Poor Morale among Employees - Coursework Example

An Individual Reflective Essay Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code and Name: University: Date of submission: An Individual Reflective Essay Introduction to the problem One of the problems being faced by the organization is poor morale among employee. There is an assortment of factors that have led to poor morale among the employees (Wright 2001 p. 559). The major factors include unwanted change, favoritism in promotions, tension between members of staff and management. The other factors which are causing low motivation among the workers include; uncertainty on financial stability of the company, heavy workloads, feeling unappreciated, poor working conditions, rigid supervision, and unsupportive management. One of the most important a business should do to increase its chances of survival is motivating its employees (Sirota, Mischkind & Meltzer 2006, p. 23). A business should struggle to ensure that there is no poor morale among its members of staff. When the company does not motivate the employee they become worn-out and become dissatisfied. This is followed by poor productivity from the worker which increases the cost of doing business. Work place morale results from many elements that make up the working environment. The major factors that contribute towards work place morale include salary, job satisfaction, the main responsibilities, the supervisor’s contribution, the overall working environment and the status at the workplace. Managing the employee’s morale should start immediately the signs of low morale become evident. Any cause of low employee morale should not be allowed to enter the work place. This is because poor employee morale affects the whole company and not just a given individual Signs of poor morale should be watched among all employees to ensure that there is no employee suffering from low morale (Houston 2000, p. 713). The symptoms of employees suffering low morale include absence, more errors low productivity poor quality work, back stabbing and more injuries. The low employee morale is not a cause of the above failure but a reaction to one part of the workplace that is not working properly. To get to the bottom of the problems being encountered the employer has to get to the bottom if the issues. When the identification of the issues causing low employee morale are identified, steps should be taken to address the needs of the employees (Alonso & Lewis 2001, p. 361). Some companies hire consultants to help in identifying the root cause of the low motivation among the employees. However, it’s easy to find some of the sources of low motivation among the employees because they are very clear. For example, poor working conditions are very visible to employers as a cause of discomfort and, therefore, low morale. If the employer is the one who identifies the problems facing the company firsthand, then high quality solutions are found for these problems. This will also increase the morale of the employees as they are surer that the management is concerned about their needs. This will increase the output of the employees once they are motivated that their issues are being resolved. Discussion The operation theory applicable in solving the problem facing the company is the motivation theory. In this theory motivation is defined as the “results of a process, either external or internal, that causes an individual’s enthusiasm and persistence to take a certain action to increase. The main thing that causes multination in individuals is unsatisfied needs. The unsatisfied needs causes an individual to be in a state of pressure or disequilibrium and the person forms goals that he needs to achieve to achieve the need he has to reduce the pressure on himself. Motivation has certain characteristics on the individuals (Atchison 2003, p. 20). First motivated people have an inner feeling that encourages them to work even more. Motivated employees also feel a set of forces which tend to make them behave in a certain way and do particular work to satisfy his needs. This is done by conditioning the body to achieve equilibrium Employees with high levels of morale are the ones mostly needed in the ever changing work place (Hertberg 1959, p. 59). These are the employees who help the organization to survive. They are more motivated than employees with low morale; therefore, they are more productive. For example, as more salary is added, money no longer motivates employees but challenging work does, therefore, the organization is able to move forward. Motivation is divided into monetary and non monetary motivation. Motivating employees using the two motivation methods has various benefits including low turnover, high productivity, good company image and better acceptability of change. There are two types of theories in motivation: the content theories and the process theories. The content theories primarily focus on individual needs and how they influence a person to have the need to eliminate them. These theories suggest the manager should come up with an environment that fulfills individual needs. Process theories identify how needs develop into a motivation in an individual. The process approach identifies how a person develops certain behavior given the available opportunities. Hertzberg conducted a study and come up with a two facto theory. This study was conducted on 200 accountants and engineers. The study found out there are factors which relate to job satisfaction i.e. motivation factors and those which are related to job dissatisfaction i.e. hygiene factors. According to Hertzberg improving motivator factor increases the level of job satisfaction (Maidani 1991, p. 441). These factors include increasing work, personal growth, recognition, achievement, responsibility and advancement. He also argues that improving hygiene factors decreases job dissatisfaction. The hygiene factors include working conditions, salaries and wages, workers relationships quality of supervision and policies and rules. The hygiene factors do not motivate people, but when they are absent from the workplace, they decrease job satisfaction; the motivational factors increase job motivation, and have a direct impact on the morale of the workers. The absence of these factors does not lead to job dissatisfaction. The implications of the Hertzberg theory is that, increasing hygiene factors does not motivate workers, but the absence of these factors leads to job dissatisfaction. The other implication is that the factors have to be mixed. They cannot be separated into two different parts. The additional impact is that, the study may have different results in other fields as it was only subjected to accountants and engineers. The research was also done on 200 people who was fairly a small number of people and restricted to engineers and accountants, therefore, it may not be applicable in other fields of work (Hertzberg 2003, p. 83). Reflection Motivation is very important in making sure employees attain the needed level of productivity. This is because motivated employees work better than employees who have low morale. Motivating factors at the workplace include interesting work, a good salary, and appreciation for the work done, good working conditions, job security and opportunities for growth. A comparison of the results with Hertzberg theory give a great comparison on what factors are the greatest in motivating employees these factors increase the morale of employees to work. The six factors are achievement, advancement, growth, recognition, the work and responsibility. Therefore, according to Hertzberg if the manger whishes to motivate the workers and increase their motivation all the above factors must be satisfied. Examples of how the company can improve the motivation workers include; work can be made more interesting by providing more money for research, recognition may be in the form of benefits to the workers who achieve the most, and, for advancement and growth, the company can offer scholarship programs for further studies. If employees feel that one of the above factors is not being fulfilled, their morale goes down and they are not motivated to work. This is very counterproductive for the company. For example if the employees feel they are not being recognized for their work they will work less reducing productivity. They will also look down upon their work compared to that of others. According to this theory to reduce job dissatisfaction the company has to improve the hygiene factors. These factors include company policy and rules, technical supervision, salary, personal life, job security, status and working condition and Interpersonal relationship with peers, supervisor and subordinates. If the employees are not satisfied with their job, they cannot work properly (Buckingham 2005, p. 74). The company has improved hygiene conditions for employees to feel comfortable working in the company. For example, failure to provide job security may lead to augmented turnover, whereby, people to move to companies which offer job security. The company has various options to use to improve its hygiene factors; they can change the policies and the rues to be more accommodating, the company can train its staff to be more cooperative, and also improve on the personal life of employees. Both hygiene and motivator factors are applied together to motivating employees (Nicholson 2003, p. 58). Employees who have the highest level of job satisfaction and are highly motivated work at their best levels. Therefore, the company stands to gain more by applying both hygiene and motivational factors. List of References Alonso, P & Lewis, G 2001, “Public service motivation and job performance: Evidence from the federal sector.” American Review of Public Administration, Vol. 31, No. 4, p. 363-380. Atchison, TA 2003, “Exposing the myths of employee satisfaction.” Healthcare executive journal, Vol. 17, No.3, p. 20-26. Buckingham, M 2005, “What great managers do.” Harvard business review, Vol. 3, No. 3, p. 70-79. Hertzberg, F 2003, “One more time: how do you motivate employees?” Harvard business review, Vol. 81, No. 1, p. 81-86. Hertberg, F 1959, The motivation to work, John Wiley, New York, NY. Houston, DJ 2000, “Public-Service Motivation: A multivariate test,” Journal of Public Administration Research & Theory, Vol. 10, No. 4, p. 713-727. Maidani, Ebrahim, A 1991, “A comparative study of Hertzberg two factor theory of job satisfaction in public and private sector.” Public personnel management, Vol. 20, No. 4, p. 441-55. Nicholson, N 2003, “How to motivate your problem employees,” Harvard business review, Vol. 81, No. 1, p. 57-65 . Sirota, D, Mischkind, LA & Meltzer, MI 2006, “Why Your Employees Are Losing Motivation.” Harvard Management Update, Vol. 11, No. 1 p. 23-55. Wright, BE 2001, “Public sector work motivation: Review of current literature and a revised conceptual model.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Vol. 11, No. 4, p. 559-586. Read More