Individual Work Motivation Essay

Be it a multi-national company or a small superstore right down the corner of your house, motivated and energetic employees are a pre-requisite everywhere in order to reach the zenith of excellence, success and prosperity. In accordance with a research paper rooting out from The Ohio State University’s Piketon Research and Extension Center and Enterprise Center, enthusiastic employees are desired for the survival and efficiency of a particular organization. (Lindner J. R. 1984) An assortment of theories exist which suggests the reasons that why the employees in this organization were unable to be energized and elated to perform better and portray their true potential and ability in the training program which was chalked out by their respective organization. (Lindner J. R. , 1984) Theories and their implications To begin with, expectancy theory is a theory that has been drafted out by Victor Vroom who belongs to the Yale school of Management. This theory aptly states that employees in any company would be highly motivated if they firmly believe that more hard work and better performance would succumb to better results, improved outcomes and enhanced rewards such as a tremendous increase in one’s salary or fringe benefits. (Vroom, n. d) Vroom also throws lights on this exceptionally important fact that an employee’s motivation and hence his or her performance is based on numerous factors such as aptitude, skills, personality, experience and the amount of knowledge that he or she possesses. Following this, the attention is now turned to the reinforcement theory of motivation. This theory was chalked out by B. F. Skinner and his accomplices. The foundation of this theory is the â€Å"law effect†. This means that an individual behavior have a tendency to be repeated if the consequences and the rewards are positive and tends to declines if the consequence are negative. Some of the note-worthy elements of the reinforcement theory are positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment and extinction. Re-inforcement theories Keeping these two considerably significant theories in mind, the employees at this particular organization are unable to execute well in the training program because they are provided with less rewards and less positive consequences. Their performance in the training program is not co-related with the rewards that they would receive. Each employee is paid the same amount for attending the program, whether that employee is motivated or not, had passed the exam or not. Hence, employees are not at all passionate and energetic for performing well in the program. Following this, the employees are allowed to retake the training till the time they pass the exam. This policy makes the employees motivated to give out their hundred percent at the training program. Recommendations Keeping all these factors into consideration, managers of this organization should tightly relate the rewards with the performance and should make use of the theory of positive reinforcement. Managers should also make sure that the rewards are those that are valued by their employees and are desired by them. Employees should be given the necessary support to boost up their motivation and enthusiasm, such as a mentor or a human resource manager. Last but not the least, negative reinforcement should be used as tool to motivate the employees by informing them that not performing up to a benchmark and hence not passing the training would result in negative rewards such a decrease in one’s pay or the cutting down on some of the fringe benefits.