INTRODUCTION AND THE TYPES OF EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION

The concept of motivation can be explained as a process of behavioral and cognitive approach which induces an employee’s inclination to accomplish his individual and overall organizational goals (Håvold and Håvold, 2019). Motivation is considered as a principal component of the workplace behaviors and is defined as a method of incentivizing individuals to act and accomplish organizational goals (Ololube et al., 2013). The term ‘motivation’ refers to the inputs which would generate, guide and facilitate an individual’s behavioral attitude towards the expected outcome (Pinder, 1998). Nahavandi et al. (2013) define motivation as a psychological aspect which illustrates the reason of individual’s attitude towards rewards. According to Timm and Peterson (2000), motivation comes from a person’s needs, demand, desire and yearning. Buford et al. (1995) define motivation as a predilection to act in a more resolute way to satisfy unmet wants. Employee motivation is explained as the enthusiasm and eagerness of an employee to strive for attaining organizational goals as well as satisfying his or her personal needs (Robbins and Coulter, 1996). Work motivation is described as a combination of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors that stimulate work behaviors and control its direction and time span (Rusu and Avasilcai, 2014).

Motivation has been defined as: the psychological process that gives behavior purpose and direction (Kreitner, 1995); a predisposition to behave in a purposive manner to achieve specific, unmet needs (Buford, Bedeian, & Lindner, 1995); an internal drive to satisfy an unsatisfied need (Higgins, 1994); and the will to achieve (Bedeian, 1993).

Employee motivation is the enthusiasm, energy level, commitment, and amount of creativity that an employee brings to the organization (Islam and Ismail, 2008). “Work Motivation is a set of energetic forces that originate both within as well as beyond an individual’s being, to initiate work -related behavior, and to determine its form, direction, intensity and duration (Pinder 2008).

Motivation is the driving force that will lead people to achieve (Bedeian,1993). Employees get motivated by intrinsic (internal) as well as extrinsic (external) factors. (Alshamemri, 2017).

Initial studies found that if an individual engaged freely in an activity (out of interest) and was subsequently offered an external reward such as money (Deci 1971) or points (Lepperet al. 1973) for engaging in that activity, then intrinsic motivation toward the activity declined. Although these initial findings were controversial because they challenged operant theories of behavioral reinforcement, a subsequent meta-analysis affirmed that when extrinsic rewards are expected and tangible, they indeed undermine intrinsic motivation for an activity (Deciet al. 1999). Extrinsic motivation is governed by reinforcement contingencies. (Deci et al., 1999).

Below video (Video 01) describes how to motivate employees in an organization and the two ways of motivating employees with examples.

1. Intrinsic motivation 

2. Extrinsic motivation

                                                                Video 01

                                                (Source: Bernd Geropp, 2019)

Reference

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• Nahavandi, A., Denhardt, R.B., Denhardt, J.V. and Aristigueta, M.P. (2013) Organizational Behaviour, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, California.

• Ololube, N.P., Nwokolo, J.O., Onyekwere, L.A. and Kpolovie, P.J. (2013) ‘Fringe benefits and employee motivation in selected banks in Delta State of Nigeria’, African Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp.27–51.

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• Timm, P.R. and Peterson, B.D. (2000) People At Work: Human Behaviour in Organizations, South-Western College Publication, Cincinnati, USA.