Factors Affect Employee Motivation

Question: Discuss about the Factors Affect Employee Motivation. Answer: Introduction: Understanding the factors which can affect the motivation of the employees is important not only for the organizations, but also for the authorities who are answerable for national income accounting. The more motivated the employees are, the more will be their productivity, this is a common belief. Hence, it becomes a vital issue for the organizations. This made the managements of different organizations to wonder what can make their employees more motivated as it will result in more production for their companies. There are many researches that have been done for this purpose. The results of these researches show that the most affecting factors of employee motivation do not incorporate the level of payment (Winter 2014). The purpose of this essay is to discuss the significance of payment level on employee motivation, and show other factors which should be considered alongside payment level to increase the motivation level. As stated by Dwyer (2012), the negotiation policies of the organizations give emphasis on several factors to motivate the employees along with payment levels. These factors are providing interesting work, appreciation of the job that has been done by an employee, involving the employees in the decision making processes, providing job security, good working environment, and good wages. Among all these factors, the payment levels were supposed to play an important role in improving employee motivation. It was assumed that, the more people will earn, the more they will get involved in the production process. This theory was present in selecting organizational plans and goals for many years, since it was statistically proved that the correlation between level of payment and job satisfaction is very low. According to Chamorro (2013), from a recent research done by Tim Judge it is evident that the correlation coefficient between job payment and job satisfaction is surprisingly weak. This i s true for almost 120 years of data. The situation regarding low level of correlation between job satisfaction and payment is crucial for understanding what affects the motivation of the employees. Job satisfaction is directly related to employee motivation as a person who gets satisfied from doing a work will always be motivated to do his or her work. Otherwise, the quality of the production and the quantity as well will be not up to the mark. As the statement says only payment level affects employee motivation is thus not true generally. There are other factors which affect the motivation level more than payment level does. Providing an employee a job which interests the person will motivate the employee more than level of payment can. Job security, a good working environment also has significant effect on employee motivation level. These factors have shown higher level of significance than the payment level. The reason why payment level does not affect motivation level of the employees as much as it was thought to be can be explained with the view of Kool and Botvinick (2014). As stated by the authors, there are various economic as well as psychological traits which are connected to payment levels and the level of production. The main purpose of considering the employee motivation is it is directly related to production level. But it was seen that employees after earning up to a certain amount becomes reluctant to produce more, even if the wage level increases. The situation can be best presented in the figure below. As the above figure shows, in the initial stages of employment, the high wage works as an incentive for increasing the labour or hours of work. As stated by Wang (2016), the more the hours of work are, the more will be production. in the initial stages, the increase in wage causes increasing return to the scale. This situation will go on for a certain level where the productivity level hits the maximum. In the figure, the maximum point is given as (W1, Q1). Up to this point the increase in wage cause increase in production level. After this point, the employees tend to opt for leisure more than working. There might be several reasons for this kind of behaviour. The saturation level may be the minimum amount the employees need to keep their standard of living intact. After this point the work leisure curve tends backwards as the level of wage increases. As there are no proper numerical ways to measure the level of motivation apart from productivity, the level of payment thus cannot si gnificantly affect the motivation of the employees. As far the statement is considered, it can thus be said false. The level of payment is not the only factor that can affect the level of motivation of the employees in an organization. In those cases where the employees face a high level of payment and an unethical job environment or a boring job, or a low level of job security, the employees will feel de-motivated even with receiving high wage. On the other hand, when an organization provides its employees a good working environment, which is supported by a great work culture and a moderate level of payment, has shown effective results. For example the Australian telecommunication company Telstra Corporation Limited has shown pretty effective results for the past few years. Currently the organization serves more than sixteen million customers. According to Forsyth (2013), this is more than the total of the next two competitors productivity level. The reason behind this high productivity level is high level of motivation for the emplo yees in the company. The current number of employees is more than thirty six thousands. This huge employment level does not reduce the quality of the working environment due to the managerial brilliances. The strategic plans of the organization incorporate the motivation level of the employees. The factors which are used by the authority of the organization in order to keep a high motivation level for the employees are almost everything other than a high wage level. The wage offered by the organization is that of a standard one. The working environment offered by the company is greater than most of the similar organizations. The distribution of work in the company makes sure that one job goes to the proper employee. It works as an efficient work allocation process. The company also ensures that the employees are involved in the decision making process, which encourages the workers in producing quality product and services. This adds value to the companys production system. It ensure d the organization a huge clientele of sixteen million. The job security that is offered by Telstra Corporation Limited also plays a vital part in motivating the employees. During the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-08, when the other organizations were unable to keep their employees, Telstra supported its employees. In the view of Cox (2016), the wage offered by the company and the working conditions ensures the employees can keep their standard of living intact. It also keeps the employees highly motivated. The organization does not need to give its employees high wages to ensure high motivation level, as the other offerings by Telstra Corporation Limited affect the motivation of the employees positively. These impacts are also significant unlike high payment level. It also helps the organization in being a sustaining organization. The economic effect of offering the employees high level of payment just to increase employment motivation can also be negative. If all the organizations in a country start offering high level of employment then it might cause inflation. As the higher income level does not ensure high motivation level for the employees, the productivity will not increase. As a result, the goods and services available in the market will be the same. The increased money supply will ensure inflation in the country. As the inflation is not properly planned, the Gross Domestic Product will be negatively affected by this. It will also disrupt the work cultures of the organizations. Conclusion: In conclusion it can be said that the level of payment is not the only factor that affects employee motivation. The level of payment plays almost an insignificant role in the determination of the level of motivation of the employees in an organization. There are other factors like job security, good working environment, appreciation and recognition from the authorities, involvement in the decision making process, and others. There are many researches that have been done on this ground. The statistical data have proved the correlation between the two is insignificant and weak, whereas, these other factors are more significant in influencing the level of motivation of the employees. The example of the Australian company Telstra Corporation Limited also supports this theory. In fact, there is a possibility that a mere increasing payment for the employees will reduce the productivity by increasing the leisure time, which will bring negative effect on the organizations work culture. The e conomy of the country will also suffer for this. References: Chamorro-Premuzic, T., 2013. 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