Motivation in the Workplace: Engaging Employees
There are many types of motivation in the workplace and they all have their own advantages. This article is going to discuss two major types of motivation: Incentives and Autonomy. We'll cover what these motivations involve, their benefits, drawbacks, as well as a comparison between them.
Incentives
The term incentive means something that prompts people to do something by offering a reward or presenting an opportunity or possibility. They are usually given in order to increase productivity because they offer rewards for doing behaviours that result in success and positive outcomes for the company. They can also be used to motivate employees by applying pressure or provide threats if certain goals are not met. Examples include giving employees cash, paid time off, or a bonus. Incentives come in the form of financial and non-financial rewards.
The two types of incentives are Positive incentives and negative incentives. Positive incentives give employees something desirable in return for their desired behaviour, as they motivate individuals by giving them something to look forward to. On the other hand, negative incentives are penalties that discourage employees from engaging in undesirable behaviour by causing them to lose something they care about. Negative incentives are often presented as threats like pay cuts or layoffs if goals aren't met. It's very important when using an incentive system that you always consider what will be both best for the company and what will be best for their employees.
Autonomy
Autonomy in the workplace means the freedom to control one's own work and schedule. Autonomous work is not closely monitored or supervised by managers and allows employees to do their jobs as they see fit, while overseeing their own performance. Autonomy is an effective way of motivating employees because it gives them more responsibility for their own roles and benefit from rewards for good performance. This type of motivation appeals to a person's desire to be self-directing and independent. Autonomy in the workplace can take a number of different forms, such as freedom from time clocks, flexible working hours, telecommuting, and even increasing a person's scope of work with additional decision-making abilities. One of the benefits of autonomy is that it helps decrease fatigue, resentment, and stress, which can occur when people feel that they are being closely monitored. Autonomy allows workers to feel a sense of control over their situation. Yet, all autonomy is not beneficial for employees. Autonomous work can lead to a lack of job standardization as well as little or no support from those higher up or other co-workers. This could potentially hurt the quality of the product or service that they are responsible for delivering. An employee who is overburdened with work may feel overworked and become unmotivated by having no control over his/her own schedule in order to reach their goals and deadlines because it's out of his/her hands. Therefore, it's important to find the right balance between autonomy and direction. If an employee feels too much freedom, he or she may not have the guidance or support needed or he/she may not like being pushed towards a goal that they don't think is right for them. If he/she feels too much direction and control, he or she may feel micromanaged and controlled by their superiors.
Incentives vs Autonomy
Comparison of Incentive Systems & Autonomous Work Systems
Another big aspect of motivation is self-determination theory. It was developed in the 1960s by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan. They believed that we are driven to determine our own actions, the environment, and how others treat us. This theory helped explain why employees would choose to stay at their jobs even if they didn't get promoted or get a big pay raise. Some people want to improve their skills in order to make more money and gain greater responsibilities. Self-determination theory suggests that what motivates an individual's behaviour is the degree of autonomy, competency, and relatedness they have in doing something. So, the theory says that if an individual is given autonomy, competency, and relatedness they will stay motivated and satisfied.
The main idea of self-determination theory is that there are three basic psychological needs which all individuals have: motivation to satisfy a need for relatedness (like belonging), motivation by a need for competence (the tendency to be able to cope with things), and motivation through autonomy (being in charge of one's actions). These three elements are linked together. For example, as individuals gain competence in their work they gain more autonomy which leads to more relatedness. This notion also implies that if one of the elements is threatened then the others will be affected as well.
Autonomous work provides individuals with the ability to control their own work and schedule, which is very motivational. If employees are given more control of their workload they will be motivated to do better work because they know that what they produce is up to them. However, many things have to be considered before implementing autonomous work in the workplace. Employees must have the necessary skills, time management abilities, and desire for autonomy. The most important factor when looking into whether employees will perform well with autonomy is their motivation level. If an employee doesn't show any interest or motivation in a new role then going back to a traditional system may be better for employee retention and satisfaction. Autonomous work is beneficial for improving employee satisfaction and job engagement. It has been proven that employees are happier and more satisfied when they have more autonomy in the workplace. This is a positive aspect because more autonomy means lower levels of stress, low levels of employee turnover, and less physical fatigue. An increase in job satisfaction also results in less absenteeism and higher job performance. All these benefits come from autonomous work because it encourages employees to be happy with their tasks and responsibilities as well as gives them the opportunity to make a fresh start on any given day if they so choose.
Employees tend to take on certain roles that may require any number of talents or skills ranging anywhere from great communication to technical expertise. When designing interactive systems, a person has to keep in mind that people are not static beings. They are not always the same and they may appear to be one way in one environment and the opposite in another. For example, maybe an individual is very motivated by autonomy but would be less likely to succeed at that level of motivation in a different context with different responsibilities. In order for the system to function as intended, it is important for it to factor these differences into the design.
Studies have shown that autonomous work can improve employee satisfaction with their job performance levels. No longer does the individual have to rely on the boss to tell them what to do or push them towards a certain goal. They are in charge of setting their own goals and determining their own schedule. In many situations, an employee may achieve higher job performance by having autonomy over their workday and management of themselves as well. When an employee has a high level of autonomy he or she is more likely to feel more satisfied with their work and feel happier at the workplace. This is shown from a study done by John Antonakis and colleagues at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. They studied over 12,000 employees working in organizations across 37 countries.
Conclusion: Autonomous work has many positive effects on an employee's job satisfaction. Employees who are more satisfied with their job performance are more likely to stay in their current jobs and be happy with their work. This shows that autonomous work is important because it improves overall employee satisfaction and allows employees to be in a more productive state of mind which helps them achieve higher levels of functioning in the workplace.
The definition of motivation is a term, or goal, that drives behavior. Motivation is complex and is influenced by several different factors such as personality, physical needs, environment, and interactions between individuals. There are different theories of motivation. Two of the most widely accepted theories include the need for achievement theory and equity theory.