ASSIGNMENT: ARTICLE REVIEW

ARTICLE: UNDERSTANDING EMPLOYEE

MOTIVATION

NAME: NUR SYAZANA BINTI GULAB KHAN

I.C NUM: 870530-56-5332
MATRIC NUMBER: AH090258
LECTURER’S NAME: EN MOKTHAR ABD AZIZ
Understanding Employee Motivation

The study being carried out to described the rank importance of motivational
factors to employees that is job security, sympathetic help with personal problems,
personal loyalty to employees, interesting work, good working conditions, tactful
discipline, good wages, promotions and growth in the organization, feeling of being in on
things and full appreciation of work done. Motivation has been defined as the
psychological process that gives behavior purpose and direction, a predisposition to
behave in a purposive manner to achieve specific, unmet needs, an internal drive to
satisfy an unsatisfied need and the will to achieve. For the article, motivation is
operationally defined as the inner force that drives individuals to accomplish personal and
organizational goals. Interesting work and good pay are keys to higher employee
motivation. Carefully designed reward systems that include job enlargement, job
enrichment, promotions, internal and external stipends, monetary, and non-monetary
compensation should be considered.

Motivated employees are needed in our rapidly changing workplaces. Motivated

employees help organizations survive. Motivated employees are more productive.
Managers need to understand what motivates employees within the context of the roles
they perform. Motivating employees is arguably the most complex. The fact that what
motivates employees changes constantly. Research suggests that as employees’ income
increases, money becomes less of a motivator and as employees get older, interesting
work becomes more of a motivator. There is an old saying you can take a horse to the
water but you cannot force it to drink, it will drink only if it's thirsty and so with people.
They will do what they want to do or otherwise motivated to do. Whether it is to excel on
the workshop floor or in the 'ivory tower' they must be motivated or driven to it, either by
themselves or through external stimulus. Employee motivation is the level of energy,
commitment, and creativity that a company's workers apply to their jobs. In the
increasingly competitive business environment of recent years, finding ways to motivate
employees has become a pressing concern for many managers. In fact, a number of
different theories and methods of employee motivation have emerged, ranging from
monetary incentives to increased involvement and empowerment.

This study found employees are not motivated solely by money and employee
behavior is linked to their attitudes. The manager's main task is to develop a productive
work place, with and through those he or she is in charge of. The manager should
motivate his or her team, both individually and collectively so that a productive work
place is maintained and developed and at the same time employees derive satisfaction
from their jobs.The Hawthorne Studies began the human relations approach to
management, whereby the needs and motivation of employees become the primary focus
of managers. Five major approaches that have led to our understanding of motivation are
Maslow’s need-hierarchy theory, Herzberg’s two-factor theory, Vroom’s expectancy
theory, Adam’s equity theory, and Skinner’s reinforcement theory.

According to Maslow, employees have five levels of needs that is physiological,

safety, social, ego and self and self-actualizing. Maslow argues that lower level needs had
to be satisfied before the next higher level need would motivate employees. A
comparison of these study results to Maslow’s need hierarchy theory provides some
interesting insight into employee motivation. The number one ranked motivator,
interesting work is a self-actualizing factor. The number two ranked motivator, good
wages is a physiological factor. The number three ranked motivator, full appreciation of
work done, is an esteem factor. The number four number ranked motivator, job security,
is a safety factor. Therefore, according to Maslow, if managers wish to address the most
important motivational factors of employees, interesting work, physiological, safety,
social, esteem factors must first be satisfied.
 According to Herzberg’s work categorized motivation into two factors that is
motivators and hygiene’s. Motivator or intrinsic factors such as achievement and
recognition, produce job satisfaction. Hygiene or extrinsic factors, such as pay and job
security, produce job dissatisfaction. The highest ranked motivator, interesting work, is a
motivator factor. The second ranked motivator, good wages is a hygiene factor. Herzberg
stated that to the degree that motivators are present in a job, motivation will occur. The
absence of motivators does not lead to dissatisfaction. They also stated that to the degree
that hygiene’s are absent from a job, dissatisfaction will occur. The lack of interesting
work for the employee would not lead to dissatisfaction. Paying employees lower wages
than what they believe to be fair may lead to job dissatisfaction. Employees will be
motivated when they are doing interesting work and but will not necessarily be motivated
by higher pay.

According to Vroom’s theory is based on the belief that employee will lead to
performance and performance will lead to rewards. Rewards may be either positive or
negative. The more positive reward the more likely the employee will be highly
motivated and the more negative the reward the less likely the employee will be
motivated. The highest ranked motivational factor is interesting work according to
Vroom’s theory. The employee will be motivated if the successful in their job and given
opportunity to conduct independent research and project.

According to Adam’s theory, employees strive for equity between themselves and
other workers. Equity is achieved when the ratio of employee outcomes over inputs is
equal to other employee outcomes over inputs. The third highest ranked motivational
factor is according to Adam’s theory that is full appreciation of work done. If an
employee feels that there is a lack of appreciation for work done, as being too low
relative to another employee, an inequity may exist and the employee will be
unmotivated. Adam’s stated employee will attempt o restore equity through various
means, some of which may be counter- productive to organizational goals and objectives.
An employee who feels their work is not being appreciated may work less or undervalue
the work of other employees.
 Skinner’s theory simply states those employees’ behaviors that lead to positive
outcomes will be repeated and behaviors that lead to negative outcomes will not be
repeated. Managers should positively reinforce employee behaviors that lead to positive
outcomes. Managers should also negatively reinforce employee behavior that leads to
negative outcomes.

The strategy for motivating employees depends on which motivation theories are
used as a reference point. If Hertzberg’s theory is followed, management should begin by
focusing on pay and job security that is hygiene factors. If Adam’s equity theory is
followed, management should begin by focusing on areas where there may be perceived
inequities that is pay and full appreciation of work done before focusing on interesting
work and job security. If Vroom’s theory is followed, management should begin by
focusing on rewarding that is pay and interesting work, employee effort in achieveing
organizational goals and objectives.

Regardless of which theory is followed, interesting work and employee pay

appear to be important links to higher motivation on this research. Options such as job
enlargement, job enrichment, promotions, internal and external stipends, monetary, and
non monetary compensation should be considered. Job enlargement can be used by
managers to make work more interesting for employees by increasing the number and
variety of activities performed. Job enrichment can be used to make work more
interesting and increase pay by adding higher level responsibilities to a job and providing
monetary compensation raised or stipend to employees for accepting this responsibility.
Quite apart from the benefit and moral value of an altruistic approach to treating
colleagues as human beings and respecting human dignity in all its forms, research and
observations show that well motivated employees are more productive and creative. The
key to motivating employees is to know what motivates them and designing a motivation
program based on those needs. If properly designed reward system is not implemented,
employees will not be motivated.