Title: Positive Affects of Motivated Employees at Work
Executive Summary
Well-being in a broad category includes a number of workplace factors that creates higher level of positive emotions such as motivation, job satisfaction, commitment, fulfilment, and interest. This positive affect relates to the effective work application like employee retention and creativity and has direct implications in the competitiveness of an organisation.
Today, an average adult spends as much as a quarter or possibly a third of his waking life at work. Importantly researches shown that most employees want to do well in their jobs this will generate positive emotion and motivation in employees and affects their wellbeing at work places, in employees’ life, communities and their organisations (Bono et al., 2001, p.392).
Here in this report, I have studied motivation as the core of human being behaviour and the origin of his actions in response to different challenges, motivational theories and the benefits of having a motivated workplace and its relationship with employees’ engagement, performance, productivity and organisations’ profitability (Hater, 2011, p.205).
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
Businesses are constantly appearing, changing or disappearing due to current highly competitive economy and human capital has become one of the most important resources and a crucial factor for organisations’ survival and competitive achievements. Motivation is the basis of individual’s reasons for action in relation to the unique challenges in life. Consequently, to ensure the effectiveness of these actions and performance sound understanding of the elements that motivate or demotivate an employee is crucial (Muscalu 2013, p.308).
Therefore, managers and leaders need to acknowledge this direct relationships and implement effective management strategies to engage the employees in competitive achievement of the organization's objectives through a structural setting which can benefits the organization and its employees.
2 Motivation
Motivation is defined as “the process of developing intent, energy, and purposeful action leading to certain behavior. Motives drive people to understand, reflect and act in specific ways that attempt to satisfy needs” (Larsen et al., 2005 cited in Hunter 2012, p.139). Human nature varies in different levels. One of the major individual differences can originate from the environment and his past experiences, however human are adaptive and responsive to the positive emotions and motives (Buss 2005, p.56).
Barembaum (2003), explained that due to unconscious nature of motives, people don’t exactly understand what they need; however these drives remain as influential forces behind their thoughts, and actions importantly, types, strength, and outcomes of theses motives are different for every individual (cited in Huner 2012, p.139) For instance, motivation behind the founder and director of The Body Shop enterprise, Anita Roddick may have been rooted in her interest and passionate to environment and social change while Steve Jobs were more motivated by competition, innovation, change and technology advancement (Aspect Diplomatic News 2014).
3 Motivational Theories
At the beginning of the 20th century, motivation started to be seen as instinctive factor when an Australian researcher, Elton Mayo, was investigating the causes of high level of employee turnover in Textile Mill at the Philadelphia in 1923 and another study in Western Electric Plant in Hawthorne in 1924. The outcomes of these studies indicated that changing the job setting and non-directive management style in the first study and the importance of creating informal explanatory based relationship increases productivity, satisfaction, and interpersonal relationship amongst team members in the workplace (McDougall 1908 & Mayo 1947 cited in Hunter 2012, p.140).
Later, the outcomes of