Premium Essay

How to Motivate Employees

In:

Submitted By bighead321
Words 786
Pages 4
“How to motivate employees”

Abstract
Positive motivation within an organization today is more important than ever to achieving success. Organizations need to understand the concept of motivation, which comes in a variety of forms such as total rewards, perks or recognition within the corporation. Motivation also leads to higher productivity, greater profits and longevity. It is very for managers to understand how to motivate employees to perform at high level.

“How to Motivate Employees” Most organizations have begun to realize the importance of keeping employees motivated. When an employee enjoys their working environment, they are more prone to success within the organization. One of the main goals of a leader is to motivate his/her associates. Many organizational executives as well as scholars of organizational behavior have noticed the positive impacts of motivating and coaching. As Stone states, “As a coach, you can motivate, inspire, and encourage” (Stone, 1999, p. 31). Maslow’s Theory of Human Needs, which “recognizes that people have a range of needs, and the extent to which they will perform effectively in the workplace will be affected by the extent to which these needs are satisfied” (Nelson & Quick, 2013, p. 165). Maslow proposed five basic human needs, which consist of “Physiological needs Safety needs, Social needs, Esteem needs, and Self-actualization needs” (Nelson & Quick, 2013, p. 165). Maslow believed that one need would have to satisfy before the next need becomes dominant. He believed needs are divided into two different levels. “Physiological and Safety needs were lower level needs compared to Social, Esteem and Self-actualization needs” (Nelson & Quick, 2013, p. 166). What is motivation and how does it affect the employee or organization? While there are many definitions

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Motivation in Workplace

...OUTLINE I. Introduction a. Why is motivation important? II. How to motivate? b. Setting goals c. Showing growth and progress III. Communicate to Motivate d. Why is communication important e. How does it motivate? f. How does it help improve employee motivation? IV. Employee Surveys & Evaluations g. Conducting research and surveys h. Why is a survey designed? i. Employee evaluations j. Questions to ask yourself when evaluating. V. Conclusion Introduction The question when it comes to motivating people is what motivates and how to motivate people? The last but not least is how to keep people motivated? There are many jobs people work and they’re just working for the money and nothing else. The key to keeping good/great employees and to have a low turnover rate is keeping people motivated. Not only that but also engaged with the work, having a positive work environment and wanting employees to help build, grow, and increase productivity. That’s why setting goals, monitoring employee’s growth and progression is the main theory for motivating employees. Also, modeling an evaluation program for the employees to advanced and enhances their job/career with the company to decrease employee turnover rate.  Leaders of modern-day organizations must know how to motivate each of their employees in order for them to thrive in dynamic work environments. Understanding the various...

Words: 1179 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Motivation Theories

...problems. They started out as a small business and got bigger over time, because they had the right techniques to work with their employees. Koch Industries developed some theories and practiced them into three main objectives. One of the objectives was that all employees had to have the same point of view about the company. Management made it clear to the entire team that everyone understood what their goal and the principles of market based management were.(Gable,1993) Also it was very important that the management of Koch Industries was proper trained on the company’s concepts and philosophies so that they could spread it throughout the whole company. And last and not least was to examine all facets of Koch Industries for values, organizational structure, incentive systems, and other practices to ensure that each was consistent with the principles of market-based management. With these three objectives the company grew on employees and also their sales went up very high. A lot of companies take this company as an example, because they admire their marketing based management styles and how they operate a company. Koch Industries lead an example for a lot of companies and will always be. Companies these days sometimes do not know how to motivate their employees and that’s how lack of motivation happens. Production will decrease and a lot more employees will be calling out sick. Companies had to rethink the idea that the workers of companies are human beings and not just people...

Words: 1409 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Management

...Purposes of the report The purposes of this report are to (1) explain why employees become unmotivated, (2) identify the consequences a company endures with unmotivated employees, (3) discuss strategies or techniques organizations can use to motivate their employees, and (4) show the positive consequences a company enjoys with motivated employees. Nine professional and scholarly journals were used for the report. Primary research consisted of personal interviews with Lonny Cooper, Jon Wenzel, and Reza Rich. Motivation in today’s workforce Findings from professional and scholarly journals and personal interviews revealed that employees become unmotivated when communication breaks down between management and subordinates. Lack of motivation in employees tends to increase carelessness, absenteeism, resource waste, and turnover rates in an organization. Because employees possess different values, they are motivated by different things. Communicating information, praising employees, and recognizing effective performance are key strategies a manager or supervisor can use to motivate employees. Production, sales rates, and morale all increase when employees become motivated. The results of this research revealed a surprising concept: money alone is not enough to motivate employees today. Recommendations for motivating employees Recommendations for motivating employees at First Bank of Kamloops include • offering bank tellers valued rewards for balancing...

Words: 2943 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

Motivational Methods

...Motivational Methods HCS 325 March 4, 2012 When changes are implemented within an organization, this can cause difficult times. However, finding motivational methods that will work on the employees can be just as hard. When he or she has found a motivational method that works on some of the employees, this does not mean it will work on them. There are three different patterns of behavior that individual’s motivation comes from. These are individual: satisfying his or her own need, competitive: trying to prove he or she is better than the person he or she thinks is an opponent, or cooperative: tries to achieve a goal for the group or team (McConnell, 2005). The way that a manager can figure out what behavior pattern an employee has is by listening to him or her, observing his or her work performance, and asking the employee questions (McNamara, n.d.). There are many motivational methods that a manager can use but in this paper we will discuss three methods: employee recognition, training, and monetary rewards and incentives. Employee Recognition The first method to motivating employees is employee recognition. When employees are putting his or her all into their work, they need to be recognized in some way. If the employee does not see that his or her work is recognized, he or she will not try as hard the next time around. A way to show an employee that he or she appreciates all of his or her hard work would be by buying him or her lunch, starting an employee of the...

Words: 1206 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Reearch Paper Managers and Motivation

...Different Techniques to Motivate Employees By Student Managers Motivating Employees, September 8, 2014 I. Introduction Managers keeping employees motivated is a problem in most organizations, because not all individuals are motivated in the same way. When individuals lose interest in the workplace this can cause problems for the organization as a whole, then the overall production and morale suffers. There are different techniques that can be used to help managers motivate their employees. Some of the techniques to understand are positive and negative reinforcement, nonmonetary incentive programs, award programs, recognition awards and showing appreciation. Managers can motivate employees by understanding what motivation is and by discovering what drives each individual by using different techniques to motivate each employee. II. Motivation A. Definition of Motivation Motivation is “defined as the psychological processes that arouse and direct goal-directed behavior” (Kinicki, Williams 376). Motivation “is not a one size fits all”, each employee is their own person and what drives them to effectivley perform while on the job is an important factor for managers to be knowledgeable about (Broder). B. Why Motivating Employees is Important Employees within an organization play a key role in how the company runs. Knowing about the different techniques that are used can help managers succeed in keeping their employees motivated. Businesses today...

Words: 1294 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Motivational Methods

...in helping employees within the organization adapt to change. Preparing the employees will minimize errors and unproductive time spent on adapting to new structure, techniques, equipment, and strategies. In order to remain up to date and at the same level of competition, health care organizations need to refresh and update knowledge & skills by doing up training or continuing education classes. Also, upgrading equipment & supplies will contribute to helping the organization as a whole meet and exceed expectations. Along with the change and preparing for change should be motivation from the management team. Motivation is very important in the workplace because other factors that support good performance may not be present. Being motivated will help individuals strive to do their absolute although there may be obstacles present. There are different methods that can be used to motivate employees such as staying accessible, providing an explanation for the basis of the changes, showing results, providing meaningful and challenging work, providing clear targets and expectations, and giving supportive feedback. Also allowing input and options on how tasks are done can help to motivate employees. Motivated employees not only help boost individual performance but they help boost team and organizational performance as well. Change can cause anxiety and maybe even frustration. As the authority figure the manager should stay accessible. Staying accessible allows employees to come to...

Words: 1054 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Motivational Methods

...in helping employees within the organization adapt to change. Preparing the employees will minimize errors and unproductive time spent on adapting to new structure, techniques, equipment, and strategies. In order to remain up to date and at the same level of competition, health care organizations need to refresh and update knowledge & skills by doing up training or continuing education classes. Also, upgrading equipment & supplies will contribute to helping the organization as a whole meet and exceed expectations. Along with the change and preparing for change should be motivation from the management team. Motivation is very important in the workplace because other factors that support good performance may not be present. Being motivated will help individuals strive to do their absolute although there may be obstacles present. There are different methods that can be used to motivate employees such as staying accessible, providing an explanation for the basis of the changes, showing results, providing meaningful and challenging work, providing clear targets and expectations, and giving supportive feedback. Also allowing input and options on how tasks are done can help to motivate employees. Motivated employees not only help boost individual performance but they help boost team and organizational performance as well. Change can cause anxiety and maybe even frustration. As the authority figure the manager should stay accessible. Staying accessible allows employees to come to...

Words: 1054 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Tesco Case

...is meant by motivation. What types of non-financial reward might a company use to motivate employees? Answer: Motivation is the process that accounts for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal. In this case, Motivation may stem from personal interest such as keeping safe or form external factors such as praise and reward. Motivating factors are appreciation of hard work, a sense of achievement, responsibility and empowerment, opportunity for advancement and a sense of challenge and enjoyment in workforce of the employees. Company needs to motivate employees who are flexible, well-trained and can recognize customers need. A company needs to motivate employees for the growth. To motivate those employees company needs to give some non-financial reward support, they can be- * Flexible working * Free or reduced rate health benefits * Company share options * Competitive salaries * Staff discount * Discount gym membership 2. Describe the effects of an unmotivated workforce on a company. How does Tesco benefit from ensuring that its workforce is motivated? Answer: An unmotivated workforce on a company affects the employees most. The employees do not push hard to achieve greater outputs. They requires supervision and demonstrates pride in their works, they couldn’t make better impact on the customer. Unmotivated employees cannot concentrate in their work and accidents or get involved in conflict. They lose...

Words: 994 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Selecting, Motivating, and Retaining Employees

...All business managers with employees at some point in the business life cycle select, retain, and motivate employees. Where many managers go wrong is that they don’t look at the unique personalities and behaviours of certain employees, they must understand that different employees will be best suited into different positions and that these employees will all be best retained and motivated in different ways. The dictionary defines management as “the act or art of managing: the conducting or supervising of something (as a business)” (dictionary.com). Although this helps define a manager it is far from helping to define a good manager. Good managers have strong qualities in different aspects of the management system and they do great jobs selecting, retaining, and motivating different employees of different personalities. An organization consists of one or more employees who perform various different tasks within the organization. The relationships between the employees working and the tasks performed must be structured so that the organization can achieve its strategic goals in an efficient and effective manner with a motivated and engaged workforce. There are many different ways for a manager to ensure and promote a motivated and engaged workforce, this starts with the selection process and ensuring that the proper employees are selected for the positions in which they best belong. There are many ways to distribute work among employees and ensuring that work is distributed effectively...

Words: 2281 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

Motivation Paper

...Motivation Paper September 22, 2014 Juan Alves HCS/325 Eleanor Milo It is a challenge to motivate individuals when times are good, but it much more difficult to motivate when times are tough. When a company or organization is going through a restructuring process such as downsizing, a manager must employ a combination of motivational methods to maintain performance. During difficult times human behavior may change to reflect the surrounding environment. In an organization where people fear the loss of their job or the closing of the company fear is the focus and performance may suffer. It is therefore a manager’s job to motivate his people or team so that the change is met well and head on. In order to motivate people during a downsizing or any difficult time a manager has to first understand the principles of human behavior. Another thing a manager must be familiar with is the many theories of motivation, because a manager will need to call on these theories to find methods that can be used in motivating the personnel. Zonig (2006) introduces the Temporal Motivational Theory (TMT), which is built on the focus of the fundamental features of picoenconomics, expectancy theory, the cumulative prospect theory, and the need theory. Since people are unique and when working together very complex, the need for the use of several theories and the knowledge for understanding human behavior is very important in order to apply motivational techniques that will get people to work together...

Words: 1502 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Motivational Concepts Google

...are able to see that the employees at Google are constantly being motivated through different ways and methods. Google’s has used motivational concepts in order them to improve on the company and come up with more creativity and innovation within the company. The culture itself explains a lot about how the motivation in Google really works. Many of the motivational concepts and theories can be applied to the company. The reason as to why Google is doing so well is that it is using it’s money right, by motivating people to do better (financialexpress.com). Motivation is the processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal. How does one motivate people? , Google tries it’s best on making it’s workers enjoy what they are doing in order for them to release the hidden creative they have beneath. It has shown to be one of the worlds most successful Internet companies due to its highly motivating work environment. Google tends to avoid having their employees working in a typical work environment where they are stuck in between a cubicle and florescent lights. Instead they try to create a positive work environment to motivate their employees with extrinsic and intrinsic rewards. The also focus on hiring problem solvers with proactive, do it yourself spirit this is what makes Google the nicest and most pleasant workplace. To develop their extrinsic motivation, Google has provided its employees with personal health facilities...

Words: 1267 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Motivation

...have studied how to improve the productivity of employees. During the Industrial Era of the early 1900’s Frederick Taylor became famous for his work on improving employee performance through time and motion studies. This proved to increase worker efficiency, but it had the downside of lower motivation and morale. Employees felt like machines required to leave their thinking and ideas outside the workplace. Later on it was discovered, somewhat by accident, (Hawthorne studies) that increased management attention to employees appeared to increase employee performance. This launched a revived era of employee motivation through what was called human relations. Better communication and open dialogue from managers accompanied by increased attention to the personal interests and needs of employees were thought to improve motivation and performance. These social based approaches did improve how employees felt about the workplace, but in the long run did little to sustain improved performance. Since that time, organizational research has confirmed several approaches that have a significant positive impact on employee motivation and performance. Goal Setting: Perhaps the most fundamental approach to improve employee motivation is by setting goals and holding individuals accountable for those goals. Goals not only align employee behavior to what is important for the organization, but also drive their energies to accomplish something that is meaningful. Employees often feel...

Words: 1086 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Ethics and Corporate Responsibility in the Workplace and the World

...level and persistence of an effort expended at work”. First and foremost, the goals and strategy of the company need to be aligned to tasks for the managers and staff. The tasks will be broken into subtasks and assigned to the departments. A virtual group will be established to brainstorm and tackle the problem of defects. The job characteristics model will be utilized to improve job satisfaction which in turn will minimize the turnover of employees. Increase in productivity and high-quality work will be emphasized through an implementation of a merit and feedback system. One brainstorm session will be comprised of managers. This session will have two deliverables, what motivates their employees and how can we minimize the current defect rate of our product. The second brainstorm session will be comprised of staff and cover the same questions. The results will be collected from both sessions and fed into a final session comprised of both managers and staff. Their deliverables will drive the solution. These sessions will give all employees empowerment and show that all levels of staff are important to the company. According to Joss M. (2003), “make sure goals are measurable and rewards public”. For...

Words: 948 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Work

...Other: Does This Motivate Employees? 1. What’s your opinion regarding forced ranking performance appraisals? Do they motivate employees? In my opinion, forced ranking performance appraisals can work for some companies, but not for everyone. For example, a company like GE or General Motors could possibly benefit from forced ranking performance appraisals because these companies are driven by efficiency and producing positive results for the bottom line. Since these companies employ hundreds of thousands of people, it’s important for them to efficiently weed out the underperformers while still maintaining the efficiency of the company. Companies, like advertising firms, who rely on a lot of innovation wouldn’t fair well in implementing forced ranking performance appraisals. When it comes to motivating employees, it’s a catch-22. If you have two employees who are in the bottom 10% of underperformers, one employee may use this as a motivation tool because their hierarchy of needs is being met and they enjoy their job. The other employee may not feel motivated because their hierarchy of needs isn’t met and the rating will only reflect their feelings towards their job. Bottom line, what motivates one may not motivate the other. 2. How would equity theory explain some employees’ negative reactions to forced rankings? Explain. The equity theory looks at a person’s perceptions on how fairly they’re treated during exchanges at work. Everything, from how the supervisor...

Words: 486 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Organisational Behaviour

...to inspire employees require that leaders and managers understand what motivates their employees. When we observe the way people work we will find that there is some factor which motivates them. This paper first defines what motivation is and also the definition of a workgroup. It then aims to highlight some of the motivational strategies which can be used in my workgroup to assist the group in attaining their goals and also, how those strategies can be maintained from the start to the end. The paper will continue to show how effective the motivational strategies work within my workgroup by making reference to the achievement motivation theory and the self-efficacy theory models and conclude to show that by using the right model, managers can get the most out of their employees, reduce employee turnover and limit employee dishonesty.   1. Introduction Motivating a work group to achieve a common goal can present a unique challenge, even for the most experienced leaders. That is due specifically to the fact that every individual respond to different motivation factors and hence, leaders will be faced with a group of people who all have varying needs and will need to be motivated in different ways. To get the work group to work on achieving their goals, special care should be taken when deciding on the motivational techniques used and the individual needs of the people who need to be motivated. This paper aims to discuss some strategies which can be used to motivate the employees...

Words: 2267 - Pages: 10