Employee Motivation in an Organization

Question: Write a research proposal on employee motivation in an organization. Answer: Introduction Organizational behavior as a part of study helps investigate the influence that structure, group, individuals, have on behavior in an organization. This knowledge helps in making organization increase its effectiveness. Employee motivation is a critical factor in any organization. Employee motivation can be defined as the process, which determines the extent of inspiration or urge for an employee to achieve targets and aggravate the profitability of the business organization. A Human Resource manger applies the knowledge obtained from research on organizational behavior to trigger and sustain the employee motivation (McShane, et al., 2015). The main area of this research is employee motivation in an organization. The researcher intends to answer the basic question that arises in every organization that is What Motivates Employees to Perform? To make this possible, information will be analyzed which will be gathered by performing thorough literature review. The selected organization for this assignment is Nestle (Malaysia) Berhad. This firm carries out production and distribution of goods as well as food based nutrition health and wellness. The objective of the researcher is to explain JOB CHARACTERISTICS MODEL (JCM) of Hackman and Oldham (1980). JCM is a tool for motivating the employees, to bring out the best in them. In this context, the report will identify the Core Job Dimension (CJD) of jobs that are performed by employees in Nestle. Further, the components of JCM model will also be explained. Organization description Nestle manufacture alternative source of nutrition for infants, which is affordable and advantageous for mothers who cannot breastfeed (Times, 2008). These products eliminate problem of malnutrition. This organization has completed 96 years in Malaysia. Since the year 1912, Nestle in Malaysia is maintaing its legacy and maintaing the principles and values of corporate business. It is located in Petaling Jaya, Selangor (Fischer, 2016). The vision of the company is to enhance the trust of Malaysians by Nutrition, Health and Wellness. It aims to serve its community by fulfilling its social, environmental and economic commitment. It has employed 5000 workers and its turnover in 2010 was RM 3.28 billion (Yach et al., 2014). Hackman and Oldhams Job Characteristic Model The JCM is designed on the idea that the key to motivating employee is the task itself. A challenging task triggers motivation but a monotonous and boring work destroys the motivation (Kougija, 2014). Challenge can be added to the job by three ways: Autonomy, variety and decision authority. Job characteristics and enrichment are the ways to add challenge and variety. Hackman and Oldham believes that there are 5 job characteristics known to impact the critical psychological circumstances which are: Task Identity Skill variety Autonomy Task significance Feedback (Taylor 2015) Core Job Description (CJD) The five core job descriptions in regards to manufacturing process at Nestle: Variety of skills This accounts for the talents of the employee, the greater the talents or skills the greater the importance of the employee in the organization. Identification of task It is defined as the capability of an individual to complete a task keeping the consequences in mind. The people in charge of an entire responsibility find their job more interesting, than those who are just a part of the given responsibility. Significance of task is the ability to recognize the task as the one, which benefits the whole company instead of a few wealthy owners or trustees. This means handling a task, which is for the common good. It is also about identifying the worth of the job (Ali et al., 2014). Responsibility - Responsibility can be termed as a derivative of autonomy, where autonomy is the core job characteristic and the resulting psychological state is the responsibility for the resulting outcomes (Kougija, 2014). Autonomy involves the discretion of the person or individual handling the job in determining the procedure or the methodology in which the job is to be performed, keeping in mind the relative outcomes. Perception of Results It corresponds to the knowledge or realization of the efficiency of the employee. Its corresponding job characteristic is the feedback of the quality of the job done which is received from the client, employer or the customers (Lzroiu, 2015). Feedback This refers to the self-realization of the employee on his performance on the job and in the efficiency of the employee in achieving the targets. It can also be in the form of feedback from the customers, also known as customer satisfaction, from the client, or from the higher authorities or from senior supervisors from the job itself (Kougija, 2014). Critical Psychological states (CPS) Hackman and colleagues provided a link between internal work motivation and perceived job characteristics by using the CPS. Work motivation is assumed to result from task that prompts 3 CPS, namely experienced responsibility, experienced meaningfulness, and knowledge of results (Ali et al., 2014). Experienced meaningfulness represents how much an individual believes that job is essential to an individuals own value system. Experienced responsibility represents the extent ofpersonal accountability an employee has for work outcomes. In addition, knowledge of results represents the degree to which a worker knows his or her job performance (Lunenburg, 2011). According to (Manzoor, 2012) the three CPS prompted by work consist of 5 CJD. Skill variety, task identity, and task significance are assumed to prompt experienced meaningfulness. Autonomy may prompt experienced responsibility. In addition, feedback is responsible to cause knowledge of results. These five CJD are hypothesized to lead stronger experiences of 3 CPS resulting in more positive work responses (Bodla Naeem 2014). Personnel and work outcomes According to Hackman and Oldhams JCM, workers with higher CJD are prone to get internal motivation, job satisfaction and greater quality of performance (Ali et al. 2014). These critical psychological states results in their respective outcomes such as Increased motivation of work Satisfaction from the job Reduction of absenteeism and turnover Effectiveness of the work in terms of quality (Sundberg 2015) The given flowchart below summarizes the Job Characteristic Model by Hackman and Oldham, 1980 Figure Job Characteristic Model, Hackman and Oldham, 1980 (Source: Lunenburg, 2011) Identification of CJD and level jobs of workers In Nestle, the CJD are done by management at three stages that are- low level, middle level and high level. Employees at higher level, require, task significance, skill variety, and task identity (McShane, et al., 2015). A director of the division is responsible for decision-making and other skills necessary to make subordinates to achieve Nestls goals such as quantity of the product to be manufactured for export market. On the other hand, the supervisors role is to monitor and evaluate the workers under his guidance and improve the work performance (Behson 2012). The response of the employees towards enriching jobs is evaluated by three attributes termed as moderators (Yach et al., 2010) Circumstantial satisfaction Also known as context satisfaction and is generally defined by the level of satisfaction of the employees in their allocated jobs, working environment, facilities provided by the company and the remunerations provided. The summation of all these experiences is the contextual satisfaction of the employees (Lzroiu, 2015). Growth- Need Strength It refers to the extent of the need of an individual for personal accomplishment, opportunity for learning in order to achieve growth. It is a determining criteria for the quality of work, employee motivation and job satisfaction. Higher the growth need strength of an employee greater the productive work (Bodla Naeem, 2014). Knowledge and Skill The certain degree of knowledge and skill is required to achieve the required targets (Greenbaum Eissa, 2012). Insufficient levels of skills could cost the productivity of the company. When a job is said to fulfill all the core characteristics, it enables the three psychological states, which facilitates positive outcomes. This propensity of the increased job characteristics to result in positive consequences can be contrived by the motivational potential score (MPS). MPS can be represented as follows: In accordance with the equation mentioned above, a decreased level of autonomy or less feedback would affect in the overall motivating potential score of the organization. However the absence or a reduction in one of the job characteristics may not affect the overall motivating potential score since it could be overpowered by one or the other characteristics or if the organization is considerably autonomous (Behson 2012). Factors effecting employee motivation In this assignment we will focus on employees at manufacturing level, as their job is highly prone to turn monotonous therefore they require more motivation. Working at the management level of such a company in Selangor, it is a necessary challenge that is faced on a daily basis. Stagnation in productivity not only affects the company financially, but also raises a question as to what motivates the employees to perform. (Behson, 2012). Food manufacturing organizations in Malaysia sustains a competitive environment due to minimal ingression to funds and capital. Since the productivity of such companies rely on the employee workforce, it is necessary that the employees are properly monitored for satiation and motivation in order to attain the required targets. The employees in such small and medium food manufacturing enterprises (SME) are an important resource, since the production of the company depends on the investment of labor. Therefore, the employee motivation is a major factor affecting the competitive environment of the companies since employees are not likely to continue their services if not properly motivated (Cerasoli Ford, 2014). The amount of labor provided by a certain number of employees for a certain number of hours, towards a particular goal or target, accounts for the profitability of the organization. Employees can either make or mar a business. Researches show that employment in a particular business is not always about salary, it is also about growth that is where people want to see themselves 10 years down the line. It is also about achievement and experiences people have in their workplace. Nobody would like to work in a negative environment, despite a chunky salary. Employee motivation is greatly affected by the type of leadership, if the leader is intolerant and dominating in nature, thus he does not inspire much motivation among his team members (Barrick Li, 2013). Lack of rewards and incentives at manufacturing level, negative work environment decreases the self-esteem of the individuals working in the company. It is necessary to maintain a healthy working environment within any business organization in order to increase the productivity of the business (Pinder, 2014). Facilitating interaction of production teams and their leads with the client helps in various clarifications regarding their job requirements and needs of the client. Lack of discussion, inspiration and interaction with other individuals kills the challenge and excitement in job. Lack of creativity and opportunity to learn new ideas, skills and enhance the innovativeness leads to demotivation as job becomes monotonous. Managerial Applications in the present job Being an HR Manager I would implement the following four approaches to introduce job motivation among employees at factory in manufacturing department. Here the job role of the employees is to manufacture the Nestle food products. Improving skill variety I will increase the CJD of each employee by sending him or her to workshops, seminars, to increase their skills and competencies with changes in Nestle. As an HRM, I believe that training is essential for employee development. Earlier, Nestle have conducted E-learning programs in the year 2008 that enhanced the skills of the employees (Vomberg et al., 2014). I would prefer to conduct mission task force to expand manufacturing department. I have a plan to provide graduation program by collaborating with Open University in Malaysia Improving feedback It is necessary for a job to facilitate a feedback mechanism in order to get an idea of how well the business is progressing or what improvements could be made. As an HRM responsibility, a customer feedback portal will be created or feedback forms will be supplied at distributor store. Sales person could also be asked to maintain records of their sales and the customers they are interacting with. Building rapport with the customers and providing offers exclusively for the customers (Chaudhary Sharma 2012). Nestle conducts surveys for the employees to validate the behavioral outcome from the HR department and in future will come out with innovative feedback options (Manzoor, 2012). Improvement in Task significance includes increasing the production of Nestle products by entrusting the employees with an entire job rather than allocating the different part of the job to different people. It increases the significance of the job, and requires skill variety. Considering the present job, an employee who outlines a production plan, works on the methodology, researches the market for the demand of the food product, and on the basis of that implements the production plan to achieve the required targets. Nestle merges with the IITs polytechnics department to train workers about technical skills, ad provides idea related to basic equipment. These additional programs are provided as a part of HR development and are planning to introduce more modified methods. Improving Autonomy as an HRM of Nestle, I will induce autonomy in a job profile by not ignoring the workers. It includes endowing the employees with the responsibilities of managers. It authorizes the employees to set a timeframe of work, determine the working procedures, assess the results and the quality of work delivered, begin or end work, provide relevant solutions in case of problems or issues, and make unbiased decisions. For example, workers in manufacturing department are provided education related to health and nutrition so that they can apply the knowledge while making products. It makes the employees satisfied and feel valued (Ali et al., 2014). As my role as a manager, it is my responsibility to entrust employees involved in the production line with responsibilities such as allowing them to assist in the designing of the production plan, or allowing them to voice their opinion regarding the work methodology (Kougija, 2014). Conclusion The job characteristic model focuses on the creation of a job, which enhances work motivation, and job satisfaction. The need of an employee to grow and develop within a job is what drives the motivation of the employee towards his job. The reported wanted to find Job characteristic model in Nestle. The researcher has tried to present an organizational implication and explained that how JCM works here. In this report, the researcher has tried to find out how JCM functions in the organization at the factory level in manufacturing department. It measured the five core job characteristics, the psychological stages, possible outcomes of the job and the two moderators that are the Growth Need Strength and Contextual Satisfaction. Depending on the job type, the efficiency, ability, task significance, skill variety, feedback of job and freedom is determined in this organization. Conclusively, employee working in higher level of corporation, have more variety of skills, autonomy and feedback whereas, those in the mid level show lower level of implication of these five factors. Application of this model in the FMCG sector will not only help increase the motivation of the employees but also, initiate an autonomic environment in the organization, which in turn would help in increasing the productivity. References Ali, S. A. M., Said, N. A., Kader, S. F. A., Ab Latif, D. S., Munap, R. (2014). Hackman and Oldham's Job Characteristics Model to Job Satisfaction.Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences,129, 46-52. Bakker, A. 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