Management's role in enhancing employee motivation

 

Management's role in enhancing employee motivation

 

1. Leading with vision

Everyone in the company must be aware of the intended consequence of their work. They must comprehend the organisation's objectives and endeavour to attain them (Ndalamba, Caldwell and Anderson, 2018). Employee motivation is achieved by allowing employees to view the big picture and comprehend what success should look like for the business. They are motivated to go when they know their destination. Therefore, management should guarantee that the organisation's goal is communicated clearly to the workforce.

2. Leading with trust and respect

According to Berson et al. (2001), autonomy and independence in the workplace are crucial for employees. They feel power and responsibility when they are in charge of their tasks and are permitted to create a strategy for achieving their goals. Therefore, managers must have faith in their staff, treat them with the respect they deserve, and refrain from micromanaging their duties.

A sense of power would be instilled in the employees if they were permitted to manage their own workload, set daily objectives, and discover answers to difficulties that arise while carrying out the prescribed duty (Kanat-Maymon, Yaakobi and Roth, 2018). This would also increase the employees' trust and respect for management, allowing them to do their duties in the manner that best suits them. Simply throwing out ideas and work plans might be degrading at times. Giving employees control, responsibility, and ownership of their job helps them feel more valuable and essential to the business, increasing their drive.

3. Minimising organisational politics while promoting fairness

In certain organisations, the work atmosphere is politicised, and management may participate in political actions such as manipulating others, preventing honest criticism, discriminatory treatment of employees and disregarding valuable ideas (Kaya, Aydin and Ayhan, 2016). This is done to preserve their standing. A very political atmosphere will impede the intrinsic motivation of management, as they will only try to protect their image and standing as opposed to achieving self-satisfaction via the development of talent and honest labour (Sun and Xia, 2018). The management should only grant prizes and promotions to employees based on their qualifications and performance, ignoring their political ties and contacts. 

4. Celebrate results

Every employee seeks to be recognised for their contributions. As a result, creating small, quantifiable objectives is crucial, as it affords several opportunities to recognise individuals' achievements (Floyd, 2012). It does not always imply that every outcome merits celebration. However, it is essential to communicate to employees how much the firm values their efforts.

When celebrating a particular accomplishment, it is more helpful to inform the employee about the outcome and how it contributed to accomplishing company goals (Avrahami et al., 2020). For instance, instead of just stating "Good job," it might be more effective to add "Good job executing the new marketing campaign. Now we can reach more prospective clients with more appeal.' Such appreciation would connect the employees to the larger vision and demonstrate that they are essential to the organisational structure.

5. Encouraging breaks and physical activity

Driving an individual to work full-time with no breaks can be quite stressful and lead to discontent with their employment. Therefore, giving brief breaks can boost employee motivation since they concurrently improve performance, productivity, and job satisfaction (Bramante et al., 2018). Additionally, this would aid in eliminating workplace distractions.

Regular physical activity increases productivity and performance. Management can employ initiatives to increase physical mobility and exercise (Taylor et al., 2013). For instance, constructing a workout lobby and fitness clubs would inspire employees to exercise physically, leading to more motivation and productivity. 

6. Development of an attractive work environment

The environment at work is a crucial component that directly influences employee motivation and job satisfaction (Raziq and Maulabakhsh, 2015). The workplace should be a pleasure, with ample natural light, ventilation, space, and a pleasant temperature. Decoration and colour choices may also play a significant part in making a workstation more appealing. Employees would also value room to rest, eat, converse, etc., one of the most critical motivational techniques. A contemporary workplace is more conducive to success than an older one with peeling paint and drab furnishings.

A healthy workplace that promotes physical activity (McDonald, 2021)

 

References

McDonald, A. (2021) Building A Healthier Work Environment For Your Employees: The How-To, Entrepreneur Middle East.

Avrahami, D., Williams, K., Lee, M. L., Tokunaga, N., Tjahjadi, Y. and Marlow, J. (2020) 'Celebrating Everyday Success: Improving Engagement and Motivation using a System for Recording Daily Highlights', in Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. New York, NY, USA: ACM, pp. 1–13. doi: 10.1145/3313831.3376369.

Berson, Y., Shamir, B., Avolio, B. J. and Popper, M. (2001) 'The relationship between vision strength, leadership style, and context', The Leadership Quarterly, 12(1), pp. 53–73. doi: 10.1016/S1048-9843(01)00064-9.

Bramante, C. T., King, M. M., Story, M., Whitt-Glover, M. C. and Barr-Anderson, D. J. (2018) 'Worksite physical activity breaks Perspectives on feasibility of implementation', work, 59(4), pp. 491–499. doi: 10.3233/WOR-182704.

Floyd, R. G. (2012) 'A golden anniversary: Celebrating successes and establishing a vision for the future of the Journal of School Psychology', Journal of School Psychology, 50(1), pp. 1–6. doi: 10.1016/j.jsp.2011.12.001.

Kanat-Maymon, Y., Yaakobi, E. and Roth, G. (2018) 'Motivating deference: Employees' perception of authority legitimacy as a mediator of supervisor motivating styles and employee work-related outcomes', European Management Journal, 36(6), pp. 769–783. doi: 10.1016/j.emj.2018.02.004.

Kaya, N., Aydin, S. and Ayhan, O. (2016) 'The Effects of Organizational Politics on Perceived Organizational Justice and Intention to Leave', American Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 06(03), pp. 249–258. doi: 10.4236/ajibm.2016.63022.

Ndalamba, K. K., Caldwell, C. and Anderson, V. (2018) 'Leadership vision as a moral duty', Journal of Management Development, 37(3), pp. 309–319. doi: 10.1108/JMD-08-2017-0262.

Raziq, A. and Maulabakhsh, R. (2015) 'Impact of Working Environment on Job Satisfaction', Procedia Economics and Finance, 23, pp. 717–725. doi: 10.1016/S2212-5671(15)00524-9.

Sun, Y. and Xia, H. (2018) 'Research on Perceptions of Organizational Politics and Its Influence on Employee Silence', Open Journal of Business and Management, 06(02), pp. 250–264. doi: 10.4236/ojbm.2018.62018.

Taylor, W. C., King, K. E., Shegog, R., Paxton, R. J., Evans-Hudnall, G. L., Rempel, D. M., Chen, V. and Yancey, A. K. (2013) 'Booster Breaks in the workplace: participants' perspectives on health-promoting work breaks', Health Education Research, 28(3), pp. 414–425. doi: 10.1093/her/cyt001.