What is Employee Motivation!

The motivation of employees plays a substantial role in enhancing the performance of any organization. The concept in its origin can be traced back to the Latin term “move” which means to move (Kretiner, 1998).

It’s further explained as a psychological process that results in excitement, path, and an inclination

towards voluntary actions, which are goals specific (Mitchell, 1982, p.81). Robbins (1993) explains motivation in the organization as willingness on the part of the employee to make a high effort in order to achieve organizational goal conditioned upon this that such effort fulfills an individual need. As per Olafsen, Halvari, Forest, and Deci (2015), motivation is the fulfillment of the desires of an employee. Thus, motivation deals with wants of employees which, if fulfilled, boosts performance. Thus, motivation provides inspiration. Employees basically work for a living, but there is always this need that they need to be inspired to do work better.

Maslow’s research is considered remarkable in the hierarchy of employees’ needs as it describes the needs of employees in a pyramid. As per his work, five basic needs of employees comprise physiological needs, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization.

The Motivator-Hygiene Theory by Herzberg is another famous theory that points out two significant factors which can be named as hygiene and motivation (Herzberg, 1966). The results of the theory have been based upon a survey conducted over 200 accountants and engineers. The survey helps one understand the initial framework of Hersberg’s theory of motivation. The two factors highlighted in Hersberg’s theory have been explained by Raziq and Maulabakhsh (2015), who state that motivating factors result in job satisfaction. In other words, without hygiene factors, employees lose motivation in their jobs, which results in dissatisfaction with their jobs.

Alshmemri, Shahwan-Akl, and Maude (2017) describe that employees come across factors while being in the line of duty or elements that define the nature of their job. Hygiene factors, in this case, can include salary as well as working conditions. More specifically, the working conditions deal with safety at work.

For motivation, it’s required that there is communication held with respect to the needs of employees. The leader plays a massive role in creating and enhancing employee motivation. It is argued that as the essential role of leadership is to influence people, motivation comes on the top of its implications.

The motivation has been used as one of the variables that count in the success of the failure of the leadership through follower acceptance and motivation. The theory of leader-member exchange has emphasized on the relationship connection with motivation.

It has been argued that for leadership to be effective, it is necessary that the leadership style is compatible with the motivational needs of the followers (Argyris, 1976; Maslow, 1954) or chance would be there that it will decrease.

Motivation has been expressed to be impacted significantly by leadership. For instance, Mehta et al. (2003), argued that in a dynamic and highly uncertain environment and due to the significant influence of leadership, motivation and employee satisfaction can ensure the survival and the growth of the business through the influence on employee performance in achieving the company goals (Hellriegel et al., 1992, p. 477).

There is number of studies investigated the relationship between leadership and motivation. Mehta et al. (2003), explained that different leadership styles influence motivation. Bass/Avolio (1999) established a correlation between the motivation of the followers and the transformational leadership style. Storseth (2004) argued that people-oriented leadership styles were a key predictor for work motivation. While other researchers confirmed that there is a strong linkage between leadership styles and employees’ motivation, argument still has made that as much as the leader is open, friendly, and approachable and as long as he treats subordinates as equals, such boost motivation and according enhance the performance (Blanchard, 2009).

As a significant management activity that as well as impact the employee motivation while has significant dependence on the leader in performance management. As per DeNisi and Smith (2014), performance is an action followed by consequences which are based upon behaviors emanating from a performer. In this case, the performer converts a concept into an act. The success of the action is dependent upon the tone of the employees. It can be implied from this that there is a correlation between organizational behavior and performance.

Wright and Nishii (2007) argued that in the sphere of increasing the organizational business outputs, peoples’ reactions must be coinciding with one another to spit of achieving a total positive result at the organizational level. Mulvaneyv (2017) argued about the need to measure employee performance in the sphere of inducing significant help in evaluating the objectives and accomplishments of the overall organization that is achieved by the employees. Measuring argued to help managers understand the performance of employees as well, and thus, it helps them identify the strategies about how to boost the performance of employees via incentives and motivation towards the organization success.

Nevertheless, it has been argued that employees are generally motivated differently by leadership style. Arguments is made that more motivation is indeed accompanied democratic style of leadership, where chances that their own voice and opinion is empowered in the decision-making policy for a company (Goleman, 2017). The relationship still can form a significant factor in creating motivation such as recognition that claims to majorly affects the overall performance of a business organization (Chapman and White, 2011).

Motivational level determinants are indeed complex, however one of the main factors in organization is performance management. As per Buckingham and Goodall (2015), a performance management system is a process through which a manager ensures tasks performed by the employee’s motivation is synchronizes with the objectives of the organization. The system used to measure is known as performance appraisal system.

Tziner and Rabenu (2018) argued that the performance appraisal system remains as an essential component of the organization regardless of the changes in the context of the organization. Lee and Steers (2017) define performance appraisal system as something used to develop the level of human achievement. As per Bednall, Sanders, and Runhaar (2014), performance appraisal deals with constant communication going on between employees and employer in the capacity of a leader. As per Dusterhoff, Cunningham, and MacGregor (2014), an appraisal is an integral part of the decision making in any organization despite many other dynamics which help boost the performance of the organization.

Even at such importance, studies showed all the benefits of the performance appraisal and management system usually at risk as mostly no results can be seen if the users do not accept or believe in the system (e.g., Cardy and Dobbins 1994). Elicker, Levy, and Hall (2006) demonstrated the importance of having a positive and functional relationship between leader whom at this case is the appraiser and their employees. It has been argued that the feedback reactions and mechanism between employees and the leader the appraisal can determine the success and effectiveness of their appraisal process (Cawley, Keeping and Levy 1998).

Researchers found that the higher quality relationship between the leader (appraiser) and the follower (appraisee) there is more chances for the followers to accept feedback even more efficiently. This finding was also strengthened by the treatment in the appraisal session and employee's justice perceptions. Once the feedback is perceived and accepted by the employee, will lead to a desire of response or actually respond to the feedback by developing and improving the performance accordingly (Kinicki, Prussia, Wu and McKee-Ryan 2004).

The leadership, in this case, hold a significant impact on the success or the failure of such a crucial business tool of performance management. The relationship quality and trust should indeed impact the feedback and reaction processes. Several studies (e.g., Masterson, Lewis, Goldman, and Taylor 2000 has investigated the importance of leader-member exchange for performance appraisals. In this regard, research showed that a good relationship between the leader and employees might foster positive feedback reactions (Elicker et l. 2006).