Employee motivation may be regarded as a group of external and internal forces that kick off work-related behavior, and establish its direction, form, duration and intensity. This concept specifically relates to the work context, and includes the influence of both the employee’s inherent qualities and environmental forces on his/her work behavior. Employee motivation can be considered to be a personal, hypothetical and invisible construct that manifests itself in the form of noticeable, and therefore quantifiable, behaviors.
Company culture is one of the crucial factors that can play a decisive role in employee motivation. A compatible company culture that encourages satisfaction of the employees is likely to improve employees’ performance on the job, and service to customers, apart from improving their willingness and commitment to contribute to the company’s success.
For any business to succeed, ensuring satisfaction of the employees is crucial. The culture of an organization may have several cultural domains or dimensions, such as an HR domain, a performance domain, a relationships domain etc. A performance domain will relate to the quality and amount of work done by employees, as well as how well the work environment encourages creativity that accompanies the execution of jobs or assigned tasks. An HR cultural domain will be reflected by the organization’s views and policies regarding the value and treatment of employees, and the extent of sincere concern it displays with respect to various matters concerning the employees. Formulating organizational procedures and structures etc will be part of the decision-making culture, while relationships culture will be displayed in the strength and nature of the vertical and lateral relations between the organization’s members, as well as by its communication efficiency and the level of interpersonal cooperation that its employees experience.
Each of these cultural domains influences employee motivation, irrespective of whether a specific one is working alone or in conjunction with the others. For example, employee satisfaction may get adversely affected by a role overload, where role expectations from an employee exceeds the amount of resources and time that are available for him/her to accomplish the expected task. No wonder that satisfaction levels take a beating in such employees who are forced to carry unrealistic workloads. Another instance could be about how employee satisfaction is influenced by the quality of work. Several studies have shown that employees are happier when they are given a safe and secure work environment, or where they are associated with work of a high standard. Several employees, especially those who are motivated by opportunity for innovative and creative tasks, flourish in work environments where their organization supports and encourages such activities.
A company’s HR cultural domain too affects employee motivation positively, where it displays a supportive attitude towards employees, and encourages a trusting, people-oriented environment. No wonder that several studies have indicated how an environment characterized by support and warmth is highly conducive to higher levels of job satisfaction.
If you too want to encourage employee motivation, take a stock of your company culture and make them attuned to your business objectives and employee motivational factors.
