Factors Influencing Employee Motivation. Paper Example

Motivation is an encouragement to complete a task from a desire to satisfy human needs and wants (Healy, 2016). These needs are a push factor in fulfilling a job that is beneficial to them. Motivation theories tend to prioritize the satisfaction of individual needs because it increases the productivity in individuals (Tampu, 2015). Motivation can also be a desire to maintain or engage in a specific behavior.

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In an organization, full-time employees are expected to work a maximum of 40 hours per week. It is, therefore, necessary to know and understand what happens in the places of work. An organization where the employer never fails to give a paycheck to the employees will always thrive. A thriving organization is due to an increase in employee production (Osabiya, 2015). Motivation and communication are two ways that can help in increasing employee productivity.

Communication is essential thing for an increase in production and the success of an organization. Research shows that communication is key and the center of a workplace organization (Schaller et al., 2017). External and internal motivation reinforce positive performance and therefore increase production. To gain a better understanding of human motivation, this research purposes to examine the factors that influence employee motivation. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were utilized in the research. Interviews, surveys, and the collected data were interpreted, analyzed, and assessed.

Literature Review

Workplace motivation is a word that is currently buzzing most organizations, and many employers are adopting it. Both non-academic and academic publications are now focusing on the issue of motivation and its importance in an organization (Lepper, 2015). Thus, supervisors need to understand the power of motivation. The elements of choosing and wanting should be available for one to stay motivated (Healy, 2016).

Maslow's Hierarchy Theory of Needs best explains the motivation and its hierarchical needs (Lepper, 2015). Each level on the hierarchy builds up from the previous level forming up like a pyramid. The needs in the hierarchy come in different degrees of urgency, and the needs are never satisfied fully. From the bottom of the hierarchy are physiological needs, followed by safety needs, then love needs, esteem needs, and finally, the top level is self-actualization needs. The four lower levels apart from self-actualization are referred to as D- needs (Tampu, 2015). D means deficit needs. The D- needs are inborn. These are never enough, and once they are satisfied, they no longer be motivating.

Physiological needs are needs like having enough food, vitamins, and water, maintaining a comfortable temperature, getting rid of waste, avoiding pain, engaging in an activity, and having sex (Schaller et al., 2017). As these physiological needs are fulfilled, the second level of needs, security, and safety arise. Security and safety needs include finding stability, safe circumstances, order, structure, and protection. The third level is love and belonging needs. Examples of this need involve having friends, feeling included, and wanting children. The next level is esteem needs, which is divided into higher and lower esteem needs. Higher esteem needs include the needs of self-respect like independence, confidence, freedom, and achievement. Lower esteem needs include the need for others' respect, like attention, glory, dignity, and glory.

Needs are usually associated with motivation in a workplace environment (Healy, 2016). Employees at work who may feel pain, hot or hungry will focus more on satisfying their physiological need rather than being motivated at work. The same case applies to security and safety needs, love and belonging needs, and esteem needs (Healy, 2016).

Self-actualization needs to continue to be felt even when it is fulfilled. This need involves a continuous desire to be great or to excel to be able to fulfill one's potential continuously. The need to help supervisors understand the need for motivation (Osabiya, 2015). If the employees can satisfy the D- needs, then they will do what they can to satisfy the need for self-actualization. Self-actualization need is vital in the workplace as it helps one fulfill their potential. One is likely to strive to continue to meet the need even if they have met the need once. The need feeds from itself.

In a workplace, motivation can be defined as employees' desire to choose to act or to want to act to get satisfied in the workplace (Osabiya, 2015). Further, motivation can be referred to as the energy that influences a work style and encourages work-related behavior, duration, intensity, and direction. There are two types of motivation at work; they include external (extrinsic) and internal (intrinsic) forces (Healy, 2016).

Internal motivation comes from personal motivation and revolves around completing a specific task just for its sake (Tampu, 2015). Here the employees complete a job because they want to be rewarded rather than earning the reward. External motivation originates from other sources like monetary rewards, company goal setting, and supervisor feedback. Supervisors have the power to motivate employees, and therefore they should realize the critical role they play in motivating their workers (Osabiya, 2015). Supervisors should be able to motivate their subordinates by creating extrinsic motivation in the workplace.

It is always important to consider money hierarchy when studying motivation in an organization. Money can be a very simple concept in an organization, but it is the one holding a company to survive in an economy (Lepper, 2015). An organization must give money to employees to retain and attract skilled professionals in society.

Research Methods

Qualitative and quantitative methods of research were used. Qualitative methods used include interviews, surveys, and questionnaires. Participants were male and female adults who work full-time in profit-making companies. In total, only 10 participants were interviewed. The use of questionnaires acted as a guide but not for controlling, making predictions, or transforming an environment. Questions asked during the interview were based on constructivist ideas and paradigms, and the conversations depend on the participant's responses. The survey was analyzed from the results of the interviews. The survey provided a broader picture of the factors that influence employee motivation.

Data Analysis

Positivist and constructivist perspectives of research were used in this study. Positivist and constructivist perspectives differ in the use and evaluation of data. Positivist is a deductive method of data assessment, while constructivism is inductive. Constructivist ideals helped in understanding what motivates an employee by hearing and analyzing their phrases and terms to describe the topic. Through confidential and individual interviews, the participants spoke freely, and they describe how motivation was utilized in their workplace.

During interviews, many participants failed to explain the meaning of workplace motivation. The participants knew what motivation felt like and look like, but it was difficult to verbalize. The participants were then asked to describe a time when they were motivated and when their coworkers were motivated at work. From the interviews, all the participants seemed to have been motivated at least once, and they reported that their coworkers have also been motivated. However, one of the participants said that they have once witnessed a coworker who was not motivated and that unmotivated coworkers complain a lot about their jobs, and they do not produce the expectations. Unmotivated coworkers feel unappreciated, and they may end up quitting the job.

From the questionnaires and part of the interviews, six themes were observed and analyzed from the data; performance feedback, workplace performance, empowerment, goal setting, satisfaction, and attitude. These themes were evaluated according to their relevance to workplace motivation. These themes can be classified as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation is based on an individual and is not influenced by others (Healy, 2016). When an employee feels responsible for the outcome of the work, then they are intrinsically motivated. Participants in the study associated attitudes and workplace performance with intrinsic motivation.

Workplace Performance

Achievement and work intensity make up the theme of workplace performance. Participants said that they were motivated by being given a challenge at the job (Schaller et al., 2017). A challenge may be learning new skills, keeping the job interesting, and meeting new challenges. Challenges could come from the company, like a contest. Work intensity may make a job challenging or interesting. When an individual is learning new skills, they encounter a lot of challenges. When little or no effort is put to complete a job, the employees will not be motivated to finish the task because their motivational arousal has been lowered. However, work intensity changes as one gains knowledge of their responsibilities and jobs. To manage this kind of intrinsic motivation, the employee roles should be altered periodically to challenge the worker to create new intensity.

Achievements are described as performing to the expectations and completing tasks. Achievement is linked with daily tasks and promotions(Healy, 2016). The need for achievement is based on opportunities, as there are many tasks that one completes in their lifetime. Employees motivated by achievement prefer to participate in a difficult task. The accomplishment of a task does not depend on luck instead of of an employee's effort and skills. The employees must also want to know the feedback from their failures and successes. Achievement can be linked to performance feedback and goal setting.

Attitude

From the participants' point of view, attitude is referred to as the positive or negative nature of one's responsibilities, work, workmates, and overall feelings of daily work (Schaller et al., 2017). It can also be defined as affective and cognitive orientations on specific situations and objects, or ways in which an individual feels and responds about a subject. Employees' attitudes towards work are personal and can be very disadvantageous to overall organizational motivation. Attitudes are essential because they are difficult to influence, and therefore individual intrinsic motivation based on attitudes is unlikely to change. However, attitudes can also influence extrinsic motivation.

Extrinsic Motivation

Goal setting

From the interviews, participants described goal setting as setting work goals either with subordinates, supervisors, or independently (Osabiya, 2015). The goals can be short-term or long-term. The goals can range from counting production numbers to making a certain phone call. A recent study shows that goal-setting helps one accomplish tasks. Most successful people set goals to achieve in an effective way and on time. Employees who set and follow their goals are more successful than those who do not regardless of the workplace environment. Even the smallest goals can help one increase productivity.

In literature, goal setting is a managerial strategy that recognizes areas in which an employee wishes to fulfill their tasks (Lepper, 2015). Goal setting is a cause for motivation. Creating goals during training assists employees to understand that their performance dramatically affects the organization. Linking company goals with departmental goals help supervisors increase employee motivation. It is also important to note that workplace goals increase persistence and more efforts in performing tasks. Goal setting depends on the supervisor or oneself.