Employee motivation and engagement are critical sources for employees’ high performance both in manufacturing and services companies (Boss, 2014; Kwenin, Muathe, and Nzulwa, 2013; Reilly, 2014; McMullen, 2013; Trus, Shantz, Soane, Alfes, Delbridge, 2013). Such motivation and engagement have to be generated by effective leadership with clear managerial concepts are critical to influence the employee behavior to bring company to success performance (Boss, 2014; Johnson & Nandy, 2015).
According to the IT sectors if leaders trying to micromanage their employees it will affect team members work load and they will get frustrated instead of motivations.
(Source: Why employee motivation important , 2020)
Companies increasingly realize the important of their work forces to sustain corporate growth, especially in the midst of environmental uncertainty and fierce competition (Bao & Analoui; 2011; Gupta, Ganguli, and Ponnam, 2015). Hence, it calls for clear alignment of the individual workforce and the organization, especially through motivation and engagement (van Marrewijk; Joanna Timmers , 2003).
Motivation
Motivation has an important role in encouraging someone to do the work to achieve their personal or group or company goals. The executive leaders and managers of the companies need to apply effective methods or approaches to influence the employee motivation in order to achieve better performance. Motivation of the employees can be sourced from internal (intrinsic) and external (extrinsic) value for the organization (Zamer, et. al., 2014).
Authors and researchers explained the concepts of motivation from different angles, three of them are: Abraham Maslow (1954), who developed the concept of motivation since 1940s, and explained that the motivation for someone to do something driven by a series of stages of need, as follow: (a) biological and physiological needs, such as: air, water, food, sex, sleep, etc; (b) Safety needs, such as protection, security, law, order, stability, etc; (c) Social needs (belongingness and love needs), such as friends, family, relationship, work group, etc; (d) Esteem needs, such as: achievement, status, self esteem, responsibilities, reputation, confidence, achievement; (e) Self-actualization needs (personal goals and fulfillment), such as: creativity problem solving; spontaneity, authenticity. In 1969, Clayton P Alderfer simplified Maslow’s theory to be three categories, as existence needs (physiological and safety needs), relatedness needs (belonging needs) and growth needs (self esteem and self actualization). While, Frederick Herzberg (1966) with his twofactors theory developed in 1959s known as the hygiene theory. He suggested that people have two sets of factors affecting motivation, namely (a) hygiene factors, they are extrinsic factors and this factors determine dissatisfaction, such as salary or remuneration, job security and working conditions; (b) motivators, they are intrinsic factors and this factors determine satisfaction such as sense of achievement, recognition, responsibility, and personal growth. Furthermore, David McClelland (1961) identified three basic needs, which are: needs for achievement; needs for affiliation and need for power. McClelland’s theory explains the inspiration human needs to be met or avoid failure (Zamer et. al., 2014; Aworemi et. al., 2011).
Employee Engagement
To survive and sustainable growth in the rapid business development and tight competition, the company have to manage their human resources effectively, encourage the employees to keep their high commitment and strong engagement to the company (Markos and Sridevi, 2010). Beside of the employee motivation, Harvard Business Review in 2013 reported the results of a study of 568 entrepreneurs from five countries, namely North America, Asia, Europe, MEA, and South / Central America, explained that the employee engagement to the company is an important thing to be maintained and improved, because it can encourage successful effort for the company (HBR-Report, 2013). It means that if the company is able to build and maintain as well as keep the employee engagement are strong, it is believed the employee and the company will have a good performance. Another reviewed have been done by Markos and Sridevi, (2010); Siddanta & Roy (2010) and Truss, Shantz, Soane, Alfes, Delbridge, (2013) summaries that the employee engagement can improve the performance of the employees.
According to Kahn, (1990); Purcell, (2006); Rich, Lepine, & Crawford, (2010) Engagement is defined as the attachment actions of members of the organization to carry out their role of work better. It means that an employee is said to be involved and bound if he could freely express himself physically, cognitively and emotionally in his official role consistent with the organizational goal (Gupta; Ganguli & Ponnam; 2015).
In addition, Reilly (2014) mentions 5 method to improve the employee engagement, as follow:
(1) use the right employee engagement survey;
(2) focus on engagement at the local and organizational levels;
(3) select the right managers;
(4) coach managers and hold them accountable for their employees engagement;
(5) define engagement goals in realistic.
Performance of the Employees
Many factors affect the performance of employees at the manufacturing and services companies, which are sourced from internal or external domain (Kenichi & Kreitner, 2003). Employee performance can be reflected from the height of togetherness and the level of employee satisfaction (Zuriekat, Salameh & Alrawasdeh, 2011; Pandla, 2016), also the concept of rewards that are implemented (Tze San, Mei Theen & Boon Heng, 2012). Even though many factors influence employee performance, but this study will emphasize on motivation and employee engagement as dominant factors in influencing the performance of employees and believed would affect the performance of the company. Beside the financial, nonfinancial interest or other rewards and the management support (Zamer et. al., 2014; Uzonna, 2013) that the high employee engagement also will strengthen the spirit of employees to improve their performance (Albdour & Altarawneh, 2014; Trus, Shantz, Soane, Alfes, & Delbridge, 2013; McMullen, 2013; Ram & Prabhakar, 2011).
Reference List
- Aworemi, Abdul-Azeez, Durowoju (2011), An Empirical Study of the Motivational Factors of Employee in Nigeria. International Journal of Economics and Finance Vol. 3, No. 5.
- Bao, C, Analoui, F (2011). An Exploration Pf The Impact Of Strategic International Human Resource Management On Firm Performance: The Case Of Foreign MNCs In China. International Journal of Management & Information Systems Vol. 15, No. 4, 2011. ABI/INFORM.
- Boss, Jeff (2014). 3 Principles Leaders Must follow to Build Employee Engagement. http://forbes. com/sites/jeffboss/2014/10/27/3-principles-leaders-must-follow-to-build-employeeengagement/.
- Gupta.M, Ganguli, S, & Ponnam,A. (2015). Factors Affecting Employee Engagement in India: A Study on Offshoring of Financial Services. The Qualitative Report 2015 Volume 20, Number 4, Article 8, 498-515. http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR20/4/gupta8.pdf.
- Herzberg, F (1966). Work and the nature of man. Cleveland, OH: World Publishing Co.
- Kahn, W. A. (1990). Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. Academy of Management Journal, 33(4), 692-724.
- Kenichi,A & Kreitner, R (2003). Organizational Behavior: Key concepts, skills and best practices (international ed). Nwe York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
- Kwenin, Muathe & Nzulwa (2013). The Influence of Employee Rewards, Human Resourse Policies and Job Satisfaction on the Retention of Employees in Vodafone Ghana. European Journal of Business and Management, Vol. 5, No. 12, 2013.
- Van Marrewijk. M.V and Timmers.J (2003), Human Capital Management: New Possibilities in People Management. Journal of Business Ethics, May 2003; 44, 2/3 ABI/INFORM.
- Markos, S & Sridevi, MS (2010). Employee engagement: the key to improving performance. International journal of business and management. Vol. 5. No. 12, Dec 2010.
- Maslow, A. (1954). Motivation and Personality, New York: McGraw-Hill.
- McMullen (2013). Reward Strategy and Practice: Eight recommendations to improve Employee Engagement. Journal of Compensation and benefits. July/August 2013 Thomson Reuters.
- Purcell, J. (2006). Change agenda, reflections on employee engagement. London: CIPD.
- Ram, P & Prabhakar, G.V (2011). The role of employee engagement in work-related outcomes. Interdisciplinary journal of research in business. Vol. 1 March 2011.
- Reilly, Robyn (2014). Five ways to improve Employee Engagement Now. Business Journal GALLUP.
- Rich, B. L., Lepine, J. A., & Crawford, E. R. (2010). Job engagement: Antecedents and effects on job performance. Academy of Management Journal, 53(3), 617-635.
- Siddanta & Roy (2010), Employee Engagement – Engaging the 21st century workforce. Asian Journal of Management Research. 2010.
- Truss, C; Shantz, A; Soane, E; Alfes, K & Delbridge, R (2013). Employee engagement, organizational performance and individual well-being: exploring the evidence, developing the theory. The international journal of human resource management, 2013.
- Uzonna, U.R (2013). The impact of the motivation on the employee’s performance: a case study of creditwest bank Cyprus. Journal of economics and international finance. Vol. 5 August 2013.
- Why employee motivation important (2020) [Video].Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyEpGMNjtdk&t=126s [Accessed on 04 December 2022]
- Zameer, Hashim; Ali, Shehzad; Nisar, Waqar & Amir, Muhammad (2014). The impact of the motivation on the employee’s performance in beverage industry of Pakistan. International Journal of Academic in Accounting. Finance and Management Sciences. Vol. 4 No. 1 Jan 2014.
- Zuriekat, M,, Salamah R, & Alrawashdeh S (2011). Participation in Performance Measurement Systems and Level of Satisfaction. International Journal of Business and Social Science, Vol. 2 No. 8 May 2011.
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Employee engagement is a widely discussed topic in the fields of organizational development, management, and industrial psychology. This cannot be separated from the complex management of Human Resources. However, in general, employee engagement and work engagement do not have significant differences in terms of theoretical and scientific findings (Bakker, 2008). A person can be professional when they have engaged in their work. The higher the employee engagement, the better the quality of work obtained. Besides, cognitive, emotional, and physical conditions while working also needs to be considered (Khan, 1990).
ReplyDeleteThanks Derrick and agreed with you and further, Robinson et al. (2004) define employee engagement as “a positive attitude held by the employee towards the organization and its value. An engaged employee is aware of business context, and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organization. The organization must work to develop and nurture engagement, which requires a two-way relationship between employer and employee.”
DeleteEmployee engagement is a blessing for every organization. (Li Sun, 2019) define as harnessing the egos of the members of the organization for their work roles; Self-employment and self-expression for people physically, cognitively, and emotionally in their working lives. Employee engagement included not only cognition but also the flexible application of emotions and behaviors (Li Sun, 2019).
ReplyDeleteThanks Upul Commenting my post and adding furthermore Motivation has long been known as very important factor for an organization because of following benefits: puts human resources into action; improves level of efficiency of employees; leads to achievement of organizational goals; builds friendly relationship; leads to stability of work force (Aworemi et. al., 2011).
DeleteGreat content Malshani and adding furthermore, Employees, regardless of the nature of the business, are one of the key resources of a company. According to the Gallup Institute, globally only 15% of workers can be described as fully engaged in their work, while 85% are not engaged or are actively disengaged (Gallup, 2017). The causes of the deepening “disengagement crisis” lie in the absence of support to employees in achieving what they perceive for themselves as meaningful results (Forbes, 2014). Therefore, driving employee motivation and engagement will result in organizational performance.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sachini commenting my post and adding further, Ugwu, Onyishi, and Rodriguez-Sanchez (2014) suggested empowerment involves identifying the rights of employees and providing them with the proper resources for being successful. Organizational leaders that actively foster opportunities and engage the learning and developmental process create more profit, more satisfied employees, and enjoy higher retention rates (Carter, 2015; Schramm, Coombs, & Boyd, 2013). For example, Latif (2012) measured employee retention at 59% for an organization with employee-focused learning development
DeleteGood Article Malshani, engagement is ‘the
ReplyDeleteextent to which employees commit to someone or
something in their organization, how hard they
work, and how long they stay as a result of that
commitment’ (Wellins and Concelman, 2005)
Thanks Ameen appreciation and adding further Development refers to activities leading to the acquisition of new knowledge or skills for purposes of growing. Organizations provide employees with development programmes in order to enhance their capabilities. Employee development is gaining an increasingly critical and strategic imperative in organizations in the current business environment (Sheri-lynne 2007) in Abdul Hameed (2011). Thus organizations need to invest in continuous employee development in order to maintain employees as well as the organization success (Khawaja & Nadeem 2013).
DeleteAgreed on the above content Malshani, (Borrington & Stimpson, 2013) the reason why employees want to work hard and work effectively for a business is because of motivation. A person must be internally motivated, whether we refer to it as a need or a drive, motivation is a state of being inside of us that yearns for a change, either in the environment or in the self. When we draw from this source of power, motivation gives us the drive and direction we need to interact with the environment in a way that is adaptable, open-ended, and problem-solving. (Reeve, 2015)
ReplyDeleteThanks Tharaka sharing valuable details and furthermore, Aworemi, Abdul-Azeez & Durowoju (2011) defines motivation as an internal force that drives individuals to meet personal and organizational objectives. This means that employees are behaving partly driven by personal objectives such as to development of career, higher income, better facilities received, bonuses, awards, titles or other intrinsic rewards (Lunenburg, 2011; Omotayo; Paul, Falola & Hezekian, 2014). In Aworemi et. al., (2011) research findings mentioned that the working condition, interesting work and a good pay is the key factor that motivates employees to work.
DeleteGreat article Malshani. Agreed with the content, furthermore, Motivation requires that employees achieve certain outcomes, such as performance and productivity. He also showed that motivated workers are more autonomous and self-driven compared to less motivated people. Additionally, highly motivated employees are more eager to take on responsibility and have a strong sense of commitment to their jobs and careers. (Shahzadi et al., 2014)
ReplyDeleteThanks Dehara commenting my post and adding furthermore, Theoretically the impulse of financial incentives such as salary and bonuses (financial rewards) as well as other ‘intangible’ rewards will give sustainable spirit to the employees to work with high commitment, dedication, diligent and happy which will have a positive impact on engagement and performance of the employee. Some of the above concepts have been studied in different industry by Uzonna (2013) in the banking industry in Cyprus; Kwenin, et. al., (2013) in Vodafone Ghana; Zameer Ali, Nizar & Amir (2014) in food industry in Pakistan; Desai, Majumdar & Prabhu (2010) in car manufacturing and IT organization in Indian businesses.
DeleteA well researched and presented article Malshani. Agree with your arguments. Furthermore, academics such as Asim (2013) have pointed out that results of studies carried out to understand the impact of motivation on employee performance showed a positive relationship between the two elements. He went on to declare that there were clear indications increased levels of motivation among employees resulted in increased levels of performance across the organisation.
ReplyDeleteThanks Nelushan commenting my post and adding Furthermore, Woodruffe (2006) and Lockwood, (2006) explained that employee engagement has been linked to superior performance and higher levels of organizational commitment (Desai et. al., 2010). This statement support the research finding by Nowarck (2006) on meta-analysis of over 7939 business units in 38 companies show the relationship between employee satisfaction-engagement and business unit outcomes of customer satisfaction, profit, productivity and employee turnover (Desai et. al., 2010).
DeleteAs for the contemporary scenarios, human resource activities are an ongoing challenge for hospitality and tourism employers across the globe where turnover rates are often on a considerable scale (Deery, 2002). Eliciting employee engagement is challenging for the hospitality and tourism sectors. This matters because high-performance companies have been shown to have a large proportion of engaged employees (Purcell, 2006). This leads to consideration of what the levels of engagement are. McDonald’s is one of the notable examples of an organization that has worked to identify ‘the key drivers of employee engagement and have significantly enhanced the commitment and performance of their workforce’ (Fairhurst, 2008, p. 321).
ReplyDeleteThanks input my post Thilini and adding further, Training is most effective way of motivating and retaining high quality in human resources within an organization (Kate Hutchings, Cherrie J.Zhu, Brain K, Cooper, Yiming Zhang & Sijun Shao, 2009). Also added by Lowry, Simon & Kimberley (2002), training is a way of enhancing employee commitment and maximizing employee potential. According to Konings & Vanormelingen (2009),Colombo & Stanca (2008) and Sepulveda (2005) training is an instrument that fundamentally affects the successful accomplishment of organizations’ goals and objectives.
DeleteAgreed on your points Malshani. Motivation has a positive effect on performance. The results give meaning that the role of motivation becomes a supporting factor in an organization both government and private especially in improving performance. Empirical findings indicate that the direct influence of motivation on performance has an influence. This is based on the relationship between performance and motivation. The findings of this study are in line with several previous studies which have proven in advance that motivation has a significant effect on employee performance both directly (Elvina and Chao, 2019) as well as acting as mediators (Jayaweera, 2015).
ReplyDeleteThanks Ishara commenting my post and adding furthermore, Development programs worth investing so much into, as most successful organizations consider the progress of workforce and therefore invest in their training. This results to increase in skill and competence that improve morale and productivity (Sheeba, 2011). Development seems to reduce the turnover rate of employees (Deckop et al. 2006).
DeleteGood Post Malshani, The organization's management has the authority to connect organizational goals and objectives with performance targets in order to maximize performance. The organizational behavior, as exemplified by the senior management, has an impact on the degree of motivation and satisfaction through the organization's adherence to its core principles, guiding principles, and values (Roos, Van Eeden, 2008).
ReplyDeleteThanks Shazlinsahar commenting my post and adding furthermore, Bhatla (2011), in a study of employee engagement and its effects on employee performance with respect to Indian banks has identified organizational culture and organizational communication as prominent driver. Indian banks has identified organizational culture and organizational communication as prominent driver.
DeleteHighly relevant topic Malshani, According to David and Anderzej (2010), motivation can be understood as cognitive decision making in which the intension is to make the behavior that is aimed at achieving a certain goal through initiation and monitoring.
ReplyDeleteThanks Wasana commenting my post and adding furthermore, Towers, (2003) emphasized in his book titled, Working Today: Understanding What Drives Employee Engagement, quoted by Adelanwa (2013), that employee motivation was the biggest driver of organizational performance. He further stated that an organization that was able to motivate its employees and maintain it would be able to leverage their zeal and drive in order to ensure staff performance.
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