$pagename = “Free Essays”;
= “Motivation within an organisation | Business”;
$description =”Business Essay – The subject of motivating employees as a tool to improved organisational performance has been in existence since the 1950s”;
$subject = “Business”;
What role does motivation play within an organisation and how can it influence the performance of the organisation?
The subject of motivating employees as a tool to improved organisational performance has been in existence since the 1950s. However, little evidence is found of studies which have demonstrated the interrelationship, with the Hawthorne Experiment being the notable exception. Indeed, recent research conducted by Staffordshire University examined the impact of motivational techniques on school children’s test scores and found no difference in the average scores between those that had undergone the programme and control groups (BBC 2006 ).
The paper intends to review the range of motivational theories in existence and compare and contrast the more frequently cited works such as Vroom, Maslow, Taylor and Mayo. From this analysis, a number of qualitative factors that are believed to be motivators will be identified. These are expected to include amongst others reward, recognition, communication and safety. These will then be converted into quantitative measures such as the existence of communication systems, techniques of employee involvement, pay and benefits levels and accident rates. Once these can be measured it will be necessary to identify contrasting businesses or business areas where these measurables can be defined as “good” or “poor” against accepted human resource management practices as espoused by Legge, Armstrong etc. The relative organisational performance of each business or business area can then be assessed and a direct comparison made between this and their “score” in the motivators against internal and industry standard key performance indicators.
Identification of appropriate authors, papers and books:
General texts relevant to this research include those of Maslow, Vroom, Taylor and Mayo.
Management texts will include Armstrong, “A Handbook of Human Management Resource Practice”,
Armstrong “Performance Management: The New Realities,
Mullins “Management and Organisational Behaviour“,
Legge “Human Resource Management: Rhetorics and Realities”,
Torrington “Personnel Management : HRM in action”.
Other appropriate authors, papers and books include
The Academy of Management Journal.
Robbins, R.P Judge, T.A. (2006). Organizational Behaviour.
Baron, A. (1999). The Impact of People Management Practices on Business Performance.
Beardwell, I. Holden, L. (1997). Human Resource Management: A Contemporary Perspective.
Fombrun, C. (1984). Strategic Human Resource Management.
Goold, M. Campbell, A. (1987). Strategies and Styles.
Guest, D. (2000). “Human Resource Management, employee well-being and organizational performance”.
Huselid, M. (1995). “The impact of human resource management practices on turnover, productivity and corporate financial performance”.
Kay, J. (1993). Foundations of Corporate Success. How Business Strategies Add Value.
People Management Magazine.
Porter, M.E. (1985). Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance.
A brief review of the above:
Robbins (2006) defines motivation as “ the willingness to exert high levels of effort towards organizational goals” . These goals are frequently defined as key performance indicators and the organisations achievements against them, monitored through performance management techniques.
Armstrong et al’s (2004) definition of performance management is ‘a process which contributes to the effective management of individuals and teams in order to achieve high levels of organisational performance’ . This would suggest that managers use their knowledge of motivational theories to encourage individuals to put in a greater level of effort in order to achieve organisational success.
However, questions arise as to the validity of the connection between motivation and organisational performance. If the theories are generally accepted, there should be little if any incidents of organisations not performing. Writers (e.g. Robbins 2006) suggest that motivation is an internal state and that a managers role is to provide an environment in which the individual can realise their personal motivator(s). This would raise the question of how employers can identify all their individual employees personal motivations and ensure they can be fulfilled. It also raises the question as to how much do managers and their employees recognise the importance of the established theories of motivation as being a prerequisite to success. It has been argued (e.g. by Legge 2005) that many human resource policies are introduced due to legislative requirements (e.g. anti-discrimination, equal pay, works councils) rather than a recognition that such practices will encourage improved performance. Furthermore, the research should indicate which of the motivating factors are deemed as more relevant to both the employers and the employees thereby giving an opportunity to assess the different theories.
The results will allow a judgement to be made as to the role of motivation within an organisation and its impact on the organisations performance. Furthermore, it is expected that it will be possible to investigate whether the link between motivation and performance is recognised by employers and how they measure their success at motivating their employees.
Overview of methodology:
To measure the role of motivation within organisations and how it influences the businesses performance it is intended to research the levels of motivation within an organisation and compare the results to the success of the business i.e. conduct an observational study. Levels of motivation will be assessed through questionnaires, informal interviews and an analysis of the results of employee attitude surveys and exit interviews. The success of the business will be assessed through analysis of statistics following interviews with senior managers to determine their key performance indicators.
This will provide a combination of both quantitative and qualitative results.
Ethical issues to be considered include the competitive sensitivity of performance statistics. To overcome this they will be taken generally from publicly available information. Furthermore, individuals may be reticent in discussing something as personal as their motivation. Confidentiality will be assured and although the sample organisation may wish access to the completed paper, specific responses will remain confidential.
A recognised potential limitation of the research is that organisational performance can be influenced by a range of factors other than motivation and it will be necessary to ensure a positive correlation. To overcome this, it is proposed that the sample populations are taken from different areas of one business which is overall deemed as successful but has varying degrees of achievement of key performance indicators within departments.
The sample populations have been identified as being different parts of an organisation known to the researcher where access has already been agreed in theory.
Motivation will be classed as the independent or manipulated variable and business performance as the dependent variable and inferential statistical analysis will be carried out based on the hypothesis that motivation levels amongst employees have a positive impact on organisational performance.