Warm-Up Activity 3.1: Preparing a White Paper

Warm-Up Activity 3.1: Preparing a White Paper

Introduction

One of the key ingredients for organizational success is the ability of an entity to motivate its employees. In its broadest form, organizational motivation refers to the willingness of the workers to exert the highest levels of effort in pursuance of the workplace goals conditioned by the ability of that initiative to satisfy some personal or individual needs (Kuranchie-Mensah & Amponsah-Tawiah, 2016). Motivation is divided into two, namely, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. On the one hand, intrinsic motivation is behavior often driven by internal rewards, for example, well-being. This kind of motivation, therefore, arises from within the worker. Extrinsic motivation, on the other and, is behavior often driven by external rewards such as money. As the case of Google and Apple illustrates, a motivation technique that works best is the one that integrates the internal and external rewards to energize the workers more holistically.

The various motivation strategies adopted by firms

There are indeed numerous evidence-based motivation strategies that firms across the world have taken up in an attempt to drive the employees’ performance. One of the most common is the provision of rewards. According to Van Eerde (2015), the primary aspect of the reward system is the financial outcome. Hence, the scholar purports that the reward system often entails the provision of financial benefits to increase the morale of the worker. The reward system may come in the form of bonuses, pay rise, and other monetary incentives. While this is the case, Franco-Santos and Gomez-Mejia (2015) claim that the financial aspect of the reward system is usually augmented by numerous other elements. Among these are benefits such as income protection and paid time off. The reward system also encompasses promotions, improved working environment and conditions, promotions, learning and development, and leadership opportunities.

Apart from the reward system, there is also the idea of redesigning jobs. This approach to motivating the workers is also multifaceted, given that it emphasizes job rotation, job enlargement, and job enrichment. According to Choudhary (2016), job enrichment usually takes place where the employer places an extra amount of work on the workers through development and intensification to make it more interesting, challenging, and meaningful. Job rotation is all about placing people in varied job settings while offering them the chance not only to learn but also to use different skills and experience and performing distinct types of jobs. Job enlargement usually involves expanding the duties and responsibilities of the employees (Belias & Sklikas, 2013). The idea of job enlargement is motived by the notion that some employees tend to thrive under a heavier workload of diverse tasks, while others often prefer challenging and intensive assignments. Regardless of whether job rotation, job enlargement, or job enrichment, Choudhary (2016) claims that job redesign often encompasses a series of motivating factors. Such include providing more freedom to the employees, encouraging a greater level of participation, offering the workers the autonomy and freedom to select their most preferred method of working, and allowing them to choose tools and resources they require to perform their jobs. The other motivating factor is empowering the workers to select the place in which they would like to execute their work.

The other approach to motivating the workers is acknowledged as empowerment. Accordingly, empowerment often occurs where the workers in the organization are provided with authority, independence, trust, and encouragement to accomplish any given task. A modern approach to empowerment is called intrapreneurship. According to da Silva Souza and Takahashi (2017), intrapreneurship is primarily the idea of providing the workers to give new meaning to their work in an attempt to trigger innovation. Therefore, with intrapreneurship, the workers are encouraged to pursue new ideas and promote them such that they become the standard ways of doing things. Besides, the workers are provided with the impetus to break the bureaucratic processes and replace them with creative decision-models.

The other way of motivating workers is the creation of flexibility. At the heart of this approach is to meet a proper work-life balance. The approach is constituted of a set of outcomes, for example, job sharing and telecommuting. According to the Civil Service Employee Policy (n.d.), job sharing is a type of flexible employee working that allows at least two workers to share their duties and responsibilities, though voluntarily, of one full-time job. The benefits, pay, and leave entitlements associated with the shared job are allocated on a pro-rata basis. Modern organizations have made it possible to share any type of pf job. According to Civil Service Employee Policy (n.d.), organizations are achieving this objective by dividing the aggregate number of hours required for the task to be executed. Each person in the job-sharing agreement is assigned with the same type of work, but not necessarily identical workload. The motivating factor related to job sharing is that it provides the worker with ample time to attend to his or her personal issues. Besides, as the burden of a task is shared, it follows that job sharing usually protects the worker from fatigue, which also plays a role in enhancing the employee’s motivation.

Solution

It is well evident that there are almost unlimited ways that organizations can adopt to ensure that their workers are well-motivated. While this is the case, it is no possible to ensure sustained motivation by relying on a single model. The organization under focus focuses on incentives and bonuses to elicit a greater drive its workers into performing better. This necessarily means that the firm motivates its workers using an approach known as the reward system. The organization has a sizeable employee base. This is an indication that there are different motivation needs in the organization. Therefore, while some employees might be motivated by bonuses and incentives, others find more appeal in intrapreneurship and flexibility. With this being the case, it follows that the current emphasis on the reward system cannot keep everyone happy.

The company might decide to abandon the reward system and instead shift its focus to another technique. However, this might not guarantee that the motivation levels among the workers would increase. The main reason for this assertion is that each of the approaches highlighted above has certain weaknesses. In particular, each strategy is designed to meet a particular need and not another. A good example is the creation of flexibility. This solution is meant to allow the worker to take control of their work. Unfortunately, the strategy does not fulfill the desire for more monetary rewards. Therefore, it is recommended that the organization should add other motivation techniques to the existing status quo. This means that the organization has to integrate other ways of motivating the workers highlighted previously in this paper, including redesigning jobs, empowerment, and the creation of flexibility.

While this is the case, the organization will have to redefine its motivation policies to accommodate the added techniques. At the same time, it is paramount that the entity has in place a competent team dedicated to administering the motivation approaches. It is anticipated that the organization will indeed incur a high level of cost in implementing an integrated employee motivation model. Each motivation technique comes with a distinct cost. However, the organization should recognize that the cost will only be incurred in the short term. The surging motivation throughout the organization will inevitably lead to long-term gains for the firm.

The reasons for the appropriateness of the solution suggested

The management of the company should, indeed, work towards supporting the integrated employee motivation model. Unlike the other techniques, the integrated approach will indeed ensure that every worker in the organization is well motivated. As identified earlier, different workers in the firm under consideration are motivated by distinct outcomes. Unfortunately, any single motivation model cannot satisfy all the workers’ demands. However, as the suggested solution brings numerous techniques together, it follows that the integrated motivation paradigm will cater to even the most composite employee needs. Therefore, no employee will feel that he or she is being left out of the picture.

The appropriateness of the suggested employee motivation approach is further supported by the notion that other organizations have tried it and realized optimal benefits. Two excellent examples of such organizations are Google and Apple Inc. Essounga-Njan (2018) reveals that Google does not rely on a single way of motivating its workers. Instead, the company combines different approaches. For example, representing a reward system, the company offers varied perks such as healthcare and vacation time. Additionally, the scholar supposes that Google provides the workers with an opportunity to develop new standards, a thing that has led the company into creating one defining technology after another. This strategy is usually actualized through the 80/20 rule. As such, workers use 80 percent of their work time to execute work related to their tasks. The rest of the time is left to the employees to work on passion projects that they believe will present benefits to the company.

Apple Inc. also prioritizes an integrated employee motivation model. According to Mollah (2015), the company always ensures that the nature of work that the workers perform affords them with an adequate balance between work and personal life. Additionally, the scholar supposes that, at Apple Inc., the employees are provided with the freedom of opinion. Hence, they have a say even in core management issues. Apart from competitive salaries and attractive benefits, the workers work in an effective working environment that serves to empower them. The implementation of an integrated employee motivation model in these two organizations has proved beneficial as Apple Inc. and Google have the most motivated workers in the world.

Conclusion

Employee motivation is an integral outcome for any organization. An entity that serves to motivate its workers is more likely to succeed in the industry. There are different approaches to motivating workers. However, having a single strategy does not guarantee success. This is fundamentally so because different worker usually has distinct motivation needs. Therefore, to ensure organization-wide motivation, it is paramount to have an integrated worker motivation paradigm that brings all the motivation techniques together. Apple Inc. and Google have the most motivated workers in the world, and this is down to laying emphasis on an integrated approach to motivating workers.

References

Belias, D. & Sklikas, D. (2013). Aspects of job design. International Journal of Human Resource Management and Research, 3(4), 85-94.

Choudhary, D. S. (2016). Job enrichment: A Tool for employee motivation. International Journal of Applied Research, 2(5), 1020-1024.

Civil Employee Policy (n.d.). Guide to Job Sharing. Retrieved from https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/406045/JobShareGuide260115FVnoDNs.pdf

Da Silva Souza, C. P., & Takahashi, A. R. W. (2017). Challenges and Motivations for the Development of an Intrapreneurship Initiative in a Public University. Revista de Administração da Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, 10(2), 338-356.

Essounga-Njan, Y. (2018). Google’s secret to motivating their employees successfully. Journal of Strategic and International Studies, 12(322),19.

Franco-Santos, M. (2015). Reward systems. In D. Guest Wiley Encyclopedia of Management. London, UK: John Wiley and Sons.

Kuranchie-Mensah, E. B., & Amponsah-Tawiah, K. (2016). Employee motivation and work performance: A comparative study of mining companies in Ghana. Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management (JIEM), 9(2), 255-309.

Mollah, A. (2015). A critical analysis of employee job satisfaction: A case study of Apple UK. European Journal of Business and Management. 7 (7), 177-199.

Van Eerde, W. (2015). Motivation and Reward Systems. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management. DOI: 10.1002/9781118785317.weom060146