Introduction
Most HR professionals, in any industry, are likely to have had a roundtable discussion regarding employee performance. Motivation and performance are often identified as significant and the company must evaluate the company, and the HR department is often assigned to lead the motivation efforts. Initially, most people thought that monetary bonuses were the best technique to motivate employees. Other techniques that were proposed include additional time off or having an “employee of the month” placard ( Gupta & Shaw, 2014) . For many decades, firms have attempted various techniques to improve their performance. There is no specific technique that can fit all situations. In most companies, there is always a blend of professionals in different phases of their careers who have different or preferred motivators. The most successful companies have a holistic approach according to the overall employee experience. The paper will evaluate motivation for performance and how it applies to modern day organizations.
Application of Motivation on Organizational Performance
Motivation holds an important position and place in the entire management process. The method can be used successfully to encourage employees to make positive contributions for attaining organizational goals. Motivation is significant as human nature requires some incentive, inducement, or encouragement so that they can achieve better performance. Motivating employees provides various advantages to the employees and also the company. This offers the significance of motivating workers. Motivation is a method for encouraging employee performance working at different levels of the organization ( Furnham & MacRae, 2017) . Motivating employees should be one of the managerial function that is performed along with other responsibilities. Managers should act as both a motivator and friend to his subordinates. It is not only useful at the workplace but in the family life as well. Motivation is an integral part of the management structure and process itself.
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Competition, stresses, demographic, profitable, regulatory, and political factors have an impact on the development, survival, and operations of a firm. A person's motivation is affected by emotional, biological, social, and intellectual factors. It is a multi-faceted factor or intrinsic factor that can be easily affected by different external factors. Every individual has goals, activities, people, and events in their lives that they find motivating. Through extrinsic and intrinsic factors, a firm may inspire employee motivation at the workplace (Lazaroiu, 2015). There are various workplace factors that encourage employee motivation while fulfilling their expectations and needs. However, some variables may make employee motivation quite challenging. In some situations, workers may fail to recognize the significance of motivation in attaining their vision and mission. Even if they understand the importance of employee motivation, they may lack the knowledge and skills to forge a work environment that will encourage employee motivation.
Conducting business in the entire world is quite challenging. Revenue growth and corporate performance are challenged by external and internal operating factors. For an organization to be successful and profitable regardless of the highly competitive and challenging global economy, other than using employee retention, training, and recruitment programs, employees should be encouraged to perform impressively. Among all the vital factors of production, land, labor, and capital, the human resources pose the key challenge because different to other factors; employee management requires an accomplished handling of emotions, thoughts, and feelings to encourage the highest productivity ( Furnham & MacRae, 2017) . High organizational productivity is one of the long-term benefits attributed to employee motivation. A motivated employee is one of the most critical assets that can deliver the highest value to the firm in strengthening and maintaining its revenue and business growth. Employee productivity is a ratio that measures how well industry, individual, country, or a company can convert machines, input belongings, materials, and labor among other factors into services and goods.
Strategies to Motivate Employees
The managers should explain what the organization intends to achieve and then utilize recognition and rewards to achieve the goal. The company should identify techniques of rewarding employees and establish the advantages of achieving the desired results. The results will assist the team to attain the target. A recognition and reward program is the easiest and most effective technique of achieving this. The manager should also realize that tracking positive results will ultimately lead to the desired behavior by employees, and their performance ( Howes, Skea, & Whelan, 2013) . The employee behavior is controlled by the consequences of their responsibilities. Positive reinforcements such as rewards are more efficient than negative reinforcements such as punishments, e.g., threats of layoffs or cutting wages. When employees are happy, and their works are appreciated, they will desire to be appreciated again. Consequently, they will work more effectively, leading to better performance.
It is evident that it requires little or no money to achieve the most motivating rewards. A manager may reward the employees with just a sincere "thank you," and involving the employees in critical decision-making processes especially in choices that will directly affect them. Every organization should understand that monetary rewards or prizes are only effective in the short term. If a company’s employees are offered financial rewards, it may appear normal for them to continue receiving the bonuses and the company will be forced to continue investing in bonuses ( Pee & Lee, 2015) . Therefore, if the company program will last for a long-term, the company is required to set aside budgetary allocation for bonuses. However, if the employee is appreciated and feels important and responsible in the company, they are more likely to have higher productivity even if they receive minimal bonuses. Hence, motivation can be achieved with little or no money.
Professional employees and even managers desire to know that their company input is important and that through their contributions, the company team is strengthened and company objectives were attained. It may not be sufficient to reward the junior level stall, but their managers as well. It is often noticeable and expected for managers to reward their teams and recognize merit, but managers are rarely appreciated. The executive team should ensure that they consider all the members of the organization from the janitor to the CEO ( Bellé, 2013) . Without the simple contribution of all members, the company objective may not be accomplished. Although salesperson brings money to a company, without clean premises, adequate water, and security, the salesperson's input may be inadequate. Therefore, every worker in an organization is significant to the success of the company and must be considered in the recognition and reward program.
Barriers to Employee Motivation
One of the key barriers is low self-confidence. If they lack confidence, they may feel unworthy and may be unable to remain motivated or unable to make decisions until the objective is achieved. Inadequate self-confidence means that the employees are unable to assert himself or form good working relationships. Both factors are significant in determining the success of the employee at the workplace. Moreover, low expectations for success is also a barrier to employee motivation ( Perez, 2015) . If the organization has high expectations for the employees, they are highly likely to assign them engaging work tasks. However, if the organization has low expectations of their employees, they are less likely to assign them engaging tasks. Ultimately, the employees will have less confidence when completing their tasks and they may feel less motivated.
The other issue is lack of interest in the subject matter. When an employee is interested in a certain matter, they are highly likely to have a driving force to complete the tasks. However, lack of interest results to a failure to accomplish the objective and decreased motivation. Furthermore, employees may experience achievement anxiety, and they may be sensitive to various forms of punishment such as criticism. Therefore, achievement anxiety may inhibit employee performance. Anxious employees may be less motivated to achieve and less interested in tasks. For instance, the employee may begin a particular activity but may not complete the task if they feel anxious about a potential negative outcome or feedback ( Perez, 2015) . An employee may also be less motivated if they have a fear of failure. The higher the level of fear, the less motivated the employees to carry out responsibilities or accomplish goals because they might find it easier to avoid the assigned tasks instead of experiencing shame if they fail to complete the task.
Impact of Motivation on Employee Behavior
Motivated employees are more inclined to have a higher productivity that employees who are not motivated. Most organizations attempt to motivate their employees, but employee motivation is easier said than done. Employees possess different personalities and have different needs and dislike, and they require different factors to motivate them. Motivated employees are often more productive. If employees are happy, they are more likely to work more impressively, and their outcome will be good. Furthermore, motivated employees can motivate other workers in the office (Howard et al., 2016). Motivated employees will be eager and are often involved in the decision-making process because they offer practical expectation. It is significant to involve all stakeholders including employees in the decision-making process while creating realistic expectations.
Motivated employees have an accurate job description, have a positive work environment, and are flexible. When employees are doing the right jobs for their skill sets and personality, their productivity is likely to increase because of employee satisfaction and motivation. A non-threatening and safe work environment is important in maintaining a high-level employee motivation. Flexible childcare, human resources policy, work from home, and flexible time may also be attributed to motivated and happier employees ( Bellé, 2013) . The other issue is company culture when employees are highly motivated; they are more likely to align it with the company culture. Moreover, creating an employee-friendly and positive company culture is an effective motivational tool. Keeping employees with attractive and good benefits may be easy. However, the company must draw a line on having generous benefits that motivate the workers against larger salaries and raises aimed at attracting and retaining the best employees.
Summary
The paper has evaluated motivation for performance and how it applies to modern day organizations. It has explained the application of motivation on modern-day organizations, the barriers to motivation, the importance of motivation, and the barriers to motivation. Motivation includes inspiring other people to actions that will attain particular goals. Competition, stresses, demographic, profitable, regulatory, and political factors have an impact on the development, survival, and operations of a firm. The motivation process involves identifying techniques of rewarding employees and to establish the advantages of achieving the desired results. A company should recognize all employees from the janitor to the CEO. However, motivation has various barriers such as the fear of failure and the lack of interest. Motivation plays a critical factor in the survival of all firms. Motivated employees are more likely to have higher productivity than employees who are not motivated. Organizations should come up with methods of motivating employees according to their preferences, but they should not only focus on financial rewards only.
References
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