Introduction

Nowadays, it is very difficult to find dedicated employees who could be relied on when the going gets tough. It takes an encouraging supervisor to motivate an employee to stay on his job position and to do his job well. Likewise, it takes a committed worker to persist in his job no matter how difficult it may be, as long as he is properly motivated and satisfied with his job.

Just what makes a worker motivated to do his job well? What makes him satisfied in his job? This paper attempts to investigate the aforementioned questions within a certain corporation, Reliance Industries, Ltd. It will take on a qualitative study. It will be employing the use of questionnaires and a focus group interview to probe into the issues of job motivation and job satisfaction and if this translates to performance and efficiency.

Research Objectives:

The objectives of the study will be:

• To examine the strategies that organisations use to motivate their employees
• To explore the relationship between employee motivation and job satisfaction.
• To examine organisational performance and efficiency.
• To examine organisational performance and efficiency entails.
• To examine the impact of employee job satisfaction and motivation on organisational performance and efficiency.

Statement of the Problem: “How does employee job satisfaction and motivation affect his performance and efficiency in the organization?”

The study will seek to answer the following questions:

• What are the strategies that organisations use to motivate their employees?
• What is the correlation between employee motivation and job satisfaction?
• What is organisational performance and efficiency?
• What does organisational performance and efficiency entail?
• What is the impact of employee job satisfaction and motivation on organisational performance and efficiency?

Research Methodology

Data collection will be carried out by use of questionnaires. A focus group interview shall be implemented so that a selected group of employees can give in-depth answers to issues pertaining to job satisfaction and motivation and how it affects their own performance and efficiency. It will also draw out much information from the thorough review of literature, so analysis of the results of the questionnaire and interview will be done in the backdrop of a rich tapestry of motivation models and principles.

Descriptive research design will then be used where qualitative analysis will be made basing on the variables that aim at examining the impact of employee job satisfaction and motivation on organisational performance and efficiency. This is because descriptive methods are quite effective in identifying concrete socio-economic issues such as the impact of employee job satisfaction and motivation on

organisational performance and efficiency (Silverman 1993; Beverley 1998; Strauss and Corbin 1990).

Significance of the Study

The study aims to benefit organizational development purposes, specifically the human resources department. A thorough review of literature on motivation shall be done explaining theories, models and principles of how an individual is encouraged to do something for himself and for others. This research will enlighten employers on how to motivate their employees so they do better in their jobs and result in job satisfaction on the part of the latter. It becomes an win-win situation for everyone concerned if motivation is appropriate and effective and will elicit initiative on the part of the employee.

Chapter Two

Review of Literature

Motivation comes from the enjoyment of work itself and from the desire to achieve goals set by the person (Dawson, 2009). Each individual has different goals. Some are financial, like working longer hours for extra income or exerting more effort just to push sales. Some set their sights on a promotion of rank believing that if they do well on their jobs and accept the challenge of more responsibilities that eventually, they level up to a position of more power and authority. This paper argues the need for employers to understand how their workers are motivated and how they can use such information to produce better results for the organization.

Knowledge of employee motivation is an advantage for employers. When this knowledge is applied, it becomes a win-win situation for both parties since the employees are motivated to pursue shared organizational goals while the employer encourages the productivity in his organization.

Handy (1999) reports that the initial goals of motivation research was to encourage individuals to provide better service to their employers by exerting more effort and maximizing their talents at work. Having a well-motivated workforce may be equivalent to better work productivity and success in product salability in the market. Additional advantages are lower level of absenteeism and staff turnovers because the employees are satisfied with their work. This also means that training and recruitment costs are lowered because work positions are always reliably staffed (Dawson, 2009).

Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Y gained much attention in the 1960’s. He claimed that an individual falls under either of 2 categories, X or Y. The X individual needs a lot of controlling, directing, coercion and thereat just so he gets work done. On the other hand, individuals under Theory Y do not see work as tedious and instead, commits to the goals they have set. Meeting these goals becomes the reward in itself. The average individual stays in the middle ground. He prefers to be directed and avoids responsibility as much as he can. However, when left with no choice, he learns to accept it and carry it out. Further, even if imagination or creativity is widely distributed across the population, individual potentials of people are only partially used in work (Dawson, 2009). This now begs the question of how employers can find employees who fall under the Theory Y category, those who are motivated enough to give their best to the job.

Other early motivation theories include the Satisfaction Theory, the Incentive Theory and the Intrinsic Theory. The Satisfaction theory posits that a satisfied worker works even harder and proves his loyalty to the organization he belongs to by staying longer there. Who would want to leave a work environment that provides satisfaction? If one is happy there, there would be little no motivation to leave, and utmost motivation to stay on. The Incentive theory claims that an individual will increase his efforts to obtain a reward, which are mostly compensation packages such as salary increases or access to more company benefits. The Intrinsic theory is culled from Maslow’s theory of Hierarchy of Needs. He categorized human needs as hierarchal from the basic physiological needs moving to safety, belongingness and love, esteem and finally self-actualization. Maslow contends that these needs serve as motivators (Handy, 1999). For example, a man is motivated to work to earn money for his family to provide for their basic needs of food, clothing and shelter. However, as the man becomes richer and is able to meet his and his family’s physiological and safety needs, he ensures that his higher needs are likewise met. As one level of needs is met, the individual’s needs move up to the next level until he has met most of his needs and just strives for self-actualization. As an application to work, an employee likewise moves up the organizational ladder and strives to reach the highest position he can achieve. At that point, he is earning enough money, has gained enough belongingness and recognition and as a reflection of his need for self-actualization, is motivated to leave a legacy behind.

In relation to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory, a real-life example from the international company, IKEA, is illustrated. This Scandanavian-based company is known to be the largest supplier and manufacturer of furniture worldwide. In 2004, IKEA in Denmark took the initiative to give their entire checkout staff a 25% raise. IKEA has more of them than any other group and it meant a sizeable increase in total monthly overhead expenses. However, it was a business decision that delighted the checkout staff. It follows that happy employees are bound to create positive results for the company (Kjerulf, n.d.). One is lower employee turnover. This provides tremendous savings for the company of time and money recruiting new staff. It also means that the longer workers stay with a company, the more experienced they become and the more they identify with the company. Hence, the company develops a more experienced and loyal staff. Being so, they provide better service, gaining higher customer satisfaction. The company’s reputation of providing high quality of service to its customers is spreads rapidly by word of mouth, thereby incurring more sales and profit for the company.

Although IKEA incurred a humongous expense with the implementation of the raise, it paid itself within six months. Analyzing why this worked for IKEA, Kjerulf gives three reasons. The first is that the raise obviously gave the staff a significant improvement in their standard of living. The recipients were the least paid in the company, so a 25% raise made a huge difference in terms of their quality of life. Secondly, the salary increase gave people recognition. IKEA acknowledged that they were the most important group of employees since they are the only employees customers are likely to talk to at the end of the sale because customers help themselves with the products anyway. This acknowledgement makes the checkout staff feel valued and trusted. Finally, IKEA promoted the value of fairness. The recipients of the raise were suddenly paid as well as other employees, and even higher than the market average of their counterparts.

So it is not really the salary increase that motivated the employees. More than that, they gained much in terms of self-esteem and the feeling of being valued as a worker. Albert Martens, one of IKEA’s HR heads posits that giving financial incentive to staff does not actually increase the motivation of a worker who values customer-focused attitude more than money. Because they feel important due to such great service given them, customers come back not only for the quality of IKEA’s products but for the kind of service they get from the staff. The staff in turn, gets intrinsically rewarded by this (Whitehead, 2006).

According to Judge et al. (2001) the happier people are in the workplace, the more satisfied they are. Weiss (2002) and Rain et al. (1991) concur with this argument that employee job satisfaction and employee motivation are clearly linked. Rain et al. (1991) and Fried and Ferris (1987, pp. 287-322) agree with Porter (1997) that human resources are the most important assets that any organisation can boast to own and to maintain because people utilise and turn the organisation’s resources into products that the organisation needs in order to perform and to efficiently and effectively meet the needs of its customers.

Workers expect some sort of “psychological contracts” from their employers. Consciously or unconsciously, they anticipate more than the benefits and compensation that the job usually presents. Workers expect support from management, work that is challenging and interesting and communication that is open and honest. These non-monetary rewards have become very significant to the motivation of workers. Of course their economical needs have to be fulfilled (as in the basic physiological and security needs in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs), however, their socio-emotional needs have to be given attention as well (as in the sense of belonging and esteem needs referred to by Maslow). Lester, Clair & Kickul (2001) contend that the implication of this is that from the beginning, employers do not only discuss the worker’s compensation package also emphasize the aspects of the company that will be intrinsically satisfying to the workers.

Money and other status symbols like higher job positions and titles, more spacious and opulent offices, and the like do not really incre