceeds the expectation of the company. Yanfei, Yangliu, and Yu (2018) denote that motivation can also be adopted by addressing the areas that need improvement within the organization before they develop into major problems. Either of the strategies shows that human capital is valuable, an aspect that should motivate the company to help the employees achieve their desire with excellence. Therefore, the following strategies are recommended;
- Observing the performance of the employees throughout an evaluation period helps the management to point out the areas in their performance that need improvement. The management should then use positive strokes in recommending them for the job done.
- The management needs to schedule public announcement to recognize the effort of the employees whose performance exceeds the expectation of everyone. /// denotes that this strategy is a tremendous motivator irrespective of the industry the company operates.
- Promoting employees with good performance records is essential. These can include leadership roles that can allow them to showcase their talents and further develop their skills. Promotion will also improve the retention rate of employees, an aspect that reduces the cost of replacing workers within the organization.
- It is also necessary to obtain their opinions regularly to ensure the strategies adopted are satisfactory to their needs.
Conclusion
The management of every organization should try to create efficiency in an organization by applying the scientific method of managing employees through motivation. This study helps the management of an organization to understand the behaviors of individuals in an organization which in turn helps in understanding the needs of workers in the business workplace. If interpreted well, the managers can use the employees’ needs to boost the workers’ performance and productivity by trying to fulfill their needs through motivation. This goal can be achieved by coming up with incentives that aim at solving the challenges the workers face and improving what they want as a motivational strategy.
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