Importance of Employee Motivation in Logistics Industry
Employees are the most vital asset in the organization who drive the organization towards the success (Mohsen et al., 2004). Therefore, organization should ensure the job satisfaction and motivation level of workforce. Organization with committed and motivated workforce who work to their full potential, has the competitive advantage in the market (Mohsen et al., 2004). As per Mohsen et al. (2004) in service industry, organizations are competing in the market through quality of service offering to the customers. Employees who motivated will make the difference and ensure the customer satisfaction by delivering best quality service.
Certo (2000) defines motivation as, “the inner
state that causes an individual to behave in a way that ensures the
accomplishment of some goal”. Motivation refers to forces within or external
which creates enthusiasm in a person to pursue towards a course of action
(Daft, 2003). Level of motivation can be identified through the level of
energy, commitment and creativity that an individual put into their work
(Shahzadi et al., 2014).
In dynamic business environment organizational
strategies are developed to increase the customer preference in return achieve
the overall objectives. While the human resource policies and practices of an
organization are aligned to improve employee motivation and commitment that
enhance the productivity of organization (Varma, 2017). If employees are
satisfied, performance level will increase in return customers will be
satisfied by receiving the desired output (Ahmad, 2012). Organizations used to
have a Reward management system to attract, motivate and retain high potential
employees (Shahzadi et al., 2014). Reward management system consist of both financial
and non-financial rewards like recognition, appreciation, involvement to
decision making, working environment.
Below figure 01 illustrate the different types
of extrinsic and intrinsic motivational factors. Do something because it is
inherently interesting referred as intrinsic motivation and do something with
the expectation of any benefit referred as extrinsic motivation. Individuals
who have intrinsic motivational factors are self-motivated and enjoy the challenge
of completing task effectively (Mohsen et al., 2004). Intrinsic factors include
responsibility, freedom to act, scope to use and develop skills and abilities,
interesting and challenging work and opportunities for advancement (Al-Madi et
al., 2017). Intrinsic motivation related to psychological’ rewards (George and
Sabapathy, 2011). Extrinsic motivation referred to external factors that
employees are motivated from tangible rewards like pay, promotion, praise or
ovoid any negative consequences (Mohsen et al., 2004).
Figure 01 Intrinsic Motivation and Extrinsic Motivation
I am working in a leading Logistics company Sri
Lanka which provide the total logistics services to customers. Large number of
companies are existed in the market who provide the same service and the
performance of companies are depend on the quality of service provided. Company
needs to provide the best solutions to customers to reduce their overhead cost
in order to attract new business and retain existing business. To offer best
rates without compensating the quality, internal operations need to be
streamlined and efficient. Employees play a critical role to improve the
operational efficiencies. Company is focusing on learning and development of
employees that develop the intrinsic motivational factors. Performance
incentive scheme has introduced for sales staff that individuals who perform
over the target will pay % from the additional income that improve the sales
during last 2 quarters. Drivers are paying an incentive from the job revenue
for a month addition to their basic salary which increase the driver
availability for daily operations. Individual who achieved the highest sales for the month recognized as best sales person within an organization. Drivers who have maintained proper discipline and zero accidents recognized as best drivers for the year. Performance appraisals identify the individuals who perform above effective level and award a proper increments and promotions. All these monitory rewards and recognition programs put in place to improve the motivational factors of employees in return the company can offer best quality service to its customers.
List of References
Ahmad, M. B., Wasay, E., & Malik, S.
U. (2012). Impact of Employee Motivation on Customer Satisfaction: Study of
Airline Industry in Pakistan, Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary
Research in Business, 4(6), 531-539.
Al-Madi, F.N., Assal, H., Shrafat, F. and
Zeglat, D., 2017. The Impact of Employee Motivation on Organizational
Commitment. European Journal of Business and Management, 9(15).
Certo,
S.C. (2000), Modern Management, Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
Daft,
R.L. (2003), Management, South-Western, Cincinnati, OH.
George L., Sabapathy T. (2011), Work
Motivation of Teachers: Relationship with Organizational Commitment, Canadian
Social Science, 7, 1, 90-99.
Mohsen,
F., Nawaz, M. M., Khan, M., Shaukat, Z., & Aslam, N. (2004), Are Employee
Motivation, Commitment and Job Involvement Inter-related: Evidence from Banking
Sector of Pakistan. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2,
17, 226-233.
Ryan, R. M. and Deci, E. L. (2000).
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions,
Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25:54–67.
Shahzadi, I., Javed, A., Pirzada, S.S.,
Nasreen, S. and Khanam, F., 2014. Impact of employee motivation on employee
performance. European Journal of Business and Management, 6(23),
pp.159-166.
Varma, C., 2017. Importance of Employee Motivation & Job Satisfaction for Organizational Performance. International Journal of Social Science & Interdisciplinary Research, 6(2), pp.10-20.
Agree with you Chanaka. As said by Risambessy et al(2012) In present days organizations have realized the necessity of well motivated and satisfied employees as one of the main contributors towards achieving the long term objectives. Organizations have been pushed towards a situation that they need to think about employee necessities and similar response. Motivation is one of the main factor that could influence performance at individual and group level which could ultimately effect the organizational performance.
ReplyDeleteThank you Pernalla. As per Armstron (2006) motivation can be simply identified as goal intended behavior of an individual. If organization meets individual expectations they work to achieve individual as well as organizational goals.
DeleteI agree with you Chanaka, the motivated employees are the real asset of any organization. As you mentioned recognition is a crucial factor of motivation. In addition work-itself also should be taken into consideration. Recognition relays on notice, praise and criticism received from colleagues or management and it mainly means getting the recognition due to achievement in tasks. The Work itself describes the actual content of one’s job, basically meaning the tasks of the job. Responsibility means the sense of responsibility given to an employee for his/her own work or being given new responsibilities. Lastly, advancement refers to a change in one’s position at work and, therefore, involves the concept of promotion (Herzberg 1967; 1971).
ReplyDeleteWell explained Gagana. Ahmed et al. (2010) states that there is strong relationship between job satisfaction and intrinsic motivational factors including recognition.
DeleteAgree with you Chanaka, Every organization is concerned with what should be done to achieve high levels of performance through its workforce and giving attention to how employees can best be motivated through means such as incentives, rewards, leadership and the organizational context within which they carry out the work (Armstrong, 2006).
ReplyDeleteAs you explained employees are not just motivated from monetary benefits but some other factors like recognition, better working environment and carrier development also influence (Latham and Ernest, 2006).
DeleteAgreed with you Chanaka, The challenge for managers today is to keep the staff motivated and performing well in the workplace. The manager has to know the behavior of each employee and what might motivate each one individually. By understanding employees' needs, managers can understand what rewards to use to motivate them. The goal of most companies is to benefit from positive employee behavior in the workplace by promoting a win–win situation for both the company and workers (Osabiya & Joseph, 2015).
ReplyDeleteThanks for the valuable feedback Sachith. Exactly the managers need to play a critical role to identify what are the positive and negative behaviors of their employees and they need to take action to motivate positive behaviors and eliminate negative behaviors (Talukder and Saif, 2014).
DeleteAgreed, Chanaka, Suggested motivation should be properly planned or else staff part of staff itself can be demotivated, The satisfaction levels of employees can directly connect with the satisfaction levels of customers and also employee’s productivity level relates to the motivation level of the employee, both of which affect the outcome of the retail business organization (Singh & Prakash, 2013).
ReplyDeleteYes Eranda quality of the services and goods will enhance the customer satisfaction. Organization should ensure the satisfaction of employees through motivational factors since employees are the key to deliver the best outcome (Williams, 2004).
DeleteAs you mentioned it is very important to motivate employees where organization able to earn long term benefits by having motivated employee. Organization may motivated employee financially and non financially. According to (Yousaf et al., 2014) Financial recognition ways are by balanced paying balanced pay, good bonus, Paid vacation and providing health benefits and insurance.
ReplyDeleteAgree with you Uddika. Adding to that there are three main components of motivation, direction, effort and persistence (Arnold et al.,1991).
DeleteAgree with the fact that motivation is important for organizations if they want to achieve sustainable competitive advantage because it can be achieved through sustained employee development where the employees will work harder when they are motivated as they have high job satisfaction and commitment to the organization (Lee and Bruvold, 2003).
ReplyDeleteExactly Arjun employees are happiest and satisfied if they receive good inputs from organization for the output they are provided and they perform well in return (Ahmed et al., 2010).
DeleteI do agree chanaka. One of the greatest challenges organizations face today is how to manage turnover of work force that may be caused by migration of a lot of industrial workers. This may be because of their lack of Motivation and commitment for the organization; this point of view emphasizes the importance of the study of Motivation and its relationship to Job Satisfaction (Prof. S. K. Singh & Vivek Tiwari, 2011).
ReplyDeleteYes Indeevari if the employees are motivated they will perform well and no tendency to leave from the organization (Imran et al., 2017).
Deletein deed Chanaka, Also the managers and the supervisors support towards encouraging employee participation, mutual commitment, and understanding of the diversity issues play a significant role in motivating and enabling performance(Snyder et al, 2004).
ReplyDeleteThank you for the valuable comments. Managers can use process/cognitive theory to get clear guidance on how to motivate their subordinates than need theory (Guest, 1992).
DeleteI agree with you Chanaka. Further to your point, logistics companies are adopting gamification which is a recent trend, to motivate employees. Gamification is being used in education, training and traffic control. Gamification design seeks to understand align an organization's objectives with a employers intrinsic motivation (Hence et al., 2013).
ReplyDeleteAgreed with you Chanaka, In Addition to the statement you have mentioned by Varma (2017) I would further draw your attention to another statement made by the same Author. According to Varma (2017) employee motivation is an important stimulation that directs human behavior. No individual has same attitude or behavior, hence in midst of this diversity organization are supposed to frame practices which will be able to satisfy the group and not just an individual.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Chanaka, motivation is a way of creating high level of enthusiasm to reach organizational goals, and this situation is accommodated by satisfying some individual need. Basically, motivation refers to achieving organizational main goals by satisfying individual employee’s needs or demands (Haque & Islam, 2014).
ReplyDelete