Definition
of an Employee
Hornby (2010) defined an employee “as a person who
is paid to work for somebody”
Definition
of Motivation
Motivation represents the forces within a person
that affect his or her direction, intensity, and
persistence of voluntary behaviour (Campell &
Pritchard, 1976, Pinder 1998).
Definition
of Employees Motivation
“Work motivation is a set of energetic forces that
originate both within as well as beyond an
individuals being, to initiate work-related
behaviour and to determine its form, direction,
intensity and duration (Pinder, 1998),
Employees
motivation is also defined as describes how committed an employee is to his
job,
Job motivation can be extrinsic or intrinsic; meaning an employee’s motivating factor can come
from
internal or external sources.” (Donohoe, A,2018)
“Motivation will always beat mere talent’ – Norman Ralph Augustine. Talented worker will do
A task given well. But when there is a motivation as a reward or appreciation or proving to
oneself
then the task will be done better.
Intrinsic
Motivation
Intrinsic motivations refers to being in an activity for itself, and the pleasure and satisfaction
derived from participation (Deci, 1975) Employees are motivated from within themselves
without looking for a reward at the end of the task to a job well as it gives them a self
satisfaction, self confidence and feel good about themselves.
Malone
and Leeper identified these factors as increasing intrinsic motivation:
·
Challenge: employees are more motivated
when they pursue goals with personal
meaning
and when attaining the goal is possible but not necessarily certain. These
goals
may
also relate to their self-esteem when performance feedback is available.
·
Control: Employees want control over
themselves and their environments and want to
determine
what they pursue.
·
Cooperation and competition : Intrinsic
motivation can be increased in situations where
Employee
gains satisfaction from helping others. It also applies to cases where they can
compare
their performance favourably to that of others.
·
Curiosity: Internal motivation is
increased when something in the physical environment
grabs
the individual’s attention (sensory curiosity). It also occurs when something
about
the
activity stimulates the employee to want to learn more (cognitive curiosity).
·
Recognition: Employees enjoy having
their accomplishments recognized by others,
which
can increase internal motivation.
Extrinsic motivation can be defined as, “it pertains to a wide variety of behaviours that are
engaged
in as a means to an end and not for their own sake” (Deci, 1975)
Extrinsic
motivation refers to behaviour that is driven by external reward. (Kendra
Cherry,2022)
External rewards that motivates could be tangible or intangible. Some of the tangible rewards
could be increase in salary (not salary as salary is paid for task done. Salary increase will be for
task done well and on or completing before time), bonus, family holidays. Some of the
intangible will be appreciation, public recognition.
Its important to look at the specific situations to determine if extrinsic rewards might help
motivate behaviour. Below are some example scenarios when extrinsic rewards may be most
effective:
(Kendra Chery, 2022)
· When employees not interested in their activities.
· When a short-term motivator for a specific purpose is needed
When an employ is interested in the job and will do the job whether he is rewarded or not and he
is rewarded he may start looking for reward for a job he was willingly doing it without a
reward. Therefore Mangers and leaders have to be aware of their team’s personality to identify
the
motivation that they should use.
References:
Campbell, D.J., & Pritchard, R. (1976).
Motivation Theory in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. In M.D.Dunnette
(Ed.), Handbook on Industrial and Organizational Psychology (pp. 63-130).
Chicago: Rand McNally
Deci,
E.L. and Ryan, R.M. (1985) Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior, Plenum,
and Self-Determination in Human Behavior, Plenum, New york
Horhby, A.S., (2010). Oxford advanced learners
dictionary. (8th. ed). Oxford. Oxford University press.
Kendra cherry (2022) what is Extrinsic Motivation?
Kendra Cherry (2022) What is Intrinsic Motivation?
How Internal Rewards Drive Behavior
Maryam T Abbah, Employee Motivation: The theory to
effective organizational Management in Nigeria
Malone TW , Lepper MR. Making learning fun: A
taxonomy of intrinsic motivation for learning.
In: Snow RE, Farr MJ, ed. Aptitude, Learning and
Instruction: Ill. Conative and Affective
Process Analysis Erlbaum.
Pinder, C.C., (1998). Work Motivation in
Organizational Behaviour, Upper Saddle River, NJ, Prentice Hall.