Question

Human Resource Management

Motivating employee is of key concern to most firms, especially those operating in the competitive Ghanaian metal industrial environments. To these firm-types, human resource is considered unique, and the management of employees’ motivational expectations is deemed a prerequisite for organizational success. This mindset has necessitated the need for such firms to look for best ways of developing work-motivation systems at their workplaces that are all-encompassing, and which can have the potency to satisfy employees’ work-motivational expectations and create the requisite driving forces in them towards increased performances and productivities.
Required:
Explain, with examples, the character of such work motivation system, and the benefits it stands to provide the firms, if it is well designed and managed. Also argue with justifications, how the design and management of the system should be approached.

Answer 1

Work motivation is concerned with factors that energise ,channel,sustain ,and amplify work performance towards organisational goals .Gaps between motivation and performance exits whenever people avoid starting something new resist doing something familiar ,stop doing something important and switch their attention to less valued task or refuse to work smart on a new challenge and instead use old ,familiar but inadequate solutions to solve a new problem .

Charecteristics of work motivation

1)motivation is an individual psychological phenomenon that allows for a person's uniqueness to be demonstrated at the work place.

2)It assumed to be under the persons control .Behaviours that are influenced by motivation ,such as effort expanded,as seen as purposive rather than random.

3)The direction of a persons behaviour toward organisational goal is determined by work motivation.

4)It describes concerted effort often in the face of obstacles until the goal is accomplished.

5)It leads individuals to invest greater cognitive efforts to enhance both the quality and quantity of the work performance.

6)It is distinct from performance ,other factors besides motivation (eg:ability and task difficulty.)

7)It is multifaceted.People may have several different motives operating at once .Sometimes ,these motives may conflict with one another.

PROCESS OF MOTIVATION

Motivation as a process start with a physiological or psychological defeciency or need that activates behaviour or a drive that is aimed at a goal or incentive .thus work motivation consist of three interacting and interdependant elements.

Needs -needs are created whenever there is a physiological or psychological imbalence .For example ,a need exsits when cells in the body are deprived of food and water or a person is deprived of friends and other companions .Although psychological needs may be based on a defeciency ,sometimes they are not .For example,an individual with a strong need to get ahead may have a history of consistent success.

Drives -drives are set up to alleviate needs .They are action oriented and provide an energising thrust towards achieving a certain goal or accomplishing a certain task.Need for food and water are translated into hunger and thirst drives

Incentives -incentives anything that can mitigate a need and decrease the intensity of the drive ..Eating food ,drinking water and obtaining friends will tend to restore the balence and reduce the corresponding drives.Food ,water and friends are the incentives in these examples.

A general model of work motivation called as MARS model of work motivation states that internal needs creates drives that affected by one's enviornment .The drives encourage motivated employees to put in effort .However ,results occur only when motivated employees are provided with the oppurtunity to perform and the resources (such as proper tools )to do so .The presence of goals and the awareness of incentives to satisfy one's needs are also powerful motivational factors leading to the release of effort.The level of effort put in (motivation )then influences performance together with ability or the knowledge and skills required in performing the tasks .When an employee is productive and the organisation takes note of it ,rewards will be distributed.If those rewards are appropriate in nature ,timing and distribution ,the empoyees original needs and drives are satisfied .At that time ,new needs may emerge and cycle will begin again