英文期刊论文工作场所激励与满意度关系

所属分类：英文论文阅读次时间：2017-03-14 17:14

本文摘要：工作场所如何达到激励员工并使员工满意的程度?本篇英文期刊论文将讨论结构的满意度和动机，探讨它们之间的关系，并提供了一个论据，在区分它们在工作的情况下的用处。《现代管理论坛》是一本为企业管理及相关理论服务的社会学期刊。该刊不仅涵盖了管理理

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　　工作场所如何达到激励员工并使员工满意的程度?本篇英文期刊论文将讨论结构的满意度和动机，探讨它们之间的关系，并提供了一个论据，在区分它们在工作的情况下的用处。《现代管理论坛》是一本为企业管理及相关理论服务的社会学期刊。该刊不仅涵盖了管理理念，还涉及对不同业务与企业管理发展趋势的解读、讨论与评价。《现代管理论坛》致力于为企业与员工提供高质量的独特交流平台，并通过将期刊传递的有价值信息应用于现实工作环境、通过将管理理念与实际经验的有机结合来惠及企业及员工。

　　过时的组织和工业心理学的模式接近组织设计的前提下，所有的工人都应该得到相同的待遇。这种方法忽略了每个人的独特性，并采用了“标准化设计”。本设计是特别受欢迎的因为它补充了大规模生产的组织经常在一个标准化的处理自己的员工，大批量生产方式的设计与一般的人”。然而这种方法，有它的缺陷，人是独特的，因此需要一种个性和自主性的工作环境。缺乏这被认为导致了很大程度的工作不满和低动机，最终影响他们的工作效率。然后提出的问题是：一个组织如何可能满足个人的需求，并匹配每个员工的独特特点，他们的工作?尽管在实现这方面的复杂性，理论家提出了一些模型，旨在提高满意度和动机。这两个结构被视为生产力的核心。

　　Table of Content

　　Introduction

　　The Relationship between Motivation and Satisfaction in the workplace

　　Motivation

　　Satisfaction

　　The Relationship

　　Conclusion

　　Bibliography

　　1. Introduction 简介

　　Outdated models of organisational and industrial psychology approached organisational design from the premise that all workers should be treated the same. This approach ignored the uniqueness of each individual, and adopted a 'standardised design'. This design was particularly popular as it complemented the mass-productive organisations who 'frequently handle their employees in a standardized, mass-production way designed to deal with the average person' (Lawler & Oldham, 1974: 21). This approach, however, had it's pitfall in that people are unique and as such require a sense of individuality and autonomy in their work environment. A lack of this was seen to result in a great degree of job dissatisfaction and low motivation, which ultimately impacted on their work productivity. The question was then raised: how can one organisation possibly meet the individual needs and match the unique characteristics of each employee to their job? Despite the complexity involved in achieving this, theorists have put forth a number of models aimed at increasing satisfaction and motivation. These two constructs are viewed as being central to productivity.

　　This essay will discuss the constructs satisfaction and motivation, explore the relationship between them and provide an argument for the usefulness in distinguishing between them in a work situation.

　　2. The Relationship between Motivation and Satisfaction in the Workplace 工作场所激励与满意度的关系

　　This section will begin by looking at the individual constructs of motivation and satisfaction, providing a definition for each and considering related theories. This will be followed by a discussion of the relationship between them.

　　2.1 Motivation

　　Work motivation has been shown by the research to have a significant impact on work efficacy and productivity. As such, organisations have become increasingly interested in what it is that moves a person towards a goal. Factors that have been found to affect employee motivation include (BMGT, 1998):

　　Job Characteristics – this includes the aspects of the job and the limitations and challenges of the job position.

　　Personal Characteristics – these are the individual needs, attitudes, interests and values of the employee.

　　Organisational Practice – these are the policies and practices of the organisation.

　　A number of theories of work motivation have emerged over the years, with two approaches being at the forefront, namely the content and process approaches (BMGT, 1998). The content approach highlights the notion that people are motivated towards having their needs fulfilled. This approach therefore explores the role of intrinsic motivation. Theories such as Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, McClelland's Learned Needs, and Herzberg's

　　Two-Factor Theory draw attention to the pursuit of each individual towards needs gratification and striving toward self-actualisation, growth, affiliation and recognition. According to Kuvaas (2006: 508) intrinsic motivation, 'is the motivation to perform an activity for itself, in order to experience the pleasure and satisfaction inherent in the activity'. Furthermore, the Theory of Activity (Kuvaas, 2006) and the Job Characteristics Theory (Houkes, Janssen, de Jonge, & Bakker, 2003), both highlight the positive correlation between work motivation and individual performance and work efficacy. Kuvaas (2006) further reports on the negative correlation between intrinsic motivation and turnover intensions. This researcher examples this finding saying that employees who find themselves engaged in a meaningful, challenging and interesting job receive enjoyment and are, as a result, less likely to seek employment elsewhere, or be enticed by the offers of extrinsic reward from other organisations.

　　Kuvaas (2006) identifies a number of ways that intrinsic motivation can be enhanced. Firstly, by communicating the vision and goals of the organisation to the employees, they gain a positive sense of the behaviour associated with the work, through the experience of the work being meaningful. This highlights the significance of meaning and a belief in the work being done in determining motivation and work efficacy. The Self-Determination theory, as outlined by Kuvaas (2006) shows that intrinsic motivation is further enhanced by receiving feedback on work done, as this increases the employees sense of responsibility. Feedback on performance may give the employee an appreciation of their competence, highlighting the importance of a job being challenging and interesting. Also, feedback on the outcome of their work motivates the employee toward an appreciated goal.

　　The process approach, unlike the content approach, focuses on external rather than international processes (BMGT, 1998). The Equity Theory for example describes how an individual is motivated based on how fair or unfair he perceives his or her environment to be. Should the employee feel that he or she is underpaid for the job being performed (in comparison to a colleague) that person would then attempt to achieve a balance by either securing a pay rise, or by reducing the amount of work done. Extrinsic motivation can be enhanced by employers by use of rewards such as payment, promotion or praise.

　　2.2 Satisfaction

　　Job satisfaction describes how happy a person is with his or her job. Lent and Brown (2006: 236) provide the following definition of job satisfaction as being 'a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's job or job experiences'. While Luthans (1998) outlines a three dimensional approach to understanding job satisfaction:

　　Job satisfaction is affective in that it involves an emotional response.

　　Job satisfaction is rooted in having desired needs and expectations met. Whether or not an employees needs are being met has a direct impact on an employee's attitude to their job.

　　Job satisfaction is the result of a collection of related job domains including pay, promotion, and work colleagues.

　　As with motivation, job satisfaction has received a great deal of attention in recent years, with a number of emerging models (some of which overlap with motivation) including Affect Theory, Dispositional Theory, Two-Factor Theory and the Job Characteristic Model. The Affect Theory of job satisfaction is one that has received the most attention and explains how job satisfaction is a result of the degree of discrepancy between what one wants from his or her job, and what he or she has in a job (Lent & Brown, 2006). The Two-Factor Theory explains satisfaction as being driven by motivation and hygiene. According to this theory, motivating factors cause people to want to do their job, and give them satisfaction. Motivating factors, according to the Two-Factor Theory, are found in aspects of the environment including pay rates, working conditions and organisational policies. As describe earlier, the Job Characteristic Model identifies the role of work being meaningful, job responsibility and feedback as key factors in job satisfaction. This model identifies five job domains that need to be considered, namely: skill variety, task significance, feedback, autonomy, and task identity (Lawler & Oldham, 1974). Finally, the Dispositional Theory describes job satisfaction as being rooted in individual tendencies, outside of the job, such as self-esteem, self-efficacy and locus of control.

　　Despite the correlation not being as linear as that between motivation and performance, job satisfaction has been positively associated with job performance. Shipton, West, Parkes, Dawson and Patterson (2007) describe how overall job satisfaction is correlated to work performance and role prescribed behaviour. Furthermore, according to Shipton et al. (2007), where positive affect is found to increase productivity, negative affect in the work place results in tension and poor performance. Also, low job satisfaction has been found to be related to greater turnover and high rates of absenteeism.

　　Early findings by Lawler and Oldham (1974) suggest that although job satisfaction has an impact on performance, this is not a linear one. Job satisfaction is seen to have a greater impact on the overall effectiveness of the organisation. These researchers explain this as resulting from a greater commitment to the organisation. Employees who are happy with their job and with the organisation are less likely to take days off sick, be late or seek other employment. According to these researchers, absenteeism, lateness and employee turnover results in a great expense to the organisation, furthermore, the loss of an employee and cost of replacement has been indicated in the research literature to be equivalent in cost as ten times the monthly salary of the lost employee (Lawler & Oldham, 1974).

　　2.3. The Relationship

　　A review of the literature on motivation and satisfaction highlight a number or similarities and differences between these two constructs. Both motivation and satisfaction have been shown in the literature to have a significant impact on employees' levels of happiness in their job and on their productivity (Kuvaas, 2006; Houkes et al., 2003; Lent & Brown, 2006). Both motivation and satisfaction have also been shown to have an impact on the degree of absenteeism, lateness and turnover within an organisation (Lawler & Oldham, 1974; Shipton et al., 2007). Despite these similarities, the literature clearly indicates that motivation and satisfaction are distinct constructs. The researcher is able to make the following summary of the literature: Motivation is something that is quite intrinsic, which can be enhanced by both extrinsic and intrinsic factors but has a greater degree of longevity when enhanced intrinsically. Motivation on its own has been shown to increase productivity, with less dependence on work satisfaction. The relationship between motivation and productivity is a linear one, and enhanced motivation has shown to improve individual productivity. Satisfaction, however, is a construct strongly determined by the environment, although the Dispositional Theory brings into question such personal characteristics of self-esteem and self-efficacy. Satisfaction has a less linear relationship with performance, but has been positively correlated with the overall organisation productivity. This productivity has been mainly attributed to the commitment of the individual to the organisation, seeing less days off sick and lower employee turnover. Satisfaction alone does not result in increased individual productivity, as seen with motivation. In the literature, motivation has been shown to improve on levels of satisfaction, yet satisfaction has a far less significant impact on motivation.

　　It is clear then from the literature that although highly correlated constructs, motivation and satisfaction are distinctly unique and yield complementary, yet differing results.

　　Conclusion 结论

　　A review of the literature has shown both the individual impact of motivation and satisfaction on performance in the work place, levels of absenteeism, lateness and turnover. It has further demonstrated the relationship between these constructs, with motivation being associated with a larger degree of individual productivity, and satisfaction yielding overall organisational productivity. Furthermore, motivation has been indicated as being better enhanced by means of intrinsic factors, whereas satisfaction has been shown to be largely enhanced through external factors. Making these distinctions between motivation and satisfaction has important implications to organisations. Work designs that target only one of these constructs or that assumes that they are the same and yield the same results will fall short of achieving maximum productivity. By understanding the differences between these constructs and the relationship between them, organisations can work towards creating an environment that enhances productivity and secures employee commitment.