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Employee Motivation: Role in Modern Management
The maximization of profits represents the principal feature of business operations. As such, companies have formulated a myriad of strategies and policies to enhance productivity. At the core of profitability is the ability of companies to manage their human resources effectively. Conversely, companies often struggle to deal with the challenge of attracting highly trained employees, as well as, retaining skilled employees. Employee motivation has emerged as a critical component of human resource management. Therefore, human resource managers should motivate their employees to achieve organizational goals successfully. Companies that motivate their employees achieve profitability through increased employee productivity.
Employee motivation refers to the intricate process that involves empowering employees to behave in a specified manner. On the other hand, Lipman has defined employee motivation as the process of influencing the manner in which employees perform their duties. Within the context of these two definitions, employee motivation focuses on employee behavior and internal drive. Employee behavior stresses the need for the employees to adopt a set of behaviors, which facilitate the realization of organizational goals. Nevertheless, internal drive focuses on satisfying a need because a satisfied employee will strive to improve his or her performance.
Companies employ different strategies to motivate their employees. The main goal of adopting these strategies is to ensure that the companies attain a competitive edge. The contemporary marketplace is increasingly volatile and competitive. Notwithstanding the volatility and competitiveness of the modern business environment, companies must sustain productivity and profitability. The major asset that companies possess is a robust workforce. Despite the valuable role that employees play in accomplishing organizational success, they can also undermine the success. Hence, motivation aligns employees with the objectives aligned in companies’ strategic plans.
Organizational success is not achievable where employees are not motivated enough to fulfill their work responsibilities. Accordingly, employee motivation correlates directly to organizational effectiveness. Organizations employ a variety of techniques to motivate their respective workforce. The most prominent techniques that companies use to motivate employees are the use of recognition schemes and rewards. Companies have adopted appraisal indicators to measure employee performance. Consequently, companies promote or give monetary rewards to employees with exceptional performance.
The competitive and unpredictable nature of the business environment is one of the major challenges that modern companies face. Regardless of these challenges, companies must attain a competitive edge to remain productive and profitable. Economic pundits have asserted that companies must take advantage of the human resource function to spur productivity and profitability. Companies will sustain a high level of productivity if they motivate their employees continuously. In contrast, employee motivation is not a simple task. Success is only achievable where companies understand human behavior and how this behavior influences productivity. A clear understanding of human behavior will enable companies to adopt individualized, employee motivation strategies.
