Theories that Explain How Employees in the Work Place Are Motivated - Coursework Example

Motivation Concept Name Institution Student ID Date Motivation Concept Introduction Van Winkle, Allen, DeVore & Winston (2014, p. 71) describe that, motivation can be described as the process that accounts for the intensity, direction as well as persistence of an individual’s effort towards the achievement of a certain goal. Intensity is how hard a worker attempts, direction refers to the quality of effort exerted by an employee for the benefit of the organisation, and persistence refers to how long a worker can maintain his or her effort in the work place. It is important to note that, motivation in an organisation cannot be observed directly. It is usually internal to every worker within the organisation. It is also personal in the sense that, what arouses motivation for a worker is different from how behaviour is usually directed. However, motivation is common in organisations and is usually directed by a goal. Motivation can be explained using different concepts and theories. This essay describes various concepts as well as theories that explain how employees in the work place are motivated. Employees in the work place are motivated by different things like work conditions, rewards, teamwork as well as personal motivation. Equity theory is one of the theories that explain well what really motivates employees in the work place. According to (Griffin & Moorhead, 2011), equity theory describes that, individuals usually compare their jobs with the ones of others after which they responding by eliminating any inequities. Employees can be paid highly and yet they are not satisfied, they are found to be disinterested in their jobs. This kind of behaviour is well explained using the equity theory and the principles of organisational justice. Referring to equity theory, it is true that, employees in the work place tend to compare their earnings from their jobs with their input to their jobs (Bell & Martin, 2012, p.106). Employees usually take their outcome ration to that of their inputs and then compares that ration to that of others working in a similar position of type of job. Employees perceive the situation as fair if equity exists, when their outcome ratio is equal to that of other worker they are comparing with. This is a state of tension which is negative and is said to provide the motivation to perform an act that will correct it. Employees who perceive the situation to be unequal can make different choices including; changing their inputs, changing their outcomes, distorting perceptions of self, distorting perception of others, choosing a different referent and leaving the field. Equity theory is criticized of several reasons. It is important to note that, over rewarding employees does not guarantee that they will increase their input in their work. Other will argue that, they are worth such kind of payment since they work for it. These employees will recognise the overpayment and restore equity by trying to rationalize their situation. It is also important to note that, not all people or employees in the work place are sensitive to equity (Mitchell, Gagné, Beaudry, & Dyer 2012 p.730). The reason is that, other employees will be found to prefer depending on ratios of output to input that are lower than the referent comparisons. In this type of benevolent, equity theory predictions are found to be inaccurate. Referring to organisational justice as a determinant of motivation in an organisation, employees are usually seen to consider fairness within the work place as the basis of their motivational behaviour (p.733). In broader terms, organisational justice involves how employees feel the treatment of authorities as well as decision makers in the organisation. Employees usually make an evaluation of how fair authorities and decision makers in the work place based on four dimensions including; distributive justice, procedural justice and interactional justice. Using the dimension distributive justice, employees evaluate themselves in relation to the fairness of the outcome whereby outcome can be a pay or recognition. (p.731) differentiating the pay of employees in the work place based on their input increases their motivation and performance. Using the dimension of procedural justice, employees evaluate themselves on the basis of perceived fairness of the process that was used in determining the outcome. Employees usually consider the process of determining the outcome as fair when the authorities involve them in the decision making process. Employee involvement is a way of empowering them and serves to motivate employees in the organisation. The process of decision making is also said to be fair by employees when authorities consider various rules to make those decisions. Rules such as consistency in decision making, avoiding bias, use of information which is accurate, considering the groups that the decisions are going to affect, ethical acts as well as openness to appeals. The distribution and process of achieving outcome work hand in hand to ensure that the outcomes are fair to employees (P.735). Using interactional justice, employees usually evaluate themselves based on the degree to which one perceives to be treated by authorities as well as decision makers with dignity and respect. There are different types of justices that employees consider to be fair on how authorities and decision makers treat them when interacting with others in the work place. These include; informational justice as well as interpersonal justice. Informational justice involves the degree to which people in authority in the organization provide employees with explanations that are true in relation to the decisions that are made. Employees consider managers treatment to them as fair when they are provided with details of key decision as well as organisational matters that are important (737). Managers should be honest to employees and provide all information that employees need to know about the organisation. This motivates employees. Interpersonal justice involves the degree with which employees in the organisation are treated with dignity as well as respect by those in authority. This type of justice is seen to occur every day in the interactions between employees and managers. Managers usually take this opportunity to ensure that employees are feeling fairly treated. Use of aggressive tactics to treat employees fairly is motivating. Treating employees fair is important because it affects their personal life and organisational performance as well (p.738). Employees are seen responding in different ways when treated fairly including; high levels of performance, sleep well, better health and citizenship behaviours. When treated fairly, employees are seen to help co-workers, they have low levels of behaviours that are counterproductive like shirking jobs. Therefore, fair treatment is important in motivating employees who in turn influence improvement in organisational performance. Employees are more committed to the organisation, the trust their supervisors, positive emotions of employees are also elicited. Motivation of employees within the organisation is also explained by the expectancy theory. Expectancy theory demonstrates that, the power of a propensity of acting in a certain manner usually depend on the strength that lies with the expectation that the action will be followed by a specific outcome (Lunenburg 2011, p.1). In an organisation, employees are tend to be motivated to apply effort which is high when they have a believe that such effort will lead to good performance appraisal and that an appraisal which is good will need to organisational rewards like increases in salaries or intrinsic rewards, and the rewards will act as a satisfaction to employees’ personal goals. Three relationships are demonstrated in this theory including; effort-performance relationship, performance-reward relationship and rewards-personal goals relationship. This theory explains why employees perform only the minimum necessary to get by. Many theories of motivation are contemporary and are highly interrelated. In the expectancy model, opportunities in an organisation can help of hinder the effort of individual employees. The efforts of employees are determined by goals that are set. Therefore, goals usually direct behaviour of employees. Expectancy theory usually predicts that employees will tend to apply effort at a high level if they can predict that, there is a relationship which is strong between performance and effort, performance and rewards as well as rewards and satisfaction of goals that are personal. Other factors also influence the above relationships such as; the individual’s capability to have a fair and objective perception effort that leads to good performance appraisal system, the relationship will also be strong if the individual recognizes that performance is rewarded. A valid cognitive evaluation theory in the work place would predict that, basing rewards on performance, individual intrinsic motivation will decrease. Based on expectancy theory, the relationship between rewards and goals is that, motivation is usually high when rewards for performance which is high satisfies the needs that are dominant are consistent with goals of an individual. Reinforcement theory relates to the other theories in the model by recognising that rewards in an organisation reinforce the performance of individuals. Conclusion This essay clearly demonstrates the predictive strength of motivational theories whereby relationship between rewards and performance is major. Employees need to be treated fair in their work place; they need justice that works positively in reinforcing motivation and performance. The motivation concept revolves around these theories whereby managers in an organisation are advised to ensure that employees are provided with information about competence as well as relatedness. They should use equity theory for the purpose of understanding productivity, turnover variables, satisfaction as well as absence. Expectancy theory will help them in explaining performance variables like productivity of employees and turnover. References Bell, R, & Martin, J, (2012), The relevance of scientific management and equity theory in everyday managerial communication situations, Journal of Management Policy and Practice, Vol.13, Iss.3, pp.106-115. Mitchell, J., Gagné, M., Beaudry, A., & Dyer, L, (2012). The Role of Perceived Organizational Support, Distributive Justice and Motivation in Reactions to New Information Technology. Computers in Human Behavior, Vol.28, Iss.2, 729-738. Griffin, R, & Moorhead, G, (2011), Organizational behavior, Cengage Learning. Lunenburg, F. C. (2011). Expectancy theory of motivation: Motivating by altering expectations. International Journal of Management, Business, and Administration, Vol.15, Iss.1, pp.1-6. Van Winkle, B., Allen, S., DeVore, D., & Winston, B, (2014), The Relationship Between the Servant Leadership Behaviors of Immediate Supervisors and Followers’ Perceptions of Being Empowered in the Context of Small Business, Journal of Leadership Education, Vol, 13, Iss.3, pp.70-82. Read More