04. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow proposed a theory that outlined five hierarchical needs which could also be applied to an organization and its employees’ performance (Gordon cited in Jerome, N. 2013).

According to Maslow’s theory, one does not feel the second need until the demands of the first have been satisfied or the third until the second has
been satisfied, and so on (Jerome, N. 2013).

According to Maslow theory, if people grew in an environment in which their needs are not met, they will be unlikely to function as healthy individuals or well-adjusted individuals (Kaur, A., 2013).

Figure-1 (illustrates Maslow's hierarchy of needs)

Factors Explanation:

1.    Physiological needs:

According to Jerome, N. (2013), these are biological needs which consist of the need for oxygen, food, water, and a relatively constant body temperature. They are the strongest needs because if a person were deprived of all needs, it is these physiological ones that would come first in the person's search for satisfaction.

 

2.    Safety needs:

According to Kaur, A., (2013.), this occupies the second level of needs. Safety needs are activated after physiological needs are met. They refer to the need for a secure working environment free from any threats or harms. The rationale is that employees working in an environment free of harm do their jobs without fear of harm.

 

3.    Needs for love, affection and belongingness:

According to Osemeke, M. and Adegboyega, S., (2017), after physiological and safety needs are fulfilled, the third level of human needs is interpersonal and involves feelings of belongingness. Deficiencies within this level of Maslow's hierarchy can adversely affect the individual's ability to form and maintain emotionally significant relationships in general, such as: friendships, intimacy, and family. According to Maslow cited in Osemeke, M. and Adegboyega, S., (2017), humans need to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance among their social groups, not considering the size of the groups.

 

4.    Needs for esteem:

According to Jerome, N. (2013), when the first three classes of needs are satisfied, the needs for esteem can become dominant. These involve needs for both self-esteem and for the esteem a person gets from others. Humans have a need for a stable, firmly based, high level of self-respect, and respect from others. When these needs are satisfied, the person feels self-confident and valuable as a person in the world. When these needs are frustrated, the person feels inferior, weak, helpless and worthless.

 

5.    Needs for self-actualization:

According to Jerome, N. (2013), when all of the foregoing needs are satisfied, then and only then are the needs for self-actualization activated. Maslow describes self-actualization as a person's need to be and do that which the person was "born to do." "A musician must make music, an artist must paint, and a poet must write." These needs make themselves felt in signs of restlessness. The person feels on edge, tense, lacking something, in short, restless. If a person is hungry, unsafe, not loved or accepted, or lacking self-esteem, it is very easy to know what the person is restless about. However, it is not always clear what a person wants when there is a need for self-actualization.

“I work for a leading organization in the airlines industry in middle east, In consideration of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, how it motivates me? I started my career with this airline in 2010 without having any big companies’ experience. At that time I looked for basic psychological needs as well safety and stable of my career. As the airline is well reputed and has organized management, Psychological and safety needs of mine were provided without any delay. Than I was feeling loneliness as I came to work from my home country (Sri Lanka) and missing family so much. In this time the airline was organized get together and events among all departments, so we can be sharing the love and affection each other’s and creating healthy friendship, so ultimately I overcome from my stress and alienation.

Further in general, the airline is strictly instructed to the managers that they have not to criticize the employee publicly and discourage his work. My manager is so friendly, supportive and helpful. His ethic is, if there’s appreciation, gives to employee and if there’s any problems, he take by himself. At all times he let us feel that airline and him are with us. So our self-motto level is so higher and we give our maximum potential to the airline. At the same time our dignity and reputations are well maintained by the airline. At present the airline identified and allocated the area where I am fit to do the work pleasantly and efficiently. According to Maslow theory, all needs are fulfilled by the airline and I am truly and honestly giving my full potential to the airlines.

REFERENCES:

1.    Gordon, G.G (1965). The relationship of satisfiers and dissatisfiers to productivity, turnover and morale, American Psychologist. 20, 499-502

2.    Jerome, N., 2013. Application of the Maslow’s hierarchy of need theory; impacts and implications on organizational culture, human resource and employee’s performance. International journal of business and management invention, 2(3), pp.39-45.

3.    Kaur, Avneet. "Maslow’s need hierarchy theory: Applications and criticisms." Global Journal of Management and Business Studies 3, no. 10 (2013): 1061-1064.

4.    Maslow, A. H. (1954). Motivation and Personality: NY: Harper.

5.    Osemeke, Monday, and Samuel Adegboyega. "Critical review and comparism between Maslow, Herzberg and McClelland’s theory of needs." Funai journal of accounting, business and finance 1, no. 1 (2017): 161-173.

 

 03. Herzberg – Two factor theory

Kurt (2021) defines that Herzberg’s two-factor theory outlines that humans are motivated by two things: motivators and hygiene factors. Motivators encourage job satisfaction and hygiene factors prevent job dissatisfaction.

According to Herzberg cited in Ruthankoon, R. and Ogunlana, S.O., (2003.), motivation factors are the six ``job content'' factors that include achievement, recognition, work itself, responsibility, advancement, and possibility of growth. Hygiene factors are ``job context'' factors, which include company policy, supervision, relationship with supervisors, work conditions, relationship with peers, salary, personal life, relationship with subordinates, status, and job security.

Figure-1

(Source: Schermerhorn, et al., 2011)

Motivator Factors:

According to Herzberg cited in Nickerson.C (2021), these motivators are intrinsic to the job and lead to job satisfaction because they satisfy needs for growth and self-actualization.

According to Alshmemri, M., Shahwan-Akl, L. and Maude, P., (2017);

1.  Achievement: Positive achievement includes achieving a specific success, such as completing a difficult task on time, solving a job-related problem, or seeing positive results from one’s work. Negative achievement includes failure to make progress at work or poor job related decision making.

2.     Recognition: Positive recognition happens when employees receive praise or rewards for reaching specific goals at their job, or when they produce high quality work. While negative recognition at work includes criticism.

3.     Responsibility: This factor includes both responsibility and authority in relation to the job. Responsibility is related to gaining satisfaction from being given the responsibility and freedom to make decisions. Gaps between responsibility and authority negatively impact job satisfaction leading to dissatisfaction.

4.     The work itself: The actual content of job tasks and assignments has either a positive or a negative effect upon employees. Whether the job is too easy or too difficult, interesting or boring, can impact satisfaction or dissatisfaction of employees in the workplace.

5.   Advancement: Advancement is defined as the upward and positive status or position of the person or employee in the workplace. A negative or neutral status at work is considered negative advancement.

6.     Possibility for growth: Possibilities for growth are the actual opportunities for a person to experience personal growth and be promoted in the workplace. This allows for professional growth, increased chances to learn new skills, undergo training in new techniques and gaining new professional knowledge. 

Hygiene Factors

Hygiene factors are extrinsic to the job, and function in “the need to avoid unpleasantness” (Herzberg cited in Nickerson.C (2021).

According to Alshmemri, M., Shahwan-Akl, L. and Maude, P., (2017);

1.   Company policies and administration: This includes descriptions of adequate or inadequate company organization and management policies and guidelines. This factor involves good or poor organizational policies that affect the employee. For example, they may include a lack of delegation of authority, poor policies and procedures and poor communication.

2.       Working conditions: These factors involve the physical surroundings of the job, and whether there are good or poor facilities. Working conditions may include the amount of work, space, ventilation, tools, temperature and safety. A good environment, as opposed to a poor environment, makes employees satisfied and proud.

3.       Supervision: Supervision is associated with the competence or incompetence, and fairness or unfairness of the supervisor or supervision. This includes the supervisor’s willingness to delegate responsibility or to teach, fairness and job knowledge. A good supervisor, or access to supervision, is important to enhance the employee’s level of job satisfaction. Poor leadership or management may decrease the level of job satisfaction in the workplace.

4.       Salary: This includes all forms of compensation at one’s place of work, such as wage or salary increases, or unfulfilled expectations of wage or salary increases or decrease. Hospital policies should be clear regarding salary increases and bonuses in the workplace.

5.       Interpersonal relations: These relationships are limited to the personal and working relationships between the worker and her/his superiors, subordinates and peers. This includes job-related interactions and social discussions in the work environment and during break times.

According to Herzberg cited in Dartey-Baah, K. and Amoako, G.K., (2011), managers need to eliminate the dissatisfaction by doing the following;

v Fix poor and obstructive company policies.
v Provide effective, supportive and non-intrusive supervision.
v Create and support the culture of respect and dignity for all team members.
v Ensure that wages and salaries are competitive.
v Provide job security.
v Build job status by providing meaningful work for all positions.

·       Poor hygiene factors can cause job dissatisfaction, while better hygiene factors can reduce dissatisfaction but cannot cause job satisfaction (Herzberg et al. cited in Alshmemri 2017).

Motivation factors included achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility, advancement and the possibility for growth (Herzberg,1966; Herzberg, 2003 cited in Alshmemri 2017).

List of references:

1. Alshmemri, M., Shahwan-Akl, L. and Maude, P., (2017). Herzberg’s two-factor theory. Life Science Journal, 14(5), pp.12-16.
2. Dartey-Baah, K. and Amoako, G.K., (2011). Application of Frederick Herzberg’s Two-Factor theory in assessing and understanding employee motivation at work: a Ghanaian Perspective. European Journal of Business and Management, 3(9), pp.1-8.
3. Herzberg, F., Mausner, B., & Snydermann B.(1959). The motivation to work. New York: Wiley.
4. Herzberg, F.I. (1987), “One more time: How do you motivate employees?”, Harvard Business Review,Sep/Oct. 87, Vol. 65 Issue 5, p109-120.
5. Herzberg, F. I. (1966). Work and the Nature of Man.
6. Herzberg, F.I. (1968), ``One more time: how do you motivate employees?'',Harvard Business Review,January-February, Vol. 46, pp. 53-62.
7.  Kurt.S (2021), Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory: Two-factor. Available from: https://educationlibrary.org/herzbergs-motivation-hygiene-theory-two-factor/. (Accessed on 27^th April 2022).
8. Nickerson.C (2021), Herzberg’s Motivation Two-Factor Theory. Available from: https://www.simplypsychology.org/herzbergs-two-factor-theory.html (Accessed on: 27th April 2022).
9. Ruthankoon, R. and Ogunlana, S.O., (2003). Testing Herzberg’s two‐factor theory in the Thai construction industry. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management.

02. Employee retention:

Govindaraju, N., (2018) define that employee retention is not merely a common practice of an organization; it is one of primary concern of an organization.

According to Das, B.L & Baruah, M (2013, p.8) “encouraging employees to remain in the organization for a long period can be termed as employee retention."

Dibble cited in Cloutier et al. (2015) shared that employee retention starts with orientation. Further, Dibble (1999) identifies key components employers need to provide employees so they chose to remain with the organization. The employee’s acceptance of the organization’s vision, mission, values and policies come by way of effective leadership communication (Cloutier et al. 2015).

Organizations and managers believe that long-term success, survival and productivity of an organization rely upon the ability to retain best and valuable employees (Das & Baruah cited in Yousuf, S. and Siddiqui, D.A., (2019).

Lam et al. cited in Yousuf, S. and Siddiqui, D.A., (2019) that Talent retention or employee retention refers to the amount of time that an employee spends in an organization. Further Lam et al., (2015) stated that employee retention not only reflects the steadiness of employment within an organization, but it also displays the propensity of an employee to work in one organization for a long time.

Nyanjom cited in Yousuf, S. and Siddiqui, D.A., (2019) consider employees as the important resource as they contribute their efforts and knowledge in achieving the organization’s goals, objectives and missions. Hence it is important to retain them for the development and accomplishment of the organizational goals, objectives and missions specifically in gaining competitive advantage over the competitors in the era of globalization (Yousuf, S. and Siddiqui, D.A., 2019).

Retention involves five major things (Thariq, M.M. and Mojideen, O.H., 2014);

1. Compensation:

Hafanti cited in Syahreza et al., (2017) states that there are ten forms of compensation for employees, namely salary, job bonus, holiday / pension allowance, family health insurance, employee involvement in insurance program, employee recreation program, awards for outstanding employees, and adequate leave periods. These forms of compensation are very concerned about things that are fundamental to the needs of employees.

Syahreza et al., (2017) defined that the management of good compensation to employees will affect the comfort and desire employees to stay in the organization.

2. Support:

Nazia and Begum cited in Iqbal, S. and Hashmi, M.S., (2015), defines employee retention as a business effort to retain its current staff by sustaining a supportive working environment.

3. Relationship:

Mayo cited in Weerasinghe, T.D. and Priyasad, K.P.M, (2018) argued that the key determinant of job satisfaction was group interaction, and highlighted the importance of good leadership and satisfying personal relations in the workplace.

According to Weerasinghe, T.D. and Priyasad, K.P.M, (2018) that friendship at work has a significant, moderate-positive nexus with employee retention intention where there is no significant association was found between negative relationships and romance at work with employee retention intention.

 4. Environment:

Mir and Mufeed cited in Hanai, A.E., (2021) contend that today’s business environment is very competitive thus making skilled and experienced employees important to organizations

5. Growth:

Employees consider training, education and development as crucial to their overall career growth and goal attainment and will be motivated to remain and build a ca reer path in an organization that offers them such opportunity (Samuel cited in Nwokocha, I. and Iheriohanma, E.B.J., 2012).

List of references:

1.     Cloutier, O., Felusiak, L., Hill, C. and Pemberton-Jones, E.J., 2015. The importance of developing strategies for employee retention. Journal of Leadership, Accountability & Ethics, 12(2).

2.     Dibble, S. (1999). Keeping your valuable employees: retention strategies for your organization's most important resource. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

3.     Das, B. L., & Baruah, M. (2013). Employee retention: A review of literature. Journal of Business and Management, 14(2), pp.8-16.

4.     Govindaraju, N., (2018). The role of traditional Motivation theories on employee retention. International Journal of Arts, Humanities and management studies, 4(6), pp.95-109

5.     Hafanti, O. (2015). Effect of Compensation, Work Environment and Design Task on Job Satisfaction and Impact on Employee Retention PMI Aceh. Journal of Management, 4(1), pp.164-173.

6.     Hanai, A.E., (2021). The Influence of Work Environment on Employee Retention:Empirical Evidence from Banking Institutions in Dar Es Salaam,Tanzania. International Journal of Managerial Studies and Research (IJMSR), 9(1)

7.     Iqbal, S. and Hashmi, M.S., (2015). Impact of perceived organizational support on employee retention with mediating role of psychological empowerment. Pakistan Journal of Commerce and Social Sciences (PJCSS), 9(1), pp.18-34.

8.     Lam, C. L., Law, S. F., Loo, Y. J., Ng, W. Y., & Ooi, S. L. (2015). A study on factors affecting employee retention in nursing industry at Klang Valley. UTAR.

9.     Mir, A.A. and Mufeed, U. (2016). Employee Retention – A Key Tool for Achieving Competitive Advantage.International Journal of Engineering and Management Research. 6(6), pp. 334 – 337.

10.  Nyanjom, C. R. (2013). Factors influencing employee retention in the state corporations in Kenya. unpublished thesis Nairobi: University of Nairobi.

11.  Nazia, S., & Begum, B. (2013). Employee Retention practices in Indian Corporate – astudy of select MNCs. International Journal of Engineering and Management Practices,4 (3), pp.361-368.

 

12.  Nwokocha, I. and Iheriohanma, E.B.J., (2012). Emerging trends in employee retention strategies in a globalizing economy: Nigeria in focus. Asian Social Science, 8(10), p.198.

13.  Syahreza, D.S., Lumbanraja, P., Dalimunthe, R.F. and Absah, Y., 2017. Compensation, employee performance, and mediating role of retention: A study of differential semantic scales.

14.  Samuel, O. M. (2008). Using Motivational Strategy as Panacea for Employee Retention and Turnover in Selected Public and Private Sector Organizations in Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Unpublished M.Sc Thesis, University of Fort Hare.

15.  Thariq, M.M. and Mojideen, O.H., (2014), December. A Study on Employee Attrition and Its Influencing Factors Relating to Employee Retention. In A Study on Employee Attrition and Its Influencing Factors Relating to Employee Retention. IJASRD.

16.  Weerasinghe, T.D. and Priyasad, K.P.M, (2018). THE EFFECT OF INFORMAL RELATIONSHIPS AT WORK ON EMPLOYEE RETENTION INTENTION: EVIDENCE FROM SRI LANKA. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348757670_Effect_of_Informal_Relationships_at_Work_on_Employee_Retention_Intention_Evidence_from_Sri_Lanka (Accessed on 25^th April 2022)

17.  Yousuf, S. and Siddiqui, D.A., (2019). Factors influencing employee retention: A Karachi based comparative study on IT and banking industry. Yousuf, S. and Siddiqui, DA (2019). Factors Influencing Employee Retention: A Karachi Based Comparative Study on IT and Banking Industry. International Journal of Human Resource Studies, 9(1), pp.42-62.

  

Employee Motivation

 

Motivation is operationally defined as the inner force that drives individuals to accomplish personal and organizational goals (Lindner, J.R., 1998).

According to Nurun Nabi, I.M. and Dip TM, H.A., (2017), Motivation is about giving your staff the right mixture of guidance, direction, resources and rewards so that they are inspired and keen to work in the way that you want them to. So, a large portion behind these difficulties can easily be solved by imparting proper motivation.

Motivated and satisfied employees will have committed approach towards organizational objective; in turn organizations will also have to show similar commitment towards employee objectives (Varma, C., 2017).

According to Achim, I.M., Dragolea, L. and Balan, G., (2013), the motivational system is meant to meet all the employees` needs. As soon as their satisfaction is fulfilled, the employees will tend to outline an independent relationship between their involuntary wish of performing the professional activity and their mood. Considering this, the company will gain a major benefit from its employees` performances.

Motivation is viewed as a process of stimulating people to achieve organizational tasks as well as process of stimulating oneself to action to gratify a felt need (Ajibola cited in Abbah, M.T., 2014). In addition to this, Ajibola (1976) point out that employees are being encouraged to achieve not only the organizational goals but also their own goals through motivation. This shows that organizations cannot do without the employees as their bedrock (employees) in achieving success.

                            Figure no.1- Motivational System

                       Source: Achim, I.M., Dragolea, L. and Balan, G., (2013)

Need and motivation

According to Ganta, V.C., (2014), most employees need motivation to feel good about their jobs and perform optimally. Some employees are money motivated while others find recognition and rewards personally motivating.

Goal directed behavior

According to Ganta, V.C., (2014), Motivation levels within the workplace have a direct impact on employee productivity. Workers who are motivated and excited about their jobs carry out their responsibilities to the best of their ability and production numbers increase as a result.

Need satisfaction

Marinak and Gambrell cited in Paais, M. and Pattiruhu, J.R., (2020) that motivation is a psychological process that provides goals and direction for employee behavior or as an internal drive to meet employee satisfaction as well as internal processes and external forces related to organizational behavior.  

 

                                Figure no.2

                             Source: Manzoor, Q.A., (2012)

Recognition

Danish, R.Q. and Usman, A., (2010) defined that Recognition describes how the work of an employee is evaluated and how much the appreciation he receives in return from the organization. It also specifies the way an organization gives its employee the reward and status for his work and activities.

Empowerment

Empowering makes employees feel that they are appreciated and for making it possible continuous and positive feedback on their performance is essential (Smith, B cited in Manzoor, Q.A., 2012).

According to Vogt and Murrel cited in Tutar, H., Altinoz, M. and Cakiroglu, D., (2011), empowerment is the period of improving the decision making ability of the employees through cooperation, sharing, training, education and team work.

Organizational Effectiveness

An internally satisfied, delighted and motivated worker or employee is actually a productive employee in an organization which contributes in efficiency and effectiveness of organization which leads to maximization of profits (Matthew.J. et al, cited in Manzoor, Q.A., (2012).

References:

1. Achim, I.M., Dragolea, L. and Balan, G., 2013. The importance of employee motivation to increase organizational performance. Annales universitatis apulensis: Series oeconomica, 15(2), p.685.

2. Abbah, M.T., 2014. Employee motivation: The key to effective organizational management in Nigeria. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 16(4), pp.1-8.

3. Ajibola, E., 1976. How to Motivate the Nigerian Workers. Nigerian Journal of Management.

4. Danish, R.Q. and Usman, A., 2010. Impact of reward and recognition on job satisfaction and motivation: An empirical study from Pakistan. International journal of business and management, 5(2), p.159.

5. Ganta, V.C., 2014. Motivation in the workplace to improve the employee performance. International Journal of Engineering Technology, Management and Applied Sciences, 2(6), pp.221-230.

6. Lindner, J.R., 1998. Understanding employee motivation. Journal of extension, 36(3), pp.1-8.

7. Manzoor, Q.A., 2012. Impact of employees motivation on organizational effectiveness. Business management and strategy, 3(1), pp.1-12.

8. Matthew, J., Grawhich, & Barber, L. K., (2009). Are you Focusing both Employees and Organizational Outcomes. Organizational Health Initiative at Saint Louis University (ohi.slu@edu), 1-5.

9. Marinak, B. A., & Gambrell, L. B. (2008). Intrinsic motivation and rewards: What sustains young children's engagement with text? Literacy Research and Instruction, 47(1), 9-26. https://doi.org/10.1080/19388070701749546 (Accessed on 21st April 2022)

10. Nurun Nabi, I.M. and Dip TM, H.A., 2017. Impact of motivation on employee performances: a case study of Karmasangsthan bank Limited, Bangladesh. Arabian J Bus Manag Review, 7(293), p.2.

11. Paais, M. and Pattiruhu, J.R., 2020. Effect of motivation, leadership, and organizational culture on satisfaction and employee performance. The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics, and Business, 7(8), pp.577-588.

12. Smith, B., (1997). Empowerment - the challenge is now. Empowerment in Organizations, 5 (3), 120-122.

13. Tutar, H., Altinoz, M. and Cakiroglu, D., 2011. The effects of employee empowerment on achievement motivation and the contextual performance of employees. African Journal of Business Management, 5(15), pp.6318-6329.

14. Varma, C., 2017. Importance of employee motivation & job satisfaction for organizational performance. International journal of social science & interdisciplinary research, 6(2).

15.Vogt J, Murrel K (1990). Empovverment in organizations, Pfeiffer and Co., Amsterdam, p. 8