The importance of motivation in the workplace and major motivation theories

Workplace Motivation Is More Than Just a Good Idea

Workplace motivation represents a key area of interest in many academic circles. Interest in the topic ranges from managerial students to those on the human resources management area. The area of workplace motivation reaches almost every area of the business, including the accounting department. The ability to motivate employees affects the organization in many ways. Many of these ways are more obvious, but others are not so obvious. This research will explore the role of employee motivation in achieving and maintaining a competitive advantage in the workplace.

Today's business environment requires that managers keep tight control over costs, productivity and other forms of overhead. Factors such as absenteeism, losses in productivity, and high employee turnover rate have a significant impact on the ability of the business to remain competitive. It has long been recognized that motivation has a measurable affect on the bottom line of the business. Employee motivation can affect the organization's intellectual capital, customer service, and employee productivity (Lee, 2008). This can, in turn, have a measurable affect on the financial health of the organization.

Many programs that improve the health and well-being of the employee are costly. However, many times, the benefits of these programs far-outweigh the initial or long-term costs (Walter, 2010). The measurement of the costs and benefits of these programs was once, difficult to measure in a meaningful way. Recently, the focus of research in this area has been on the development of tools to help measure these benefits and costs. The promotion of health and productivity in the workplace is now seen as a legitimate part of the overall business strategy (Smith, 2009).

Workplace motivation does not only affect individual organizations. It can have an impact on a certain sector of the workforce or for an entire industry. This is particularly true if certain characteristics that decrease workplace motivation are pandemic across a particular industry. One example of this is the healthcare industry. The industry is plagued by employee shortages due to working conditions. This has created difficulties in attracting and retaining healthcare workers (Henderson and Tulloch, 2008). Many of the difficulties in the industry are related to burnout and overwork. Employee motivation has created a crisis situation on a global basis in this area.

The ability to attract, retain, and motivate employees has developed into several key categories of theories. Pinnington and Edwards (2000) summarized the key motivational theories in their work. These theories can be developed into "needs" based theories, such as that to Maslow and McClelland. Other theories can be called "process" theories. These include expectancy theory, goal-setting theory, and reinforcement theory. These theories have emerged as a means to attempt to understand what influences employee motivation. The purpose of these theories is to develop ways to improve employee motivation and to gain the benefits that can be reaped from it.