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Motivation Today in large corporations, motivation has been for the most part abandoned because of massive restructuring, re-engineering, and downsizing. The explanation for this is that the level of trust and commitment that is required for motivation, and necessary for employees to apply the extra effort, has been greatly damaged. When properly motivated, employees tend to exert an increased amount of effort for longer periods of time towards a particular goal. Companies have begun to realize this and act accordingly to benefit the company and its desired long term objectives. The factors that are believed to motivate an employee greatly differ from person to person, and company to company. There are two main categories that are used to propose motivation theories, they are content theories and process theories.
Content theories explain the dynamics of employee needs, and process theories describe the way need deficiencies are translated into behavior. Both of these theories are used to reduce tension. For content theories of motivation, companies recognize that motivation begins with the needs of the individual. Unfulfilled needs tend to create tension and the desire to alleviate them. The best known content theory that explains why people have different needs at different times is the needs hierarchy theory. Developed by psychologist Abraham Maslow, it proposed that by condensing the many needs into five categories and placing them in a hierarchy would provide a much better understanding of the problems that stem from stress.
The five categories are, physiological needs, safety needs, belogingness, esteem, and self-actualization. All of these needs of the employee are recognized as being motivated simultaneously by several need levels. This type of hierarchy is one of the best known ways of organizing behavioral theories but does not satisfy the need to explain the dynamic and unstable characteristics of employee needs. In motivating employees, companies also use outcome / input ratios to assist in the aid of the employees and their desires. For input ratios, the companies provide skills, training, experience, amount of time worked, and performance results as factors for the employees to benefit. In these circumstances the employees feel that their input into the company are investments in the exchange relationship.
As a result the company provides pay, promotions, recognition, or offices with windows. However, since these acquisitions are in turn received from the company as rewards and signs that they have done a good job, they are weighed by importance by the individual. The chairman of VOLVO, Soren Gold, presents his senior executives with watches that have the numbers 25, 50, and 100 engraved on them. They stand for 25 % return on assets, 50 % reduction in project time, and 100 % attainment of corporate vision. He says that, If you set objectives and go for things, you can accomplish goals that the books say are impossible. As a result, motivation by rewards, seems to work in this situation.
In process theories of motivation, the ideas are based on factors of the translation of the needs of the employees to behavior. There are three types of process theories of motivation, they are expectancy theory, equity theory, and goal setting. Goal setting, is one of the most practiced theories of process motivation. They are immediate or ultimate objectives that employees are trying to accomplish. Goal setting potentially improves employee performance in two ways. The first is by stretching the intensity and the effort of the employee, and the second is by giving the employees a clearer role perception so that their effort is focused towards behaviors that will inevitably improve work performance.
Employees tend to put more effort into a task when they are working towards a specific important goal rather than one that is regarded as not secondary. Hence, when these goals are met, the persons growth-need aspect is fulfilled. Another effective goal setting tactic is one where the goals are challenging enough to stretch the persons abilities, but that avoids the possibility of the employee becoming over stressed. To avert these problems, companies have to provide the resources needed to accomplish the goals intended. Participation may also improve goal quality. The employees feel that they have obtained valuable information and knowledge giving them a feeling of self- assuredness.
This sometimes increases the commitment to a specific goal. On the other hand, there is a process that does fulfill the need theories that Maslows did not. Although not fully tested, the Alderfers ERG theory seems to explain the dynamics of human needs in organizations reasonably well. The theory was developed by Clayton Alderfer to overcome the problems that existed with Maslows needs theory hierarchy. There are three groups that the theory deals with; existence, relatedness, and growth. Unlike Maslows model, the ERG model incorporates a frustration-regression process.
This process deals with those that are unable to satisfy a higher need and become frustrated and regress to the next level. Some smaller based companies cannot rely entirely on financial rewards alone to motivate employees. Too much time is often required to think up the new schemes to attract, motivate and keep employees. There are a variety of different ways an employer may need to motivate an employee, for example, there may be a situation where there may be overtime needed to finish a project. The employer may provide a reward to entice the employee. He may want to give him or her paid time off later in the year or give a small promotion or even lighten the work load for the next week.
These are all examples of stress reducing tactics and may give the right amount of motivation for the employee. Although these tactics may not work for all situations, not all employees are able to be motivated the same way. There are still examples where the employee takes advantage of the employer and the company because they feel that they have been cheated in some way or another. In businesses today motivation is something that is greatly overlooked, at high cost to the employer and the company. Goal setting is the process of motivation that clarifies the employees role perceptions.
It also helps in providing situations where growth needs are fulfilled. Goals are most readily met when they are specific, results-orientated, challenging, accepted by the employee, and accompanied by meaningful feedback. Goal setting is also sometimes less effective when tied to financial rewards and when applied to new or complex tasks. The employees may feel that they do not have the capabilities to finish the task and the financial rewards are not worthy of the work they are intended to do well. In some situations, the employees do not feel that they were recognized properly for the work they had completed. For example, there may an employee which has provided the company with information, which it had benefitted from.
The employer had overlooked the employee for a financial reward at the end of the year. This left the employee very frustrated, and in turn caused the employee to begin to look for another job. The enthusiasm the employee felt at the beginning of the year had all but completely vanished. In this situation employers must find the time to properly acknowledge employees, especially the ones that have either worked extra hard on a project or provided some extra input to the companys welfare. If the employer had properly provided the right amount of recognition and motivation to the employee initially, the company might have continued to benefitted greatly.
There are always limits to motivation and they are not always beneficial to the company. The work that entails motivation sometimes is not always up to the standards of the company since it can be time consuming and sometimes costly. It may also leave the company feeling cheated, and disappointed. A little motivation can go a long way and is always helpful to the employee. It can leave the employee feeling rewarded and important, thus wanting to work a little harder and longer for the company.
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Research essay sample on Theories Of Motivation Goal Setting
