Employee Motivation
0.1 INTRODUCTION
The concept of work motivation has become very crucial to individuals and organisational success, Hence the reason why several researchers, theorists and scholars have sought to understand and determine what actually motivates people so as to build a productive and effective workforce. Simon et al (2010). Human beings are seen to be the most valuable asset of any organisation because without people, machines cannot operate themselves; neither can operations nor processes fall in place on their own without the involvement of personnel.
Saari & Judge(2004) suggest that “a happy employee is a productive employee”. This implies that there are certain factors which bring about this happiness that could increase the overall performances of employees in organisations.
This work intends to identify what actually motivates employees at work in order to increase their productivity. Therefore, it explores the concept of motivation and provides an analysis of the traditional motivation theories with particular emphasis on Maslow’s need theory and Vroom’s expectancy theories of motivation. In addition to explaining the various views of these theorists on the concept of motivation, it aims to critically review the employee motivation theories, evaluate their implications and ascertain their relevance in practice.
MOTIVATION DEFINED
Motivation is defined by Robbins (1993) as the “willingness to exert high levels of effort towards organizational goals conditioned by the effort’s ability to satisfy some individual need”. This implies that the satisfaction of individual needs contributes to the sets of behaviours they exhibit in an organisation.
Similar to this definition is that of (Denhardt et al., 2008, p.147) who opines that “Motivation is an internal state that causes people to behave in a particular way to accomplish particular goals and purposes. It is possible to observe the outward manifestations of motivation but not motivation itself”. This
The concept of work motivation has become very crucial to individuals and organisational success, Hence the reason why several researchers, theorists and scholars have sought to understand and determine what actually motivates people so as to build a productive and effective workforce. Simon et al (2010). Human beings are seen to be the most valuable asset of any organisation because without people, machines cannot operate themselves; neither can operations nor processes fall in place on their own without the involvement of personnel.
Saari & Judge(2004) suggest that “a happy employee is a productive employee”. This implies that there are certain factors which bring about this happiness that could increase the overall performances of employees in organisations.
This work intends to identify what actually motivates employees at work in order to increase their productivity. Therefore, it explores the concept of motivation and provides an analysis of the traditional motivation theories with particular emphasis on Maslow’s need theory and Vroom’s expectancy theories of motivation. In addition to explaining the various views of these theorists on the concept of motivation, it aims to critically review the employee motivation theories, evaluate their implications and ascertain their relevance in practice.
MOTIVATION DEFINED
Motivation is defined by Robbins (1993) as the “willingness to exert high levels of effort towards organizational goals conditioned by the effort’s ability to satisfy some individual need”. This implies that the satisfaction of individual needs contributes to the sets of behaviours they exhibit in an organisation.
Similar to this definition is that of (Denhardt et al., 2008, p.147) who opines that “Motivation is an internal state that causes people to behave in a particular way to accomplish particular goals and purposes. It is possible to observe the outward manifestations of motivation but not motivation itself”. This
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