Influencing Motivation at Work

Do you know why you do the things you do? The skill we discussed in the previous section, emotional intelligence, is the key to understanding your motivations. It isn’t until we know our emotions that we can understand what we need to do to motivate ourselves personally and professionally. Of course, the more motivated we are, the more likely we are to experience career success. Most, if not all, managers want to hire and promote individuals who demonstrate strong motivation in their roles. This is impossible if we do not identify what motivates us as individuals. If you are motivated by intrinsic rewards, such as feeling good about your job, you are more likely to excel at it because you enjoy it. Not only will we be better at our job if we want it, but it is also highly probable that we will be happier. When we are happier, we tend to exhibit better human relations skills, and this happiness can partly stem from understanding our motivations and ensuring we choose a career path that aligns with them.

Theories on Job Dissatisfaction

Several theories describe what motivates a satisfied employee versus a dissatisfied employee. Knowing what motivates us—and what doesn’t—is the key to choosing the right career path. It may be surprising, but much of what makes us satisfied or dissatisfied at work has little to do with our financial situation.

Progression of Job Withdrawal

Have you ever felt unhappy at a job? If you have, consider how you went through a period of sadness, because most of us start happy but then gradually become unhappy. One of the fundamental theories is the progression of job withdrawal theory, developed by Dan Farrell and James Petersen. It says that people develop behaviors to avoid their work situation. These behaviors include behavior change, physical withdrawal, and psychological withdrawal. Within the behavior change area, an employee will first attempt to address the problem, which can lead to dissatisfaction. For example, if an employee is unhappy with the management style, they might consider asking for a departmental move. In the physical withdrawal phase, the employee does one of the following:

• Leaves the job
• Takes an internal transfer
• Starts to become absent or tardy

If an employee is unable to leave the job, they will experience psychological withdrawal. They will become disengaged and may exhibit less job involvement and commitment to the organization, which can result in significant costs to the organization, including dissatisfied customers, as well as the cost to the employee and their unhappiness in the job. Often, our process of job withdrawal is related to a lack of motivation.

Hawthorne Studies

In our chapter on organizational communication, we discussed the Hawthorne Studies. As a quick refresher, between 1927 and 1932, Elton Mayo conducted a series of experiments in the Western Electric Hawthorne Works in Illinois. Mayo developed these experiments to investigate how physical and environmental factors in the workplace, such as lighting and break times, impact employee motivation. This was one of the first studies to investigate human motivation in the workplace. His results were surprising, as he found that worker output improved no matter which experiments were performed. His conclusion and explanation for this were that the workers were happy to receive attention from researchers who expressed interest in them. As a result, these experiments, originally scheduled to last one year, were extended to five years to expand the knowledge base on human motivation. The implications of this research are relevant to us as employees, even today. It tells us that our supervisors and managers should try to do things that make us feel valued. If not, we need to find ways to think that we add value to the organization.

Strategies Used to Increase Motivation

As this chapter explains, human motivation is crucial to understanding what makes us happy or unhappy at work. Companies implement many strategies to keep us motivated at work. This section will discuss some of those specific strategies.

Salaries and Benefits

As we know from our earlier section, our paycheck can be a motivator to a certain extent. However, it is essential to note that compensation is more than pay; it also includes health benefits and paid time off. Some of the considerations companies use surrounding pay can consist of the following:

• Instituting a standard process. Many organizations do not have set pay plans, which can result in unfairness when onboarding (bringing someone “on board” with the company, including discussing and negotiating compensation) or offering pay increases. Companies should ensure the process for receiving pay raises is fair and defensible, so as not to appear discriminatory.
• A pay communication strategy. Many companies work hard to ensure the fair pay process is communicated to employees. Transparency in the process of how raises are given and then communicated can help companies retain good employees (LeBlanc Group, 2010)
• Paid time off (PTO). Companies pay us not only with our salary but also from the time off we receive. Paid holidays and vacation time are examples.

Training and Development

To meet our higher-level needs, we need to experience self-growth. As a result, many companies and managers offer training programs within their organizations and pay employees to attend career development seminars and programs. Take advantage of these self-growth opportunities in your current or future organization. In addition, many companies offer tuition reimbursement programs to help you earn a degree. Dick’s Drive-In, a local fast-food restaurant in Seattle, Washington, offers $28,000 in scholarships over four years to employees working twenty hours per week (Dick’s Drive-In, 2022). In a high turnover industry, Dick’s Drive-In boasts one of the highest employee retention rates around.

Performance Appraisals

The performance appraisal is a formalized process to assess how well an employee does their job. The effectiveness of this process can contribute to employee retention, as it provides constructive feedback on job performance and offers an opportunity for managers to work with employees to set goals within the organization. This process can help ensure our upper-level self-actualization needs are met. Still, it can also address some of the motivational factors discussed by Herzberg, such as achievement, recognition, and responsibility.

Succession Planning

Succession planning is a process of identifying and developing internal people who have the potential to fill positions. As we know, many people leave organizations because they do not see opportunities for career growth or advancement. Companies can combat this by having a clear career path for us to follow. For example, you may start as a sales associate, progress to assistant manager, and then become a manager. Proper succession planning outlines the steps required at each level to achieve a higher-level position. This type of clear career path can help with our motivation at work. If your current or future organization does not have a succession plan, consider discussing your career path and potential with your manager. The performance appraisal process might be a good time to have this discussion.

Flextime, Telecommuting, and Sabbaticals

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees transitioned to remote work to comply with public health protocols. Moving forward, a flexible and remote work policy has been cited as an essential strategy for employee retention (Wilson, 2021). According to a Salary.com survey, the ability to work from home and flexible work schedules would entice us to stay in our jobs. In addition, some companies offer paid sabbaticals. Implementing this type of retention strategy may be challenging, depending on the nature of the business. For example, a retailer may be unable to implement this, since the sales associate must be in the store to assist customers. However, it is a viable option for many professions, worth including in the retention plan, and is part of achieving a work-life balance.

Management Training

A 2023 Gallup report found that 52% of voluntarily exiting U.S. employees stated that their manager or organization could have taken steps to prevent them from leaving, with poor management cited as a significant factor in turnover. Issues like micromanagement or a lack of leadership involvement often leave employees feeling undervalued and disengaged. Improving how managers communicate and support their teams is a key strategy for increasing employee satisfaction and retention.

Conflict Management and Fairness

Perceptions of fairness and how organizations handle conflict can contribute to our motivation at work. Outcome fairness refers to the judgment we make concerning the outcomes we receive versus those obtained by others we associate with. When deciding whether something is fair, we will likely consider procedural justice, or the process used to determine the outcomes received. There are six main areas we use to determine the outcome fairness of a conflict:

• Consistency. We will determine whether the procedures are applied consistently to other individuals and throughout various periods.
• Bias suppression. We perceive that the person making the decision has no bias or vested interest in the outcome.
• Information accuracy. The decision made is based on correct information.
• Correctability. The decision can be appealed, and mistakes in the decision process can be corrected.
• Representativeness. We feel the concerns of all stakeholders involved have been taken into account.
• Ethicality. The decision aligns with prevailing societal moral standards.

For example, let’s suppose JoAnn just received a bonus and recognition at the company party for her contributions to an important company project. However, you might compare your inputs and outputs and determine that it was unfair that JoAnn was recognized because you had worked on bigger projects and had not received the same recognition or bonus. As you know from the previous section, this type of unfairness can lead to a lack of motivation at work. Excellent communication with your manager when dealing with these situations would be imperative.

Job Design, Job Enlargement, and Empowerment

As we have discussed, one reason for job dissatisfaction is the nature of the job itself. Ensuring that our skill set and what we enjoy match the job is essential. Some companies motivate employees by redesigning the job, expanding job responsibilities, or empowering employees. Job enrichment means enhancing a job by adding more meaningful tasks to make our work more rewarding. For example, if we, as retail salespeople, are good at creating eye-catching displays, allowing us to practice these skills and assign tasks around them could be considered job enrichment. Job enrichment can fulfill our higher-level human needs while also creating job satisfaction. Research in this area by Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham found that we, as employees, need the following to achieve job satisfaction: