Introduction
A company’s success depends on its ability to motivate its employees. It is the degree of dedication, zeal, and vigor that employees of a company bring to their jobs every day. Without it, businesses endure decreased productivity, lower levels of output, and a higher likelihood that they will miss critical objectives. Employer leaders must cultivate and keep an eye on employee motivation because it does not always come naturally. Many businesses may struggle to maintain and boost employee motivation because not all tasks will be engaging. According to Paais and Pattiruhu (2020), “Motivation is the power that allows someone to act in the direction of a particular goal” (p. 578). Therefore, companies must devise strategies to maintain employee engagement and efficiency.
Research Objectives
Motivating staff and creating conditions for their interest in improving the organization’s efficiency as a whole, and developing social partnership, in particular, are the main tasks of the modern subject of production. Developing and implementing effective motivational models help increase competitiveness, productivity, and, ultimately, the organization’s profitability. That is why it is crucial to find out how much companies depend on their productivity on the motivation of their employees. In addition, it allows the company’s managers to reach a new level of economic development and realize their opportunities at the global level.
The psychology of the subject is at the heart of motivation as a way to increase productivity. All psychological theories and methods that underlie the motivation system aim to form the employee’s intention to do quality work. The main goal of motivation, which is referred to as “the force that stimulates, controls and maintains behavior inside and outside the individual”, is to get people to work quickly in the direction their manager wants them to go by giving them the appropriate mix of guidance, advice, techniques, assets, and reward (Naa et al., 2021, p. 99). The most valuable resource for every organization is its workforce. The cost of hiring and keeping people is drastically lowered. If the system can stay motivated for a long time in the organization, it can also aid in expanding the profession. The most complex and distinctive qualities a manager should have are those that inspire staff. Since the competitive labor market of today and the limited options available, there are more and more instances where any organization may have trouble keeping personnel.
Managers and HR professionals use psychological techniques to change and direct employee behavior in the company’s desired direction. In order for an organization to improve its performance, it is necessary that the staff be sufficiently motivated (Ahammad et al., 2020). Organizations around the world that give due attention to human resources as their central core and constantly increase the degree of motivation of their employees, as a rule, are more efficient and successful. People are vital to organizations because it is the employees who bring perspectives, values, and character traits, and when managed successfully, these human characteristics are essential to the organization.
To determine the aspects that a manager needs to pay attention to in working with motivated personnel, it is first necessary to define concepts such as “motivation” and “staff stimulation” that can be applied in an enterprise to manage and achieve high-performance indicators effectively. In this regard, constructing an optimal and flexible motivation system requires studying the theoretical foundations of the definition under consideration and improving the currently used incentive systems (Kanat-Maymon et al., 2018). In addition, the purpose of studying this issue is to identify the level of impact on the work of the company of different employees, depending on their motivation level.
It is crucial for psychologists, counselors, and human resource professionals to understand the factors to guarantee that individuals choose suitable work environments to establish a foundation for their career choice and achieve good job performance. Employees must, in return, understand how job happiness affects them on a personal, organizational, and social level, as well as the driving forces behind their job pleasure or dissatisfaction. One of the essential components of job satisfaction is the motivation to be at work. Understanding motivation is necessary for describing behavior in both individuals and organizations. Reason can also be better defined as the inner drive to exert effort. It refers to the psychological processes that direct, energize, and sustain action. Studying what motivates people to work and achieve high job satisfaction levels requires understanding why they are driven. Since job satisfaction is a significant component of how employees feel about their work environments, it is vital for individuals to comprehend this concept and for managers and organizations to advance.
Considering the mentioned factors above, the objectives for the given research involve:
- Determining to what extent employee efficiency is influenced by motivation;
- Identifying the theories of employee motivation that contribute to productivity boost;
- Discussing implications for employers when implementing employee motivation techniques.
Literature Review
A literature review is a crucial part of every research, and in the given paper, aspects of motivation and employee productivity will be reviewed. The review starts by identifying motivation at workplace, followed by a discussion of management’s role in boosting the productivity and incentivization of the staff. Another crucial point discussed in the review will be the motivation theories at work. The reviewed theories will involve the ones related to human needs, human behaviors, perceptions, and attitudes. After analyzing the motivation theories, the implications of their application will be evaluated from the perspective of the employer.
Motivation at Workplace and Its Role
Employees with short job motivation work more slowly, avoid chores, are disorganized, and do not put any effort into their work. Organizations ought to find ways to keep their employees engaged because many organizations have trouble maintaining and enhancing motivation at work (Oluwayomi & Ayo, 2018). In order to manage subordinates effectively, managers must know their abilities well and be able to motivate staff (Diamantidis & Chatzoglou, 2018). People’s motivation levels have been demonstrated to affect their job satisfaction significantly. Several variables influence the degree of job satisfaction or unhappiness. Some factors include how a person may feel about their job, their work’s importance, career choice, rewards, and compensation (Nyoni, 2018). The sort of motivation employed, individual performance, and empowerment are other elements linked to job happiness.
To fully understand the mechanisms of staff motivation and what affects it, it is worth studying the theories of many authors. Based on and analyzing their work, one can draw conclusions about how motivation affects employees. Due to their inherent motivation, these individuals reject such corporate techniques as superficial. De Vito et al. (2018) reviewed the hierarchy of needs and other conventional ideas to determine what drives higher education workers. They studied a single American university’s employees using a qualitative methodology, including semi-structured interviews. In addition to them, motivation was considered in their works by such researchers as Van Wingerden (2018), Paais and Pattiruhu (2020), and Oluwayomi (2018). Their work is the basis for many of the research developments put forward in the paper.
The findings show that although employees are driven by their understanding of the meaning of their work, there is little extrinsic motivation because of their lack of financial security and career chances. The article by De Vito and colleagues (2018) serves as an example of how content theories can be applied to a setting with a dysfunctional corporate culture. Despite the extensive volume of scientific works in this area, they are incomplete and require more attention. Issues such as the typology and content of the types of techniques for motivating the personnel of modern enterprises requires further development. In addition, there is a need to improve the method for identifying the required scale of application of specific motivation techniques and developing the method for choosing external providers for their formation and use. However, this should be complemented by improving the method for diagnosing the competence of the HR department in this area.
No less important is the development of a management support model for the formation and implementation of innovative technologies for motivating the personnel of enterprises, as well as improving the model for building key performance indicators for the HR department for the development and use of such technologies. Since one of the goals is to find out what factors affect the motivation of employees, it is worth considering the work of the following authors. The study by Hitka, Kozubková, and Potkány (2018) looks at the particularities of elements like education and gender and how these factors affect employee motivation. Utilizing a quantitative approach, Hitka et al. (2018) gave Slovak employees questionnaires and ran the chi-quadrate and Tukey’s HSD tests. The authors find that both characteristics affect motivational variables as a result. Women are more interested in continuing education and a strong team than men, and greater education levels are associated with people’s desire for professional achievement. All participants value factors like basic pay and job security (Hitka et al., 2018). While the study only looked at a sample from one nation, it suggests that culture and education may impact what drives people.
The Role of Management in Employee Motivation
Finding out the influence of the manager on motivation is one of the important goals of the studies. Jensen (2018) adopts a novel strategy in his research by focusing on the leader’s influence on employee motivation. The researcher reviews the literature and summarizes leadership knowledge to enhance employees’ perceptions of their jobs. The interaction between a team leader and their members, according to Jensen (2018), is essential for compelling motivation. A favorable business culture that fosters devoted and motivated teams requires contact, communication, and thorough consideration of each employee’s particular needs (Ali & Anwar, 2021). However, despite the significant contribution of scientists to the study of the essence of motivation and stimulation of personnel, their features, and distinctive characteristics, several problematic aspects in this scientific area remain open (Hwang et al., 2018). The need for techniques like one-on-one meetings and frequent communication points is emphasized to build confidence and ensure cooperation.
Another intriguing aspect is how many studies examine the relative contributions of internal and extrinsic motivating elements on employees’ performance or perspectives on the workplace. Depending on the employees’ degree of education and occupation and the field of work, the writers’ opinions diverge significantly. For instance, researchers that look at teachers in schools and universities discover that while compensation affects workers’ performance, intrinsic characteristics are fundamental (De Vito et al., 2018). In these settings, there is a solid commitment to serving others and appreciating the profession’s value.
Employees will find it simpler to be given a chance to advance to higher positions if they perform well. Work performance results from a person’s effort or seriousness in carrying out a job entrusted to them with the skills, experience, and sincerity following their responsibilities (Kalogiannidis, 2021). Job performance is the outcome of a person’s work in completing duties assigned to him based on his abilities, knowledge, honesty, and availability. In contrast, the ability to accomplish various tasks connected to a work’s requirements is called job performance.
The Theories of Motivation
A request to introduce employee motivation systems has long been formed in society. Competition in economic relations has intensified, which required the inclusion of all available mechanisms for increasing labor productivity, including the opportunity to reach new heights and gain potential for growth at the expense of the resources of the labor collective. Van der Kolk et al. (2019) argue that motivation is important because workers are attracted to a sector of activity by its intrinsic rewards. In response to a request, a scientific theory began to study the psycho types of employees and tried to offer business concepts that would maximize the use of employees’ potential to achieve the company’s goals.
The first group is meaningful theories of motivation, which try to find those that determine the attitude to work among human needs. These theories involve Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, McClelland’s human motivation theory, and Herzberg’s motivation two-factor theory, introduced by Abraham Maslow, David McClelland, and Frederick Herzberg, respectively. The second group comprises process theories that examine people’s behavior based on their expectations, perceptions, and internal attitudes. John Adams, Victor Vroom, Lyman Porter, and Edward Lawler developed similar ideas, including Adams’ equity theory of motivation, Vroom’s expectancy motivation theory, and Porter and Lawler’s theory of motivation. Motivation depends on how hard one works, where, and how long one works, and “it is an important tool for employee engagement” (Walsh, 2018, p. 109). Intensity refers to how hard a worker works to accomplish a task. People put effort into working, and it can be argued that they are not motivated if one of the components is missing (Lorincová et al., 2019). Employees value rewards highly, whether they are intrinsic or extrinsic. While extrinsic motivation derives from outside sources or pressures like pay, money, or value, an inherent gift develops in a person after finishing a specific work or job. For instance, an intrinsically motivated person will work on a math problem because it is enjoyable or because solving it will be challenging and satisfying.
It is necessary to return to the aforementioned theoretical approaches to the study of staff motivation in order to consider them in more detail. Content theories explore the needs of the employee. At the same time, various needs groups are distinguished and arranged in specific hierarchical sequences or outside the hierarchy. Meaningful theories of motivation try to combine the biological aspects of human life with the psychological ones, and the correlation and mutual influence of biology and psychology are studied. The result of the research is the identification of needs, the desire to satisfy, which can lead a person to the desire to work more efficiently.
The most popular theory that is taken as a basis for developing practical methods of motivation is Maslow’s pyramid of needs. The founder of humanistic psychology proceeded from the concept of the hierarchy of human needs. At the base of the pyramid, he saw the physiological needs for food and sleep, and at the top – the developed needs of an accomplished person who needs self-realization, and self-realization does not always mean only promotion (Navy, 2020). Abraham Maslow suggested that after a person satisfies the needs of each level, his interest in improving personal efficiency decreases. To awaken interest, it is necessary to move on to satisfying the needs of a higher level.
The authors of process theories recognize that in motivation systems, it is necessary to consider workers’ needs. However, the primary setting for stimulating work is the ability to influence the subject’s behavior using internal attitudes and expectations. At the same time, the focus of procedural theories of motivation is not perception and expectation in general but only those associated with a specific situation, which determines the type of behavior that the subject chooses concerning this particular circumstance. According to De Sousa Sabbagha et al. (2018, p.136), “Employee motivation refers to the effort made to achieve organizational goals”. It is crucial that when a subject decides on proper behavior in a particular situation, he proceeds not from external prerequisites but his assessment of the expediency of a particular behavior.
In turn, in the concept of Victor Vroom, for example, the effect of motivation occurs not based on the needs of the employee but as a result of his reflections and correlation of the tasks set and the proposed motivating result, assessing its reality and comparing it with the actual intentions of the individual. The theory of justice, or the theory of equality of John Adams, says that a company can motivate an employee by studying his assessment of the situation and relationship with the employer, as well as his ideas about the fairness of the relationship.
Implications for Employers in Terms of Motivation Theory Application
As seen from the motivation theory discussion, it should be the goal of any business owner to have a highly motivated crew. A business that prioritizes employee motivation and improves the working environment will reap several rewards. According to Saunders et al. (2019), in the methodological space, “two opposing perspectives have emerged: pluralism and unificationism” (p. 132). Accordingly, the concept of the plurality of thoughts prevails in the subject of staff motivation. An employee who feels inspired to do a particular task is also likely to feel more engaged while carrying out that activity since high levels of employee engagement and motivation are correlated. Understanding each employee’s degree of engagement will help management determine their motivation and, eventually, increase both. For instance, if a worker is still not interested in their work because they do not feel valued or recognized, management may implement an employee recognition program to inspire them extrinsically. They might then decide to reengage with the business as a result.
Highly motivated employees frequently outperform their less motivated coworkers regarding productivity and performance. They often put in more effort and concentrate on finishing things to the best of their abilities, improving their firms’ production. Understanding an employee’s motivation can help management motivate them, ultimately increasing corporate productivity, performance, and efficiency. Lorincova et al. (2019, p.1) state that “Employees are considered one of the most important and leading factors in achieving sustainability.” Motivated employees can manage uncertainty, solve problems more effectively, and be innovative and creative. An adaptable workforce that can roll with the punches is essential for a successful organization, especially for fast-paced startups and small enterprises where employees frequently wear multiple hats.
As a result, the given theories are applicable to the current research and indicate different approaches to employee motivation, its importance, and its effect on efficiency. The review provides the main concepts that researchers utilize in order to explain the phenomenon of motivation and the correlation between incentives and various factors. As a result, the debate additionally illustrates the trends in the perception of employee needs in terms of motivation.
Methodology
Philosophy of Interpretivism and Approach
Regarding the philosophies of research, there are mainly two, interpretivism and positivism. A large portion of the accepted procedures for performing research is based on a positivist mode of investigation, which holds that there exists a single reality that may be grasped via observation (Grinnell, 2018). In comparison to positivist philosophy, the interpretive paradigm contends that truth is subjective, socially formed, and composed of various points of view (Grinnell, 2018). According to this perspective, the researcher shapes the investigation by bringing their own subjective perspective on observable phenomena from their personal experience (Grinnell, 2018). The generated knowledge is not a universal fact; rather, it is a product of its time, place, and society. Considering that this research is mainly based on qualitative data, with an emphasis on subjective knowledge and personal experiences, the interpretive philosophy is the most applicable.
When analyzing the possibility of implementing this philosophy, a deductive approach can be used as a way to move from the general concept of motivation to specific measures for each employee. The preferred approach that will be applied is a deductive one. With the help of this concept, it will be possible to analyze existing theories of the topic being studied, investigate what other researchers have done, and then evaluates theories that result from those ideas (Sheppard, 2020). The chosen approach has many benefits, which makes it crucial to the existing research. For instance, the deductive approach will enable monitoring of the relationships and connections between the theories and variables (Sheppard, 2020). Moreover, this approach entails the capability of objectively evaluating ideas and provides the opportunity of generalizing study results to a specific degree.
Choice and Strategy
The following step is determining the choice of research, which will involve the mono-method qualitative research approach. The reason for choosing this method is due to the overall qualitative nature of the work. One chosen method will allow evaluation of the essence of the set phenomenon. The research is based on non-numerical data, and, therefore, the mono-method will enable an in-depth analysis of employee efficiency, extracting the necessary details and summarizing the findings. The strategy, it will involve a questionnaire to ensure anonymity (Sheppard, 2020). Such a strategy will enable credible answers regarding the topic of interest, and participants will not be under pressure to provide specific answers. Therefore, the given choice and strategy will be utilized due to their simplicity and lack of pressure.
Time Horizons and Methods
Such a design will allow describing the phenomena of employee motivation and performance. When it comes to the time horizons of the research, the preferred option is cross-sectional. Unlike the longitudinal type of research, the cross-sectional approach allows focusing on a specific time frame instead of collecting data over an extended period of time (Sheppard, 2020). In this sense, such an approach to time horizons will enable collections of the required materials in a short time span, requiring less funding, making it financially beneficial. Therefore, a cross-sectional study will be chosen due to its benefits in terms of collecting data about several groups of variables and then comparing them during specific periods of time.
As for the method that will be utilized for the research, a questionnaire will be used for the sample. In this sense, such a qualitative approach will be less time- and money-consuming while still providing credible data on the given issue of motivation and productivity (Sheppard, 2020). As a result, such a method will be chosen since it is beneficial in terms of gaining in-depth information regarding employee efficiency.
Procedure
To start with, the research design, which will set the specifics of the work, is descriptive. The chosen procedure for the given research is data analysis, which comprises several steps. The reason why this procedure will be chosen is due to its comprehensive process of data implementation. The steps that will be involved are specifying the question, gathering the information, studying the information, sharing the outcomes, and summarizing (Sheppard, 2020). This will enable close evaluation of every detail to meet the set objective. The non-numerical data will be gathered with the help of a questionnaire, which will help answer the question of how the participants’ efficiency is impacted by motivation, how the motivation theories mentioned in the questionnaire would help satisfy the needs of employees, and what would be implications for the employers. The questionnaire will consist of ten questions with the answers ranging between 1 and 5, with 1 meaning ‘strongly disagree’ and 5 meaning ‘strongly agree’. The material will then be collected and analyzed.
Ethical Considerations
Ethical considerations in the given research will involve gaining informed consent from the employees who will participate in the questionnaire. In this case, it will be important to ensure proper data storage. This will involve choosing the most credible platforms to ensure the retrieval of data in the future. Additionally, data security will need to be involved to avoid unauthorized user access. Moreover, another ethical consideration will involve confidentiality in terms of their participation and their answers, including those who will take the questionnaire not anonymously. Lastly, the participants will be involved in the research voluntarily in order to retrieve the most useful and credible information based on personal interest.
Conclusion
Hence, employee motivation is an integral part of any company’s motivation. In order to delve deeper into the topic of employee motivation at the workplace, the objective of the research will aim to identify the correlation between incentivization and proficiency, the efficacy of motivation theories, and their implications. For such purposes, the interpretivism philosophy and deductive approach will be used to analyze the data. Moreover, the mono-method qualitative research approach, along with a questionnaire, will be used to collect the data for one phenomenon. A cross-sectional time horizon will allow such a collection to be quick. Therefore, the research design will be descriptive and ethical considerations will involve data storage security, confidentiality, and consent.
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