Introduction
Motivation in the work environment is a vital factor contributing to the firm’s success. Motivation is established from conscious and unconscious principles such as rewards and strength of desire. Human resource managers have a role in ensuring that employees are motivated, as a lack of motivation may lead to problems in the company. Motivation is one of the main reasons why employees work. There exists a gap between an individual’s desired and actual state. Thus, motivation can be termed the reduction and manipulation of the gap between the desired and actual state, whereby the manager influences employees to work toward achieving identified goals and objectives. The human resource manager motivates employees by paying them well, having definite goals, listening to their grievances, and recognizing good performance. According to Lee (2019), employees are productive and innovative if they are satisfied with the motivation provided by the organization. Additionally, it is a moral value to treat people with dignity in all circumstances. A lack of adequate motivation within a workplace leads to absenteeism, poor services, resentment, and low-quality products.
Based on the humanistic theory of motivation, it’s evident that continuous supervision of employees can lead to motivation problems, as workers may lose motivation due to continuous supervision. When an employee must submit endless reports to various managers for performance reporting, the employee may feel demotivated and thus deliver low-quality work (Curcuruto, Parker and Griffin, 2019, p. 228). This issue is associated with micromanagement, as employees focus on minor particulars while vital elements can be overlooked; for example, an employee may be questioned about a wrongly formatted report title page, an element on which the manager should not focus. Additionally, based on equity theory, all employees should be treated equally and fairly. In instances where employees are treated unequally, they may feel inadequate and underappreciated. The workers may complain that there is favouritism and unfair treatment, thus feeling demotivated, which results in poor performance (Mira, Choong and Thim, 2019, p. 781). Employees may perceive that work is rewarding and that the benefits are substantial; however, perceptions of favouritism toward certain employees may lead to complaints of discrimination. Therefore, this lowers employees’ morale, and they turn out to be less motivated, thus leading to negative interactions among the employees.
Effect of motivation issues on employees’ relations
Healthy working relationships lead to employee satisfaction, thus increasing productivity. This creates a conducive working environment that encourages employees to focus on productive tasks. However, motivation problems within the organization affect employee relationships by reducing competition between the workers. Just as a person has to charge a phone after some use, workers need motivation from time to time to remain loyal to the firm (Rohmatunnisa, 2021, p. 1408). Failure to motivate employees may lead them to work merely for the sake of working and have no desire to compete among themselves, thus producing poor results. Failure to have good motivation schemes discourages teamwork as employees fail to understand why they should work as a team. Failure to work as a team prevents employees from exchanging ideas and thoughts that could help them develop unique and innovative ideas and achieve the firm’s goals (De Clercq and Pereira, 2019, p. 335). Moreover, a lack of motivation hinders employees from positively complementing each other, resulting in conflicts that hinder the organization’s smooth operations.
The Effect of Motivational Issues on Management, Employees, and Internal Policies and Procedures
Motivation is a vital element of organizational success, and failure to have a good motivation scheme may negatively affect the management, employees, and internal policies. Motivational issues affect employee performance; employees who feel insufficiently motivated tend not to take adequate care in the work they perform for the organization, which results in poor performance. As a result, motivation problems can lead to low productivity, among other consequences. For instance, low motivation contributes to employees’ absenteeism and lateness. Furthermore, motivation issues may encourage employees to focus mainly on personal issues during working hours rather than on their assigned roles, thus resulting in low productivity. Consequently, the employees tend to be disengaged, thus developing “a don’t care” attitude about the organization, leading to poor performance and productivity (Bryson and White, 2019, p. 764).
The firm’s management works to ensure that all production resources are utilized effectively, which is achieved when there is good cooperation between employees and management. If the management needs the employees to deliver, they must encourage and motivate them. The efforts of managers may not bear fruit if employees are not motivated, as employees may seek better opportunities or become more frequently absent, giving the firm’s management a difficult time recruiting replacements. Recruiting new employees may be expensive because the firm will be required to train them. Additionally, employee absenteeism leads to poor performance and productivity, thus resulting in customer complaints. When customers receive low-quality goods, they tend to shift to other firms that offer high-quality goods and services, making it difficult for managers to maintain the firm’s competitive advantage. Additionally, absenteeism may lead to conflicts between managers and employees, thus hindering smooth operations within the firm.
Motivation is an internal process that helps an employee achieve an objective or goal. Motivation is not directly observed, but rather, it is inferred by noting the worker’s behaviours. The motivation of employees cannot be established without having a definite internal policy and procedure for the firm. Internal policies help determine employee motivation and rewards. If a firm is experiencing motivation issues, it may be difficult to implement internal policies because employees may fail to follow them, leading to conflict between employees and managers. Additionally, in situations where the firm may not have a clear understanding of what makes its employees feel motivated, it may be hard to develop rewards and motivation for its employees (Jensen, Kjeldsen and Vestergaard, 2020, p. 473). Delayed development of internal policies and procedures on motivation matters may leave employees feeling unmotivated and unappreciated and thus looking for better opportunities.
Effects of Human Resource Management and Legal Considerations on Employee Motivation Issues
Human resource management has a primary role in managing human labor. Human resource managers ensure that employees have enough incentives, rewards, and motivation to be satisfied with the firm’s working environment so that they can perform better and improve the firm’s reputation. A good and conducive working environment leads to improved productivity and reduces absenteeism. The human resource manager has to clearly understand what motivates employees in order to make strategic plans for achieving the results the firm requires. The human resource manager’s schemes should be legal and favourable to the firm. Human resource practices may have both negative and positive effects on employee motivation schemes. However, the human resources manager mainly seeks positive effects on employees to ensure that they are creative and demonstrate the autonomy and initiative needed to maintain productive task performance.
A firm’s HR manager sets goals and objectives for the organization, and employees focus on achieving them. The set goals must be legal to avoid conflicts with the firm owners. When the HR manager sets performance requirements that are not legal, employees may be demotivated from working toward them (Bryson and White, 2019, p. 758). Setting performance goals is one of the vital elements that encourage employees and motivate them to stay engaged with their goals. The rewards and motivation for the employees may be prizes, vacations, career progressions, and bonuses. To achieve good results, the firm must have ambitious targets that would help stimulate high productivity. Setting unrealistic objectives and goals may have adverse consequences and generate dismay and problems among employees.
Additionally, it is appropriate for human resource managers to recognize positive attitudes in employees, as proactive and successful attitudes should be valued. Autonomy within the organization enhances diversity, flexibility, and dynamism. Moreover, recognition is as vital as salary payment; thus, recognizing and complimenting employees signifies that their good work does not go unrecognized and unnoticed. The HR manager may develop career plans for their employees to promote their career progression. Employee recognition is as important as wage payment; consequently, acknowledging and appreciating them shows that their hard work is appreciated. The main aim is to determine the rules to be followed, for instance, by defining how long one should work in a certain department before promotion, thus motivating employees to develop the right attitude to reach that goal.
Employee motivation script dialogue
Every employee needs motivation from time to time to remain encouraged to work. In every firm, the HR manager or project manager has to deal with employees’ different personalities and determine various techniques that help motivate them to keep working. The employees have different things that motivate them, and what motivates one employee may be a demotivating factor for another employee. Thus, the burden falls on the human resource managers, who must evaluate and determine ways to motivate their employees. The managers must have enough knowledge and skills to establish motivating schemes that would favour every employee and give them a sense of belonging. The employees may be motivated in various ways, such as feedback and recognition. The workers are always happy when they are recognized and treated fairly in their workplace, thus achieving the firm’s goals. Their efforts are influenced by how effectively human resource practices are implemented in the organization. According to Lee (2019), employee recognition helps employees get their supervisor’s feedback, thus allowing them to learn their strengths and weaknesses. Involving employees in the decision-making process makes employees feel like part of the organization, thus giving them a sense of belonging and motivating them to work hard to achieve the organizational goals. Therefore, this section entails a scripted dialogue between employees and managers to establish ways to solve motivational issues in the firm. The following is a dialogue about employee issues between a successful law firm represented by Susan, the managing director, and an emerging law firm represented by Paul, the supervisor. These issues are motivational and involve developing a reward strategy for the employee.
Susan: Good morning. It is a pleasure seeing you again, and I am happy that today we get to spend some time together and speak about the issues affecting the employees.
Paul: It is a pleasure too. The last time we saw each other was in the courtroom, so we did not have much time for a good talk. We are here to get my company on the radar, but first, we have to deal with our employees.
Susan: Yeah, I saw the email you sent me. You have a small issue with motivating your employees, and you want to come up with new reward strategies or improve those you already have.
Paul: Yes, the employees are our face in the judicial system. You cannot expect to see the managing director and the supervisor in the field all the time, so sometimes the employees represent us. The employees might contact our big clients before we get to them, even when going to court with a case or offering advice to clients; this is what the public sees.
Susan: I got what you are saying, and that is exactly why we are here to help each other get to the top. Motivational measures are there to help employees develop purpose, strength, and goals. The law firm itself should have a conducive environment with cubicles for the lawyers. Department heads should have their own offices and be involved in the firm’s growth. This will make work easier for employees under them. This is the first step to bringing the firm together so that any discomfort with the employees is noted and gets to you as the supervisor.
Paul: What are the other ways to motivate them without going through the departmental heads? The firm’s settings are well taken care of.
Susan: Some employees have low confidence in themselves. You who have been in the judicial system know how this can affect you. Without confidence, the employee cannot make himself an asset to the firm. As a supervisor, you should move from one cubicle to another, correct them with love and respect, and appreciate their work. Low expectations also lead to a lack of seriousness. If you set goals for them and give rewards for work well done, it is the motivation to work. Lack of interest in the law system is also a problem. Some people get into the system without interest; they just want to get paid. You should offer more engaging tasks that help them see the fun in the job.
Paul: Okay. What you are saying is that sometimes the issue is with the employee. We just need to identify the issues and see how to handle them.
Susan: Yes, it is not always a management problem. Management becomes involved when an employee is punished or criticized because most employees are sensitive to such treatment. Lastly, we should just employ a good reward strategy.
Paul: Apart from motivational issues, we also have another problem. What should we do about that? (Sips his coffee)
Susan: First, you should use appreciative measures such as celebrations for a case won, rewards for the efforts of junior employees, vacations and time off every year, and sometimes additional salary payments for employees who have proven to perform well. They should also be allowed to apply their skills in the field. Supervisors should see what they are good at and use those skills to the maximum.
Paul: Thank you so much for your time. You’ve given me a better understanding of the employees and how to get good results. Now I see why you’ve made it. It was nice talking to you. (Rises to leave)
Susan: You are welcome any time. (Shakes his hand)
Reference List
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De Clercq, D. and Pereira, R., 2019. Resilient employees are creative employees when the workplace forces them to be. Creativity and Innovation Management, 28(3), pp. 329-342.
Jensen, U.T., Kjeldsen, A.M. and Vestergaard, C.F., 2020. How is public service motivation affected by regulatory policy changes?. International Public Management Journal, 23(4), pp. 465-495.
Lee, Y., 2019. Crisis perceptions, relationship, and communicative behaviors of employees: Internal public segmentation approach. Public Relations Review, 45(4), p. 101832.
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