Impacts of Organizational Motivation Strategies on Employee Performance

Impacts of Organizational Motivation Strategies on Employee Performance

1. Background

In any business entrepreneurship, labor is essential because it is a factor of production, just like land and capital. Employees play a critical role in business organizations; they are involved in hands-on operations in the production of goods and offering services. At the dawn of the industrial revolution, just after World War II, many people that included the baby boomers begun to settle for employment in production industries. Some companies realized that the only way that they could increase production is if the employees were motivated to work more intensively. Since then, employee motivation strategies have significantly evolved; new motivational strategies are still evident.

As motivational strategies change with time, business management strategies also change. Some business organizations have not realized that some motivational strategies have little impact on employee motivation, and yet they invest a lot of money and time implementing them. Such businesses must come up with better strategic plans that will help in understanding the necessary changes in employee needs. Some of the requirements cannot be realized just by receiving employee responses through suggestion boxes. They require intensive study of social needs that impact employees directly and how such challenges can be applied as opportunities for motivation for by the HR department of business organizations. This research will focus on understanding the impact of organizational motivation strategies on employee performance with recommendations at the end.

2. Statement of the problem

The world business environment is changing based on the evolutionary mindset of both the management system and the employees. Both of these entities are important for the growth and development of business organizations. The management system provides necessary policy measures that guide both attitude and business culture. Therefore, entrepreneurs must understand any form of change that occurs in the management system based on contemporary needs and motivational factors.

On the other hand, employees also play an essential role in the growth and development of a business organization. They make up the basic unit of production in labor-intensive industries, such as in the clothing industry. Just like the management system, any form of change in the management of employees must be understood and monitored. The importance of understanding employee needs is to ensure that a business organization retains its most qualified employees to ensure continuity in quality service provision.

The challenge in the business organization today is that businesses, especially large scale corporate organizations, have lost track of employee needs and wants. That has contributed to a pronouncement in inconsistency in the performance of such business organizations. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the relationship between the motivational strategies of a business organization and employee performance. This kind of relationship has been neglected for a long time in business. Many organizations have resulted in the implementation of any form of employee motivation strategy without understanding the degree impact it will have on motivating their employees.

Therefore, this research study aims at analyzing different motivational strategies often implemented in various organizations and the impact they have on motivating employees. That way, it will be possible to recommend a narrower scope of motivational strategies to business organizations. The recommended strategies will aim at resulting in the best positive impact on employee motivation and thus improve employee performance. The long-term impact will be that business organizations will have a consistent performance making it easier to plan for current and future investments.

3. Literature Review

According to Perks (2009, pp.135), understanding employees’ needs is an essential part of developing employee motivation strategies. He explains that developing employees to become valuable involve several activities that include job analysis, personnel needs assessment, recruiting the right people, and managing employee wages and salaries at an outstanding level. Leonidas (2008, pp.87) explains that to be able to determine what cracks them to be motivated needs to be understood right from the point where they are recruited. He adds that initial recruitments are to be conducted on the basis of the best performing individuals in specific areas of the business. That way, it will be easier for companies to understand the variability in operations and get to know their employees on a personal level.

According to Liden et al., 2008, business organization managers should have influential strategies that they can apply to develop a motivational strategy for employees. Such skills are rare and are resourceful in contributing to performance. It will not only benefit the employees but also in the performance of business organizations. Liden believes that great motivational strategies are developed by people of great personality and those with leadership skills. The reason is that the strategies will always be mean for every employee, and therefore, their needs have to be considered through a comprehensive motivational plan.

Finch (2007), contributes by providing the idea that understanding organizational culture also plays a critical role in developing motivational strategies for employees. He emphasizes that employees, as well as the management system, should be cooperated in a cultural system that is geared towards the growth and development of the business organization. Finch believes that a good business culture contributes to a firm organizational vision and mission statements that form the basis of operation. According to Fletcher (2011), employees should be allowed to have a representative of their own in the strategic committee to come up with solutions such as motivational strategies that will be effective in improving employee performance.

“It is essential to understand simple methods that contribute to a sustainable business management plan” – Velmurugan 2015. According to Velmurugan and Dhingra (2015), business managers should realize that the business world is changing not only due to advancement in technology but also as a result of a change in the mindset of people involved in it. That is evident enough that organizational motivation strategies are part of the business. Motivational strategies are aimed at motivating employees, and so necessary changes in the needs of employees should be center stage in determining their motivation strategies.

4. Project Objectives

Since the study seeks to achieve a determination of ideal organizational motivation strategies, the output to consider is to measure the change it has initiated through employee performance. Therefore, there are specific objectives that this study will focus on. They include:

1. To find out the most common motivation strategies applied by business organizations
2. To determine the impact of each of the most common motivation strategies on employee performance
3. To analyze the impact of employee performance on organizational performance
4. To come up with a recommendation on the most effective organizational motivation strategies on employee performance

5. Target Population (Sampling Technique and Sample Size)

The research study aims at determining the impact of several organizational motivation strategies on employee performance. Therefore, to ensure that there is a scientific representation of organizations, there will be a study of both large scale corporate organizations and small scale businesses. The focus will be on business organizations that depend massively on labor in the production process. The reason for focusing on organizations that greatly depend on labor as a factor of production is to ensure that employees form the basic foundation for determining organizations’ performance. Other organizations have adopted technological production units, and they barely need employees.  Therefore, the research has to study business organizations that greatly depend on their employees to initiate their organizational performance.

It is also imperative to note that the sample size to be large enough to be used to reflect the population in terms of interpreting the findings. On that note, there will be a sample of 150 business organizations, including both large and small scale businesses. The information that will be studied in each case is the productivity or business financial performance difference based on different motivational strategies applied by the Human Resource department.

The appropriate sampling technique that will be used in selecting the 150 business organizations is probability sampling. This sampling technique will contribute to the fair and non-biased selection of the business organizations for the study. The probability sampling technique will ensure that the organizations involved in the study will have been randomly selected to avoid or limit the margin of error (MOE) as a result of the biased representation.

6. Data Collection Approach

Based on the information of interest for this study, the data that will be collected include motivational strategies that are commonly used in the 150 sample business organizations. Information that will be gathered also includes reactions of employees based on the different motivational strategies and how they feel about each of the most common approaches. The responses of employees will be collected from all 150 samples.

Therefore the data collection approach that this study will focus on is primary data collection. Raw data will be collected with the help of close-ended questionnaires as well as open interviews to receive the relevant information based on the motivational approaches each organization uses and the reaction of employees on each of the motivational strategies. A close-ended questionnaire is preferred to limit the scope of the responses to those relevant for this study. It is also preferred to reduce the workload to finish the project is a reasonable time and within a manageable budget.

7. Data Analysis

The study will involve different kinds of data analysis. The first data analysis technique will be content analysis to determine, through the responses, the most common organizational motivation strategies used. The study will help in accomplishing objective (a). The other data analysis techniques include analysis of the information correlation between the corporate motivation strategy and employee performance. In addition, data analysis will consist of the use of SPSS to generate descriptive statistics to create statistical characteristics of the responses provided on the most preferred motivational strategies. SPSS will also be used to create graphs, charts, and tables to summarize the findings of the analysis.

8. Potential Scope of the Project

This research will be beneficial for future researchers, business organizations, business managers, and stakeholders such as employees. This research will help researchers in developing a new approach to understanding the impacts of an organization’s motivation strategies on employee performance. The realization that the usual motivational policies such as incentives may not be applicable for future businesses sets a ground for researchers to conduct further research on the shift of motivational impacts on employee performance.

The study will also help business organizations in revising their motivational strategies to fit contemporary employee needs that are quickly changing. Business organizations will be able to determine the best motivational strategy for their employees and thus stabilize business performance, making it easier to make short and long term plans. Employees will benefit from this research by gaining the best work experience and working environment through motivation strategies that they accept and are positive about. Business managers, like business organizations, will be able to understand the need for a review of their motivational strategy to fit into employee needs. The ultimate result of a motivational strategy is to ensure that employees are mentally prepared and ready to perform their duties.

9. Project Implementation Plan

Time Frame (Gantt-Chart)

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