MOTIVATION IS THE MECHANISM THAT GENERATES ULTIMATE PRODUCTIVITY IN ORGANISATIONS.1

1. Introduction

Motivation is a mechanism that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. It is the process of inspiring people to intensify their desire and willingness for executing their duties effectively to achieve the objectives of an Organisation.

According to Oxford dictionary, motivation is defined as the:

"...psychological forces that determine the direction of a person's level of effort and a person's level of persistence in the face of obstacles".2

Generally, organisations have come to the realization that the best way to get the greatest performance(s) of workers is to motivate them.

Employee motivation is key to an organisation's success. It is the level of commitment, drive, and energy that an organisation's workers channel into their daily duties. In the absence of motivation, organisations may experience reduction in commitment to work, low levels of productivity, lower levels of output and inability to achieve the organisations set goals.

2. Strategies for motivating workers

  1. Setting up Attainable Goals: Every organisation has a set of goals which they believe is attainable. For staff to attain these goals, management or employers should endevour to share the company's vision and goals with the staff and be deliberate in conveying how easily these goals can be achieved with little or no difficulties. However, the goals should be specific, measurable, realistic, and achievable within a certain timeframe.
  2. Good Communication System: Communicating with workers is very important, and without good communication certain goals cannot be achieved. Communication promotes good relationship among staff members and makes for a seamless workflow.
  3. Encouraging Teamwork: Employers should put on a positive attitude towards the staff and endeavour to be accessible and relatable. Teamwork helps a lot and motivates workers to contribute to the well-being of the organisation. Teamwork makes it effortless for members of staff to have a sense of belonging, to be recognized and appreciated as an intrinsic member of the organisation.
  4. Appreciating Workers: Showing gratitude to employees boosts their zeal to be productive. Employees should endevour to give positive feedback and reward to the team for successfully accomplishing important tasks and should extend accolades and immediate praise for goals that are accomplished by workers individually or collectively.
  5. Training and Development: This is an educational activity within an organisation created to enhance the knowledge and skillset of employees while providing information and instruction on how to perform specific tasks relevant to the organisation's objectives. Employers should create a schedule of useful trainings and workshops designed to enable the employee acquire desirable and scalable skills. Employees should also be allowed to identify such useful trainings they feel could assist them in being more effective within the organisation.
  6. Providing a Sound Working Environment: Provide a good, promising, and healthy office environment.
  7. Operating an Open-Door Policy: Encourage an open-door policy within the office where issues will be examined, discussed, and resolved.

3. Employers' responsibilities to motivate staff empowerment

There are two major employers' obligations to empower staff to perform astoundingly.

  1. The Autonomy requirement: This is an independence requirement, and the need to be recognized and respected as a staff in an organisation, or to stand out for individual personal performance. It is a need to be accepted for individual achievement.

  2. The Dependency requirement: This is the tendency of workers to feel that they are a part of something bigger than themselves. People want to be part of a team. It is the need to feel recognized and accepted as part of a group of people in the workplace.

    Organizations can provide environments where workers are independent and important, and at the same time, have their dependency needs satisfied by making them feel as if they are part of a team or part of the whole organization. The reward structures in excellent organizations are designed to reward not only autonomous performance but also team performance.

4. Applying Positive Support at Work

The major factor in employee motivation is the relationship between the employer and other staff members. This is the point of contact or communication between the employer and the employee, as the major determinant of performance, effectiveness, productivity, output, and profitability of an organization. The point at which the employer and the employee connect, whether positively or negatively, is where the past, present, and future performance of the individual and the organization is determined.

When this contact between the employer and employee is positive, strong, and empowering of self-esteem, a great self-image is attained i.e., the efficiency and output of the employee will reach its most elevated level.

5. Low Self-Esteem Work Environment

This is the most dreadful way to gain employee satisfaction. When the point of contact between the employer and employees is negative, performance and output will decrease. A negative relationship with the employer will generate fears of failure, rejection, and disapproval. If an employer is negative for any reason, employees will be cautious, and only carry out their duties as instructed by their employers to avoid losing their jobs.

Basically, employees who have worked in a low self-esteem environment usually remember as very bad experiences. All efforts made by employers to enhance this intersection or contact with employees improve the overall work experience of staff members, no matter the position they have attained.

6. Conclusion

The key to creating a peak performance organization is to create a high self-esteem environment by removing the fears of failure and rejection that inhibit personal performance. Employers who create a positive, high-self-esteem workplace will have lower absenteeism, lower employee turnover, fewer mistakes, higher performance, and higher productivity.

Footnotes

1. Justina Olayinka, Secretary, Secretarial Unit, S. P. A. Ajibade & Co., Lagos State, Nigeria.

2. See https://oxford-review.com/oxford-review-encyclopaedia-terms/motivation-definition-explanation/ accessed on 26th September 2022.

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