Employee Motivation in the Context of Engineering (R&D)

In every organization motivation is a key aspect which needs to drive employees to achieve organizational goals and employee personal goals. Many scholars have developed different types of motivational theories and these theories explain the influence to the employee job satisfaction outcomes. In order for an organization to be productive motivation plays an important role (Badubi, 2017). As per the different motivational theories discussed it can be identified that there are many methods and techniques to be used to motivate employees. There are many motivational methods including financial rewards as well as non-financial methods and these can be used get the best out of the employees. Organizations are responsible in aligning such motivational theories within the organization to satisfy and motivate their employees. However, managers can use multiple motivational theories and there is no single theory which is more suitable. Further they can use mix of motivational theories as well

  Employees can be motivated through different factors such as money, rewards, and recognition. Motivation is an important concept for employees to generate a good feeling about their job and perform effectively. Motivated employees directly impact on the productivity level of the employees and organization. When employees are motivated, they tend to perform their responsibilities properly and it will lead to increasement of production numbers within organization. If employees are not motivated, they will not provide that much effort to the organization and they tend leave the company or will work in a low-quality way. Hence motivation is an important factor for employees to work in a consistent, creative, and productive way and also to generate quality performance within organization (Ganta, 2014). According to Ganta (2014), Followings are the some of the benefits of motivation. 01.   Employees can achieve their personal goals – when employees are motivated, they can achieve their

  As an employer it is a must to know about how to retain employees within the organization. There are many strategies to achieve this purpose. However motivational strategies can be used to boost employees daily (Anderfuhren et al., 2010). Motivation is an important factor for individual’s success. Hence organizations must constantly focus on motivating to get the best out of them. It is important to appreciate employee whenever they perform well and then employees will feel that they are a part of the organization. This is important to create loyal employees who deliver their best within organization and it will help in retaining employees within the organization as well (Nagabhaskar, 2014).   Based on the motivational theories it can identify different strategies to use to maintain higher retention within the organization. Following are some of the suggested methods based on motivational theories. 01.   Financial rewards – one of the methods which organization can use to motivate

Money is a major factor which has a power to influence in accomplishing a task (Akintoye, 2000) . According to Lunenburg,  (2011) , if an individual believe that their maximum effort will generate good performance and in return it provides good rewards, they will be motivated. The Vroom’s expectance theory has been developed in 1964 and it includes four assumptions. First assumption is that people join with an organization by having different expectations related to their needs. The second is that their behaviour occurs with their conscious choice based on their expectations. The next one is that people are expecting different things such as salary, advancements, job security from the organization. The final assumption of this theory is that in order to achieve their outcomes people will select from alternatives (Guntoro & Fongmul, 2016) . Person’s motivation is linked with the effort and performance. Many individual factors such as knowledge, skills, experience, personality, an

The two-factor theory has been introduced by Herzberg by examine the peoples’ different responses to the question of the situations where they feel good and bad about their jobs  (Dartey-Baah & Amoako, 2011) .  Based on that it was identified that there are certain factors which are related with job satisfaction and there are some other factors which are related with job dissatisfaction  (George & Jones, 2005) . Hence there are two factors called motivator factors and hygiene factors. The two factors theory has explained that employee motivation can be achieved with the challenging but enjoyable work environment which employees are facing with growth, achievement  (Dartey-Baah & Amoako, 2011) . 01.   Hygiene Factors – According to Gibson, et al.,  (2000) , these factors include safety, physiological and social needs according to the hierarchy of needs theory and these factors are related with the job conditions and not the job itself. When these factors are not availabl

The hierarchy of needs is about human needs which has been developed by Abraham Maslow. According to Onah,  (2015) , this theory explains that human is motivated through the achievement of five different levels of needs called physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, self-esteem needs and self-actualization needs. Source: Hierarchy of needs (Onah, 2015) 01.   Physiological needs – these are basic human needs which are essential for the survival of the humans in society  (Aruma & Hanachor, 2017) . According to Anyanwu, et al.,  (1985) , this includes the basic needs such as clothes, foods, water, and shelter. When we apply this to the research engineers as an employee the basic human needs will be the salary, accommodation, foods that they are receiving from the company to ensure their survival. 02.   Safety needs – the protection and the survival from different dangers, social disturbances and chaotic situations which are happening in human environment is known as s

Many scholars have introduced different theories of motivation and most of these theories are related with employee job satisfaction outcomes. When it comes to motivational theories it includes three categories called process theories, content theories and contemporary theories (Saif, et al., 2012) . Some of the mostly discussed theories are Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, Alderfer’s ERG (existence, relatedness, and growth) theory, Herzberg’s two factor theory and McClelland’s needs theory which are coming under content theories. Apart from that Vroom’s expectancy theory is coming under process theories category and this category focuses on how motivation occurs and how it creates employee satisfaction. Equity theory, agency theory, reinforcement theory, goal setting theory and job design theory belong to the contemporary theories of motivation. All these mentioned theories are linked with each other even though they are categorized into different categories based on their purposes

Development of new products and technology and introduction of innovation are done by research engineers, and they help in developing existing systems, techniques, process and create and introduce new innovations. They mainly require theory and analytical skills and the tasks that they perform are highly diverse. These engineers are performing a vast range of activities including collection of data and evaluation, calculations of statistics wherever required, experiments, analysis of systems and data, conduction of feasibility studies etc. Further they have to publish their findings to the relevant audience. In such situations motivation is a highly important factor for engineering employees to continuously focus on their tasks. According to Jain, et al.,  (2019) , motivation is an important factor which influences individuals to execute their performance in a better way and to achieve organizational objectives through that. Motivation can be defined as a state of mind where the indivi