Review of the Literature - Research Paper Example

The prosperous future of any organization depends upon its employees. It is a formula that every company is aware of and strictly implements in its company. Because when motivation is involved in a work then the output produced is far greater than the input. Geo Group is a company specialized in providing specific services like Detention and mental health treatment. The company owns and operates many training centers and one of them is Broward Training center. The company is currently experiencing a low performance by its employees and so it wants to know what can be done to bring them back to a position that will benefit both the company and the employees.

Till now more than a dozen of motivational theories have been identified, but some of the traditional theories have provided a base for these contemporary theories to build upon. (jobs.geogroup.com) The Broward Transitional Centre (BTC) is a centre allocated for detainees. These detainees are involved in small illegal practices like driving car without license, or no apparent crime at all and get locked up for some weeks and months in this centre. This contributes to a very stressful environment at the detention centre.

Moreover, the staff is facing several issues regarding the management and the salary benefits they are getting. At BTC the pay given to its workers is very low and is insufficient for the financial growth of the employees. One current employee at BTC writes regarding the employee motivation program at BTC, “Never having a pay raise is a downer. Really wish they would consider cost of living increase at least. All of my annual evaluations are really good. But we are not rewarded with pay increases” It is clear that at BTC operated by Geo Group, employees are concerned about the raises and pay programs.

BTC is marked with 3 stars out of 5 at www.glassdoor.com based on the reviews of the current and former employees of the organization. (www.glassdoor.com). It is very important for the organization to lift up its reputation so it could be viewed as an organization possessing a healthy environment for both the employees and the clients. Also, the internal culture of the organization plays a major role in employee motivation. According to the Geo Group, leadership and professionalism are integral part of their company culture.

They claim that they employ this methodology within their company values and promote it through their business structure and employee development programs. But this seems to be lacking at some places, as employee dissatisfaction is the clear indicator of the poor employee development programs implemented at the organization. In order to treat these issues strategies must be constructed to bring the employees motivation back on the track. These should be related to rewards, self care, and positive thinking of employees at BTC.

There are two types of rewards valued by an individual; intrinsic rewards and extrinsic rewards. Intrinsic rewards are those that increase an individual’s self esteem, and satisfy the need for self actualization. Whereas, the extrinsic rewards are the rewards that satisfy and individual’s physiological needs, and safety needs. To each employee the significance of each type of reward differs. The expectancy theory states that employees’ performance depends upon their efforts which depend upon the rewards granted to them by the company.

A reward valued by one person may not be valued by another, so it is very important to know the reward valued by each employee in order to craft effective employee motivation programs. At BTC employees are dissatisfied by the pay and raises, thus resulting in low performance. Pay is a good motivator for a large number of individuals, so approaches can be undertaken to use this motivator effectively. What BTC can do is the implementation of merit based pay program. In this program a person who performs the best gets the highest pay and those who perform poorly are paid accordingly.

The program will boost the performance of the employees as well as the company’s. Moreover, it will motivate and retain the best employees at BTC and increase the differential between top and bottom performers. But pay motivates a person to some extent, at one stage there is no relationship between pay and performance. The motivational benefits of intrinsic rewards at many places are undermined. However, intrinsic rewards are the most inexpensive way of motivating an individual. At BTC Employee Recognition Programs can also be implemented to increase the morale of the employees.

A pat on the back or words of appreciation can do a lot to motivate a person. But this could also lead to biasness which might demoralize other employees. At BTC the senior management is heavily criticized for being biased which can also be the cause of low job satisfaction. To tackle with this issue the higher management should encourage these managers to be impartial and give equal opportunities to everybody. Another way to motivate is to give them a choice of selecting their own time schedule.

Those who are comfortable working in the morning hours can work in that shift and those who are active at night can work in late hours. This will foster good will among the employees and employers. The employees will think that the management cares for them and thinks for their welfare. Moreover, work schedules will reflect the employees work hours in which they are more productive, hence increasing their job satisfaction. Self efficacy theory states an individual’s belief of being capable enough to perform a task.

Those low on self efficacy tend to quit if confronted with a challenging job. At BTC the jobs assigned are very challenging and so employees with low self efficacy easily get depressed. To increase their self efficacy managers can work on the following four approaches: Enactive mastery, vicarious modeling, verbal persuasion, and arousal. Motivating employees is crucial for every organization. If BTC wants to prosper and generate great revenues then it has to spend time, money, and energy on its employees.

Otherwise this could result in a decline of its revenues and increase in the turnover rates of its employees which could damage its reputation. Therefore, to achieve its long-term goals BTC has to do something fast and effective. Works Cited "GEO Group Reviews." Glassdoor. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Apr. 2014. Retrieved from : . "Search Jobs." GEO. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Apr. 2014. Retrieved from: . Book ISBN:9781118396748