UNIT 2 - Chap 6: Motivating employees Flashcards
What is the definition of motivation?
Motivation is the reason why employees want to work hard and work effectively for the business
Why do people work? (5)
- For money- To pay for necessities and luxuries
- Security- knowing that your job and pay are safe
- Social Need- Feeling part of a group/organization and meeting new friends
- Esteem Needs- feeling important and needed
- Job Satisfaction
What are the benefits of a well motivated workforce?
- High output per worker. Increasing efficiency, decreasing average costs and therefore increasing profits.
- Willingness to accept change. For example, new working methods
- More willing to communicate effectively with managers e.g on suggestions how to improve quality
- Decreased labour turnover, leading to lower recruitment and selection cotss
- Lower absenteeism, increasing output and efficiency
What did Maslow’s studied?
Abraham Maslow studied employee motivation and proposed this hierarchy of needs people and employees need to stay motivated.
What is Maslow’s structure pyramid? (top to bottom) (5)
- Self Actualisation
- ESTEEM NEEDS
- Social needs
- Safety/Security Needs
- Psychological Needs
What is the F.W Taylor’s Theory ? (2)
- how productivity can be increased
- He believed workers were quite simply, motivated by money
What was F.W Taylor’s method of motervation?
break down jobs into simple processes and set target outputs for employees- if they reached these targets, they would be paid more money
What are the benefits of F.W Taylor’s theory? (1)
- If employees are paid based on output, they may be more motivated by money and therefore be more productive, increasing efficiency for the business
What are the drawbacks of F.W Taylor’s theory? (2)
- Employees are not necessarily only motivated by money. If employee’s do not provide good working conditions and relationships, employees may become demotivated
- It if often difficult to measure output in a business. E.g. if the business provides a service (solicitor, teacher)
What does Herzberg believe?
Humans had two sets of needs
What are Herzberg 2 basic needs? (2)
Set 1: Basic Needs, he named these Hygiene factors
Set 2: Needs which enabled humans to grow psychologically, he named these motivators
What are the types of Hygiene Factors (Basic Needs) in Herzberg theory? (4)
- Good working conditions
- Good relationship with supervisor and work colleagues
- Salary/wage
- Job Security
What are the types of Motivators in Herzberg theory? (4)
- Recognition
- Achievement
- Promotion
- The work itself
What is a wage? (2)
- Paid every week
- Wages can be paid in two ways
What are the 2 types of wages? (2)
1. Time Rate
2. Piece rate
What is the definition of Time-Rate?
Paid by the hour
What is the definition of piece rate?
Workers are paid depending on the quantity of products made. The more they make, the more they get paid.
What are the benefits of time-rate? (2)
- Easy to calculate by the company
- Employee knows exactly how much they should be paid
What are the drawbacks of time-rate? (1)
- Good and bad workers get paid the same amount of money. Leads to demotivation of good workers
What are the benefits of piece rate? (1)
- Encourages workers to work faster and produce more
What are the drawbacks of piece rate? (1)
- Workers may focus on making a large amount of products and so rush their work, impacting the quality of the products
What is a salary?
Salaries are paid Monthly. It is an amount of money paid per year and divided and paid in 12 monthly amounts.
What are the benefits of a salary? (2)
- Only has to be distrusted once a month so less time consuming for the HR and finance department
- Employer has the money in their account for longer than If they were paying wages (weekly)- Improves Cashflow
What are the drawbacks of a salary? (2)
- Workers may prefer to be paid weekly
- No payment for extra time worked- demotivating employees
What is the definition of a bonus?
A lump sum paid to workers when they have worked well or reached a certain target.
What are the benefits of a bonus?
- Motivating for employees to try and achieve the bonus
- Workers like being recognized for their achievements (Maslow & Herzberg support this)
What are the drawbacks of a bonus?
- Bonuses can become ‘expected’ every year and if they are not paid employees can become disappointed
- Resentment may occur if some employees get bonuses and others don’t
What is the definition of Commission?
Commission is a payment relating to the number of sales made. The more sales an employee makes, the more money they make
What are the benefits of commission? (1)
- Motivates employees to sell more products, increasing sales for the business
What are the drawbacks of commission? (2)
- Often employees working on commission can put pressure on customers to purchase products in order to get their commission, leading to customers not returning. Leading to a negative brand image
- If there is a recession, sales will be low, and so commission will be difficult to achieve.
What is the definition of profit sharing?
A system where a proportion of the company’s profits is paid out to employees in addition to their wage/salary
What are the benefits of profit sharing? (1)
- Motivates employees to work hard and reach the objective of profit as they will all receive a share of the profit
What are the drawbacks of profit sharing? (2)
- # If a business makes a loss or low profits, then employees will be disappointed
- Profit share is usually calculated based on a percentage of your existing salary/wage which may mean conflict between higher paid and lower paid staff.
What is definition of Fringe benefits?
Fringe benefits are perks that employers give to their employees and are non-financial rewards.
What are the non-finacial rewards? (6)
- Fringe Benefits
- Job rotation
- Job Enrichment
- Team-work
- Training
- Opportunities for Promotion
What are the financial rewards? (7)
- Wage
- Piece Rate
- Time rate
- Salary
- Bonus
- Commission
- Profit Sharing
What is definition of job rotation?
Job rotation involves workers swapping around and doing each specific task for only a limited time and then changing around again.
What are the benefits of job rotation? (2)
- More variety for workers so they will not get bored as easily.
What are the drawbacks of job rotation? (1)
- Expensive to train all staff in different task
What is the definition of job enrichment?
Involves looking at jobs and adding tasks that require more skill and responsibility.
What are the benefits of job enrichment? (1)
- Workers given more responsibility will make them feel more empowered and trusted which leads to motivation.
What are the drawbacks of job enrichment? (1)
- Employees may be unhappy if they have extra responsibility with no extra pay.
What is the definition of team work?
Team-work involves using groups of workers and allocating specific tasks and responsibilities to them.
What are the benefits of team work? (1)
- Working as a team can give better sense of belonging to the company, leading to increased motivation (Maslow supports this)
What are the drawbacks of team work? (1)
- Employees may clash, leading to arguments and a distraction from working
What is the definition of training?
Training is the process of improving a worker’s skills.
What are the benefits of training? (2)
- If a workers achieves new skills they will gain a sense of achievement, leading to motivation.
- By being trained, employees are able to take on new responsibilities which is job enrichment leading to increased motivation
What are the drawbacks of training? (1)
- Training is expensive.
What is the definition for opportunities for promotion?
Promotion is the advancement of an employee in an organization, for example to a higher level in organization structure.
What are the benefits for opportunities for promotion? (1)
- A promotion will lead to employees feeling recognized and given more challenging work. This leads to motivation and is supported by Maslow’s top level- Self actualization.
What are the drawbacks for opportunities for promotion? (1)
- Conflict may occur if one employee is promoted and another is not.
