Posted: June 26th, 2022

GSBS6192 Strategic Human Resource Management

Question:

Students must:

Discuss the most influential motivational theories with employees and determine which theories have the greatest influence on their affective and behavioural processes.

Discuss the qualities of a positive workplace environment and how HR can motivate employees.

Discuss Hackman’s (1976), job characteristics and employees’ psychological states in relation work outcomes. This includes intrinsic motivation, job satisfaction, high quality work performance, and job satisfaction.

In order to motivate and engage employees, it is important to discuss the relationship between Maslow’s components and job characteristics.

Answer:

Both the HR department and the HR manager play an important role in motivating and encouraging employees (Torrington Hall and Taylor 2005).

However, employees can be influenced by different motivational theories.

Discuss the Key Motivational Theories and Identify Which Theories Influence Employees’ Affective, Behavioural, And Behavioural Processes

Although there are many theories that can influence motivation, this essay will focus on some of the most important.

The motivational theories also include several divisions, such as Oldham and Hackman’s job characteristics model. Herzberg’s Job Design model. Adam’s Equity theory. Vroom’s expectancy theory.

Below are some of the most important motivational theories discussed in this essay:

Maslow’s Need Theory

Maslow’s theory states that the pyramid of needs theory can satisfy all levels.

Each segment of the pyramid has a critical importance.

The physiological segment also stated that an organization’s management should ensure employees have access to adequate food, water, and warmth.

The third segment of the pyramid is about belonging. It states that the management should care about employee’s family, friends, and community.

Self-esteem also includes achievement, mastery and recognition that critically assess employee’s personality and characteristics.

Self-actualization also includes creativity, pursuit talent, and fulfillment (Buckley & Caple, 2009).

Alderfer’s ERG Model

Clayton P. Alderter, a 1969 graduate of Maslow’s Five Needs of Humanity, condensed them into three sections: existence, relationship, and growth. These are discussed below.

This segment of the ERG model covers existence needs. It includes all material and physiological desires, such as water, food and safety.

This part is also similar to Maslow’s initial two levels.

Relatedness: This segment ends the relationship between employees and other people, such as family members, friends, co-staff, and other employers.

This segment helps employees feel secure and safe as part of a group or family.

This segment is also similar to Maslow’s third- and fourth levels (Buckley & Caple, 2009).

This segment is critical to influencing the environment and employees’ productivity and creativity.

This segment identifies the employee’s ability to be productive and creative to accomplish significant tasks.

McClelland’s Achievement Motivation Theory

David McClelland developed the acquired needs theory to help people identify their specific needs.

McClelland also identified three essential needs that can help employees perform better in specific job functions.

McClelland’s motivation theory also includes three factors, including power motivation, achievement motivation, and affiliation motivation. These are discussed below.

Motivation for achievement: This segment helps individuals to be ‘achievement motivated. They are motivated to achieve their goals by facing real challenges (Ortmeier & Meese 2010, 2010).

Management must provide constructive feedback on progress and achievements in order to achieve a reasonable work performance.

The achievers avoid low-risk environments because they are more likely to succeed than actual achievement.

Individuals prefer to work with high-achieving people or alone.

This segment provides powerful, influential support for the individual who wants to make an impact.

This segment also helps to improve the personal status and reputation of individuals.

Two types of power motivation are available: personal power, which is used to influence others to perceive undesirable objects, and institutional power. This is used to achieve further organizational objectives.

Whiteley, 2002). Furthermore, managers who have a high prerequisite of institutional power can be more effective than those with low personal power.

Motivation for affiliation: This segment is primarily based on the desire to have friendly relationships and encourage motivation through interaction with others.

Effective relationships are essential for individuals to feel accepted by the other stakeholders.

The driver can also notify those who are motivated by a famous person to be named team players.

These people are able to have meaningful and productive personal interactions.

This driver can help an organization provide better customer service and consumer interaction (Lowe 2009).

Discuss the Characteristics of a Positive Work Environment and How HR Designs Jobs to Motivate Employees

Positive work environments include many types of characteristics, which are discussed below.

Transparent and open communication is a key component of a positive workplace environment.

Transparency and open communication are also important for employees’ personal feelings.

Open communication makes employees feel part of the company.

Employees also know what they are doing.

The management must also communicate the organization’s vision and mission to employees through open communication (Lowe 2009).

Work-life balance: This is an important aspect of an employee’s job.

The personal and professional lives of employees have a significant impact on their mental health.

The management of an organisation must provide a positive and safe work environment for their employees.

An employee shouldn’t work for more than 12 hours a week, as the human brain needs at least 6-7 hours of sleep to function properly.

An employee must have a work-life balance in order to perform continuously.

Training and development: To improve employee performance, an organization’s management should offer the necessary training.

Effective training can also help employees to improve their skills and abilities, which is a benefit for the company (Lowe 2009).

Effective training programs are essential to fostering a positive workplace environment. This means that employees can have a higher productivity.

A well-designed training program will help employees develop their interpersonal skills.

Training programs can also influence the growth and development of employees.

Recognizing hard work: The management should review employees’ performance and give an appraisal to those who have archived their allocated targets (Clifford & Thorpe, 2007).

Recognizing employees is essential to creating a positive work environment.

The management should praise employees for their hard work and offer attractive rewards to them.

A strong team spirit is a strategy that is widely used in many organizations. It is an effective and productive strategy.

The team leader plays an important role in creating a positive environment for their team members or followers.

Leaders of organizations need to encourage team leaders as well as team members to improve the team spirit.

To put it another way, leaders should encourage team members and team members to cheer each other up when a team is having problems (Clifford & Thorpe, 2007).

Human resource management is an essential part of any organization. It designs different jobs to improve the performance of employees.

Human resource managers also manage the selection and recruitment process, which are crucial for the organization’s decision-making process (Mathis and al., 2007).

Human resource managers also critically plan specific jobs for employees within an organization.

Human resource managers are able to assess the abilities of employees and can assign jobs based on their capabilities.

Human resource management recommends an increment list to the top authority of an organization. This allows employees who are working to get bonuses, promotions, and incentives.

Human resource managers are responsible for monitoring the activities of employees and reporting to the top authority.

Discuss Hackman and Oldham’s (1976), Job Characteristics and Employees’ Psychological State About Work Outcomes. These include Intrinsic Work Motivation, Job Satisfaction, and High Quality Work Performance.

Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics model contains five key elements that motivate employees through assigned tasks.

According to Hackman, boring and monotonous jobs are not conducive to motivation or interest.

In addition to that, challenging tasks make the job more interesting and increase motivation (Mathis, et al. 2007).

Three important components of adding challenge to a job are autonomy, variety, and decision authority according to Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics model.

Job rotation and job enrichment can also be significant ways to add challenges to a job.

Hackman and Oldham suggested that skilled jobs can increase employee motivation.

Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics model, which is discussed below, suggests five important job characteristics.

Skill diversity: This is an important aspect of Oldham and Hackman’s job characteristics model. It includes the different skills and abilities that are required to complete a task (Muku 2013, 2013).

Another issue is that employees are required to do many tasks, otherwise it could lead to repetitive jobs.

Monotonous jobs can also impact skills variety.

Task identity: Does the task have a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end?

Do they know everything about the task?

This means that employees should have a good understanding of the tasks they will be performing.

This is the part that determines if the job has a significant impact.

The task can have a significant impact on the company or society.

This part concludes that the job or tasks should have meaning (Muku 2013, 2013).

Autonomy: This part of Oldham and Hackman’s job characteristics model calculates the level of freedom or accessibility required for an individual to complete the assigned tasks.

Autonomy also gives an individual the freedom to find solutions and complete tasks.

Job Feedback: Oldham and Hackman’s job characteristic model includes job feedback. This is a critical part that identifies an individual who is kept in a loop to improve performance.

This part of Oldham & Hackman’s job characteristics model (London 2005) also includes job feedback. It provides leaders with suggestions on when they are performing well and when they aren’t.

Motivation for intrinsic work

Employee performance can be improved by improving their psychological state.

Hackman and Oldham also suggested that employees are motivated by adding new challenges.

Job challenges can increase work motivation.

Employee motivation can also be influenced by Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics model, which includes the task significance factor.

The management should also give employees important tasks for intrinsic motivation (London 2005).

Job satisfaction

Employee satisfaction can be attributed to job satisfaction.

It is important to remember that job satisfaction cannot be achieved by simply completing simple tasks.

The added challenge can make the task more challenging and interesting, which can increase job satisfaction.

For job satisfaction, employees should adhere to Oldham and Hackman’s job characteristics model.

Perform high quality work

Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics model include a critical section on job feedback that can impact high-quality work performance.

The management should inform employees about the current activities and tasks they are performing, which could be positive or negative.

This means that high-quality work can be achieved with the support of Oldham’s and Hackman’s job characteristic model.

Discuss the Possible Relationship between Maslow’s General Components and Job Characteristics for Engaging and Motivating Employees in Organizations

Below is a discussion of the relationship between Maslow’s components and Hackman’s job characteristics model. This can help employees to be motivated and engaged in their work.

Maslow’s pyramid of need theory claims that it can satisfy all levels (Vroom 2000).

Each segment of the need pyramid is interrelated with Hackman’s five job characteristics. Hackman’s job characteristics model includes five segments: safety, belonging, physiological, self-esteem, self-actualization.

The physiological segment also stated that an organization’s management should provide adequate food, water, and warmth for their employees.

This factor is also interrelated to Autonomy, which is part of Oldham Hackman’s job characteristics model (Vroom 2000).

This factor also calculates an individual’s freedom or accessibility to complete the tasks that are assigned for mental satisfaction.

Autonomy also gives individuals the freedom to find solutions and solve problems.

An organization can increase employee engagement and motivation by using Maslow’s component and the job characteristics of Hackman and Oldham.

The third part of the pyramid is about belonging. It states that management should care about employees’ friends, families, and communities.

Task significance, which is an aspect of Oldham and Hackman’s job characteristics model, means that the job has a significant impact.

The important task requires the possession of proper belongings.

The task can also have an impact on the society or the organization.

This section also states that the job or tasks should be meaningful to improve relationships with employees’ families (Vroom, 2000).

Self-esteem also includes achievement, mastery and recognition. This is linked to job feedback.

Job feedback is also an important part Oldham and Hackman’s job characteristics model. It critically identifies that an individual who is kept in a loop for better self-esteem is one who receives job feedback.

Job feedback includes suggestions from leaders about what they think is going well and what they need to improve. This part of Oldham’s job characteristics model was created by Hackman and Goldsmith (Hesselbein Goldsmith and Beckhard 2006).

This means that job feedback from an organization is important for employee engagement and motivation.

Mallow’s components also include creativity, pursuit talent, and self-actualization.

Each factor of self-actualization is a motivator and encourager for employees.

Maslow’s components are in operative relationship with Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics models, which can help organizations to motivate and engage employees.

Refer to

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Get motivated!

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