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]