Human Resource Management: Principles of Motivating Others

Discuss about the  Human Resource Management: Principles of Motivating Others.

Introduction

People within an organisation are considered its most valuable assets and ensuring continuous improvement and well-being of this asset help them achieve competitive advantage against rivals in today’s fiercely competitive business environment (Crawley, Swailes, & Walsh, 2013). Employee motivation and engagement have always been a serious concern for managers and leaders as it is directly linked to employee effectiveness and efficiency. Employee performance and productivity are directly proportional to level of employee motivation (Hellriegel & John W. Slocum, 2011). Employees that experience less or almost no motivation are likely to produce low quality work, commitment and contribution towards desired organisational goals and objectives. On the other hand, employees that experience high motivation are likely to produce high quality work, creativity, persistence, commitment and contribution towards desired organisational goals and objectives (Miner, 2005). The primary purpose of this essay is to discuss Hackman and Oldham view that job itself is the key to employee motivation. Hackman and Oldham supports the idea that employee experience high motivation when they feel their jobs are challenging, interesting and important which in turn lead to job satisfaction, improved work performance and reduced labour turnover and absenteeism. Different views present in academic literature related to this topic are considered and used as evidence to draw conclusion in support of this topic.

Job Characteristics itself is the key to Employee Motivation

The term motivation is defined as the inward force acting within an individual that make the individual act in a specified, goal-oriented manner (Hellriegel & John W. Slocum, 2011). One of the management’s essential jobs is to ensure employees are motivated enough and their motivation is channelled effectively towards achieving organisational goals. Employee motivation affects directly their overall productivity, performance and work quality (Adair, 2009). Lack of employee motivation had been the prime reason behind failure of various organisations across the globe, thus, it is essential that employers identify and satisfy the their employee needs and motives in an effective manner. Greater the level of employee motivation, greater is their commitment and contribution towards organisational goals. Employees experience intrinsic motivation when they seek interest, enjoyment, self-expression, personal challenge or satisfaction of curiosity in the work. Employee experience extrinsic motivation when they are involved in work that leads to fulfilment of their goals that are apart from work itself (Härtel & Fujimoto, 2014). Apart from influencing employee productivity and performance, work motivation plays a very vital role in influencing overall workplace behaviour and commitment, thus, it is very important that organisations understand and structure their work environment in a way that encourage productive behaviour and discourage unproductive behaviour. Various motivational theories have been proposed that when implemented help managers and leaders derive desired level of employee motivation. Herzberg’s motivator-hygiene theory or the two-factor theory helps identifying two different sets of factors within a workplace, one that leads to job satisfaction and other whose absence leads to job dissatisfaction (Ehnert, 2009). Motivator factors at workplace include the work itself, its associated challenges, roles and responsibilities, advancement and recognition. The factors are related to an employee’s positive feeling about the job and to the overall content of the job (Weiner, 2012). These positive feeling in turn leads to satisfying individual needs for recognition, achievement and accountability. Thus, Herzberg’s motivator-hygiene theory completely supports Hackman and Oldham that the job itself and its content play a very vital role in satisfying employee needs and motives.

Hackman and Oldham opines that organisations must focus on job enrichment to keep their workforce motivated and derive desired performance and productivity (Härtel & Fujimoto, 2014). Job enrichment is the process of improving the essential nature of the job being performed. It involves making the job more interesting, challenging and important. Employees must feel that they are doing something really valuable for the organisation and at the same time they are acquiring new skills and knowledge (Albdour & Altarawneh, 2014). Hackman and Oldham idea behind job enrichment was to make the job itself so challenging and interesting and the employees so responsible and accountable that they experience motivation simply by performing the job. Employees derive a feeling of fulfilment and self-worth when they feel they are performing important and challenging tasks which require higher levels of skill, expertise and responsibility (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). Employees derive a sense of interdependence when they know tasks performed by them are really important and no one within the team can perform them easily. Enhancing the content of the job enable employers satisfy the esteem needs of their employees which is one the higher level needs as per Maslow’s needs hierarchy theory. Esteem needs refer to an individual’s need for self-respect, recognition, responsibility, appreciation and self-worth (Belcourt, McBey, Yap, & Hong, 2012). Developed by Hackman and Oldham the job characteristics model is a simple approach to job enrichment. This model is has its foundation on the view  that job enrichment not only helps employers design interesting and challenging jobs but also help employees feel that they are contributing towards organisational goals by performing tasks that are meaningful and valuable. The five core job characteristics identified in this model help creating three critical psychological states namely, experienced responsibility for outcomes of the work experienced meaningfulness of the work, and knowledge of the actual results of work activities which together lead to high employee motivation and commitment (Jr, 2005).  The five core job characteristics identified in the job characteristics model are skill variety which is the measure of degree to which different skills and talents of the employees are needed to perform a specific task, task identity which is the level to which a specific task needs completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work, task significance is the level to which the task being performed has an influence on the lives of other individuals internal and external to the organisation, autonomy is the level to which a task provide independence, freedom, accountability and discretion to the employees in determining ways of performing and scheduling it and job feedback is the level to which performing a specific task provides clear information and direction to employees about their overall effectiveness and efficiency (Markos & Sridevi, 2010). These five core job characteristics enable act as motivators in a workplace satisfying the esteem needs of employees. Employees feel highly motivated when they are involved in performing tasks that have these five core job characteristics.

Employees experience three psychological states while performing jobs that have five core job characteristics namely; Meaningfulness of work wherein employees feel that the tasks being performed are meaningful and they can relate to it (Mullins, 2011). Employers must ensure that the tasks being performed does not appear monotonous to employees as in this case the work itself is motivating factor which leads to intrinsic motivation. Responsibility is the second psychological state wherein employers must ensure that employees are given enough freedom of action wherein they are responsible for their own success or failure (Murray, Poole, & Jones, 2006). Employees must get enough opportunities to realise their full potential and achieve their career and learning goals. In this psychological state, self-actualisation needs of employees are taken care of. Knowledge of outcomes is the third psychological state wherein employees get an opportunity to know how successful their work was and what they have to learn from their mistakes (Susi.S & Jawaharrani.K, 2011). It also connect them emotionally with their customers who are being influenced by the outcome directly, thus associating a purpose to their tasks for keeping them motivated and committed in the future as well. Employees who experience all the three psychological states are found be highly motivated and committed to their job and organisation and tend to deliver high performance and productivity when compared to employees who do not experience these three states.

Each job characteristics identified by Hackman and Oldham influences a specific psychological state (Crawley, Swailes, & Walsh, 2013). The meaningfulness of work state is influenced by skill variety, task significance and task identity. Greater the skills and activities required to produce a identifiable outcome that influence the life of other associated directly or indirectly with the organisation greater will be the employees experience of meaningfulness of work. The responsibility for work outcomes state is influenced by autonomy of work. Greater the autonomy greater is the empowerment and responsibility experienced by employees (Härtel & Fujimoto, 2014). The knowledge of outcomes state is influenced by feedback characteristics of job. Employers must ensure that enough feedbacks are provided to employees for the tasks performed by them as this will give them an opportunity to determine their success or failure and also rectify their mistakes and learn from them. Knowledge of outcomes that is gained from feedback help workers evaluate their existing skills and accordingly plan improvements to achieve desired career goals (Jr, 2005). Employees experience a sense of job satisfaction when they perform tasks that have all the five job characteristics and they are highly motivated when they feel that the jobs they are performing are meaningful, useful and valuable for the organisation.

Conclusion

Employee motivation is the key to high employee productivity and performance which in turn leads to overall success of the organisation. Four types of personal and work outcomes occurs when employees experience all the three psychological states simultaneously. Firstly, employees view their jobs as challenging, interesting and important, and they would be motivated to perform these tasks without many efforts from the management as the job itself appears so stimulating and enjoyable. Employee will experience high internal motivation which will enhance their productivity and work quality. Secondly it will lead to high employee effectiveness and efficiency which in turn will motivate them to satisfy their higher level need for self-actualisation and fulfilment. Thirdly, employees experience a sense of commitment and emotional bonding with the organisation and its customers as the opportunities provided to them facilitate personal learning, growth and development. Organisations that are concerned for the growth and development of their employees experience high employee commitment and contribution towards desired organisational goals and objectives. Fourthly, when employees experience all the three psychological states simultaneously they start enjoying their work and derive a sense of job satisfaction which in turn leads to lower absenteeism and turnover.  Thus, it is evident that when employees feels their jobs are challenging, interesting and important, they derive a sense of motivation, which in turn leads to enhanced job satisfaction, employee overall performance, and lower absenteeism and turnover.

References

Adair, J. (2009). Leadership and Motivation: The Fifty-Fifty Rule and the Eight Key Principles of Motivating Others. London: Kogan Page Publishers.

Albdour, A. A., & Altarawneh, I. I. (2014). Employee Engagement and Organizational Commitment: Evidence from Jordan. International Journal of Business , 19 (2), 192  212.

Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong's Handbook of Human Resource    Management Practice. London: Kogan Page Publishers.

Belcourt, M., McBey, K., Yap, M., & Hong, Y. (2012). Strategic Human Resources          Planning. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Crawley, E., Swailes, S., & Walsh, D. (2013). Introduction to International Human Resource        Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ehnert, I. (2009). Sustainable Human Resource Management: A conceptual and exploratory         analysis from a paradox perspective. Hamburg: Springer Science & Business Media.

Härtel, C. E., & Fujimoto, Y. (2014). Human Resource Management. Sydney: Pearson      Australia.

Hellriegel, D., & John W. Slocum, J. (2011). Organisational Behaviour. New York: Cengage        Learning.

Jr, J. E. (2005). Motivation and Transactional, Charismatic, and Transformational   Leadership: A Test of Antecedents. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies       , 11 (4), 25-39.

Markos, S., & Sridevi, M. S. (2010). Employee Engagement: The Key to Improving          Performance. International Journal of Business and Management , 5 (12), 89-96.

Miner, J. B. (2005). Organizational Behavior: Essential theories of motivation and  leadership. New York: M.E. Sharpe.

Mullins, L. J. (2011). Essentials of Organisational Behaviour. London: Financial Times      Prentice Hall.

Murray, P., Poole, D., & Jones, G. (2006). Contemporary Issues in Management and         Organisational Behaviour. New York: Cengage Learning.

Susi.S, & Jawaharrani.K. (2011). Work-Life Balance: The key driver of employee  engagement. Asian Journal of Management Research , 2 (1), 474-483.

Weiner, B. (2012). An Attributional Theory of Motivation and Emotion. Hamburg: Springer            Science & Business Media.

 

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