Psychology- Work and Motivation - Research Paper Example

? Psychology- Work and Motivation Grade 15.11 This paper will deal with theories of work motivation and job attitudes and how these theories can be applied in a wok situation. It will also show how these theories complement each other in a work situation, and how they affect motivation or job attitudes of the employees. The theories to be looked at here will be the needs theory, the equity theory and the theory of work characteristics. The purpose of this document is to demonstrate how these theories complement each other when applied in a work situation and how they impact on motivation at work and job attitudes to provide the desired overall result, which is job satisfaction and increased productivity or even achievement of goals. The relationship between motivation, job attitude and job satisfaction, will also be looked at in details, and, how they affect each other when applied in a work situation together with the selected theories. Introduction: Work motivation and job attitude are key factors that get work done. Work can be done, but, the quality of the work, or how it is done say a lot about the attitude of the person towards the work, or, the level of motivation the person had. Motivation is the key to understanding human behavior in an organization: the driving force that makes a person to behave in the manner they do. Motivation and job attitude go hand in hand in that, the factors that enhance increased motivation also enhance job attitudes. With motivation and the right job attitude, quality work gets delivered, and, job satisfaction is achieved. Job satisfaction is the utmost goal for a worker or employee because it means that even their needs are being satisfied. Work motivation and job attitude: Motivation comes in two forms as described by Hetzberg (1959): Hygiene factors, and, motivation factors. Motivational factors are the satisfiers or factors that give room for job satisfaction like the work itself, achievement, recognition, promotion and responsibility. Hygiene factors give room for job dissatisfaction. These factors are salary, company policy, working conditions, supervision and interpersonal relations. These factors determine one’s attitude towards a given work. A company might be paying their workers high salaries, but, at the end of the day, the workers might opt to leave the company and join another which is offering lower pay. The cause of this might be the unfavorable working conditions for the workers or even the company policy, which might not be giving the workers room for advancement or poor interpersonal relations among the workers and employees in the organization. According to Pinder (1998), motivation is a combination of four elements, which are, arousal, direction, intensity and persistence. Motivation researchers examine individual choice (direction), biological responses (arousal), effort level (intensity), and persistence. Motivation is affected by individual characteristics, job characteristics and work environment characteristics. Individual characteristics refer to what an employee brings in an organization like needs, attitudes and interests. Job characteristics refer to what an employee does at work; boring or stimulating. Work environment characteristics refer to what an employee get as a result of working like rewards in the form of promotion and how they get along with the boss and co-workers. The bottom line for good performance of workers in an organization and the realization of the worker’s needs is based on the motivation employees have and the employees’ attitudes towards the work. Therefore, motivation and work attitude should go hand in hand for the best results to be achieved. It is said that a person might be having a very high IQ, but, that does not necessarily mean the person is best suited for a certain job. Personal attitude towards a particular work count much more than the person’s IQ, in determining whether the work will be done successfully or not. The theory of self efficacy demonstrates how someone’s attitude works towards motivating a person into achieving a certain goal or duty. If a person feels it is possible to deliver, the work becomes enjoyable than when one takes it like a difficult task. Work motivation and job attitude theories in relation to a work situation: The first thing the employer would say on entering the office was “tea”, meaning that someone should make tea for her. Before she even gets the tea, she quarrels the manager on why the new employee is working on a given case. Before she even finishes her argument, a blame game begins as to whoever assigned that file to the employee. Quarrels ensue, tensions begin from there and enmity is created among the employees. This might lead to the sacrificial goat to be suspended for one week without pay. There is no motivation in this organization in that the interpersonal relationship is strained. Room for responsibility or innovation for the new employee is restricted and, the company policy is extremely harsh. The theories of motivation like Maslow’s Hierarchy of need, argue that, needs, which are deficiencies that a person have and requires satisfaction, are present in every human being. When a person sets out to work, there are needs which a person targets and strives to satisfy. Maslow (1954), names these needs as physiological, security, love and belongingness, self esteem and self actualization needs. In this organization, such needs are not met in that the workers are supposed to be left feeling responsible and make their own decisions. Security needs are not met because workers fear dismissal at any one given time and this results to blame games. Self esteem needs are not met following the boss’s argument about the new employee. Such an argument can make a person think the performance is sub standard. People develop a negative attitude towards work in this organization, and, withdrawal, absenteeism and turnover is expected to take place, due to lack of job satisfaction brought about by poor motivation, and a negative job attitude. Job involvement in this organization is absent. Job involvement, which is the, degree of a person’s daily involvement in a work situation, is closely related to job satisfaction. The new employee cannot have this since there is no freedom of tackling any work. Work involvement is determined by ones needs hence the employee’s needs are likely not to be met. McClleland (1965), theory of needs argue that there is the need for affiliation, which is similar to Maslow’s social need. Having a friendly and healthy working relationship is vital to job motivation, work attitude and of course, job satisfaction. These are the people somebody spends most time with while working and, a healthy relationship with them is very vital in one’s motivation and job attitude. The need for achievement is a great motivator in giving people the need for high performance. People with high need for achievement normally prefer challenging jobs, and, have a high work attitude which drives them to achieve the goals set. The higher the need for achievement a person has, the higher the job attitude and the higher the drive leading to a high level of job satisfaction. Hackman and Oldham (1978), proposed the job characteristic theory, showing that, if work is interesting, people will enjoy it, be highly motivated, work hard, and hence, perform better. With an interesting job, a positive job attitude is cultivated, leading to high stimulus and in the end, good performance. Job characteristics come in various forms, which are, skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and task feedback. Skill variety is what one can accomplish, and the skills one has. If a person is tackling a job which someone has skills for, the job becomes interesting unlike, when a person does not have the skills for the job. Task identity refers to doing a job that needs completion. If one is involved in a job from start to end, it becomes appealing; one is highly motivated with the right job outlook, hence good performance. Task significance is the impact the job has on others. How other people value the job determines one’s attitude, drive to work and the performance. Toilet cleaners may not enjoy their jobs because they are viewed lowly by people, as compared to the medical officers who are viewed by people as life savers. Job characteristics are significant contributors to one’s job attitude, motivation and job satisfaction which go hand in hand. Hackman and Oldham (1978) emphasizes job characteristics by saying that if skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and task feedback are present, and motivation in the form of a positive job attitude is high, followed by a high job satisfaction. If a job is designed to envelope these characteristics, employees will achieve meaningfulness in the job, take full responsibility for the job outcomes and have full knowledge of the work results. In the work situation discussed, autonomy and task identity are lacking, leaving the workers with no responsibility for the job outcome. This leaves the employees with no job meaningfulness, less motivated, a negative job attitude and low satisfaction. This might lead to the employee quitting the organization or finding reasons to be absent. With motivation and a negative job attitude, work cannot be done effectively, and, job satisfaction is unlikely to be achieved. Having a positive job attitude requires motivation for the desired outcome to be achieved. These two factors revolve around each other and, the absence of one does not give the desired results. The theories of motivation and work attitude complement each other, and, work in a spiral mode going round each other. For job satisfaction to be achieved, motivation and positive job attitude need to be present and not just one of them. An employer enters the board room, greats people by their first names, congratulates the whole team and their departments. The boss mentions that training should continue as usual, and the training team should always raise any issue that come up as a shortcoming during the training process. A group, which was, dealing with a sensitive issue, is commended for the good work, and the team leader is suggested for promotion. The end of year party is an issue in the agenda, and presents for the outstanding employees are being made. In this organization, absenteeism is rare, and, the general manager has been there for twenty six years. Herzberg’s (1957) two- factor theory explains the situation in this organization. Motivators are related to job content and deal with the intrinsic part of the job, while, hygiene factors are based on the job context and deal with the extrinsic part of the job. There is the need for both factors for motivation to be at its highest. In this organization, both hygiene and motivators are present, and the result of this is good performance. Hackman and Oldham theory of job characteristics complement Herzberg two- factor theory, in boosting motivation and job attitudes which lead to job satisfaction. The job characteristics are the key factors for which job attitude depend on as well as job satisfaction. The characteristics include autonomy whereby the employees in this organization have the freedom of doing a job in the way they choose, job identity in that the employees are able to do the job from start to the end without interference or, the job being referred to another person. The job characteristics and, the presence of motivators in this organization is reason enough to make the general manager work in the organization for twenty six years. Equity theory of motivation comes in to explain the behavior of employees in this work situation. Equity theory focuses on social relationships, what one derives from these relationships, social justice and equity. Human beings desire having equity in that, what one gives, the input, should equal the output for equity to be achieved. Martin& Peterson (1987) argue that in an organization, equity is extremely hard to control, but, employees use other ventures to even the score like theft and decreased productivity. In order to improve workers motivation and increase job attitudes, equity is rather important in an organization. In the case study, equity is achieved in the form of the rewards employees gets from the excellent work done. An employee works hard, and he or she is promoted. The outstanding employees are rewarded making them get something in return to what they gave in, and what they have achieved for the organization. Whenever employees feel what they get is equivalent to what they give, they become motivated, their attitude towards that job is boosted and, they perform better as a result of job satisfaction. Since it is hard to ensure equity in an organization, some factors like involving workers in decision making make them feel well represented. Making decisions in an unbiased manner makes the employees feel they have achieved procedural justice. Motivators, hygiene factors, job characteristics, as well as equity in an organization, lead to high motivation accompanied by a positive job attitude and job satisfaction comes in as well, Greenberg (1990). The absence of motivation factors, the correct job characteristics and equity in a working environment, workers tend to retaliate by employing various techniques like turnover, where a senior worker moves out of an organization without prior notice. In most cases, the employee moves with fellow workers and join a rival organization which can complement their needs. To replace such an experienced senior employee like the manager, Pinder (2008), says it may involve thousands of dollars. The organization’s information and secrets are taken to the rival, who can use the information against the organization through competition. Absenteeism is very common, and employees do not hold valid reasons for their absence. In the case study, it is clear that motivation, equity and positive job attitude are present for the general manager to have managed to stay in this organization for twenty six years. Theories complementarities: In essence, all theories of motivation revolve around motivation, job attitude and job characteristics for the result, which is, job satisfaction to be achieved. Theories like goal setting, reinforcement theory, and control theories all revolve around motivation and positive job attitude for one to achieve the goals set, the rewards from the job and how one can control his behavior in terms of work respectively. Whenever employee’s attitudes towards jobs are not good, workers tend to retaliate, using withdrawal methods like lateness. An organization suffers a lot from such measures taken by employees and ends up using a lot of money to replace them. In the first case study, turnover by employees is very likely, and the presence of new employees to replace the ones who have left is obvious. The theory of needs as explained by Maslow (1954) in his hierarchy of needs, worker’s needs should be met for them to get job satisfaction though motivation. This, though, cannot be achieved alone without the feeling of equity on the part of the employee, and a positive work attitude. Without either factor, job satisfaction cannot be achieved, which is the key to quality and increased productivity. The theory of job characteristics cannot make sense alone without the theory of needs as well as the equity theory. The factors addressed by these theories are symbiotic in that, one cannot function properly without the other for the outcome, job satisfaction, to be achieved. They depend on each other for proper functioning, like the parts of a vehicle. Conclusion: In human’s social life, human beings have various needs, and for these needs to be achieved, work has to be done. In order for people to feel that their needs are being met when working, equity in the form of social justice should be achieved, and the right job attitude should be present brought about by the job characteristics. Therefore, the theory of needs, theory of job characteristics and the theory of equity come together to form the theory of motivation and job satisfaction in the end. For job satisfaction to be realized, motivation together with the right job attitude brought about by the feeling of equity, and job characteristics should be present. References Greenberg, J. (1990). Employee theft as a reaction to underpayment inequity: The hidden cost of pay cuts. Journal of Applied Psychology, 5, 561-568. Hackman, J., & Oldham, G. (1976). Motivation through the design of work: Test of a theory. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 16, 250-279. Herzberg, F., Mausner, B., & Snyderman, B. (1959).The motivation to work. New York: John Wiley. Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50, 370-396. Martin, J. E., & Peterson, M. M. (1987). Two-tier wage structures: Implications for equity theory. Academy of Management Journal, 30, 297-315. McClelland, D.C. (1965). Toward a theory of motive acquisition. American Psychologist, 20, 321-333. Pinder, C. C. (1998). Work motivation in organizational behavior. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Read More