Principles of Management Assignment
Abstract
This is a critical thinking paper, which has borrowed a lot of its discussion from Chapter: Employees Motivation, in the Book: Principles of Management. The first part discussion seeks to understand motivation, including explaining several motivation theories and incentives behind employee motivation. The second part examines how group identification can be a source of motivation. It is established that even though group identification can influence motivation, it might not work for all individuals since it involves sacrificing individuality. As such, it is recommended that managers should seek other factors such as group structure, group goals, and the task itself to motivate employees.
Part-1
1. Define motivation and explain three motivational theory from the chapter. What kinds of needs motivate employees? Is a good reward good enough? How do other factors affect motivation?
Motivation is defined as a psychological process that influences direct goal-focused habit (Kinicki, 2016). It is usually defined from specific characteristics that define its roles of indicating, directing, sustaining, influencing behavior, and inferring. The motivation features ensure that employees’ needs and efforts are satisfied by aligning them with the organizational goals. There are several motivation theories discussed in chapter 12, which are Maslow’s hierarchy theory, ERG theory, and Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory.
Maslow’s Hierarchy Theory
This Theory was advanced by Abraham Maslow and argued that an individual is motivated when their needs are fulfilled (Kinicki, 2016). According to Maslow, a person’s needs fulfillment follows a certain hierarchy, and the bottom needs should be met first. The lowest needs are basic, which Maslow presents as physiological and the comprises of essentials such as food, water, clothing, and shelter. The second needs in the hierarchy are safety, and they focus on protection and security. Third level needs are social belongingness, which consists of friendship, love, association, and affiliation. The fourth level of needs is self-esteemed based, and they seek to attain recognition and respect. The last need in the hierarchy is self-actualization, and it seeks opportunities for individual development, including learning or pursuing leadership goals.
ERG Theory
ERG theory by Alder is the development of Maslow’s Theory and condenses human needs into three classes: existence, relatedness, and growth (Kinicki, 2016). The existence needs involve all basic materials and physiological desires, including food, water, clothing, shelter, protection and security, love, and affection. The relatedness needs consist of social and external esteem, which are family, employers, co-workers, and friends’ relationships. Growth needs encompass external esteem and self-actualization, and comprises of desire to learn, be creative, and productive.
Hertzberg’s tow Factor Theory
According to this Theory, needs can be categorized into two groups: hygiene factors and motivating factors (Kinicki, 2016). Hygiene factors are essential in ensuring that an employee is not dissatisfied, while motivation factors are suitable for maintaining employee satisfaction and motivating them to improve their performance.
Maslow’s motivation theory presents the type of needs that motivate employees. From Maslow’s perspective, employees are usually motivated by physiological needs, safety, and security needs, belongingness and love needs, self-esteem status needs, and self-actualization needs. Based on Maslow’s Theory, the individual needs to keep increasing as meeting one need the left with other top needs to fulfill. Therefore, it is evident that a good reward is not good enough since employees would like other needs to be met. Hertzberg’s two Factor Theory presents other needs to ensure motivation is increased. These factors are career growth, being given responsibilities, job satisfaction, recognition, achievement, interpersonal relations, status, and working conditions.
2. What are the types of incentives I might use to influence employee behaviour? How can I use compensation and other rewards to motivate people?
There are several types of incentives, including monetary incentives, non-monetary incentives, recognition, and employee-assistance programs. When these incentives are employed in the workplace, they influence employees’ behavior in different ways. Monetary incentives are usually financial rewards advanced to employees in the form of a cash reward, paid time off, profit-sharing plans, and employee stock options. When these incentives are associated with job performance, they have been found to influence friendly competition among the employees (Hur, Lee-Yoon, & Whillans, 2016). Non-monetary incentives such as new work and training opportunities might influence employees to improve their performance. Employee recognition for job well-done has been found to enhance positive workplace attitudes and morale among the employees (Alfandi & Alkahsawneh, 2014). Support programs such as counseling and that will help works to reach work-life balance increase employee concentration and focus on the job since they have opportunities and time to execute their home responsibilities.
Compensation is always treated as the first reward for employees to offer services to the company (Hameed, Ramzan, Zubair, Ali, & Arslan, 2014). However, compensation alone might not be enough source of motivation if it is not attached to other rewards. Maslow’s Theory has proved that human needs continue to increase after fulfilling their basic needs. As such, including other rewards such as retirement benefits, stock options, profit-sharing, bonuses, and allowances. The organization will have a retirement benefits scheme that helps the employee to save for future use when they no longer be working. I will also adopt stock options to make employees feel that they are also partners of the company. I will use a profit-sharing approach when the company records growth in profits; all employees will be giving bonuses. Finally, I will establish an allowance for employees who are engaged in field activities and unusual job responsibilities.

Part-2
Students sometime report negative experiences when working with teams, particularly if they have experienced a social-loafer in the group. Some argue that social loafing is less prevalent in the workplace because the rewards and sanctions are more closely aligned to individual performance. An interesting argument for individuals\’ willingness to work and contribute in a group has been posed by Fishbach and colleagues. They argue that identification with others in the group and the group goal is fundamental to an individual\’s choice to opt into and participate effectively within the group.
3. How important do you think group identification really is to an individual’s motivation to work on a task? Do you think this could differ between individuals? What other factors would be relevant?
4. Can you identify an alignment between the argument posed by Fishbach and colleagues to other models or theories of motivation posed throughout this chapter?
5. What strategies could you use to improve group identification, goal commitment and member motivation when working in a group?
References
Alfandi, A. M., & Alkahsawneh, M. S. (2014). The Role of the Incentives and Reward System in Enhancing Employee’s Performance “A Case of Jordanian Travel and Tourism Institutions.” International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 4(4), 326-341. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f7d2/85c650b90a47e67694aab2a0b18486d247dc.pdf
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Hameed, A., Ramzan, M., Zubair, H. M., Ali, G., & Arslan, M. (2014). Impact of Compensation on Employee Performance (Empirical Evidence from Banking Sector of Pakistan). International Journal of Business and Social Science, 5(2), 302-309. http://ijbssnet.com/journals/Vol_5_No_2_February_2014/34.pdf
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Kinicki, S. (2016). Management: Practical Introduction (Looseleaf) – 7th edition. McGraw-Hill Publishing Company.
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Zomeren, M., WayneLeach, C., & Spears, R. (2010). Does group efficacy increase group identification? Resolving their paradoxical relationship. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(6), 1055-1060.