Effect of Motivation On Employees Work P PDF
Effect of Motivation On Employees Work P PDF
Effect of Motivation On Employees Work P PDF
Methodology – The targeted company selected was Ireland Blyth Ltd (IBL)
which is one of the largest conglomerates in Mauritius. One of its Business
Units was chosen for investigation, namely the „Brandactiv‟ department.
Findings – The analysis has revealed that there is a significant link between
motivation and employee performance. Two hypotheses were formulated and
tested to ascertain those results.
Research limitations – IBL is a large company with high turnover and hence
can implement fairly good systems which might not be possible by other
companies with lower turnover. Moreover, they are in a position to attract the
best employees as well.
Originality/value – This study has provided some insights on the effort made
by companies locally to motivate employees.
1. Introduction
All organizations encounter the issue of motivation whether they are in the public or a
private sector. Organizations in both the public and private sectors in Mauritius have
objectives which can only be achieved by going through the right direction and
stimulating the employees to get the desired result through the process of motivation.
The objectives of the research are: 1) to determine the relationship between motivation
and performance. 2) to evaluate financial and non financial incentives brought by
management to encourage employees at work. 3) to explore changes brought by a
satisfied employee in a company and 4) to assess how the reward system motivates
workers
2. Literature
One of first traditional approaches to motivation was the fear and punishment
______________
Ms. Jyoti Devi Mahadeo, Faculty of Law and Management, University of Mauritius, Mauritius.
Email: [email protected]
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Proceedings of 8th Annual London Business Research Conference
Imperial College, London, UK, 8 - 9 July, 2013, ISBN: 978-1-922069-28-3
“As the willingness to exert high levels of effort to reach organizational goals as
conditioned by that effort‟s ability to satisfy some individual need.” (Robbins and Coulter,
1999 p.26).
Straus and Sayles pointed out two types of rewards, the first one being “naïve
paternalism” and the second one being “subtle paternalism”. The first type of
paternalism assumes that employees will work more and more out of loyalty and
gratitude if the manager has a positive attitude towards them. “Subtle paternalism”
explains that workers achieve their task for the good working conditions and benefits
prevailing in the organization. (Heyel, 1982).
The „Taylorism‟ theory, “Carrots‟ and sticks” were examined by a group of researchers
led by Professor Elton Mayo at the Harvard University to overcome its limitations. The
Human Relations Movement or the Hawthore experiments in the 1930‟s demonstrated
that money is not the only factor motivating man, the work environment, management
styles and structures may be a determining factor in that it helps in an informal way of
communication. Employees feel good to share their suggestion and satisfy their social
need in the organization and as such they are motivated to perform their task even
better. Managers had to guide employees and show what kind behavior was acceptable
in organizations. Also, they were to put initiatives to boost employee morale and lower
absenteeism. (1954 cited by Vroom and Deci 1992 p.363 – p.366)
Content theories
The content theories also known as the „need theories‟ or „psychological theories‟,
focuses on the need of an employee. It concentrates on „what‟ motivates an employee.
As we human beings, have various needs, if those needs are left unsatisfied, it will
disrupt us to move ahead because we feel a sense of lackness. If all needs of an
employee are satisfied, he will be productive at work. A manager must distinguish the
needs of his employees and devise proper plans on how to satisfy those needs. Thus
identifying and designing the effective package of needs for individuals is of utmost
importance for managers. This school of thought has 5 contributors and this is shown
below:
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Proceedings of 8th Annual London Business Research Conference
Imperial College, London, UK, 8 - 9 July, 2013, ISBN: 978-1-922069-28-3
Author Theory
Abraham The hierarchy
Maslow of needs
Clayton
ERG Theory
Alderfer
David C. Acquired –
McClelland needs Theory
Frederick Motivation –
Herzberg Hygiene
The pyramid above classes the order of importance of needs. Needs are satisfied
starting from the lower levels (1, 2) and moving up the pyramid to the higher needs (3-
5). Maslow argued that these needs are to be satisfied in a first up to second, second
up to third way. When a need is satisfied, it is no longer a motivator. The needs that are
not yet satisfied become the driving force.
Psychological needs
These needs are the ones that assure yourself that you have satisfied your basic needs.
They are also called biological needs and few examples of these needs are breathing,
food, shelter, clothing, and sleep. According to Maslow, you have to fulfill these needs
to move up to the next level.
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Proceedings of 8th Annual London Business Research Conference
Imperial College, London, UK, 8 - 9 July, 2013, ISBN: 978-1-922069-28-3
Safety needs
Also called security needs, they are needs that are to be felt and fulfilled in order to
move on, such as job security. Private organizations‟ workers are the one that mostly
feel that their work is at risk during financial crisis. Examples of the needs are the
security of property, morality, family and thyself. Private organizations are nowadays
promoting safety and health plans, emergency fund and „accident cover‟ benefits.
Belonging needs
The needs in this level are also known as social needs. People need to feel that they
belong to a group (social ties) and are accepted the way they are. With that they are not
to be excluded from any relation (e.g. family). These are feelings of friendship, love, and
sexual intimacy. At work, having colleagues and not feeling you are wanted is a lack in
a person‟s life. To counteract this, a manager could force them to work in groups to
achieve an organizational goal and thus promote teamwork. In addition, some private
firms cater for assistance and counseling in which case workers feel free to share their
views. Also, employees can enhance their relationship with the subordinates from
welfare committees.
Esteem needs
These are also called „egoistic‟ needs and are difficult to satisfy in some industries.
People need to feel that they are respected; we have a self esteem so we have to be
valued while respecting others. We humans have the urge to be „Someone‟ i.e., have an
image of one‟s self. Examples of these needs are achievement and confidence. If the
manager talks to his subordinate, the latter feels recognized at work. He should
however adopt a participative management style. For instance, in a private sector,
workers will have to be valued for what they do, as they are the main key to success. If
a worker steps back, an organization may feel a drastic change.
Self – actualization
We feel a need to grow at work and feel that we have the potential of doing things. For
instance, we are born to be a manager, to impose rules and set discipline, incentives to
work productively and boost their moral. Morality, acceptance of facts, lack of prejudice,
creativity, spontaneity and problem solving are all examples of self - actualization
needs. It is based on doing what we can, in other words we must be what we are able to
be. (Vroom and Deci 1992 p.370 – 396)
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Proceedings of 8th Annual London Business Research Conference
Imperial College, London, UK, 8 - 9 July, 2013, ISBN: 978-1-922069-28-3
rank a need which is lower in the Maslow‟s hierarchy of needs higher or vice versa and
there may be more than five types of needs. Further to that, it has been said that when
employees have satisfied the five level needs, they ought to be creative, innovative and
productive.
ERG theory
Clayton Alderfer introduced his theory as a substitute of Maslow‟s theory in 1969. He
brought a simple approach with three categories of needs. The theory demonstrates a
„satisfaction-progression principle‟ which can also be denoted from the pyramid of
Maslow. The needs governing Clayton‟s theory are described below:
Existence (Physiological and safety needs) means the basic need of a person
such as physical comfort and being alive.
Relatedness (social needs) requires people to feel together, i.e., share a
relationship and have a sense of their being.
Growth (Self actualization and esteem needs) is the need to achieve higher and
to become self determined. It is the sense of having conquered something for us
and the others.
Needs can be satisfied simultaneously. Also, a person experiencing difficulties to satisfy
a need may rank it as a lower need. Hence, the theory possesses a “frustration –
regression dimension.”(Clayton, 1972).
3. Organisational Profile
The Vision of the Group is:
IBL is one of the largest business groups in the country. The latter was established in
1972 with merger Blyth Brothers and Ireland Fraser, who were leading firms in the early
19th century in Mauritius. Moreover, IBL group is a 100% Mauritian entity and it provides
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Proceedings of 8th Annual London Business Research Conference
Imperial College, London, UK, 8 - 9 July, 2013, ISBN: 978-1-922069-28-3
employment for more than 7,000 people. In addition, it has 80 active companies and
represents 200 brands. It is also internalizes with Reunion Island, Comoros,
Madagascar, Mayotte, Morocco, Seychelles, India, Ugunda, Dubai, France and China.
Adding to that, employees are given training and development for enhancing their KSA
and other incentives are put forward to encourage them to work better. Their initiatives
are the IBL Fidelity Card, IBL Provident Fund, IBL Pension Scheme, IBL Employees
Credit Union, IBL Emergency Fund, Group Personal Accident Cover, IBL Scholarship
and welfare activities for employees. Health and safety issues are highly regarded as
main motivators and IBL fulfills assistance and counseling employees‟ needs.
IBL‟s head office ensures an easy flow of resources to the activity sectors. It is
important to manage an organization as this leads to organizational success. The head
office consists of four departments and this is demonstrated below:
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Proceedings of 8th Annual London Business Research Conference
Imperial College, London, UK, 8 - 9 July, 2013, ISBN: 978-1-922069-28-3
IBL GROUP
COMPANY
Logistics,
Engineering Financial Seafood and
Commerce Aviation & Retail
Services Marine
Shipping
Mauritian IBL
HealthActiv Servequip IOL
Eagle Leasing Biotechnology
Marine
Mauritian
MedActiv Scomat Logidis Biotechnology
Eagle Life
products
Mer des
Blychem DTOS Somatrans
Mascareignes
IBL Ship
Interface Thon des
Owning
International Mascareignes
Management
Interface
Management IBL Aviation
Services
UPS
Ground2Air
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Proceedings of 8th Annual London Business Research Conference
Imperial College, London, UK, 8 - 9 July, 2013, ISBN: 978-1-922069-28-3
0 - 150 • Unsatisfactory performance. The employee has not met the targets.
226 - 300 • Good performance. Most of the standards have been met.
301 - 350 • Very good performance. employee has positively exceeded standards to
be met.
4. Methodology
The research question for this study is to determine the factors that affect employee
motivation and how the latter in turn affects work performance of employees? While the
objectives are: 1) To determine the relationship between motivation and performance.
2) To evaluate financial and non financial incentives brought by management to
encourage employees at work. 3) To explore changes brought by a satisfied employee
in a company. 4) To assess how the reward system motivates workers.
Two hypotheses drawn from the literature were formulated. These are
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Proceedings of 8th Annual London Business Research Conference
Imperial College, London, UK, 8 - 9 July, 2013, ISBN: 978-1-922069-28-3
The research approach to be conducted in the study is the deductive approach as data
is being collected and analyzed quantitatively. A questionnaire survey was administered
to collect primary data.
Population
The target population of the research is the „Brandactiv department‟ of Ireland Blyth
Limited (see organizational profile). The study suggests that the sample size should be
the employees who respond to commercial issues and deal with customers mainly.
These types of employees mainly concerned with motivation have an effect on the
overall business profit.
As such we opted for the lower level employees which comprises of sales
representatives, commercial travelers, merchandisers and vehicle assistance staff. 100
employees out of the 217 employees are low-level ones were selected for the survey.
161 are male workers and the remaining 56 are females. This level of employees is the
potential unit to study and closely fit the research. Hence, purposive sampling, also
known as judgmental sampling, has been selected. The former can be defined as a
sample which is chosen “based on the knowledge of a population and the purpose of
the study” (Babbie, 2001). Out of the 100 questionnaires administered only 97 were
usable and subsequently analysed. The classic tests for reliability and validity were
performed.
5. Analysis
A reliability test has been carried out on the Likert scale questions. The test showed a
figure of Cronbach's Alpha α = 0.854 for the 19 items; α =0.762 for the next 8 items and
α = 0.784 for the last 3 items. Hence, it can be concluded that the instrument devised is
reliable. The mean and standard deviation are as follows in the table:
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Proceedings of 8th Annual London Business Research Conference
Imperial College, London, UK, 8 - 9 July, 2013, ISBN: 978-1-922069-28-3
Descriptive Statistics
N Mean Std. Deviation
Advancement 97 4.04 1.010
Autonomy 97 3.79 .946
Commission 96 4.27 .946
Communication 97 3.74 1.111
Company goodwill 97 3.29 1.108
Company policies 97 3.30 1.165
Interpersonal relationship 97 3.68 1.186
Job itself 97 4.26 .807
Job security 97 4.22 .869
Learning opportunities 97 3.97 .973
Management styles 97 3.46 1.100
Organizational culture 97 3.59 1.205
Overtime hours and pay 97 3.96 1.224
Recognition 97 4.04 1.060
Recreational activities 97 3.51 1.042
Supervision 96 3.44 .892
Training/team building 97 3.64 1.002
Working conditions 97 3.96 1.040
Workshops 97 3.11 1.059
Valid N (listwise) 95
The most important part of the mean column is 4. This indicates that most of the
respondents find these factors important at work. As for „company policies‟,
„management styles‟, „supervision‟ and „workshops‟ they have a mean of 3, it states that
many employees have a „moderately important‟ answer (not least important nor most
important).
Work related pay and fringe benefits offered in the contract of employment
This part also is five point scale question and comprises of one more column which is
the „not applicable‟. This describes how the satisfied the employees are about
company‟s offerings.
Descriptive Statistics
N Mean Std. Deviation
Basic salary 97 3.57 .967
Lay-offs 94 3.35 1.013
Locals 97 3.47 1.011
Probation period 96 3.24 1.176
Salary review 97 3.26 1.073
Sick leaves 97 3.71 .957
Vacation 97 3.32 1.204
Working hours 96 3.39 1.173
Valid N (listwise) 92
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Proceedings of 8th Annual London Business Research Conference
Imperial College, London, UK, 8 - 9 July, 2013, ISBN: 978-1-922069-28-3
The figure points out that mean obtained for „Basic salary‟ and „Sick leave‟ are 3.57 and
3.71 respectively. This reflects that the respondents are satisfied from the two factors
mentioned. When considering the mean of the other factors, the respondents have had
a „moderately satisfied‟ answer for them. In addition, the higher the standard deviation,
the higher the response variability.
Level of motivation
This Likert scale question ranks the factors below from „Strongly agree to strongly
disagree.‟ They have been formulated as sentences in order to identify the level of
motivation and they are shown in the table below:
Descriptive Statistics
N Mean Std. Deviation
Freedom/task/way I want 97 3.60 1.644
Reward/efficiently executed 97 3.79 1.738
Job/society/colleagues 97 3.44 1.574
Disrupted/organizational conflicts 97 4.27 1.741
Still work/unemployment benefits 95 4.11 1.954
Work hard/subordinates appreciate 96 4.25 1.947
Like difficult tasks/challenging 97 3.53 1.893
Responsibilities/delegation/loyal 97 3.25 1.803
Tools & equipment/productive 96 2.54 1.360
Idle/no supervision & workload 97 6.32 2.114
Overtime/tasks/avoid workload 97 4.04 2.091
Valid N (listwise) 94
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Proceedings of 8th Annual London Business Research Conference
Imperial College, London, UK, 8 - 9 July, 2013, ISBN: 978-1-922069-28-3
Hypothesis Testing
1. To evaluate how financial and non financial incentives have an effect upon job
satisfaction.
Correlations
Job Financial and non
satisfaction financial
incentives
Pearson Correlation 1 .233*
Job satisfaction Sig. (2-tailed) .022
N 97 97
*
Pearson Correlation .233 1
Financial and non financial
Sig. (2-tailed) .022
incentives
N 97 97
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
It can be described from the above that there is a significant relationship between job
satisfaction and financial and non-financial rewards. Alternative hypothesis is being
accepted as it has a two – tailed significance of .022. Consequently, the null hypothesis
is being rejected. However, the Pearson‟s correlation shows that the relationship
between the bivariate is relatively weak.
The above Spearman test proves that there is a significant relationship between
performance and motivation. As such H1 is being accepted as it has a significance value
of less than 0.01 and H0 is being rejected. It is however a moderately strong
relationship. Thought majority of the employees agreed that there is a relationship
between these 2 variables, this however differs in practice when it was applied in the
organization. In this part the views of employees and results of employees contradict
each other. The analysis was governed by the three Rs of employee motivation, which
are Recognize, Reward and Renew and they prevail at IBL.
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Proceedings of 8th Annual London Business Research Conference
Imperial College, London, UK, 8 - 9 July, 2013, ISBN: 978-1-922069-28-3
Organizational Culture.
More emphasis could be put on the organizational culture because the employees
reflect the culture of the company. Consequently, leaders have to make the employees
feel proud of the company and part of its success. This will give rise to a bond between
the people of the organization and management; the employees will be acting for the
goodwill of company. It is said that it is the people of the organization who make the
culture; therefore it is also the duty of senior management to promote a healthier work
environment and good working conditions to motivate the employees. The work
environment should be arranged in such a way that it will drive away employee
frustration
Involvement of Employees
When they are involved in every transaction of the company, they feel „desired/needed‟
at work. IBL, to a certain extent allows employee participation in the decision making
process (as seen in analysis). But the policies, short and long term objectives are those
points that need strategic planning (top management) along with assistance of some
employees. As it is the employees who have to abide by these rules and work to
achieve goals, therefore their advice must be sought at any level. A trade union cannot
do much when a decision has already been taken. Therefore, employee‟s advice should
be sought before the implementation process. Then, employees are also more
motivated and are in a better position to adhere to the policies.
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Proceedings of 8th Annual London Business Research Conference
Imperial College, London, UK, 8 - 9 July, 2013, ISBN: 978-1-922069-28-3
Another suggestion I would like to make is that IBL could incorporate the introduction of
a bounty system. Essentially, this means that when a vacancy becomes available and
there is no suitable person to take on this role internally, employees are given the
opportunity to „officially‟ suggest a friend or ex-colleague for the role. In turn, if that
person is selected for the job, based purely on their merit and performance during the
interview then the employee that originally nominated their friend/ex-colleague for the
role receives a sum of money as recognition for their contribution to having an effective
and skilled workforce. In summary, employees will be rewarded for taking an interest in
the well-being of the company.
ESOP
ESOPs have many functions, but all functions arrive at the same goal: to motivate the
employee. ESOP is an ownership interest given to the company to boost its work. The
company gives the employee a share, or a stock ownership. It usually has no cost,
therefore can be considered as a contribution from the company to the employee.
Profit-Related Pay
Profit-related pay can be defined as pay that is directly related to the employer‟s profit.
Thus if one rises, so does the other. This is another financial-way to motivate the
employee and helps him to understand better how the economic climate work, supply
and demand (costs and prices).
Financial Crisis
Whenever a crisis strikes the country, employees fear redundancy. Management should
at this time communicate with employees to boost their motivation, and inform them that
there may be some minor cuts in salary or the possibility of a pay freeze the following
year but employment will be maintained.
Other Recommendations
Introduction of a social area in the building.
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Proceedings of 8th Annual London Business Research Conference
Imperial College, London, UK, 8 - 9 July, 2013, ISBN: 978-1-922069-28-3
8. Conclusion
It is to be noted that organization has to carry out a study on its workforce before
applying incentives in order to bridge the gap between motivation and performance.
Some factors may not be applicable due to the cost issue or because one suggestion
may lead to organizational conflicts. In other words, it must reveal that implementation
of an incentive will not give rise to any issue that will destabilize the organization at a
whole. Indeed, the model of Locke, Herzberg and many other authors who studied the
concept of motivation deeply can be used as guidelines.
References
Anon, (No Date). Intrinsic/Extrinsic motivation and Hierarchy of Needs [online].
Available from:
http://www2.fiu.edu/~cryan/motivation/intrinsic.htm [Accessed 16 October 2012]
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KAHYA, E., 2007. The effects of job characteristics and working conditions on job
performance. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 37, 515–523
MASLOW A.H., 1954. Motivation & Personality. New York: Harper & Row.
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Proceedings of 8th Annual London Business Research Conference
Imperial College, London, UK, 8 - 9 July, 2013, ISBN: 978-1-922069-28-3
ROBBINS S.P., AND COULTER M.K., 1999. Management 6th ed. London: Prentice
Hall.
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