Motivation is something that all businesses are looking to achieve
with employees as motivated employees are more productive employees. Motivation
with employees can be a tricky concept though as motivation is an inner development
which echoes a desire that the individuals want to achieve certain goals. This means that motivation for one person may
not work for the next person because they have different goals that they want
to achieve. For a business, the challenge is coming up with a way to motivate
all employees to do better and often the way is through extrinsic motivation
which may not always work. In the
following intrinsic and extrinsic motivation will be covered to show the
long-term effectiveness of intrinsic over extrinsic. Additionally, a motivational system will be
developed using four learning theories and explained why it will be more
effective for motivation as well as how to implement it.
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation
In
simple terms extrinsic motivation is the need to do something because of
external rewards like money or praise that come along with doing it (Schunk,
2012). In business, this is the most
common motivation used to get employees to perform better and try harder. Things like pencils, parties, lunches,
Starbucks gift cards, etc. all these things are provided at some point or
another if the employee does well or performs well for a period. The problem with this type of motivation
though is that the rewards have to keep coming, and the individuals may get
tired of little trivial rewards. There are only so many times that a person is
going to increase their performance to win a gift card for five dollars, or get
a stress ball with the company logo on it.
To keep individuals motivated, better methods need to be employed versus
just offering external rewards.
Intrinsic motivation is different than
extrinsic motivation in it is the desire to do something because it is
enjoyable (Schunk, 2012). Simple enough
concept, if a person enjoys doing their job, they are going to be motivated to
keep doing the job or to do the job to the best of their abilities all the
time. Individuals that play football are
not doing it to be better; they are doing it because the love and enjoy the
game. If a business can find a way to
make the jobs being done enjoyable then individuals don't even need rewards in
the long run because they are motivated by the enjoyment of it (Chin-Yi. 2015). Additionally, there are more benefits to
having intrinsically motivated employees as these employees don't require
constant supervision; they are less likely to be late to work and more likely
to excel at their jobs (Ford, Mclaughlin, & Newstrom, 2003).
As individuals do their jobs day in and day out the job may become
boring because the job involves doing much of the same kind of work every day
and the job becomes much less challenging to the individual. This results in individuals are becoming less
motivated to work since they are bored with what they are doing (Ford,
Mclaughlin, & Newstrom, 2003). This
points to the fact that obviously employees need to be motivated to keep doing
their jobs and to keep up with performance. According to Ford, Mclaughlin, and
Newstrom (2003), 95% of HR managers reported that a fun work environment would
produce an increase in employee enthusiasm. There are a lot of different ways
that a business can change from the reward system to a more effective intrinsic
system. Making a fun work environment
could mean anything but something that allows employees to laugh and express
themselves increases bonds at the company leading to improved motivation. According to Ford, Mclaughlin, and Newstrom
(2003), 91% of HR managers reported that in companies that held open mike
events weekly during breaks or lunchtime, so an increase in friendships at work
and employees showed more happy and relaxed natures.
Learning Theories
Turning workplaces into more fun increase
motivation of employees, in the long run, to keep up the performance of job
duties but learning theories can also help with increasing the motivation of
employees as well. In a metal furniture
manufacturing plant individuals do the same jobs daily, being responsible for a
small part of creating the whole product. Some individuals make heat or cut the
metal used, others may wield one part together, others may inspect it, and
still others may package the final product for shipping. Each employee is
responsible for a small part of the finished project, but the desire to
increase motivation and make the work place more fun individuals could have job
switch days. Much like in high school
where teens got to be principal for the day employees can be shown new jobs,
such as the shipping employees learning about wielding the frames of the
furniture.
According to Schunk (2012), the behaviorist theory of learning
explains that reinforcement received during learning processes motivated
individuals to learn, as the individual displays correct behaviors hey are
encouraged to produce a correct responses.
As individuals switch up roles and learn new jobs that go with making
the furniture the individuals can be reinforced for the behaviors they are displaying
to make the furniture. This allows the individuals to feel good about the
product they are making, to be encouraged about what they are doing, and to be
motivated by the new learning experiences to keep doing a good job. This also
plays into the social cognitive theory of learning as the individuals display
behaviors that are associated with the interaction between learning and the
environment around them (Schunk, 2012). It's also fun to get to play in a
different job every so often, and it motivates the individuals to learn new
skills. The cognitive theory of learning would say that the individual learning
the new skill and doing well at it would increase the individuals motivation to
learn because the individual is looking to repeat the behaviors of doing well
(Schunk, 2012).
As the individual plays in the new job role, they learn new
skills, if they are told they are excelling at the new skills the individual's
desire to keep doing well increases, and they are motivated to learn and
perform in their job. This is where the information processing theory comes
into play as this theory believes learning is an ongoing process in which the
individual learns new knowledge on a subject and blends it with the knowledge
they already know and any other knowledge to achieve set goals (Schunk, 2012). The shipping employees previously had only
seen the finished product that they were packaging and shipping out to
stores. However, as they start in other
jobs, they begin to learn about all the steps and processes that are required
to make the finished product. This
motivates the employees and gives them new insight into the job that they are
doing on a daily basis since they see how much work and sweat goes into that
finished product.
Conclusion
Motivation is something that all businesses are looking to achieve
with employees as motivated employees are more productive employees. Motivation
with employees can be a tricky concept though as motivation is an internal
process which reflects the desire of individuals to achieve certain goals. This means that motivation for one person may
not work for the next person because they have different goals that they want
to achieve. Extrinsic motivation is good for a period, but in the long run,
employees get bored with reward systems and motivation to perform begins to
lack again. A better option is intrinsic
motivation which has the employee motivate themselves through the desire to do
something because it is enjoyable (Schunk, 2012). Providing a fun workplace allows individuals
a happier more relaxed attitude that benefit the company greatly. According to Ford, Mclaughlin, and Newstrom
(2003), 95% of HR managers reported that a fun work environment would produce
an increase in employee enthusiasm. Making a fun work environment could mean
anything but something that allows employees to laugh and express themselves
increases bonds at the company leading to improved motivation.
Ford, R. C.,
McLaughlin, F. S., & Newstrom, J. W. (2003). Questions and answers about fun at work. Human Resource Planning, 26, 18-33.
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