Motivating Individuals and Groups at Work in the 21st Century

Motivating Individuals and Groups at Work in the 21^st Century

Abstract

Motivation in the workplace refers to both internal and external factors that energize individuals and groups to be continually committed and interested in roles assigned to them by focusing on attaining the organizational goals. Money is the primary motivator for both individuals and groups at work in the 21^st Century. The importance of money as a tool of motivation for both individuals and groups at work should not be overestimated. There are two main types of motivation at work, that is, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. The organizational leaders should understand that the basis under which they reward individuals and groups at work can have different effects on their subsequent performance. According to research, once individuals are rewarded for their excellent performance, the ability of team performance worsen. On the other hand, as more individuals are paid based on their performance in a group, the general performance of a group increase. Finally, businesses can implement practices of paying at the business unit level that is suitable for the management performance in group-based settings, that is, in profit sharing and gainsharing. Finally, rewards at a workplace may be termed as a tangible world’s attributes that an organization avails to the employees. When an organization avails rewards similar to those employees are looking for, then the motivation system functions correctly.

Introduction

Motivation in the workplace refers to both internal and external factors that energize individuals and groups to be continually committed and interested in roles assigned to them by focusing on attaining the organizational goals. In most cases, motivating groups and individuals in the workplace can be very challenging since individuals have different motivators. In the 21^st Century, organizations are downsizing factors which force them not to re-hire for vacant positions.

Some of the things that keep individuals and groups motivated at work include promotions, the advancement of their careers, good remunerations, recognition, and giving them leaves off work. Therefore, the organization use motivation as a tool to attract and keep individuals there. Motivated individuals tend to be contributive towards achieving organizational goals. According to the statistical analysis, unmotivated individuals at work tend to be discouraged whereby their discouragement can be revealed through their absenteeism to work, their apathy, rebellion, uncooperativeness, among other characters.

Money is the primary motivator for both individuals and groups at work in the 21^st Century. The importance of money as a tool of motivation for both individuals and groups at work should not be overestimated. The importance of funds appears if individuals at work perceive it as a tool to the desired end, but it is not the primary tool for satisfying the needs of all individuals at work (Landy & Conte, 2016). Social interaction is another means that can motivate individuals and team since work is social. Social aspects at work are essential as they perform various functions in addition to the need-state of individuals and groups.

Types of Motivation

There are two main types of motivation at work, that is, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Individuals and groups attribute job behaviour to the results that are generated from other sources apart from the job itself through extrinsic motivation. Some of the extrinsic outcomes are job promotion, fringe benefits, and increased payments. Extrinsic motivation tends to make have a lack of control over their behaviour on the job. On the other side, the intrinsic type of motivation deals with individuals and groups attributes job behaviours to the results which are generated from work itself (Talmi et al., 2018). An individual who receives the intrinsic type of motivation in most cases tends to be committed and interested to work. For instancemployees e, a teacher can be an example of individuals who experience intrinsic motivation and say that ‘The money I generate in my job is nothing, but I really feel good by introducing a student to a new idea.’ The level of intrinsic motivation of an individual at work can be increased by redesigning the job. Redesigning the job integrates intrinsic results which are possible but uncertain upon the performance of the employees definitely results in increased levels of job satisfaction. Therefore, an individual who experiences an intrinsic outcome, in most cases, tend to be more satisfied.

The organizational leaders should understand that the basis under which they reward individuals and groups at work can have different effects on their subsequent performance. Therefore, organizations should provide appropriate ways to the team leaders to dispense reward types to individuals and groups, may it be in terms of money, promotions, praise, preferential treatment, public recognition, or commendation. Sometimes the team leaders can have direct influence over the available rewards to the group members (Kanfer et al., 2017). The team leaders should beware that the mechanisms they use in the allocation of rewards may have varying impacts on the performance of both the team and individuals. Therefore, leaders should apply equity rule in the distribution of rewards to avoid conflicts among the individuals and the groups.

Group versus Individual Rewards 

According to research, once individuals are rewarded for their excellent performance, the ability of team performance worsen. On the other hand, as more individuals are paid based on their performance in a group, the general performance of a group increase. This simply shows that rewards for the performance of an individual are detrimental to the performance of the group. Therefore, awards based on the group performance lead to both better returns of the team and individual better performance. For team leaders to allocate rewards based on the group performance, they need to examine ways of reviewing, evaluating, and measuring the performance. Rewards on group performance help the team leaders to ensure equality in the team’s performance management since it gives individuals a clear indication of the preferences of the organization.

The main challenge that is facing the organizations that are transitioning to groups in the 21^st Century is to articulate the traditional ideas with the modern ideas of equality. Concentrating on individual performance can redirect individuals to their own responsibilities and performance goals without focusing on their contribution to the general performance of the team. In other terms, workers aim at being recognized for their contributions to the organization as individuals. Based on this challenge, organizations are continually restructuring the merit basis from the performance of the recent past to the level of competencies, knowledge, and skills achieved by the individuals. This factor has impacted the process of transforming merit pay systems of pay for performance into merit pay systems for payment for skills. In this case, pay increases are awarded for the purposes of developing skills based on the achievement of the developmental goals.

Rewarding Performance

Systems of rewarding within a group-based organization should always meet the philosophy of that organization. Generally, for individuals to feel that they have been paid equally, they should be paid based on their contributions for all the performing units. This leads to the development of a multilevel system of rewarding which is based on the group performance, performance of the business unit, and the performance of the organization which may indicate the recognition of multiple group performance. Most of the mangers that concentrate on teamwork and lateral organization many times keep on believing that better performance is mainly a duty of experts and signifies the manager’s skills instead of all the combined units (Tabassi et al., 2017). A team-based organization’s reward system should always mean the fact that organizational advancement is more likely to articulate sidelong improvement rather than traditional advancement.

Implementing Reward Practices

Finally, businesses can enforce practices of rewarding at the business unit level that is suitable for the management performance in group-based settings, that is, in profit sharing and gainsharing. This focuses the attention of the workers to the primary performing unit by turning it to the interest of everyone to improve the performance of the entire group. These are systems of rewarding that integrate the logic of sharing thoroughly in the performance of the group that enables every member to share their economic contribution to that performance. According to research, well-designed rewarding practices contribute to a higher degree of fairness perception, which provides to bonuses that can be awarded along with group bonuses as well as along with individual rewards.

In traditional organizations, the manager’s reward systems in most cases were used for directive support of corporates. For instance, in most times, the departmental manager’s rewards were usually based on the extent of achievement of the negotiated goals within their departments. Group-based organizations have all groups and business units that focus on directing their performance, managing their performance aspects, and negotiating objectives. If systems of rewarding are integrated into setting direction in group-based settings, then all the team members based in the performing unit are supposed to be rewarded for their performance. A consistent reward system with the set organizational goals rewards a group member based on the performance of the business unit, the organization, and the entire group. Individual’s performance rewards may not be logic with some of the group-based organizations, because groups are the central performing units, and it is quite challenging to figure out the impact of each individual.

Focusing on the individual differences, there are general work features that enhance individual commitment to the organization based on their rewarding levels. According to research, social groups commitment can only be achieved if its individual members believe that there will be a fair distribution of the desired outcomes (Rahim, 2017). In any organizational activity, the maintenance and the development of intrinsic motivation rely on the experiences of enhancing competence related to the activity. The organizational leaders who encourage the motivation of individuals and groups at work accomplish their goals through various means of motivation such as, team building, communication, confronting with class, integrate involvement to enhance morale, winning team feeling, and giving purpose and meaning.

Conclusion  

In the 21^st Century, several things have changed within the workplace. There is a drastic change in society based on the ways of handling jobs as well as changing motivating techniques. Over the past years, individuals and groups were used to be motivated through material gains. Therefore, it is recommended that the organization leaders should encourage employees through motivation and recognition of their contributions to the success of the company. In most cases, when individuals face challenges in a workplace may end up quitting the job, and therefore, leaders or organizational managers may overcome this challenge through motivation. These group members can be motivated through the communication of an unbending belief that the team’s members can come up with the solution of the problem. Leaders should motivate individuals and groups through the use of an encouraging language. This language involves the use of positive words such as showing the employees the importance of handling their challenges in the most appropriate ways. Organizational leaders should encourage individuals to share their inputs since there might be individuals within the workplace who are apathetic, rebellious, and uninvolved.

Finally, rewards at a workplace may be termed as a tangible world’s attributes that an organization avails to the employees. When an organization avails rewards similar to those employees are looking for, then the motivation system functions perfectly. Proper use of the reward system motivates the performance of three things in an organization. The first thing, it ensures assumption and acceptance of the initiative behaviours. Another thing is that it ensures that behaviours contribute to the achievements of the company. Finally, it ensures that the behaviours concentrate on improved performance, increased skills, and knowledge.

References

Kanfer, R., Frese, M., & Johnson, R. E. (2017). Motivation related to work: A century of progress. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(3), 338.

Landy, F. J., & Conte, J. M. (2016). Work in the 21st Century: An introduction to industrial and organizational psychology. John Wiley & Sons.

Rahim, M. A. (2017). Managing conflict in organizations. Routledge.

Tabassi, A. A., Roufechaei, K. M., Bakar, A. H. A., & Yusof, N. A. (2017). Linking team condition and team performance: A transformational leadership approach. Project Management Journal, 48(2), 22-38.

Talmi, I., Hazzan, O., & Katz, R. (2018). Intrinsic Motivation and 21st-Century Skills in an Undergraduate Engineering Project: The Formula Student Project. Higher Education Studies, 8(4), 46-58.