Employee performance, motivation, and organizational appraisal systems

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Organizational Structure and Culture -- Individual Performance at Work

Individual performance within a company can be affected by various factors. These could include intrinsic factors such as ability, effort, and motivation (The Space Within). Effort and motivation, however, are also be affected by external factors such as equity and expectation. Employees generally expect to be treated equally within the company and in relation to others in similar positions and companies. Furthermore, a certain reward is expected for a certain effort, while promotions are expected under circumstances such as extra training. All these factors affect the effort level and motivation of employees.

Other external factors include the task or role perception and environmental factors. The job, for example, could be perceived as important in terms of itself, its function in the organization, and in relation to other employees in the organization. The environment within which the employee words is also conducive to performance. Environmental factors, for example, could include stress levels and time constraints, as well as the physical conditions within which employees function.

A performance appraisal can have various purposes. It can be of benefit to both the employer and employee. Typically, such an appraisal functions to review the performance of employees over a certain period of time (Appraisals). These are meant to reveal the gap between actual and desired performance so that training requirements can be determined. They also reveal employees who are deserving of promotions or salary raises. By obtaining such information, the manager becomes able to better exercise organizational control by helping employees optimize their performance level. Those who do not, for example, perform at an optimal level can be encouraged or enabled to do so by further training.

Performance appraisals also help employees by making them aware of their own needs to improve their performance levels, as well as how they can help the company improve its overall performance. From the employee perspective, performance appraisals also help to clarify the expectations and responsibilities of employees, while their grievances are also reduced in this way. Perhaps most importantly, they also help to improve the effectiveness of communication among employees and management.

There are two basic systems of performance appraisals, which correlate to create a thorough assessment of employee performance. These include the evaluation and feedback systems. The evaluation system, as mentioned above, exists to determine performance gaps, while the feedback system functions to inform the employee of his or her performance quality. This system also serves as a mouthpiece for employees, who could provide feedback on the performance of the management team.

III. Motivational Theories

Dr. Abraham Maslow created his famous hierarchy of needs in 1943. Along with this, he wrote an article entitled "A Theory of Human Motivation." This theory included a framework for human motivation that was based on his hierarchy of needs. At its basis, the theory was integrated with the hierarchy of needs in terms of its assumption that human beings are most motivated by unsatisfied needs. Part of this theory was that the lower needs would need to be satisfied before the higher needs could be satisfied. In the workplace, then, Maslow held that lower-order needs such as safety and physiological needs would need to be satisfied before higher-level motivators such as self-fulfilment could be used as motivators in the workplace.

Herzberg's two-factor theory, on the other hand, holds that management should approach needs from two perspectives; factors that create dissatisfaction and factors that create satisfaction, where one group of factors is not necessarily the direct opposite of the other. According to Herzberg, intrinsic motivation should enjoy continual management support, and is promoted by job enrichment. There are three ways in which this could be ensured:

The full ability of the employee must be utilized;

Increased levels of ability should be rewarded with increased responsibility;

In case of the employer's inability to satisfy the intrinsic motivation needs of the employee, the employee should be replaced by another or the job should be automated.

According to the management literature and research, there is a correlation between job satisfaction and job performance. It might be assumed that the employee who is satisfied in the work that he or she performs will perform better than an employee who is not as such satisfied.

This is confirmed by Skibba, who notes that the relationship between job performance and employee satisfaction has been studied since 1939. It must, however, also be acknowledged that other factors influence job performance. An overall sense of job satisfaction, for example, might be hampered by an employee's stress levels or mood at any given time. In other words, long-term job satisfaction might positively influence long-term job performance, while short-term factors might work to the detriment or improvement of performance on the short-term level.

It is also interesting to note that initial studies on these phenomena found only a minimal correlation between job satisfaction and performance. However, later studies proved a larger correlation, which is today accepted as one of the axiomatic truths of management.

When considering motivation, a person might lose his or her motivation at work by losing the satisfaction of his or her main lower-order needs. An employee who is obliged to work under dangerous or physically unpleasant conditions, for example, would be likely to lose his or her motivation. Another factor is compensation, which is the most immediate motivator for job performance. Salary is directly related to the ability of employees to meet his or her own immediate needs in terms of food, shelter, and clothing, which are at the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

If this is no longer sufficient to meet these needs, an employee's motivation would be unlikely to last very long. This can then also be seen as the main reason behind striking for higher salaries; when employees no longer feel able to meet their own and their families' basic needs, they are likely to become dissatisfied and strike for higher salaries.