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Employee Motivation, Rewards, And Driving Forces
Motivation is the study of what makes us do things. Every day we are faced with many decisions. What choice we make is the study of motivation. There are several theories of motivation, the theory of opportunity-cost is the most widely recognized. This paper will discuss the major forces that drive us and influence our decisions.
The advent of the industrialized age forced many companies to study what motivates their workers in an attempt to boost production. It was believed that money was the key motivational factor in driving employee performance. It was later found that other factors besides money effect their attitudes and work ethics (Lindner, 1998). This led to further studies in an attempt to understand the factors that motivate employees. These included Maslow's need-hierarchy theory, Herzberg's two-factor theory, Vroom's expectancy theory, Adam's equity theory, and Skinner's reinforcement theory (Lindner, 1998).
All of these theories centered on one factor. Modern motivational...
This idea is centered on the idea that every action has a cost.
This cost may be time, money, or emotional. In making our decisions we weigh the potential gain from the action against the cost (Lindner, 1998).
Motivation is important. For employers motivation means production. For students, motivation means the ability to achieve the end goal. Lorraine and associates conducted a survey of students in both high school elementary school and found that the degree of motivation in these students was directly associated with their ability to learn and perform certain tasks (Lorraine et.al., 2001).
In practical application, in order for employers to increase production and teachers to increase the ability for students to learn. Leaders must increase the benefit of the action and reduce the opportunity cost in relation ship to the gains involved. It is often easier to raise the reward than to decrease the cost. As we…
Works Cited
Lindner, James R. Understanding Employee Motivation. Piketon Research and Extension
Center. The Ohio State University. Journal. June 1998, Volume 36, Number 3. http://www.joe.org/joe/1998june/rb3.html. Accessed May 2002.
Lorraine, Sherry, Shelley Billig, Daniel Jesse, and Deborah Watson-Acosta. Assessing the Impact of Instructional Technology on Student Achievement. The Journal. February 2001. http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/vault/A3297.cfm. Accessed May, 2002.
Al., eds., 2004; Masicampo and Baumeister, 2011). Need Hierarchy Theory- Need theory is a combination of Maslow's "Hierarchy of Needs" and Herzberg's "Two-Factor Theory." It essentially goes beyond drive and says that humans have needs that must be satisfied; typically layered from survival issues upward. Once the bottom layers have been fulfilled (e.g. food, shelter, safety), then self-esteem, recognition, achievement and self-actualization, which are all workplace goals, become even more important.
Whole Foods uses stock options as a way to motivate employees and reward them for performance (COMPANY: Whole Foods Market, Inc., n.d.). In a controversial new program, Whole Foods has started rewarding its healthiest workers with larger employee discounts. The goals of this voluntary agenda are to encourage and reward employees for making healthy, positive lifestyle changes and to reduce the costs of their health plan. Whole Foods employees are
Employee Customer Service Training New Employee Customer Service Training Plan Justify the use of a needs assessment of your company's proposed employee customer service training, stressing five (5) ways in which such an assessment would expose any existing performance deficiencies. The employees of an organization act like the 'driving force' which can either lead the organization towards success or can turn out to be the cause of its failure. A company's progress not
Rewards and Compensation Systems Human capital is an important contributor to the worldwide wealth, and this recognizes the vital role in increasing the organization's effectiveness. One important function of the HRM is motivation of the employees, which has noticeable results in all levels of an organization. This starts from the managers who must recognize the factors that motivate their employees to improve their performance through designing and implementing effective compensation and
Motivation in Sport Take a look at the animal world and you will find the proof that game is an inherent feature of the virtually evaluated species. This has an important part in literacy and evolution. We witness many a mock fights between kittens and pups so as to enhance their stamina, speed, tolerance and will. Through such hatred free games, they rub their hands for survival and satisfy their urge
The answers offered by the high profit seekers as stakeholders is to take advantage of the immigrant, by demanding high work hours, and even in some cases taking advantage of the individual's low level of knowledge about the rights and responsibilities of the employee and the employer, denying overtime pay, when earned, unauthorized deductions from pay, even things as simple as demanding less "ethnic" hairstyles from employees to the