Introduction of the Employee Motivation

  Motivation     

                                                 Figure 1: Power of Employee.

    

                                                   (Source - Burchard, 2017). 
  

                                     The author of the War of Art, Steven Pressfield has stated that, at some point, the pain of not doing it becomes greater than the pain of doing it. In Seligman’s Learned Optimism (1995) motivation is defined as the action of orienting one's behavior to a specific goal. There are lots of theories which are trying to explain, how and why motivation functions as it does. Rheinberg (2006), defines motivation as an activating orientation towards a target state.

                                      Former U.S Education Secretary Terrel Howard Bell (In the Cabinet of President Ronald Reagan, 1981-1985) made this point thoroughly when he said, ‘There are three things to remember about education. The first is motivation. The second is motivation. The third is motivation’. An another definition for motivation is that, motivation is a process that takes place within the person, which affects the degree, direction and duration of the effort involved in achieving a goal (Greenberg & Baron, 2003). Motivation for employees is a combination of meeting the needs and expectations of work and factors at the workplace that enable their motivation.

Employee Motivation

                                              Figure 2: Ideas for Success.

 (Source- Motivated Employee, n.d).

                

                                    As per the article written by Dobre (2013), organizations will have to motivate employees, as it can have huge amount of impact on the sustainability of the organization. The article adds to the concept that a motivated employee helps the organization to utilize all its internal resources to its fullest. Furthermore, Frederiksen, Knudsen and Magnusson (2014) argue that unmotivated employees will focus very little on the quality of the work and will be very less concerned about the well-being of the company. Therefore, every organization will have to perform several duties in order to maintain the motivational level of the employees. As per the article by Chaudhary and Sharma (2012), several factors can have huge amount of impact on the motivational level of the employees. In fact, it actually varies from one individual to another. Therefore, different motivational factors can create different level of impact on employees. Lăzăroiu (2015) highlighted that organizations will have to be extremely careful before implementing any strategies regarding the enhancement of the motivational level of the employees. This blog post emphasis on the importance of motivation in the workplace, to improve the employee performance and productivity. And it presents the theories and techniques of the employee motivation in a workplace.

                                       Best motivational practice ensures organization to sustain in a long-term (Cicolini, 2014). Companies use a lot of innovating tactics to keep their productivity at a maximum level. According to Bratton (1999), rewards refer to all forms of financial returns, tangible services and benefits an employee receives as part of an employment relationship. Bandura (1999) recognized that human behavior cannot be fully understood without considering the regulatory influences of rewards. Some of them imply material rewards, others imply psychological motivators (Weightman, 2008). In Srilankan Airlines where I’m employed at, they have various health benefits, discounts, child care benefits, insurance benefits and many other benefits. Such benefits are offered to the employees to encourage them to stay in the organization and to work hard with increased level of motivation (James and Mathew, 2012).

                                                  Figure 3: Starbucks Coffee.

(Source- ISHN, 2020)

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                 Starbucks can be tagged as one of the biggest success stories in American history. It started with smooth beginnings and managed to pin their image in the minds of people on the top of the priority. ‘Inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.’ (Lawrence, 2019). As the vision and mission have enabled it to prevail in a quick pace world, Starbuck's faithful clients have stuck by their most loved brand through everything. It has also bagged numerous awards at a global level such as ‘One of the world’s most admired companies by Fortune from the year 2009 to 2017’ (Fortune, 2019).               

                  As an example, Rossi Norman Dias - HRM Case Study of Starbucks cooperation shows that motivation is a vital factor for business in the production process. Employees are not machines, and cannot always do the same task with equal passion. The chief executive officer of Starbucks corporation, Howard Schultz, considers that the reason for success in Starbucks is not coffee but employees. He firmly believes that the spirit of Starbucks is employees and feels honored about the value of Starbucks employees. Starbucks offers an interactive structure that makes personnel throw themselves into their job.

                              
                               Figure 4: Starbucks Chairman, Howard Schultz.

                             

(Source- Aldoshik, 2013)

                                      In January 2005,when Fortune magazine placed Starbucks Coffee Company second among the largest companies for "Best Companies to Work For", it had been expected by those, who were familiar with the company's human resource management policies and work culture. One of Starbucks competitive advantage is its employee-friendly policies and supportive work culture. As pointed out by IBS Center for Management Research (2005) Starbucks cared about its employees and was one of the few companies in the retail sector to provide generous benefits to both full time workers as well as part timers. This practice shows employees are the company’s most important asset. As a result, employees remain motivated and committed to the organization as they are treated fairly, given freedom to grow, engaged and empowered to contribute in the company’s growth.

                                        The equity theory of motivation supports this practice since  people are strongly motivated when they perceive fair treatment in the amount of rewards an employer allocates, and it also resulted in lower rate of turnovers (Dessler, 2013). Furthermore, (Noe et al, 2010) argued that, to increase  competitiveness, companies must invest not only in new technology and promoting quality throughout the organization but also invest in state-of-the-art staffing, training, and compensation practices.

Figure 5: Motivating Employees.

(Source- Uwohoo Blog, n.d.).

(Source- Uwohoo Blog, n.d.).

                                           In conclusion, according to Nayeem (2018) stated that, If you want to attract and retain the best, provide them with the best and make them feel that they are an integral part of your company’s mission. According to Smith (1994) it is because of the survival of the company. Amabile (1993) contributed to this statement by arguing that it is necessary for managers and leaders of an organization to learn how to understand and effectively deal with their employee’s motivation; since motivated employees’ are the pillars of successful organization in present and future century. She also indicated that unmotivated employees may probably contribute little effort in their jobs, stay away from workplace as much as possible, go out of the organization and make low quality of work. ‘When employees are well motivated, they help the organization to grow and survive in a fast changing workplaces’ (Lindner 1998, p. 36). Lindner also indicated that the most difficult role of managers is to motivate employees, because what motivates employees changes always (Bowen and Radhakrishna, 1991).

               

Reference

 Aldoshik 2013,Motivation in practice- Starbucks corporation case study, digital image, Viewed 12 March 2020,<https://aldoshik.wordpress.com/2013/06/27/motivation-in-practice-starbucks-corporation-case-study/>

 Amabile, TM 1993, Motivational synergy: toward new conceptualizations of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in the workplace, Human resource management.

 Bandura, A 1999, Social foundation of Thought and action, NJ: Prentice Hall.
 Bowen, BE and Radhakrishna, RB 1991, Job satisfaction of agriculture education faculty, pp. 16-22.

 Bratton and Gold 1999, Human Resources Management Theory and Practice, 2nd(ed). London: Macmillan Business.

 Burchard, B 2017, Success , digital image, Viewed 12 March 2020,<https://www.success.com/you-are-stronger-than-you-think/>

 Chaudhary, N & Sharma, B 2012, ‘Impact of employee motivation on performance (productivity) in private organization’, International Journal oF Business Trends and Technology, 2(4), pp. 29-35.   

 Cicolini, G Comparcini, D & Simonetti, V 2014, ‘Workplace empowerment and nurses' job satisfaction: A systematic literature review’, Journal of nursing management, 7, Viewed 10 March 2020, <https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.473.4070&rep=rep1&type=pdf#page=53>

Dessler, G 2013, Human resource management, 13th(ed), Prentice Hall, U.S.A.

Dobre, OI 2013, Employee motivation and organizational performance, Table of  Contents.
                                                                                                                                                                   
Fortune, 2019, World's Most Admired Companies 2019, Viewed 18 March 2020, <https://www.rankingthebrands.com/The-Brand-Rankings.aspx?rankingID=118&year=1251>

 Frederiksen, MH, Knudsen, MP & Magnusson, M 2014, Expectations and Collectiveness: Two Main Drivers of Employee Motivation for Engaging Collaborative Ideation Communities, In Proceedings of the 15th International Cinet Conference. Continuous Innovation Network (CINet).

 Greenberg, J Baron, RA 2003, Behavior in Organizations, p. 41.

 IBS Center for Management Research, 2005, ‘Starbucks’ human resource management policies and the growth challenge’. Viewed 10 March 2020,<https://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Human%20Resource%20and%20Organization%20Behavior/HROB068.htm>

 ISHN 2020, Starbucks taking steps to protect workers from sharps injuries, digital image, Viewed 11 March 2020, <https://www.ishn.com/articles/110650-starbucks-taking-steps-to-protect-workers-from-sharps-injuries >

 James, L & Mathew, L 2012, ‘Employee retention strategies’: IT industry, SCMS Journal of Indian Management, 9(3), p. 79. 

  Lăzăroiu, G 2015, Employee Motivation and Job Performance, Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations,14, pp. 97-102.

  Lawrence, G 2019,  Starbucks  Coffee’s Mission Statement & Vision Statement  (An  Analysis), Viewed 17 March 2020, <http://panmore.com/starbucks-coffee-vision-statement-mission-statement>

 Lindner, JR 1998, ‘Understanding employee motivation’, Journal of extension, p. 36.

 Motivated employee, n.d., Viewed on 19 March 2020, <https://webstockreview.net/pict/getfirst>

Nayeem, A 2018, How to Treat your Employees for Better Productivity, Viewed on 16 March 2020, <https://elextensions.com/treat-your-employees-for-better-productivity/>

 Noe, RA 2011, Fundamentals of human resource management, 4th(ed), McGraw-Hill, New York.

  Rheinberg, F 2006, Psychology of motivation, WAM, Krakow. WAM, Kraków.

  Rossi Norman Dias, HRM Case Study of starbucks cooperation, 19 November 2013, p. 4, Viewed 15 March 2020, <http://www.freeonlineresearchpapers.com/starbuckscasestudy>

  Seligman, M 1995, Learned Optimism, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York.

  Smith, GP 1994, Motivation, In W. Tracey (ed.), Human resources management and development handbook 2nd(ed.).

  Steven Pressfield, the War of Art, 2012, Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles, January 11. 

  Uwohoo Blog, n.d. , Programmer & Tech Talent Community, digital image, Viewed 13 March 2020, <https://blog.uwohoo.com/why-motivation-important-for-employees-and-how-a-leader-motivate-your-employees/>
  
  Weightman, J 2008, ‘The Employee Motivation Audit’, Cambridge Strategy Publications, Cambridge.