Abstract

One of the most important roles of human resource department is to keep the employees always
motivated in order to have a satisfactory or even high performance from them. Moreover, keeping the
motivated employees reduce turnover, so it reduce costs to the organization. In other words, one of the
major roles of human resource department is to guarantee that workers be motivated in order to the
organization have a better profit due to their high performances and reduce costs due to a low turnover.
In this paper, I reviewed ten articles which are related to factor that affect employee motivation
published by various authors.
Introduction
Motivation can be defined as those psychological processes that cause the arousal, direction, and
persistence of voluntary activities that are goal oriented (Mitchell, 1982). Bartol and Martin (1998)
define motivation as that force that gives direction to behavior. This definition recognizes that in order
to achieve goals, individuals must be sufficiently stimulated and energetic, must have a clear focus, and
must be willing to commit their energy.
According to the article” future of work motivation theory” motivated employees are associated with
the success of an organization. Over many years there have been several theories developed covering
the perspectives of motivation. These theories placed much of the focus on what motivated an
employee, rather than on why and/or how motivation is developed.
One of the biggest challenges for leaders would be attempting to figure out how to motivate their
employees. The aspect of motivation plays a major role in the arena of management in today’s business
world. An important aspect for leaders to remember is, not all employees are motivated by the same
factors. What will motivate one employee will not motivate another employee the same way, if at all.
Therefore, many motivational theories were conceived in an attempt to explain the challenges involved
with employee motivation (Richard Steers, Richard Mowday, and Debra Shapiro, 2004).
As Susan, 2018 defines motivation as employee intrinsic enthusiasm traits, which drive individuals to
accomplish organizational goals and objectives. The author also states factor that drives motivation
among individuals in the workplace. First, motivation is an internal drive that influences people to
execute the action to accomplish an objective. Secondly, biological, intellectual, and emotional are
aspects that influence motivation on a personal level. All this are an aspect that defines an individual
level of motivation and desires to accomplish goals. To explain more on motivation the author states
how to encourage motivation at work as well as factors to encourage motivation.
Methodology
All these methodologies are quite similar with one another because, each scientist is trying to figure out
which ways would support employee motivation and what is important to the employee about
employee motivation. According to the article understanding Employee Motivation was studying some
of the motivating factors were; for the job to be interesting, having good wages, being appreciated for
their work done, having good working conditions, job security, being able to promote and grow in the
company, loyalty, being sympathetic with person problems that may arise, and feeling included on
things.
The study written by (Mofoluwak and Oluremi, 2013) tested the two hypotheses, job satisfaction will
increase employee performance at work and there is a significant relationship between organizational
stress and employee performance. Hypothesis one was tested using Pearson moment correlation
coefficient statistical analysis, and the study revealed a significant relationship between job satisfaction
and employee performance. Hypothesis two was tested similarly and the results revealed that there is
also a significant relationship between organizational stress and employee performance. The results
from the second test imply that there is a negative relationship between organizational stress and
employee performance; ‘as organizational stress increases employee performance decreases’
(Mofoluwak and Oluremi, 2013,). The article concluded that the performance of an employee is
determined by how satisfied the individual is with the job, and the extent in which they are stressed in
the organization.
Wingerden & Stoep (2018) conducted a study on 459 medical professionals with 85% of participants
being male. All had completed vocational or university education and had a mean age of 42. There
were given questionnaires to fill on workdays and with no compensation. The test measured meaningful
effort using the Working and Meaning Inventory (WAMI) and positive meaning were measured if the
respondent felt work contributed to their life. The outcomes revealed that meaningful effort affects
outcome in different and interrelated ways. Factors such as work commitment and powers use to make
work more important in their own accord making the relationship more complex. All in all, the
outcomes strongly highlight the effect of meaningful work in companies.
 Result and discussion
To establish a work environment in which an employee is motivated towards their duties encompasses
both intrinsically satisfaction and extrinsically encouragement factors. One key aspect Identified by
Susan, 2018) in the process of motivation encourage is reducing organizational rules and policies. This
is an effective step when implementing motivation in the work environment, this step involves
dropping actions that can lead to de-motivation of employees. To create a friendly working
environment the managers must eliminate rules that can bring conflicts. The author of the article has
pointed out factors that contribute to de-motivation among the employees. Such factors include failing
to provide the needed tool to do the job, lack of written rules and fail to inform employees what is
expected of them. The article has identified this as the first factors to determine the level of motivation
in an organization.
In addition, the author has highlighted the proper guidelines involved in a motivating work
environment. This an important guideline to ensure proper motivation processes. To this effect, the
article content is efficient since it contains information that can be applied in a wide range. The article
possesses information that guidelines either managers or team leaders in implementing motivation as
well as an effective step to motivate de-motivated employees. The article possesses development
guidelines that will help managers on how to embrace fair and consistent application of the rules and
policies within an organization.

According to the article, “5 easy ways to motivate - and de-motivate – employees”. there are five ways
that can motivate employees are: Align individual economic interests with company performance, take
a real interest in the career of employees and show how they can achieve this, demonstrate they are
concerned about their work-life balance, giving the flexibility of work hours. Moreover, listening is a
good tool to be used by employers.

The article, “Job Satisfaction, Organizational Stress and Employee Performance”, states that employees
attitude to his job will at the long run determine performance which is the degree of accomplishment of
the tasks that make up and employee’s job. This article focuses on the examination of job satisfaction,
organizational stress, and the effects on employee performance. Job satisfaction is defined as the
various attitudes people hold towards their job; which is formally defines as individuals’ positive or
negative attitude towards their job (Mofoluwake and Oluremi, 2013). This article lists 5 major
components of job satisfaction which are attitudes toward the work group, working conditions, attitude
towards the company, monetary benefits, and attitude towards management.

According to the article, “employee motivation – A human resource function”, to retain staff and
encourage them to give their best, it is required from human resource department some special attention
about financial, and physiological rewards that are offered over the time to employees keep motivated.
Employees need to see their wages as both fair and just; otherwise, there will be de-motivation.
However, the article states that we cannot see the money as a factor of motivation. There are other
factors that influence the motivation of a worker.

“Organizational Commitment and Job Satisfaction” written by Raluca Rusu analyzes the relationship
between organizational commitments and job satisfaction. The article states that, ‘In reality a number of
theories show that although the organizational commitment and the work satisfaction are two concepts
that correlate with each other, they are distinct constructs’ (Rusu, 2013,). The differences between the
two concepts are that the organizational commitment refers to the emotional and functional attachment
to the organization and job satisfaction refers to the extent to which people are satisfied or dissatisfied
with their work (Rusu, 2013,).

However, the correlation between commitment and job satisfaction is said to vary with the nature of
work, seniority, the department’s culture, interpersonal relations, and absenteeism. These factors,
personal or organizational, all have a different effect on organizational commitment. Organizational
commitment is defined in the textbook as the degree to which an employee identifies with an
organization and its goals and wishes to maintain membership in the organization (Robbins, Judge,
2017). It also states that an employee can be willing to make sacrifices for the organization if they are
committed enough even if they aren’t satisfied. These employees are said to identify with the goals and
values of the organization and are willing to display effort on behalf of the organization. The article has
been very informative about the impacts that job satisfaction on employee job performance. Job
satisfaction plays a very important role in motivating employees to perform better, because they have to
be satisfied with their salary that should be commensurate with their work input, enjoy the working
environment and also have a good relationship with their co-workers and employers (Mofoluwake and
Oluremi, 2013).

As the article “Job satisfaction and turnover intent among hospital social workers in the United States,
Social Work in Health Care”; state there is very informative about the impacts that job satisfaction on
employee job performance. Job satisfaction plays a very important role in motivating employees to
perform better, because they have to be satisfied with their salary that should be commensurate with
their work input, enjoy the working environment and also have a good relationship with their co-
workers and employers (Mofoluwake and Oluremi, 2013). After researching the influence job
satisfaction has on organizational commitment the author discovered that there isn’t a direct
relationship between the two. An employee can be unsatisfied with their work, but be committed to the
organization and willing to display effort on behalf of the organization. Employee turnover is directly
influenced by job satisfaction unlike organizational commitment. Results from studies have proven that
there is an inverse relationship between job satisfaction and employee turnover. The findings from the
article include social workers reporting high job satisfaction and low turnover intentions, proving the
inverse relationship between the two.

In the article “Compensation Methods and Employees’ Motivation (With Reference to Employees of
National Commercial Bank Riyadh),” Aamir, Jehanzeb, Rasheed and Malik (2012) examined, in
general, the effect of reward system on employees’ motivation and specifically compared the effects of
extrinsic and intrinsic rewards on employees’ motivation in the banking sector of Saudi Arabia. Using a
t-test, Aamir, Jehanzeb, Rasheed and Malik (2012) found out that the participants strongly believed that
they are directly motivated with rewards offered by the company, therefore concluded a positive
relationship with rewards and employee’s motivation. Moreover, the result showed that the participants
were motivated by both the extrinsic and intrinsic rewards, although the extrinsic factors, like salary,
bonus, commission, promotional opportunities, working condition, supervision, were more influential.
With these findings the authors strongly suggested for application of advance and updated human
resource strategy regarding extrinsic and intrinsic rewards.
Wingerden & Stoep (2018) argue that the experiences of an employee’s work give meaning when the
objectives of the work agree with their standards or ideals. The meaningfulness of work is based on the
subject’s interpretations of work using experiences such as values, beliefs, and behaviors and not the
objective reality. Effectively, the psychological meaningfulness of work carries a mental valuation that
is meaningful and significant to the employee. The article claims that the meaningful nature of work
experiences directly affects work-related and personal outcomes. For instance, research shows that
staffs who see their work as meaningful are committed and the chances of leaving are low. Also, there
are likely to be more productive and engaged who see their work as of less meaning while the vice
versa leads to negative results such as cynicism.

As (McGregor, L., & Doshi, N. (2015); state in their article how company culture shapes employee
motivation play makes the environment interesting and makes the employee enjoying him and also
increase curiosity, problem-solving, and exploring challenges. Purpose improves outcomes because
workers see it fits their identity and also sees the effect of working. Lastly, the potential brought by is
viewed by the subject to fit their identity. Three stated motives; play, purpose, and potentially lead to
higher job satisfaction and the need to work on a single organization. On the other hand, emotional
pressure brought by external factors such as fears, shame, peer pressure, and loved ones influences
separation from work. Economic pressure and inertia cause separation with the identity that makes an
employee see the reason to work. Hence, negative force reduces performance in the long run, leads to
distraction, and causes a drop in output quality.

Conclusion
Employee motivation is a function of many factors. Some of these factors are environmental in nature.
That is, they are extrinsic in nature. They are within the controls of the organization management and
are external obligation on the employee. Therefore, organizations can leverage on these factors to boost
their employee’s levels of motivation. The intrinsic factors are also important in that they constitute the
internal driving force in individual which starts and sustains a chain of action and reaction.
The intrinsic motivating factors go to the core of the employee's observation about their jobs and about
how they feel that the tasks that they are assigned are meaningful and relevant. Intrinsic motivation
influence employee to develop a certain mind set regarding their jobs. Such perceptions control the
level of employee motivation. Thus, being inborn, such issues as employee’s perception about their
being appreciated by the organization and opinion about their jobs among other subjective factors are
therefore crucial in determining the level of satisfaction that an employee may feel regarding their jobs.
Motivation is considered a predictor of job performance. Motivation in workplace boosts employee
morale. The outcome from a motivated employee will produce high level of productivity, lower the
level of absenteeism and reduced turnover rate since employees are enjoying their work. Therefore,
understanding what factors motivates employees in a given organization becomes crucial matter in that
it helps the management concentrate more on those motivating factors and how to improve them.
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