The Importance of Employee Motivation during the Pandemic.

 

The study of employee motivation began in the 1920s with the Hawthorne Studies and continues to this day as researchers attempt to find out motivating factors and practical tools for employees to reach their full potential (Jensen 2018).

During the past couple of years, many companies failed due to the COVID–19 pandemic, economic instability, and employee retentions. Human life was affected with uncertainty of life and unemployment. Many employers struggled to find either the balance to retain the right employees for the rightful jobs or to keep existing employees motivated in the field of work.

As an example the Aviation industry went through many losses due to the travel restrictions made by many countries around the globe. As a result, many major airlines started laying off staff to survive in the business and retain market share since airlines experienced a decrease in capacity of roughly 60–80% (Josephs, 2020). Many airlines also had to investigate ways of motivating their existing staff despite pay cuts and restrictions to stay among the preferred choice of travel with some very limited airlines in operation.

According to Adikaram, Naotunna, Priyankara (2021) on "Battling COVID-19 with human resource management bundling" it is discussed that employers had to deal with Layoff Survivor Syndrome with the existing employees during the pandemic to keep them motivated amid many other employees losing their jobs (Kim, 2003). It is key that employers must take necessary steps for the company’s growth and stability and retain employees, as it is where the motivated lot turn out to be capable to operate through tougher work environments with lesser staff and more workload maintaining an incline in productivity and generating profits for the company (Navaneetha & Bhaskar, 2018).

 

 

REFERENCES

Adikaram, A.S., Naotunna, N.P.G.S.I. and Priyankara, (2021), Battling COVID-19 with human resource management bundling. Employee Relations, 43(6) 1269-1289. Available from https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-08-2020-0390  [Accessed on 10.11.2022].

Jensen, J. (2018), Employee Motivation: A Leadership Imperative. International Journal of Business Administration, 9(2), 93-98. Available from https://www.sciedupress.com/journal/index.php/ijba/article/view/13158 [ Accessed on 15.11.2022]

Josephs. L. (2020), American Airlines cutting international summer schedule by 60% as coronavirus drives down demand. CNBC News, 2 April Available at: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/02/coronavirus-update-american-airlines-cuts-summer-international-flights-by-60percent-as-demand-suffers.html (2020), Accessed 29.11.2022.

Kim, W. (2003), Economic crisis, downsizing and layoff survivor's syndrome., Journal of Contemporary Asia, 33(4) 449-464. Available from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00472330380000281  [Accessed on 10.11.2022]

Navaneetha, T and Bhaskar, K. (2018), A Study on Employee Motivation at Workplace with Reference to BSNL, Kadapa, International Journal of Engineering Technologies, and Management Research, 113. Available from https://zenodo.org/record/1255343    [Accessed on 13.11.2022]

Herzberg’s Motivation Two-Factor Theory.

 

When Employee Motivational theories are discussed, one cannot leave out on Herzberg’s Motivation Two-Factor Theory. Two-Factor Theory was developed by Frederick Herzberg and his two collaborators, Mausner and Snyderman while explaining it quite well in their book ‘Motivation to Work’ published in 2017.

In his theory, he speaks about many factors that could affect levels of satisfaction and dissatisfaction in terms of rate and duration in a particular job role (Bassett-Jones and Lloyd, 2005)

Below chart shows that the two major factors are hygiene and motivation also known as satisfiers and dissatisfiers (Herzberg, 1959).

                                                            Figure 1-

(Source: Charlotte Nickerson, 2021)

 

Even though Herzberg and his colleagues identified these fourteen factors as key for satisfaction and dissatisfaction in the work environment in terms of employee motivation, according to Misener Nurse Practitioner Job Satisfaction Scale, Misener and Cox state that these factors are liable to change, constantly interacting and relative to the employee (Misener and Cox, 2001).

Herzberg recommends that the best way to motivate the employees is to create an environment filled with challenges and make employee take responsibility in their job function (Leach and Westbrook, 2000).

Taking the Airline industry as an example, Inflight crew face challenges on different flight routes depending on the passengers they carry. Also it is known that many flight crew need a motivational factor to operate certain routes as they find it challenging with previous personal experiences and lack of rest.

Major airlines around the world tackle this issue by motivating the crew either financially or offering an extra day off after a particular route. For example, some middle eastern airlines schedule two extra days offs for flights that operates above 14 hours in order to omit the lack of rest factor.

In this case crew are motivated to do the flight despite the extreme operational challengers just for the extra day off and money, hence Herzberg recommendation is proven correct to a certain extend.

 

 

REFERENCES

·    Bassett‐Jones, N., & Lloyd, G. C. (2005), Does Herzberg's motivation theory have staying power? Journal of management development. Available from https://www.simplypsychology.org/herzbergs-two-factor-theory.html [Accessed on November 29,2022].

 

·    Herzberg, F., Mausner, B., & Snyderman, B. (1959). The Motivation to Work. New York: John Willey & Sons. Available from https://www.scirp.org/(S(lz5mqp453edsnp55rrgjct55))/reference/referencespapers.aspx?referenceid=2526057 [Accessed on November 29,2022].

 

 

·         Misener, T. R., & Cox, D. L. (2001). Misener Nurse Practitioner Job Satisfaction Scale (MNPJSS) [Database record]. APA PsycTests. Available from,

https://doi.org/10.1037/t44056-000 [Accessed on November 29,2022].

 

·    Leach, F.J., Westbrook, J.D. (2000). Motivation and Job Satisfaction in One Government research and Development Environment. Engineering Management Journal. Vol.12, Issue. 4; pg. 3-9. Available from https://doi.org/10.1080/10429247.2000.11415086 [Accessed on November 29,2022].

Implementation of Douglas McGregor X Y theory in the Aviation Industry

Some leaders still use a system of rewards and punishments to manage performance. Even though certain factors impact motivation, including the type of work being performed, the level of skills and experience and individual needs, employers continue to find it difficult to strike a balance (Argyris, 1971).

This was the idea behind one of the oldest theory of motivation known as Theory X & Y which originated in the 1950’s and later developed by Douglas McGregor in the 1960’s (Sorensen and Yaeger, 2019).

As per this motivation theory, Theory X thinks that people dislike work and avoid responsibility while theory Y thinks that employees like to work and accept responsibility.

In McGregor's Theory X, Managers make decisions in a top-down manner. Employees tend not to be involved in decision making. They are judged from their performance alone, with the carrot and stick approach to motivation. Perform well - get rewarded. Perform badly - get demoted or fired (Bennis, 2003).

      Figure 1

                                                            (Source - pngitem)

In theory Y, Managers are more comfortable giving the employees some space and freedom to work having a more collaborative relationship. This allows employees to take initiative further empowering them to make decisions (Forrester, 2000).

When applying the X & Y theory in the Airline Industry the stress factor of job security plays a major role in how employees behave towards the employer and the job role. In a study carried out by two airlines in Europe it was noticed that employees were stressed out because the airline was downsizing. This stress directly impacted on the employee’s behavior towards the job and pure performance (Malm, 2015).

In this case the management should carefully consider all external factors in dealing with certain unionized environments. Once an individual has been recruited into an Airline they automatically become a member of that said department union, e.g.: Inflight crew – Flight attendant’s union, so in case of any disciplinary matter the management has to consider all options without terminating or creating fear of job loss.

When dealing with this kind of situation the airline should set KPI’s and other performance factors to measure and justify the job role and performance of an employee. Once the objectives are set the employee should be given the freedom to work in a more interactive work environment so that the airline is able to carefully monitor the employee while maintain a good relationship with the employee.

In conclusion having a good relationship with an employee directly benefits the growth of the company, this is proven by McGregor's Theory X, proving that having stressed employees will lead to poor performance that will neglect the company’s growth demonstrating the Y Theory.

Reference

 

Argyris, C. (1971). Management and Organizational Development. The Path from XA to YB. ERIC. [online] Available at: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED057279  [Accessed 28 Nov. 2022].

Forrester, R. (2000). Empowerment: Rejuvenating a potent idea. Academy of Management Perspectives, 14(3), pp.67–80. Available at: https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/ame.2000.4468067  [Accessed 28 Nov. 2022].

Kopelman, R.E., Prottas, David.J. and Falk, D.W. (2012). Further Development of a Measure of Theory X and Y Managerial Assumptions. Journal of Managerial Issues, [online] 24(4), pp.450–470. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43488151?read-now=1#page_scan_tab_contents   [Accessed 28 Nov. 2022].

Malm, S. (2015). Air France managers flee as staff storm meeting on job cuts. [online] Mail Online. Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3260474/Air-France-managers-flee-staff-storm-meeting-job-cuts.html [Accessed 28 Nov. 2022].

Oxfordbibliographies.com. (2019). Theory X and Theory Y - Management - Oxford Bibliographies - obo. [online] Available at: https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199846740/obo-9780199846740-0078.xml. [ Accessed on 28 Nov. 2022]

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Methods of Employee Motivation.

 

According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which is also a motivational theory, an individual performs at optimal when all physiological needs, safety, love, sense of belonging, confidence and high self-esteem are met (McLeod 2007). This aligns an employee to have clear values and goals.

While employee motivation is the key factor for an organization, it also has many benefits that are effective for employee’s personal growth and has greater positive effects to the organization. In a recent study carried out in India, retaining the more faithful and efficient employees proved quite important in building an effective organization as hiring new employees could mean loss of company assets and is usually a monotonous process (Jai, Gupta and Bindal, 2019).

Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs

 

 

 Figure 1: (Elizabeth, 2021)

The answer to how a company motivates its employees to stay longer and be more effective lies in the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Intrinsic motivation drives an employee to engage in a self- rewarding behavior and is not affected by any external factors. On the other hand, intrinsic motivation helps an employee to perform better to earn rewards and avoid punishments. Both forms of motivation play a significant role in terms of performance (Cherry, 2022)

It is suggested that employee motivation needs to be studied further as major contributing factor in a business organization as well as a vital stimulant directing human behavior ranging from differences in attitude and behavior with every other individual, organizations need to implement practices to match all its employees (Verma, 2018).

REFERENCES

Cherry, K. (2022), Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic Motivation: What's the Difference?  verywellmind.com [Online]Available at: Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic Motivation: What's the Difference? (verywellmind.com) [Accessed on 15.11.2022]

Finch, C. (2013), It’s Not All About the Money: 3 Ways to Motivate Employees. Business Growth and Strategy. Available from It’s Not All About the Money: 3 Ways to Motivate Employees | Vistage Research Center [Accessed on 10.11.2022].

Jain, A, Gupta, B and Bindal, M (2019), A Study of Employee Motivation in Organization. International Journal of Engineering and Management Research, 9(6) 2394-6962. Available from https://doi.org/10.31033/ijemr.9.6.11  [Accessed on 10.11.2022]

Varma, C. (2017), Importance of Employee Motivation & Job Satisfaction for Organizational Performance. International Journal of Social Science & Interdisciplinary Research,6(2) 10-20. Available from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329698335  [Accessed on November 10,2022]

Strategies of Employee Motivation

 

Management should make use of motivational strategies in order to maintain and empower their employees to stay disciplined and committed to the organization and management. (Grace et al., 2014). As employee motivation is critical to a company's success, also it’s what drives employees to do their best work and achieve company goals.

There are a number of different strategies that companies use to motivate their employees. Some common methods include

·         offering incentives,

·         providing training

·         development opportunities,

·         creating a positive work environment.

The most effective motivation strategy will vary from company to company and depend on the specific goals they are trying to achieve. However, there are some general principles that all businesses should keep in mind when developing their employee motivation strategy.

Employee Empowerment

According to Schewe (2000), Providing motivation is the key opponent for a good leadership. Effective leadership creates an environment for performance and achievement of the goals. Making the manager and employee feel that they will be well rewarded if they perform well also is a motivation factor.

The best way to motivate employees is to enable them with freedom to work. Empowerment means giving employees the authority, responsibility and freedom to make decisions that affect their work. When employees are empowered, they feel a sense of ownership in their work and are more motivated to do their best.

Incentive Schemes

Incentive schemes are a great way to motivate employees and can be used in a variety of ways to achieve different objectives. When designing an incentive scheme, it is important to consider what you are trying to achieve and who your target audience is. Ude, (2012).

Once you have decided what you want to achieve with your incentive scheme, you need to think about how you are going to measure success. This will vary depending on the objective, KPIs or simply assessing customer feedback.

Once you have designed your incentive scheme and set up a system for measuring success, it is important to communicate it effectively to employees so that they know what is expected of them and understand how they can benefit from meeting the objectives of the scheme.

Job Enrichment

Job enrichment is a strategy of employee motivation that focuses on making jobs more fulfilling by adding elements that are personally meaningful to employees. This can be done by adding more responsibility, autonomy, or variety to a position. The goal of job enrichment is to increase employee satisfaction and engagement in their work. Jones, (1977)

If you're looking for ways to motivate your employees, job enrichment may be a good option to consider. By making jobs more fulfilling and interesting, you can improve employee satisfaction and engagement while also increasing productivity.

Reference

Grace, O., Akinola, O. & Abiola, O., 2014. Motivational Strategies and Enhancement of Employees’ Performance in the Nigerian Food, Beverage and Tobacco (Fobeto) Industry, s.l.: s.n.

 

Jones, L. (1977). Employee motivation through job enrichment. Education + Training, 19(7), pp.214–219. doi:10.1108/eb001962.

 

Schewe, F. (2000). “Leadership that gets results”. Harvard Business Review 78(4). 78-90,

Ude, Dr.U. (2012). Incentive Schemes, Employee Motivation and Productivity in Organizations in Nigeria: Analytical Linkages. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, Available at: 1(4), pp.36–43. doi:10.9790/487x-0143643 [Accessed on 01 Dec 2022].

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Benefits of Employee Motivation

 Employees are the main foundation for a company to start up or even survive in any industry. Having employees with positive attitude is the key reason to a company’s success, and for this reason the employer has to recruit a suitable management and employees to achieve his/ her primary and ultimate goals.

According to Manzoor (2012), several organizations believe that the employees are its main asset and motivated employees will lead the organization to growth.

Dugguh (2014), recommends that the implementation of different motivational techniques in an organization will improve the productivity and end result.

Being in the hospitality industry, one should consider the human factor of needs and wants. With the worlds rapid change of environments people tend to adjust to their own surrounding area according to their comfort zone, and this could directly impact the organization in a negative manner. The management should consider all factors to keep the employees engaged with their work as it improves productivity (Bakker, Albrecht, Leiter, 2011), and it increases revenue and reduces expenses (Swanberg et al, 2011)

According to an American researched based company for management performance named Gallup, Inc., 70% of American workforce are emotionally disconnected and dis engaged with their organization (Rosenfeld, 2013). So it is at high importance that the employer gets the management involved in the company’s goals e.g. Vision, Missions and Values of the company.

Below video highlights the benefit of employee motivation such as,

• Retention
• Low Turnover
• Positive Atmosphere
• High Turnover of Staff
• Happy Customers 

These factors directly contribute to the overall objective of the company and results in growth and stability. Also on the other hand employees are much happier and the word of mouth brings effective advertising at Zero Cost. Having a pleasant environment within employees makes life easier for the company’s recruitment teams to attract the correct people for the correct job. All these attributes to maintaining a high reputation within the industry and higher satisfaction levels within customers.

                                                                    Video 1:

                                                    Source: Blackbourn, J.

References

 

Bakker, A.B., Albrecht, S.L. and Leiter, M.P. (2011). Key questions regarding work engagement. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 20(1), pp.4–28. Available at: doi:10.1080/1359432x.2010.485352  [Accessed 30 Nov. 2022].

 

‌ Dugguh, S.I. (2014). Using Motivation Theories to Enhance Productivity in Cement Manufacturing Companies in Nigeria: an overview. Available at: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/USING-MOTIVATION-THEORIES-TO-ENHANCE-PRODUCTIVITY-%3A-Dugguh/18c86bf36b39c8fc46b7574a717f5bf317ebec83 [Accessed 30 Nov. 2022].

 

Manzoor, Q.-A. (2011). Impact of Employees Motivation on Organizational Effectiveness. undefined. Available at: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Impact-of-Employees-Motivation-on-Organizational-Manzoor/d4e16248a45475ddf7908943acc4421cba218c7c [Accessed 30 Nov. 2022].

 

Rosenfeld, S. (2013). Report: 70 percent of Americans ‘emotionally disconnected’ at work. [online] Salon. Available at: https://www.salon.com/2013/06/19/70_percent_of_americans_emotionally_disconnected_at_work_partner/ [Accessed 7 Dec. 2022].

 

Swanberg, J.E., McKechnie, S.P., Ojha, M.U. and James, J.B. (2011). Schedule control, supervisor support and work engagement: A winning combination for workers in hourly jobs? Journal of Vocational Behavior, 79(3), pp.613–624. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2011.04.012.

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Motivation Challenges

 

Employee motivation is believed to be a critical aspect and motivated employees are the most valuable asset of an organization as it directly affects the performance of the company. Motivation refers to the set of processes that stimulate, guide and sustain human behavior towards achieving a goal (Morley, 2004).

Motivated employees not only reduce employee turnover, but also help create a more dynamic and profitable organization. While each individual is different and get motivated by different things, there can still be some demotivating factors within the organization which can be corrected to achieve higher motivation levels. Some of the major demotivating factors in an organization include:

 

Disorganized Chain of Command

Leadership is a major factor impacting employee behavior to achieve organizational goals (Naile and Selesho, 2014). When there is no clear leadership as to who is in charge, it can become very difficult to perform at peak levels. Employees lose track of direction as the organization goals also become ambiguous. Uncertain goals and objectives are difficult to work towards and leads to demotivated employees. Some of the components that contribute to this problem are disorganized directives, unclear/ non-existent job descriptions and vague goals and objectives. This issue can be managed better by setting and following clear organizational goals and having detailed job descriptions.

Lack of Trust in Company

Trust has been found to be an important component to achieve positive outcomes such as organizational effectiveness (Tzafrir, 2005) as well as employee work attitudes and performance (Dirks and Ferrin, 2001, 2002). A lack of trust in an organization affects productivity, engagement and retention. Lack of motivation in the company manifests poor motivation and reflects badly on professional development, work products, long- term projects and employee turnover. Sharing organizational objectives, developing strategic long-term business plans, positive communication and feedback can resolve this issue.

 

No One-on-One Attention Response

Feedback culture increases the process of developing people and businesses. Two-way communication is essential in good feedback between the employee and manager and acts as a means to build good relations between the management and employees, motivating employees to perform better. Regular scheduling of brief private appointments gets employees more comfortable and on the same wavelength as the Management and allows for effective decisions on personal and professional development issues.

 

 

REFERENCES

Dirks, K.T. and Ferrin, D.L. (2001). The Role of Trust in Organizational Settings. Organization Science, 12(4), pp.450–467. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3085982 [Accessed on 2 Nov. 2022]

 

Dirks, K.T. and Ferrin, D.L. (2002). Trust in leadership: Meta-analytic findings and implications for research and practice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(4), pp.611–628. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/11202113_Trust_in_Leadership_Meta-Analytic_Findings_and_Implications_for_Research_and_Practice [Accessed on 2 Nov. 2022]

 

Morley, M. (2004). Principles of organisational behaviour : an Irish text. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan. Available at: https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Organisational-Behaviour-Michael-Morley/dp/0717136701 [Accessed on 2 Nov. 2022]

 

Naile, I. and Selesho, J.M. (2014). The Role of Leadership in Employee Motivation. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, [online] 5(3), pp.175–182. doi:10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n3p175. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287481309_The_Role_of_Leadership_in_Employee_Motivation [Accessed on 2 Nov. 2022]

 

Tzafrir, S.S. (2005). The relationship between trust, HRM practices and firm performance. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 16(9), pp.1600–1622. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09585190500239135 [ Accessed on 2 Nov. 2022]