Employee Engagement and Motivation

Motivation is the power to inspire, guide and maintain human behavior. Active people are willing to make significant efforts, and to do more independently what organization expect, employees can achieve high performance (Hunter et al ,1990). The term "motivation" can broadly refer to an individual's goals, how the individual chooses the goals, and how others try to change their behavior when achieving set goals (Locke and Latham , 2004)

According to (Reucrof & Scott, 2015) employee engagement and recognition can make people feel appreciated, engaged and happy at work. Ex: Costco came in 2nd in Glassdoors‘s 2014 Top 20 Companies for compensation and benefits. for the employers struggling to find or keep their dream workforce, the fundamentals of good management, career prospects and financial rewards remain vital. Recognition can support and drive desired behaviors and attitude or culture or support desired out comes like team work or increased moral. However, done badly, has the power to seriously disengaged employee’s poor recognition schemes can lead to people feeling like there isn’t fairness within a team. And, can lead to allegation of favoritism, can lead some to feel unrecognize or under value.

As described by (Arnold et al, 1991) the three components of motivation are:

1 Direction – what an employee is trying to do.

2 Effort – how hard an employee is trying.

3 Persistence – how long an employee keeps on trying.

                                                   Types of motivation

• Intrinsic motivation: When people feel that their work is important, interesting and challenging, and provide them with a reasonable degree of autonomy, there is an intrinsic motivation. According to (Deci and Ryan,1985) the intrinsic motivation based on ability and self-determined needs.

• Extrinsic motivation: Can have an immediate and powerful effect, but it will not necessarily last long. The intrinsic motivators, which are concerned with the ‘quality of working life’ are likely to have a deeper and longer-term effect because it is essential in individuals and the work – and are not imposed from outside in such forms as incentive pay. According to (Deci and Ryan, 1985) suggested that intrinsic motivation is based on ability and self-determination.

                                                   Instrumentality theory

In fact, reward and punishment are the best means of shaping behavior. Suppose that if rewards and penalties are directly linked to their performance, people will be motivated to work; therefore, rewards depend on effective performance. Tool theory stems from scientific management methods (Taylor, 1911) Ex: Facebook and Google becoming famous for offering quirky employee perks.

                                                          Content theory 

Theory is one of the content theories of motivation. These attempts to explain the factors that motivate individuals by identifying and satisfying the personal needs, desires, and goals pursued to satisfy the desires. This kind of motivation theory is called the theory of two elements content. based on seemingly simple idea that motivation can be divided into health factors and motivation factors, often referred to as "two needs systems."(Ball, 2003).

Figure 1.1 The process of motivation according to content theory

Source: Armstrong, (2014)


Figure 1.2 Motivation Model

Source: Porter and Lawler(1968)

According to (Porter and Lawler,1968) emphasized, mere effort is not enough. effective effort and to produce the desired performance. The two variables additional to effort that affect task achievement are:

1) Ability – individual characteristics such as intelligence, knowledge, skills;

2) Role perceptions – what the individual wants to do or thinks they are required to do. These are good from the viewpoint of the organization if they correspond with what it thinks the individual ought to be doing. They are poor if the views of the individual and the organization do not coincide.

Vidéo :1.1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnRhQ6n8fYI

By professionally combining behavioral science with insightful identification solutions, connect the essential of employees to the brain of the company to achieve better performance through recognition.

Source: Barrie Gleddena and Kes Loy, (2012).

List of references

Arnold, J, Robertson, I T and Cooper, C L (1991) Work Psychology, London, Pitman

Ball, J., 2003. Understanding Herzberg’s motivation theory. ACCA on the Web: http:// accaglobal.com/my/en/student/acca-qual-student-journey/qual-resource/acca-qualification/f1/technical-articles/herzbergs-motivation. html.

Deci, E L and Ryan, R M (1985) Intrinsic Motivation and Self-determination in Human Behaviour, New York, Plenum

Hunter, J E, Schmidt, F L and Judiesch, M K (1990) Individual differences in output variability as a function of job complexity, Journal of Applied Psychology, 75 (1),

Locke, E A and Latham, G (2004) What should we do about motivation theory? Six recommendations for the twenty-first century, Academy of Management Review,

Benefits, E., 2020. Employee Benefits. [online] Sketchbubble.com. Available at: <https://www.sketchbubble.com/en/presentation-employee-benefits.html#mz-expanded-view> [Accessed 18 May 2020].

Reucrof, G. and Scott, T., 2015. Human Resources: A Practical Guide.

Taylor, F W (1911) Principles of Scientific Management, New York, Harper (republished)