It has always been a serious concern of the management of firms.

If it improves, it means greater chances for the company to grow and be more stable.

It refers to the act of giving employees reasons or incentives to work to achieve organizational objectives.

It refers to the process of activating behavior, sustaining it, and directing it toward a particular goal.

The definition of motivation is useful because it specifies three stages: ..... actions towards the achievement of objectives.

People who like what they are doing are highly motivated to produce the expected output.

When employees feel that they have the required skill and training to perform a task, the more motivated they become.

People will do their jobs well if they feel that by doing so, their needs will be satisfied.

Theories of Motivation:

This psychologist, theorized that human beings have five basic needs which are: ...

Those that are concerned with biological needs like food, drink, rest, and sex fall under the category of physiological needs.

These needs take priority over other needs.

After satisfying the physiological needs, people will seek to satisfy these.

These needs include freedom from harm coming from the elements or from other people, financial security which may be affected by loss of job or the breadwinner in the family, etc.

Needs where the employee will now strive to secure love, affection, and the need to be accepted by peers.

They refer to the need for a positive self-image and self-respect and the need to be respected by others.

The fifth and the topmost level needs in the hierarchy.

These needs involve realizing our full potential as human beings and becoming all that we are able to be.

Even if Maslow's theory has been largely questioned, one basic premise cannot be discarded: a ... no longer motivates an individual.

This indicates that a satisfied employee is motivated from within to work harder and that a dissatisfied employee is not self-motivated.

Herzberg identified two classes of factors associated with:

Achievement, recognition, work itself, responsibility, advancement, and growth.

Company policy and administration, supervision, relationship with supervisor, work conditions, salary, relationship with peers, personal life, relationship with subordinates, status, and security.

It is a motivation model based on the assumption that an individual will work depending on his perception of the probability of his expectations to happen.

This theory poses the idea that motivation is determined by expectancies and valences.

It is a belief about the likelihood or probability that a particular behavioral act (like attending training sessions) will lead to a particular outcome (like a promotion).

It is the value an individual places on the expected outcomes or rewards.

It refers to the process of improving performance with objectives, deadlines or quality standard.

The goal setting model is drawn by ...

The goal setting model drawn by Edwin A. Locke and his associates consists of the following components:

To be sufficient it must be challenging, attainable, specific and measurable, time limited, and relevant.

It must be attainable if they are to be set. If they are not, then workers will only be discouraged to perform, if at all.

It must be stated in quantitative terms whenever possible. When exact figures to be met are set, understanding is facilitated and workers are motivated to perform.

There must be a time-limit set for it to be accomplished.

When individuals or groups are committed to the goals they are supposed to achieve, there is a chance that they will be able to achieve them.

Goals influence behavior in terms of direction, effort, persistence, and planning.

When an individual is provided with direction, performance is facilitated.

This provide the individuals with a way of knowing how far they have gone in achieving objectives.

This facilitate the introduction of corrective measures whenever they are found to be necessary.

Individual or groups of individuals may be motivated to perform through the use of various techniques. These techniques may be classified as follows:

A person will be highly motivated to perform if he is assigned a job he likes.

Specifying the tasks that constitute a job for an individual or a group.

In motivating through the use of job design, two approaches may be used:

Routine and repetitive tasks make workers suffer from chronic dissatisfaction.

Where management provides honest explanations of what a job actually entails.

Where people are moved periodically from one specialized job to another.

Where a worker's exposure to a highly fragmented and tedious job is limited.

Instead of changing the person, management may consider changing the job.

Where two or more specialized tasks in a work flow sequence is combined into a single job.

Where efforts are made to make jobs more interesting, challenging, and rewarding.

Fitting People to Jobs:

Fitting Jobs to People:

Consist of material and psychological benefits to employees for performing tasks in the workplace.

Rewards may be classified into two categories:

Those which refer to payoffs granted to the individual by another party.

Examples are money, employee benefits, promotions, recognition, status symbols, praise, etc.

Those which are internally experienced payoffs which are self-granted.

Examples are a sense of accomplishment, self-esteem and self-actualization.

No single type of reward is generally applicable to all employees.

When employees participate in deciding various aspects of their jobs, the personal involvoment, oftentimes, is carried up to the point where the task is completed.

The specific activities identified where employees may participate are as follows:

The more popular approaches to participation includes the following:

A method of direct employee participation.

Its objective is to increase productivity and quality of output.

Consists of a group of three to ten employees, usually doing related work, who meet at regular intervals (once a week for an hour, for example) to identify problems and discuss their solutions.

Includes a leader such as a foreman, but rely on democratic processes.

The members are trained in various analysis techniques by a ...

Forwards its recommendations to management, which in turn, makes decisions on its adaption.

When workers have reached a certain degree of discipline.

Also known as autonomous work groups or high performance teams.

They take on traditional managerial tasks as part of their normal work routine.

They work on their own, turning out a complete product or service and receiving minimal supervision from managers who act more as facilitators than supervisors.

When a product or service is produced by a group of professionals or specialists, they might as well be formed as ... to save on supervisory costs.

The advent of theories on individual differences and the biological clock of human beings put pressure on the engineer manager to adapt these.

Other Motivation Techniques:

There is an arrangement which allows employees to determine their own arrival and departure times within specified limits.

An alternative to this arrangement is the adaption of the forty-hour work in four days allowing the employee to choose a ...

Employees are oftentimes burdened by family obligations like caring for children.

One given to an employee after a certain number of years of service.

The employee is allowed to go on leave for two months to one year with pay to give him time for family, recreations, and travel.