How can leaders motivate staff in order to improve efficiency and job satisfaction Essay

In this essay I shall define – motivate, job satisfaction, productivity and leaders. I shall then give a brief history of motivational theories and then discuss McClelland’s Motivational Needs Theory; to explain some methods of how staff can be motivated by analysing the 3 main factors in his theory and explain how these factors can motivate staff and to see if motivation does lead to improved productivity, I shall then analyse this theory and thoughts of other theorists to see if motivation also leads to job satisfaction and conclude the results of my research. Motivate – The Oxford University Press (2014) states motivate is to â€Å"provide (someone) with a reason for doing something: he was primarily motivated by the desire for profit† 2014, 2014, February 26th, Oxford University Press, http://www. oxforddictionaries. com/definition/english/motivate? q=motivate What is Job Satisfaction? Job Satisfaction is when a person/employee is happy or content in their job. What is Productivity? Productivity is a term used to describe a state, quality or fact of being able to generate, create or improve goods and services. For example at the Chocolate Factory the Work Productivity was increased and 10% more chocolate bars were produced than last year. Or the Council’s Productivity increased after a restructure and they managed to provide more services to customers. What is a Leader? A Leader is someone who leads other people; this could be a manager, director, team leader, politician or anyone who leads people, usually staff or one or more people. Motivational Theories There have been many management theorists throughout the years from 1908 (Henry Ford) to 1990 (Dr Stephen Covey) and other theorists/theories onwards from 1990. David McClelland’s Motivational Needs Theory in 1961 identified that there were 3 types of needs for motivation: †¢The Need for Achievement (Goals, Deadlines etc. ) McClelland believed that the Need for Achievement would motivate staff; for example leaders setting goals, targets or deadlines for staff to achieve can motivate their staff to meet these deadlines (or goals) therefore enabling leaders to increase productivity and performance of staff by setting, planning and/or varying these deadlines, goals or targets. Without any goals or deadlines there is no need for the staff to achieve a certain amount of productivity such as producing/finishing a specific amount of work. Therefore I agree with McClelland that there is a motivational need for achievement to motivate staff and this can lead to improved productivity and performance. Many large companies such as Halfolds and MacDonald’s believe that Achievement motivates staff and they have reward systems in place to motivate their staff. By achieving a good performance or a certain level of productivity they can earn rewards, if a worker meets the requirements they may get praise or a reward from their leader there also may be an incentive for the staff member to achieve their/these targets of which motivates them to work harder therefore increasing productivity by McClelland’s motivational need for Achievement. But also when a staff member meets their work goals, targets or deadlines this may improve job satisfaction as they would know they have done well and their standard of work is sufficient to meet their goals even if there is no incentive, but an incentive for the staff to meet goals can help motivate staff further to meet their goals. †¢The Need for Power (Authority) Staff having authority or power McClelland believed would motivate staff, I believe this is because it gives the staff member a sense of importance by having authority and by would undertaking extra responsibilities that people with authority would usually undertake such as managing staff, it also enables them to motivate staff who they have authority over and therefore they can improve performance and productivity by successfully managing their staff as well as improving their job satisfaction, possibly by making changes. The Need for Affiliation (Good/Friendly Working Relationships/Being a part of a team, group, organisation etc. ) Affiliation/s in McClelland’s theory refers to staff being closely affiliated (or associated) which can refer to family, social, business or working relationships. This Affiliation is a state of being associated or affiliated, for example a staff member may be affiliated with a team or organisation and staff being in a team (therefore having affiliation with a team) McClelland believed staff may be more motivated by affiliation as they are associated with other staff who may most likely be working towards a similar outcome to themselves and as a part of a team they may wish to be or become a team player and motivate themselves and other team members. For instance I have affiliation with the University of West London Business Studies Course and as a student I am affiliated and effectively a part of a group of students, I am motivated to help other students as they wish to achieve the same outcome as me (a degree) and as I have affiliation with this group I am therefore self-motivated to achieve the same standard of work as my group or excel them and therefore I agree that there is a need for Affiliation and I believe this motivates me and my performance and productivity is improved as a direct result of Affiliation. McClelland believed that the majority of people have or show a combination of these 3 types of needs and some favour specific needs or a combination of these needs. Matching the correct needs to the person can strongly improve their work productivity, performance and behaviour but can increasing motivation therefore lead to an improvement in job satisfaction? McClelland does specify in his theory that motivation can improve performance and work productivity, but he does not specify that it can lead to improved job satisfaction but from analysing his theory above you can see that 2 Motivational needs factors in his theory (the need for authority and the need for achievement) can lead to improved job satisfaction, this is backed up by the fact that McClelland’s motivational theory shows that motivation can lead to improved performance of staff and there is a direct link between improved performance and improved job satisfaction. The 3rd factor â€Å"The Need for Affiliation† through personal experience at university and working as a part of team at various work places, I believe can also improve performance and job satisfaction). Naylor, Pritchard, & Ilgen; 1980; Vroom, 1964 state that; â€Å"expectancy-based theories of motivation generally stipulate that satisfaction follows from the rewards produced by performance. † Lawler and Porter (1967) who were â€Å"expectancy theorists themselves argued that performance would lead to job satisfaction through the provision of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. As these authors noted, briefly stated, good performance may lead to rewards, which in turn lead to satisfaction. † The Job Satisfaction-Job Performance Relationship: A Qualitative and Quantitative Review 2001, 376-379, American Psychological Association, Inc, 3 I can conclude that leaders can motivate there staff using motivational theories such as McClelland’s Motivational Needs Theory in order to improve productivity and job satisfaction. I have also came up with my own theory based on McClelland’s Motivational Needs theory and the work of Naylor, Pritchard, & Ilgen; 1980; Vroom, 1964, Lawler and Porter (1967). Josh Albright’s (2014) Motivational Flow Theory I agree with McClelland’s theory; which I have discovered to some extent also agrees with other theorists (such as Naylor, Pritchard, Ilgen, Vroom, Lawler and Porter) that motivation leads to improved performance (productivity) and job satisfaction, In order to increase job satisfaction and productivity you must increase motivation. The diagram I drew below shows that the more motivation is increased or â€Å"poured into staff† the more job satisfaction and productivity will thereby be increased.