Employees Motivation

Employees' motivation is easier to facilitate when done right but can also be challenging to measure and control since it is intangible. The concept has been studied for many years, but still, companies find it challenging to promote productivity at workplaces. In that case, I have conducted a short survey and a literature review to understand employees' perceptions regarding motivational factors at workplaces. Results and findings for the two approaches have been described in this paper. 

Research question

Do employees prefer intrinsic approaches over extrinsic techniques of motivation at workplaces?

Introduction

By definition, employee motivation refers to the amount of creativity, commitment, energy level, and enthusiasm that an employee contributes to a company's activities daily (Lorincová et al., 2019). Most studies relate motivation to behaviors that need to be channeled in a particular direction to achieve desired outcomes. Employee motivation mainly entails how workers are engaged in alignment with the company's objectives and how empowered they feel in the organization (Lorincová et al., 2019). All organizations need motivated employees since they are directly proportional to the company's success. As such, companies need to adopt effective methods of motivating employees to yield better results in their operations. 

Although employee motivation is a widely studied concept, companies are still finding it hard to implement it. Motivation is easier to facilitate when done right but can also be challenging to measure and control since it is intangible. Employees can be motivated through extrinsic means or intrinsically, and companies ought to understand that workers have varying characteristics (Putra, Cho, and Liu, 2017). Whereas some employees will respond better to extrinsic motivation, others may prefer to get motivated intrinsically. Therefore, an organization will need to develop a deeper understanding of the different models of motivation and diversities in its workforce to motivate employees effectively. The experience will help organizations implement the most appropriate motivation model to enhance employee satisfaction and engagement level. 

Most individuals believe that employers hold the majority of control in their relationship with workers. Well, it is valid on the most basic level since employers possess the threat of employment termination in their hands. However, nowadays, employees can terminate their employment and move away with their acquired knowledge to begin their firms, given the strong rapport and relationships with customers. Usually, such events do not unfold in situations where a standard level of effort is being put against them. It implies that employers are generally disadvantaged in such scenarios since employees hold the capacity and liberty to make such decisions. 

The paper seeks to examine employees' perceptions regarding motivational factors in an organization. For the last century, researchers' perceptions of employees have changed from viewing workers as cogs in machines to comprehending that their innate traits influence positive results in their roles. With the change has come an expanded interest in motivation – how best to move ideal exertion. One challenging area concerns the purpose that financial incentives can play – some trust them to be demotivating while others sustain that they can be a helpful instrument. This exploration investigates how employees themselves see financial incentives and the possibility of financial incentives falling inside the more extensive extent of other standard motivational variables accessible in the work environment.

Methodology

I have conducted this study based upon two critical notions. First, I have reviewed the literature to understand organizational responsibility in facilitating overall motivation, whether extrinsic or intrinsic. We often assume that organizations are most concerned with developing a motivational atmosphere in their employees. However, it would also be idyllic when employees operate from an internal drive and interest. Secondly, I have used a short online survey to gain quantifiable responses from 5 participants regarding intrinsic motivation and how their companies contribute to their positivity at workplaces. 

Due to the small sample of this study, the questions only focused on the common motivational factors and asked participants to rank them in the order they feel such factors can inspire them. Participants were told not to zero in on their present place of employment but rather to check out the rundown as far as their overall capacity to impact. This positioning is expected to acquire knowledge into workers see the diverse choice accessible to workers; it would be accepted that the higher need a thing is given, the more an organization ought to endeavor to advance it in the work environment. Also, data obtained was only averaged since not many variables were applied to be analyzed.

Results

In this section, I will review the results from the survey and the five studies examined—table 1. Shows motivational factors listed in ascending order of average ranking for five study participants – a higher preference is indicated by a smaller value. 

Table 1: Ranking of Motivational Factors

	Motivational Factor	Average Ranking
1.	Fair/ Competitive Pay	4.8
2.	Individual Interest in the Role	6.2
3.	Annual Salary Review/ Raise	7.2
4.	Advancement Opportunity	7.8
5.	Individual Performance Merit Bonus	8.6
6.	Company Performance Merit Bonus	9.0
7.	Praise and Recognition Given Publicly	9.8

 

	Research Article	Findings
1.	Kasenga, F., & Hurtig, A. K. (2014). Staff motivation and welfare in Adventist health facilities in Malawi: a qualitative study. BMC health services research, 14(1), 1-9.	The study found out that the spiritual nourishment of the institutions and working conditions provided extrinsic motivation to employees and their families. Demotivating factors included unfair treatment by managers, meager salaries, lack of training communication, or even personal assistance.
2.	Lambrou, P., Kontodimopoulos, N., & Niakas, D. (2010). Motivation and job satisfaction among medical and nursing staff in a Cyprus public general hospital. Human resources for health, 8(1), 1-9.	The research survey found that achievements ranked highly as the four primary motivational factors, followed by compensation, relationship with colleagues, and job characteristics. Also, the survey showed that female employees were motivated more with compensation than male counterparts.
3.	Marinucci, F., Majigo, M., Wattleworth, M., Paterniti, A. D., Hossain, M. B., & Redfield, R. (2013). Factors affecting job satisfaction and retention of medical laboratory professionals in seven countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. Human resources for health, 11(1), 1-7.	Results showed that lack of professional development influenced many employees to terminate their contracts. On the same note, opportunities for regular professional development motivated employees to perform in their roles.
4.	Ojakaa, D., Olango, S., & Jarvis, J. (2014). Factors affecting motivation and retention of primary health care workers in three disparate regions in Kenya. Human resources for health, 12(1), 1-13.	Work environment motivates employees – the survey reported that private facilities had better infrastructure than public clinical facilities. Also, healthcare workers (HCWs) said that adequate training in roles, supervisor support, and a manageable workload would inspire positivity.
5	Skefales, A., Plakas, S., Fouka, G., Goni, M., Vassiliadou, M., & Bergiannaki, J. D. (2014). Burnout and its association with working conditions among Greek hospital nurses in a time of financial crisis. Open Journal of Nursing, 2014.	Results indicated a higher level of work burnout among Greek nurses. Equal treatment, quality of care, and satisfaction from the job influenced low emotional exhaustion levels – the vice versa was also found to be true.

Discussion

From the results shown above and as reported by Lambrou, Kontodimopoulos, and Niakas (2010), it is evident that both financial and non-financial incentives achieve employee motivation. In the survey I conducted, the results in table 1 showed that fair and competitive salary was the most highly ranked motivational factor. The factor outranked all other monetary and non-monetary options with an average of 4.8. Organizations would be well-equipped to decide how their compensation contributions contrast with other impartial occupation positions accessible to their employees. Getting individuals at pay rates comparable to or higher than different choices could be a road for guaranteeing that employees feel treated well and inspired to give the kind of work that would keep them on favorable terms with their employer.

Individual interest in roles is an intrinsic motivational factor that ranked second with an average score of 6.2. It isn't generally feasible for all work at a company to be made fascinating, so accentuating the aspect could be more troublesome in certain conditions. Managers could notwithstanding, put forth an attempt to decide the interests of their employees. This way, they might discover innovative choices to extend their employee's jobs and coordinate a more significant amount of those things for which they have a specific excitement. This would be one more technique for fulfilling and rousing employees without causing an extra monetary expense for the company.

Praise and recognition were not positioned incredibly high with employees, which might demonstrate frustration to managers as this is a straightforward technique, they can use to reimburse their employees. It ought not to discourage businesses from including this training. Instead, it should be perceived that this sort of remuneration isn't going to go about as a solid substitute for all the more profoundly viewed things like a substantial salary and friendly workplace. When utilizing this, employees appear to appreciate praise given to them individually and privately rather than public praise. This could demonstrate that public praise is balanced for some individuals by humiliation or cumbersomeness towards being called out in a general way, or it might imply that employees view private recognition to be more factual. As employees rank their yearly survey and related raise considerably more exceptionally, managers could also endeavor to incorporate recognition inside this structure.

For the reviewed studies, it was practically evident that employees mentioned most factors related to extrinsic motivation. Kasenga and Hurtig (2014) discovered that work environments in clinical sectors motivated HCWs to contribute more, whereas unequal and unfair treatment by management demotivated employees. Also, Lambrou, Kontodimopoulos, and Niakas (2010) found that employees were more motivated by success in roles and tasks, compensation, relationship with colleagues, and job characteristics. Also, the survey indicated that some factors like payment recorded higher scores in one gender (female) than the other (male). 

On the other hand, Marinucci et al. (2013) discovered that most African workers are motivated by work environments that promote professional development. On the same note, Ojakaa, Olango, and Jarvis (2014) indicated that adequate training enabled employees to contribute effectively in their roles. Lastly, Skefales et al. (2014) realized that work burnout demotivated employees – as such, it was vital for institutions to establish ways to implement manageable workloads and improve job satisfaction. 

In conclusion, several factors, both monetary and non-monetary, contribute to employee motivation. Although other factors also contribute to demotivation at workplaces, demanding work environments and low compensation contribute more to the low productivity of workers. Employees' perceptions are vital in understanding the diversities of workplaces and in establishing effective motivation programs.  

Author: Mona Alanazi

References

Kasenga, F., & Hurtig, A. K. (2014). Staff motivation and welfare in Adventist health facilities in Malawi: a qualitative study. BMC health services research, 14(1), 1-9.

Lambrou, P., Kontodimopoulos, N., & Niakas, D. (2010). Motivation and job satisfaction among medical and nursing staff in a Cyprus public general hospital. Human resources for health, 8(1), 1-9.

Lorincová, S., Štarchoň, P., Weberova, D., Hitka, M., & Lipoldová, M. (2019). Employee motivation as a tool to achieve sustainability of business processes. Sustainability, 11(13), 3509.

Marinucci, F., Majigo, M., Wattleworth, M., Paterniti, A. D., Hossain, M. B., & Redfield, R. (2013). Factors affecting job satisfaction and retention of medical laboratory professionals in seven countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. Human resources for health, 11(1), 1-7.

Ojakaa, D., Olango, S., & Jarvis, J. (2014). Factors affecting motivation and retention of primary health care workers in three disparate regions in Kenya. Human resources for health, 12(1), 1-13.

Putra, E. D., Cho, S., & Liu, J. (2017). Extrinsic and intrinsic motivation on work engagement in the hospitality industry: Test of motivation crowding theory. Tourism and Hospitality Research, 17(2), 228-241.

Skefales, A., Plakas, S., Fouka, G., Goni, M., Vassiliadou, M., & Bergiannaki, J. D. (2014). Burnout and its association with working conditions among Greek hospital nurses in a time of financial crisis. Open Journal of Nursing, 2014