A critical discussion on what motivates

employees and whether employee motivation

is one of a companys main tasks in order to
run the business successfully

(Aquise Experten 2014)

Student Number: Q12580431

Unit: ENG195
Southampton Solent University
Date: 13/01/2016
Word Count: 1,550

People spend a considerable part of their lives at work. Therefore, it is understandable

that they wish to be satisfied and rewarded at their work place. However, the wellbeing
of employees is not only important for themselves, but also for the company they work
for as it is likely that motivated employees are generally more satisfied but also more
efficient at work. They tend to be absent less often and work more enthusiastically
which encourages them to contribute more to the success of the organisation they
work for. Consequently, motivation plays a key role in the business environment
(Dysvik 2010). It is defined as the set of forces that cause people to behave in certain
ways (Griffin 2013, p. 474).

The aim of this essay is to discuss different viewpoints of what actually motivates
employees and whether employee motivation is an essential task of a companys
management in order to run the whole business successfully. For this, general main
tasks of a companys management will be demonstrated first. Furthermore, it will be
examined how a business can ensure a successful performance and to which degree
motivation plays a role for this. Finally, different content perspectives on motivation will
be presented in order to question what actually motivates employees.

First of all, it is important to understand that management involves four basic activities.
These activities can be seen as a framework in order to identify more specific tasks.
Planning and decision making which represents the first activity is about defining a
companys goals, preparing how to achieve them as well as selecting the most
promising option from a wide range. Furthermore, organising involves dealing with
resources and activities and how to use them in the most efficient way. In order to
motivate employees and members of a company, leading also becomes an important
management task. It is mainly about implementing that all parties act in the interest of
the company. Finally, controlling activities is important in order to be able to evaluate
the organisations progress towards its goal achievement (Griffin 2013).
In general, most management experts agree on the tasks which must be carried out
by the management of a company. However, they tend to emphasise other
responsibilities and evaluate their importance differently. The intellectual Peter Drucker
for example stresses the importance of developing people within the company.
According to him, the people working in the business are its most important resource
and therefore need to be developed well (The Wall Street Journal 2015).
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When it comes to the question on how to successfully run a business, Zaridis and
Mousiolis (2014) outline that the factors which are crucial to success can vary between
big and small and medium size companies. Therefore, different companies need to set
different priorities in order to be successful.
According to Simon et al (2015), it is important that the management performs its tasks
effectively in order to run a business successfully. Therefore, the success of a business
strongly depends on the actions taken by the management. In general, there are two
areas which influence success. Firstly, successful business practice depends on
financial issues as it is crucial to increase profitability and growth as well as to
maintain financial stability. Stability can be realised by establishing a solid cash flow
pipeline. Increasing growth can relate to enlarging the size of the company determined
by sales and/or employees as well as by expanding to other geographical areas, for
example. Secondly, non-financial issues play an important role as well. They include
the satisfaction of employees, customers and clients and their retention as well as
teamwork and a quality-standard of products or services. Especially employee
satisfaction is seen to have a great impact on the companys success. It is defined as
the degree to which employees have a positive attitude towards their jobs (Stone
2002, p. 32). As satisfied employees are more likely to contribute to and to remain with
the company they work in, they highly influence the success of a business in a positive
way: favourably representing the company can lead to better relationships with
customers, business partners or even team-members which as a result can lead to a
better reputation of the company. Furthermore, being motivated in the workplace can
also affect the quality of work and can therefore be reflected in the end-product or endservice. Therefore, employees play a key role for a companys success which turns
their motivation into a key task of the management (Simon et al 2015).

However, even if most managers nowadays understand the importance of motivating

employees, the question concerning what actually motivates them remains
controversial. Therefore, different content perspectives which all discuss the nature of
motivation emerged (Griffin 2013).
Maslow (1970) developed the hierarchy of needs which orders five levels of needs.
It is assumed that people are motivated to fulfil these needs in a chronological order
as they build upon another. Therefore, an individual is only motivated to satisfy one
need at the same time and can only move up in the hierarchy if the respectively lower
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need has already been satisfied. The first level groups physiological needs which
represent basic needs. In an organisation, these needs correspond to appropriate
wages and the general work environment. Security needs which represent the next
layer claim a stable physical and emotional environment and can include insurances
as an example in the work place. Belongingness needs relate to social interaction in
the job with other employees as well as to the feeling to be a part of a team whereas
esteem-needs address self-respect as well as being respected by others. Selfactualisation needs can be found at the very top of the hierarchy and are therefore the
needs which are most difficult to satisfy. They can include the need to personally
develop and grow with the job. Considering this model, it has to be mentioned that in
some cases, specific needs could be grouped under several categories rather than just
one which makes it difficult to identify in which category an individual is currently
classified and which category he or she wants to achieve next.
However, Pinder (2008) has questioned the presence of all five needs for every
individual as well as the order of the needs given in Maslows hierarchy. Additionally,
it has been argued that especially people coming from different cultures might identify
themselves with different need categories. Addressing this criticism, Clayton Alderfer
(1972) developed an alternative three-level hierarchy which is called the ERG theory
of motivation. Basically, it groups Maslows five needs into existence needs,
relatedness needs and growth needs. Other than the hierarchy of needs, multiple
needs are able to cause motivation at the same time. Additionally, Alderfer considers
the effect of what happens if needs remain unsatisfied. According to him, the individual
becomes frustrated and may try to satisfy these needs again and again.
Different to Maslow and Alderfer, Herzberg, Mausner and Snyderman (1959) strongly
questioned the traditional view of motivating employees which assumed that
satisfaction and dissatisfaction are contraries of each other and that employees can
only be satisfied, dissatisfied or somewhere in between. After having completed
empirical research, they found that the topic was more complex and developed the
two-factor theory which addresses two main factors: Hygiene factors such as
appropriate payment, security and general working conditions relate to the work
environment and must be sufficiently provided by managers so that the employee is
not dissatisfied. Given this, motivation factors which relate to the work content must
be addressed. This can be done by offering further opportunities to the employee when
it comes to achievement or recognition, for example, so that the employee is satisfied
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and therefore motivated. As a conclusion, it is not considered as being sufficient to

provide employees with hygiene factors only in order to cause motivation. However,
the view that financial rewards can motivate employees best is still widely spread
across businesses.

Having analysed the role of motivation in a business context, it can be concluded that
it plays a key role for the success of a company. As this essay has revealed, motivated
employees are more willing to contribute to an organisation in a long-term view and
therefore can be seen as an important source of success for the business. As
successful business practice can be assumed to be desirable for companies,
employee motivation demonstrates an important task for the management. However,
it also has been found that the nature of motivation is very complex and that managers
carefully need to think about how they can actually motivate their employees.
Especially the consideration of different content perspectives such as Herzbergs twofactor theory has shown that a solid foundation of working conditions must be created
to be able to motivate at all. In addition to this, managers should be aware of the fact
that different employees can be aiming to fulfil different levels of needs which results
in not being able to generalise employee-behaviour easily. Finally, it also has to be
mentioned that effective motivation is not the only crucial factor which influences
business success. A company also needs to ensure a stable financial situation and a
potential to grow in the future. Additionally, other factors such as customer satisfaction
and focus as well as effective teamwork and a high quality standard affect the
performance of a business in a positive way.

Reference List

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organizational settings. New York: Free Press

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http://www.akquise-experten.de/

DYSVIK, A., 2010. Motivated workers perform better [viewed 05/12/2015]. Available
from http://www.alphagalileo.org/
GRIFFIN, R. W., 2013. Management; Principles and Practices. 11th edition.
Mason: South-Western Cengage

HERZBERG, F., B. MAUSNER, B. B. SNYDERMAN, 1959. The motivation to work.

Edition from 2010. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers
MASLOW, A. H., 1970. Motivation and personality. 2nd edition. New York; London:
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York Hove: Psychology Press
SIMON, A. ET AL, 2015. Business leaders views on the importance of strategic and
dynamic capabilities for successful financial and non-financial business performance.
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STONE, R. J., 2002. Human Resource Management. 4th edition. Milton: John Wiley
& Sons

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2015. What do Managers do? [viewed 05/12/2015].
Available from http://guides.wsj.com/management/developing-a-leadershipstyle/what-do-managers-do/
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