Role of Management In Improving Employee Motivation

 

Role of management in improving employee motivation

1. Leading with vision

All the employees in the organization needs to know the target of their efforts and what the expected outcome is. They need to understand what the company is trying to achieve and work towards that goal (Ndalamba, Caldwell and Anderson, 2018). Making the employees see the ultimate picture and letting them understand what success should look like for the company results in employee motivation. Knowing the destination motivates them for the journey. Thus, the management should ensure that the vision of the organization is clear to the employees.

2. Leading with trust and respect

Autonomy and independence at the workplace are highly important for the employees (Berson et al., 2001). Being the master of their own task and allowing them to make a plan to achieve their objectives gives them a sense of authority and responsibility. Therefore, managers must trust the employees and provide them with the respect they deserve without trying to micromanage their tasks.  

Allowing the employees to manage their own workload, to set daily goals, and to find solutions to the problems they face when carrying out the assigned task would give them a sense of authority (Kanat-Maymon, Yaakobi and Roth, 2018). This would also allow the employees to find ways of carrying out their work in a method best suited to them while increasing their trust and respect towards the management. Simply handing out the solutions and workplans could sometimes be demeaning. Giving them authority, responsibility, and ownership of their own work makes them feel more valuable and an integral part of the organization, thus boosting motivation.

3. Minimizing organizational politics while promoting fairness

In some organizations, the work environment is politicized, and management may engage in political behaviors such as manipulation of others, discouraging honest criticism, biased treatment of employees, and ignoring productive ideas (Kaya, Aydin and Ayhan, 2016). This is done with the aim of maintaining their own status. A highly political environment will interfere with the intrinsic motivation of management as they only work to maintain their image and status rather than to achieve self-satisfaction through developing skill and honest work (Sun and Xia, 2018). Management should only provide rewards and promotions based on the employee qualification and performance without considering their connections and politics.

4. Celebrate results

Every employee strives to be acknowledged for the results they produce. Thus, setting small and measurable goals would be important as it provides many opportunities to celebrate the results produced by employees (Floyd, 2012). It does not essentially imply that every result should be celebrated. However, it is important to let the employees know how much the organization appreciates the contributions they make.

When celebrating a certain achievement, it is more beneficial to let the employee know what the result was and how it contributed to the achievement of organizational goals (Avrahami et al., 2020). For example, rather than simply saying “Good job” it would be more impactful to say something like, “Good job on implementing the new marketing campaign. Now we can reach out to more potential customers with higher appeal.” Such praise would tie the employees to the bigger picture and let them know that they are an integral part of the organizational structure.

5. Encouraging breaks and physical activity

Driving an employee to work fulltime with no breaks can be quite stressful and create job dissatisfaction. Therefore, providing short breaks can promote employee motivation as they increase performance, productivity, and work satisfaction simultaneously (Bramante et al., 2018). This would also assist in reducing distraction while working.

Regular exercise promotes productivity and performance. Management can implement strategies to encourage physical movement and exercise (Taylor et al., 2013). For instance, creating a workout lobby and clubs would encourage them to engage in physical activity resulting in increased motivation and productivity.

6. Development of an attractive work environment

Work environment is a critical factor which directly affects the employee motivation and job satisfaction (Raziq and Maulabakhsh, 2015). The workplace should be a pleasure to work in, with plenty of natural light, aeration, space, and a comfortable temperature. Interior decoration and color selection can also play a major role in transforming a workspace into an attractive one. Employees would also appreciate space to relax, eat, chat, etc. one of the critical motivation strategies. A smart modern office fosters more success than an old building with peeling paint and bad decor.

Figure 1: A healthy workspace encouraging 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.

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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.

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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.