Motivation in the workplace
Introduction

Work life at Amalgamated Biscuit (AB) appears to be pretty good. The labor force at the corporation seems to be generally happy, motivated and productive. On the other hand, the opposite seems to be the case at Federated Biscuit (FB). The workforce at the corporation appears to be not only discouraged but also demotivated. The chief executive officers at these two corporations are very much interested in quantifying the comparative level of motivation in the workplace. The main objective of this paper is to present two different methods that can be utilized to ascertain motivation and morale in workplaces like AB and FB and examine the strengths and weaknesses of these two selected methods.

Measuring Motivation through Performance Levels

The first approach of measuring motivation is through the measuring performance. Motivation can be measured in terms of performance levels at a certain task that is goal related. This is particularly if performance is variable and pivotal to the goal. In this approach, the performance measures comprise of accuracy or precision, the amount of work that has been accomplished, and the highest level of achievement. For instance, different research studies have taken this approach into consideration. For instance, the research study undertaken by Bargh et al. (2001) sought to examine the impact of priming on motivation by measuring motivation by means of the participants’ performance at search puzzles for five different words. The outcomes of the study demonstrated that the participants primed with accomplishment and attainments were able to find additional words in comparison to control patients. The inference of this is that the participants were more motivated to achieve. Secondly, a research study conducted by Bandura and Schunk (1981) sought to demonstrate that proximal goals and objectives are more motivating compared to distal goals and objectives by measuring the mathematical achievement motivation of the children through their performance on a number of problems regarding subtraction. The outcomes of the study demonstrated that children encouraged to establish proximal goals and objectives during a previous period of preparation were able to solve a greater number of problems in an accurate and correct manner compared to the students that sect distal goals and objectives. In accordance to Toure-Tillery and Fishbach (2014), an additional element of performance is persistence or the magnitude to which a person continues unwaveringly in the search of a goal in spite of intrinsic challenges. For instance, a highly motivated employee...…other hand, this approach does have its shortcomings. Most noticeably, different employees have different tasks at hand. Some of these tasks are short-term and others long-term. Therefore it is not only challenging but also inaccurate to compare the two as it provides the wrong perceptions of an employee’s performance level (Green, 2018).

The second approach of measuring motivation through evaluation, devaluation and perception has its strengths and weaknesses as well. For starters, the positive evaluation and perception of tasks and work by employees is a great indicator of motivation. It infers to the perspective that the employees are geared and inspired to undertake such tasks. In addition, there is a greater likelihood of an individual undertaking and completing a task of he or she has a positive perception of the task and therefore motivated to undertake it. However, on the other hand, this approach has a major flaw. Perception does not necessarily equal performance. Imperatively, not all individuals are eager to undertake work. However, this does not imply that they will not be able to undertake it and complete it in an expeditious manner. Therefore, this approach can give false measures of employee motivations (Toure-Tillery and Fishbach, 2014).

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