Managing Employee Motivation and Performance
INTERNATIONAL BURCH UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF ECONOMICS
DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT
MANAGING EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION AND PERFORMANCE
RESEARCH PAPER by Nedžad ISAKOVIĆ
Project Supervisor
M.A. Edin SMAJIĆ
SARAJEVO
April, 2012
Contents 1. Introduction 2 1.1. The Motivation Process 2 1.2. Wath Managers Do In Practice 2 2. Motivating by Structuring Jobs to Make Them Interesting 3 2.1. Job Design 3 2.2. Job Enrichment and Job Enlargement 3 2.3. The Job Characteristics Model 4 3. Conclusion 5 4. References 7
1. Introduction
Motivation is defined as the process that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. Motivation is what causes us to act, whether it is getting a glass of water to reduce thirst, reading a book to gain knowledge or performing some specific job assignment to get pay. Why is the motivation of employees so important at the workplace? It is important for managers because it determines individual performance of the workers along with ability of the workers and work environment. The most challenging factor for manager to control of these three is motivation. Individual behavior is a complex phenomenon, and the manager needs to enter the core of the problem if he is going to solve it. 1.1. The Motivation Process The motivation process progresses through a series of discrete steps. Content, process, and reinforcement perspectives on motivation address different parts of this process (Griffin, 2008). Content perspective tries to find what factor or factors motivate people. The most popular content theories are Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the ERG theory and Herzberg’s two-factor theory. Process perspectives on motivation explore how the motivation process works and how it occurs. They try to find out why people certain behavior options to fulfill their needs and how workers evaluate their satisfactions after their decisions. Theories of process
FACULTY OF ECONOMICS
DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT
MANAGING EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION AND PERFORMANCE
RESEARCH PAPER by Nedžad ISAKOVIĆ
Project Supervisor
M.A. Edin SMAJIĆ
SARAJEVO
April, 2012
Contents 1. Introduction 2 1.1. The Motivation Process 2 1.2. Wath Managers Do In Practice 2 2. Motivating by Structuring Jobs to Make Them Interesting 3 2.1. Job Design 3 2.2. Job Enrichment and Job Enlargement 3 2.3. The Job Characteristics Model 4 3. Conclusion 5 4. References 7
1. Introduction
Motivation is defined as the process that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. Motivation is what causes us to act, whether it is getting a glass of water to reduce thirst, reading a book to gain knowledge or performing some specific job assignment to get pay. Why is the motivation of employees so important at the workplace? It is important for managers because it determines individual performance of the workers along with ability of the workers and work environment. The most challenging factor for manager to control of these three is motivation. Individual behavior is a complex phenomenon, and the manager needs to enter the core of the problem if he is going to solve it. 1.1. The Motivation Process The motivation process progresses through a series of discrete steps. Content, process, and reinforcement perspectives on motivation address different parts of this process (Griffin, 2008). Content perspective tries to find what factor or factors motivate people. The most popular content theories are Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the ERG theory and Herzberg’s two-factor theory. Process perspectives on motivation explore how the motivation process works and how it occurs. They try to find out why people certain behavior options to fulfill their needs and how workers evaluate their satisfactions after their decisions. Theories of process
References: Ricky W. Griffin (2008). Management (9th Edition ed.). Houghton Mifflin Company. Jerald Greenberg & Robert A. Baron (2008). Behavior in Organizations (9th Edition ed.). Pearson Prentice Hall. Luis R. Gomez-Mejia & David B. Balkin & Robert L. Cardy (2007). Managing Human Resources (5th Edition ed.). Pearson Prentice Hall . Scott Snell & George Bohlander (2007). Human Resorce Management. Thomson. http://psychology.about.com/od/mindex/g/motivation-definition.htm , http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/202352