Conclusion – Importance of Employee Motivation in Consumer Durable Industry

 

The real assets of the organizations are employees (Mohsen et al., 2004) and therefore, the ways of managing employee’s motivation is very important part of the management process (Tella et al., 2007). For this, the manager should be ready to motivate employees adequately (Geomani, 2012). Organizations need to use maximum potential of their human resource, to stay in the competition, and to survive, great organizations are built on the inherent value of their human resources, motivation, and commitment of its employees (Mohsen et al., 2004).

In the consumer durable industry, sales supervisors’ who are highly motivated and committed to the organization, provide excellent quality of customer service to the customer (Mohsen et al., 2004). Motivation is, basically a psychological process, including perception, personality, attitudes, and learning (Tella et al., 2007). Motivation is very significant in the achievement of every organization’s growth and it will stimulate an individual to take an action, which will result in attainment of some goals, or satisfaction of certain psychological aspects (Geomani, 2012).

As per Johnson (2005), Motivational theories explain and discusses the work motivation and mainly divided into four categories, Maslow’s’ (1943) and McClellands’ (1961), Employee motivation need theories. Employee motivation equity theory that explain the theories of Adams (1963). Vrooms’ (1964), Employee motivation expectancy theory and the two-factor theory developed by Herzberg (1959).

There are two types of motivation, intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation (Gagne, 2005). Thomas & Velthouse, (1990), defines intrinsic motivation as “a positively valued experiences that an individual employee gets directly from their work tasks” and Extrinsic motivation is related to ‘tangible’ rewards. (George and Sabapathy, 2011).

Retaining the talented, skilled, and resourceful sales employees is a major concern in today’s consumer durable industry (Bande et al., 2014). Employees are critical to the consumer durable industry because they are in constant contact with the customers of the business and they can significantly affect the success of the business (Singh & Prakash, 2013). 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). Constant monitoring of employee motivational needs would enhance the commitment from the employee to exceptional work and help with the organization to retain employees (Conrad, Ghosh, and Isaacson, 2015). Employees’ level of productivity and their level of motivation are inter-connected (Singh & Prakash, 2013). Excellent customer service is an essential component to the successfulness of the consumer durable industry (Scheers & Botha, 2014) and the link between customer loyalty and winning their trust is achieved by the business organization’s employees (Ganesh, 2016).

 

References

Bandyopadhyay, R. (2014). Motivating employee from a different perspective: An experimental analysis on two selected manufacturing industries of west Bengal. Human Resource Management Review, 3, 245-258.

Conrad, D., Ghosh, A., & Isaacson, M. (2015). Employee motivation factors. International Journal of Public Leadership, 11, 92-106.

Gagne, M., & Deci, E. L. (2005), Self-determination Theory and Work Motivation, Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 26,331-362.

Ganesh, A. (2016). Understanding the relationship between employee motivation and customer retention. Vilakshan: The XIMB Journal of Management, 13(1), 101-114.

Geomani, (2012), Impact of Motivation on Employee Job Performance, p 46.

George L., Sabapathy T. (2011), Work Motivation of Teachers: Relationship with Organizational Commitment, Canadian Social Science, 7, 1, 90-99.

Johnson, C. R. (2005). Employee motivation: a comparison of tipped and non-tipped hourly restaurant employee, Doctoral dissertation, University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida.

Mohsan, 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.

Scheers, L. v., & Botha, J. (2014). Analyzing relationship between employee job satisfaction and motivation. Journal of Business & Retail Management Research, 9, 98-109.

Singh, G., & Prakash, A. (2013). A study on analysis factors related to employee’s retention among organized retail sector in two tier city. Amity Global Business Review, 8, 131-140.

Tella, A., Ayeni, C. O., & Popoola, S. O. (2007), Work Motivation, Job Satisfaction, and Organisational Commitment of Library Personnel in Academic and Research Libraries in Oyo State, Nigeria. Library Philosophy and Practice,9, 2, 13.

Thomas, K. B., & Velthouse, B. A. (1990), Cognition Elements of Empowerment: An "Interpretive" Model of Intrinsic Task Motivation, Academy of Management Review, 15, 666-681.

How to Improve Employee Motivation in Consumer Durable Industry

 

All organisations require productive employees to achieve production of goods of acceptable quality and to achieve its economic, societal and staff-related objectives (Arnolds & Boshoff, 2001). Organisations are under utmost pressure to improve performance and become increasingly competitive (Buitendach & De Witte, 2005). The success of retail organisations is rely on a motivated workforce (Huddleston & Good, 1999). Therefore, organisations have to be aware of what keeps employees and managers motivated as this would improve their job performance and increase their productivity (Analoui, 2000).

According to Stroh (2001), some employees do not produce the quality of work or maintain a reconcilable level of work outputs, which they are capable of.  This may be attributed to many factors, including the underutilisation of their skills, lack of a challenge, or unstimulating leadership styles. These could result in motivation levels decreasing, and hence overall job satisfaction levels decreasing.

It is often assumed that motivation and satisfaction are very similar if not identical terms (Hersey and Blanchard, 1988). According to Kreitner and Kinicki (2001), there’s a significant positive relationship between motivation and job satisfaction. They stipulate that managers can potentially increase employees’ motivation through various attempts to increase job satisfaction.  According to Sorge and Warner (1997), work satisfaction is the most prominent result of work motivation. They further specify that motivational concepts are often used to analyse and predict a wide range of individual articulation relevant to organisations such as attitudes, recognition, emotions and behaviour.

In consumer durable industry, it’s really important to get an idea about how to motivate employees to get the maximum out of them. Motivation can define as the factors (either internal or external to a person) that arouse enthusiasm and persistence to pursue a certain course of action (Daft, 1999). But in general, ways of motivating employees can state as follows,

•   Value employee’s work and contribution with structured feedback.

Employees have both a mind and a spirit and seek to find meaning and purpose in their work, and an expectation to be part of a community, hence making their jobs valuable and motivating them to do at a high level with prospective to personal and social development (Ashmos and Duchon, 2000). According to Oosthuizen (2001), the work itself refers to the doing of the work and the type of work. The job can be uninteresting or changing, creative or monotonous, easy or difficult. Jobs that are both motivating and satisfying are said to be those that provide skill variety, task identity, task significance, freedom and feedback (Pearson, 1991). Analoui’s (2000), stated that the ‘nature of the job’ is a major source of satisfaction for employees, particularly if the job is exciting and direct feedback is provided on their efforts. Similarly, continuing challenge provides continuing satisfaction and motivation (Pearson, 1991). Feedback, although an important aspect of job design, refers not to the job itself but to the environment in which work is carried out (Pearson,1991).  

As per Oosthuizen (2001), the types of work, individuals do influence their satisfaction and managers must make the work content as interesting as possible in order to build strong levels of motivation. Lam et al. (2000), found that the job itself is an powerful factor in forecast overall job satisfaction. They agree that a job itself should be seen as challenging and interesting. Therefore, variety and flexibility in employees work are important. Vuori and Okkonen (2012), stated that motivation helps to share knowledge through an intra-organizational social media policy which can help the organization to gain its goals and objectives.

• Reward employee’s for great work

Lam’s et al. (2001), research found that reward (including benefits) has a positive relationship with overall job satisfaction.  In fact, the variable ‘reward’ emerged as the most important factor in predicting overall job satisfaction. Arnolds and Boshoff (2001), found that employees are significantly motivated by monetary rewards and basically pay has symbolic importance, giving feedback to the employee of his or her worth to the organisation (Pearson,1991). In order to prevent dissatisfaction, management needs to continue to observe competitors’ salaries and keep their staff’s salaries in line with competitors. Furthermore, Lam et al. (2001), state that rewards (including salary) affected positively to job satisfaction as it played a dominant factor in motivating employees. Aguinis et al. (2013), stated that financial benefits can be a very powerful aspect of employee motivation and achievement which, in turn, can advance to important returns in terms of firm-level performance.

• Encourage career development

Promotion is the restructure of an employee to a higher-level job (Grobler et al., 2006). Promotion, otherwise known as advancement, is a motivator, and should therefore build strong levels of motivation and this factor contributes significantly to the dissatisfaction of employees (Oosthuizen, 2001). Satisfaction in the workplace, by providing promotion opportunities, has been shown to impact positively on employee job performance (Arnolds and Boshoff, 2001). Most educators indicated that promotion to a higher post level was one of their goals (Wever, 2000). Promotion may be an employee’s reward for good performance, that is, productive evaluation, which leads to employee motivation (Louis, 2009).

• Build a culture of recognition.

Recognition is the acknowledgement of an individual’s contribution showing appreciation and to reward the individual for an accomplishment of a task or in recognition for good performance (Oosthuizen, 2001). When rewarding individuals for good performance, the element of recognition must be present (Stroh, 2001). Recognition by supervisors and peers were desired by employees in order to perform well (Analoui, 2000). Employee recognition contain of personal attention, expressing interest, promotion, remuneration, approval and appreciation for a job well done (Robbins, 2003).  The workplace identification is considered as the most powerful tool for employee motivation (Robbins, 2003).  

Employees in consumer durable industry wants to be recognized. Employees want to know that their superiors appreciate their work in the industry. Most of the retail industries value, ‘people principles’ and ‘social responsibility’. People principles refer to the association between management, the workers and the handling of workers (Harikripahai, 2007). According to Harikripahai (2007), respect and recognition, values and leadership, remuneration, learning and developmental growth, and resources are the five basic dominant factors in retail industry.

For an example, Appreciating and recognition of employees for his/her excellent customer service is a responsibility of the organization or management and he deserve it for customer service excellence delivered through motivation who are willing to do more to satisfy clients, that result in positive world of mouth and repeat business.

{Source – Social Media on Carolyn Melissa Wijegoonerathne > The EFPS (Electronic Position Fixing System) Community}.

• Build a positive work place environment.

Organisational values, supervisory style and physical conditions are factors related to work environment (Pearson, 1991). According to Oosthuizen (2001), physical working conditions concern to the quantity of work and availability of resources, such as machines and tools, ventilation, lighting, workspace and air conditioning.  Furthermore, according to Singleton (1989), weather conditions play an influential role in divergence in work behaviour. Work environment emerged as an influential factor in predicting overall job satisfaction; focusing strategically on this factor would enhance managerial employee’s job satisfaction level and improve their retention rate (Lam’s et al.,2000).

 

It is very important to have a good understanding about how to motivate employees. Apart from the above-mentioned important aspects, Video - 3 will conclude the ways of how to motivate employees. According to the video, there are four (4) ways to motivate employees. First one is, Promote good stressors. It means that limiting hindrance stressors like job insecurity, job confusion and unknown responsibilities, which will reduce the motivation level of employees. Therefore, it is important to increasing the motivation level by having achievable and challenging work load, varied responsibilities, clear job description and fluid conversations. Secondly, Bridge the introvert - extrovert gap. It means creating a flexible work place by allowing employees to work in groups, work from home with suitable devices. Third aspect is Change how employee feel about feedback. It is very important to speak about successes and failures, create open line of communication between employees and managers. Finally, Employee mind wonder and that means improve the morale of employees. These aspects are really vital to improve employee motivation.

Video – 3: Four (4) ways to Motivate Employees

Source: (Bython Media, 2018)

 

Reference

Analoui, F.  (2000). What motivates senior managers? The case of Romania. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 15(4), 324-340.

Arnolds, C., & Boshoff, C.  (2001). The challenge of motivating top management: A need satisfaction perspective. Journal of Industrial Psychology, 27(1), 39-42.

Buitendach, J.H., & De Witte, H.  (2005).  Job security, extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction and affective organisational commitment of maintenance workers in a parastatal. South African Journal of Business Management, 36(2), 27-37.

Daft. R.L. (1999). Leadership: Theory and practice. London: Harcourt College.

Grobler P, Warnich S, Carrell MR, Elbert NF, Hatfield RD (2006). Human Resource Management in South Africa. 3rd ed. Thomson Learning, London.

Harikripahai Organization (2007). The Fast-Food Industry, McDonald`s Market Research.

Hersey, P., & Blanchard, K.  (1988). Management of organisational behaviour. London: Prentice Hall.

Huddleston, P., & Good, L.  (1999). Job motivators in Russian and Polish retail firms.  International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, 27(9), 383-393.

Kreitner, R., & Kinicki, A.  (2001). Organisational behaviour. USA: Richard D. Irwin Inc.

Lam, T., Baum, T., & Pine, R. (2001).  Study of managerial job satisfaction in Hong Kong's chinese restaurants. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 3(1), 35-42.

Oosthuizen, T.F.J.  (2001). Motivation influencing worker performance in a technical division of Telkom SA, Acta Commercii, 1, 19-30.

Pearson, R.  (1991). The human resource: Managing people and work in the 1990s. Berkshire: McGraw-Hill.

Robbins SP (2003). Organisational Behavior. 10th ed. Canada: Prentice Hall, Pearson Education International, USA.

Singleton, W.T.  (1989). The mind at work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sorge, A., & Warner, M. (1997).  The handbook of organisational behaviour. London: International Thomson Business Press.

Ströh, E.C.  (2001). Personnel motivation: Strategies to stimulate employees to increase performance. Politeia, 20(2), 59-74.

Application of Vroom’s Theory of Expectancy in Consumer Durable Industry

 

In expectancy theory, people are motivated to do something because they think their actions will take to their desired outcome (Redmond, 2014). Expectancy theory proposes that work motivation is possible upon the recognize association between performance and outcomes and individuals modify their behaviour based on their determination of anticipated outcomes (Chen & Fang, 2008). In other words, it can help to illustrate why a person performs at a particular level. This has a practical and positive development of improving motivation because it can, and has, helped leaders create motivational programs in the organization. This theory provides the idea that an individual's motivation comes from admitting that they will get what they desire in the form of a reward. This theory provides leaders with a basis on which to increase a better understanding of ways to motivate subordinates (AETC, 2008). Expectancy theory is categorized as a process theory of motivation because it highlights individual perceptions of the environment and successive relation arising as a result of personal expectations. The theory reveal that individuals have different sets of goals and can be motivated if they believe that (figure 07);

 Figure 07 – Expectancy Theory of Motivation

(Source – S. McShane; S. Steen, 2012)

Vroom's Expectancy Theory is based on three (03) major components:

Expectancy: The belief that higher or increased effort will yield better performance. Individuals also choose to behave in a specific manner based on his or her analysis of the perceived outcome associated with that behaviour and the expectation that such behaviour will result in desired reward (Terera, & Ngirande,2014). Expectancy can be influenced by several factors such as one person’s abilities, colleagues/superior support, competencies and abilities as a result of work experience, clarity of goals regarding performance and resources availability (Gaignard, 2003).

Instrumentality: The thought that if an individual performs well, then a valued outcome will come to that individual (Vroom, 1964). It is an individual’s estimate of the possibility that a given level of achieved task performance will lead to different outcomes (Lunenburg, 2011).

Valence: Valence means "value" and refers to beliefs about the worth the of outcome (Redmond, 2014). There are individual variations in the level of value related with any specific outcome. For instance, a bonus may not increase motivation for an employee who is motivated by traditional recognition or by increased position such as promotion. Valence can be thought of as the pressure or importance that a person puts on an expected outcome (Luneburg, 2011).

Vroom concludes that the force of motivation in an employee can be calculated using the following formula: 

Motivation = Valence*Expectancy*Instrumentality

When this theory combines with practice and as an example, the leading consumer durable company in Sri Lanka having 330 showrooms island wide. Each branch managers’ expectations differ from one another but the most desired expectation is to become the highest selling contribution showroom of the company. For this, branch manager has to have the right resources to get the job done like availability of products, has the right skills to do the task on hand, and they must have the reinforcement to get the job done. That support may come from the boss or by just being given the right information or tools to finish the job like advertising, BTL activities. Although people correlate high performance with high rewards and as a result of that highest selling branch manager entitle to a family trip to Europe with Rs. 250,000/- cash at the annual marketing convention.

According to Vroom's expectancy theory, the level of expectancy will decide the motivation level of an employee. As shown in video 2, an employee with high level of positive attitudes and who believe that higher or increased effort will yield better performance, will always accept the challenge. Employee will be dreaming the result and to gain that he/she will adjust the back ground work accordingly. This will create the atmosphere which was important to go for the target. Positive minded attitude and work according to the plan will create a dream come true. Employees with low expectancy will not motivate by targets or an objective because they were analysing and measure whether the reword was worth enough according to the required work. Employee with negative attitudes will not motivate by himself and also the other employees.

Video 2: Vroom's Expectancy Theory

(Source – Jiko, 2018)

References

Fang, C. Y. (2008).  The moderating effect of impression management on the organizational politics performance relationship. Journal of Business Ethics, 79(3).

Gaignard, L., ‘Légèreté d’être et estime de soi’, 2003, Travailler, vol. 2003/2, no. 10, pp. 77-92.

Lunenburg FC (2011). Expectancy theory of motivation: motivating by altering motivation. Internal Journal of Management, Business and Administration 5(1): 1-5.

McShane,Steen, S. (2012). Canadian Organizational Behaviour (8th edition) McGraw-Hill Ryerson.

Redmond, B.F. (2014). Lecture on expectancy theory (Lesson 4). Personal Collection of B.F. Redmond, Penn State University, University Park, PA.

Terera, S., & Ngirande, H. (2014). The impact of rewards on job satisfaction and employee retention. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5, 481-489.doi:10.5901/mjss. 2014. v5n1p481.

Vroom, V. (1964). Work and motivation. New York, NY: Wiley.

Application of Motivational Theories in Consumer Durable Industry

 

Human resource has become an organization’s main asset; its success is dependent on the employee performance. Motivation can be express as the strength that drives individual employees to achieve personal and organizational goals (Mitchell,1982). Motivation can strengthen the feelings of belongingness, security of the job, career development, improved remuneration, and higher intrinsic rewards (Azeem & Akhtar, 2014). Money results only in temporary compliance from workers and that money does not change workers' attitude and behaviour in the long term (Kochan, 2002). As illustrated in figure 04, money is not the one and only motivation factor of employees. Employees are consider emotional support and understanding more than financial benefits. To understand the other motivation factors which motivates employees, it’s important to study the Theories of Motivation.

Figure 04 - Employee Engagement Index

(Source - Galleup Management Journal, 2005)

Application of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory in consumer durable industry

This theory says that humans are motivated by needs which are in hierarchical order from basic to higher order needs; humans address these consecutively starting with physiological, security, affiliation, esteem and topmost self-actualization (Rollinson 2008). Maslow states that when needs are satisfied, individuals tend to have an inspirational motive in their life (Robbins et al 2014). Developing from the Maslow's hierarchy of needs, content theories of job satisfaction rotate around employees’ needs and the factors that bring them a reasonable degree of satisfaction (Saif et al., 2012). According to Maslow leaders need to know the level of a person on the hierarchical pyramid in order to motivate him/her. Then leaders need to focus on accomplishing that person’s needs at that level (Robbins 2001). Maslow came up with a five-stage theory that places the needs of the individual in different categories and giving priority for their attainment. These categories, in order of decreasing priority, are in figure 05.

Figure 05 - Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

(Source –Garasz,2010)

Above diagram illustrate the Maslow’s idea is convenient to understand employees need and how to fulfil it.

Physiological Needs: A physiological need is the lower level of need and most basic, such as food, job opportunity, fair compensation, reasonable working hours, water and food.  Organization must provide the basic needs to employee to fulfil their main requirement. If the organization fail to give good remuneration, result will be less performance and employee want be able to make much of contribution (Ozguner and Ozguner, 2014).

Safety Needs: This is the second degree of needs. Once the physiological need fulfilled employees consider their working environment free from intimidation and harms. If employee feels that they work in unsafe environment and result will be same as less efficiency. Therefor organization must maintain safe and friendly environment, further follows labour rule and requirement to motivate employees, them to feel free of harm to do their jobs (Kaur, 2013).

Social Needs: These needs consider an individual’s desire for love, affiliation, and acceptance in relationship with other people. In a work environment, social needs are concerned with relating to friendly associates, identification with a good company, and through participation in organized activities such as annual picnic, sports meet, outdoor training and minimal office politics.

Esteem Needs: This means the fourth level of needs. It comprise the need for self-respect and approval of others. Organizations introduce awards banquets to recognize distinguished achievements. Here it explains employee should value for their achievement (Abbah, 2014).

Self-Actualization Needs: This represent the last level at the top of the triangle. This refers to the need to become all that one is powerful of being to develop one’s fullest potential. Self-actualized employees represent valuable assets to the organization human resource and self-actualization employees deliver the best output through the motivation (Kaur, 2013).

According to Jerome (2013) if a man’s physiological needs are satisfied by only 25% then there will be no sign of emerging the safety needs. But if his physiological needs are satisfied to the level of 50% then the emergence of the safety needs could be observed. Hence an employee can be satisfied in different percentages in all levels of the hierarchy without even a single level is not 100% fulfilled. Further elaborating his theory Maslow explains lower levels should always have a higher percentage of satisfaction than the immediate higher level if he is to be satisfied for a longer period of time.

 

Being a manager in a leading Consumer Durable Company in Sri Lanka, we know that eating and drinking, excretion is a necessary and integral part of our employee’s daily life activities, though it is considered as a highly private activity. Bathing and dressing are also necessary to fulfil the basic needs and these are belonging to “physiological needs.” For an example having an hour as a lunch break, wearing company uniforms cleanly can consider as physiological needs.

Employment is the basic need of any individual to earn a livelihood and satisfy his basic needs. Also, a secured career is, in reality, the dream of everyone. For example, during this COVID 19 impact time, providing face shields and masks, gloves and sanitizers are very important for the safety of our employees. After getting a job, a good remuneration and a safe working environment are the two basic requirements of every employee. Throughout their career, employees strive to get into a safe and secure work environment and as managers it’s our duty to secure it. It belongs to “safety needs”.

Perfect family relationships and mutual attachment are what an individual hope for. Not having a good family relationship, support from loved ones, and good friends at showrooms can make the individual feel lonely, which will not help him to satisfy his needs of love and belongingness. To avoid problems such as loneliness, depression, and anxiety, it is important for us to have a healthy social life among our employees. Personal relationships with friends, family, and lovers play an important role, so as being associated with other groups like religious groups, sports teams in the company, book clubs and other clubs like Rotaract club which operates with a group of below 30 years of age of employees to do social work are some of the examples for this. It falls into the category of “social belonging”.

Having a good designation and recognition increases the respect of an employee at the workplace as well in his/her society.  A good job title leads to increase in his worth. People who are able to satisfy the esteem needs by achieving good self-esteem and the identification of others tend to feel confident in their abilities. A person who remain on this level will be motivated to work towards increasing all these factors; their actions will be affected by their need for esteem, that is they will be motivated towards performing such tasks that will rise their own self-esteem, as well as the respect they receive from others. An example for “self-esteem” can be evaluate as follows. When a branch manager or a sales supervisor is motivated and appreciated, he/she tends to increase his/her performance as compared to the less motivated branch manager or a sales supervisor. An excellent performance like highest sales contributor, highest profit contributor, best receivable management branch manager or the sales agent will increase the recognition in the company as well as the society, which will increase the confidence, respect, and esteem of the branch manager or a sales supervisor. This is belonging to “self-esteem”.

Life is not about being wealthy, having a luxurious home and family; it’s about knowing our self. An employee feels most satisfied when he/she understands that he/she realizes his/her full potential. It comes under “self-actualization” in which an employee understands his core strengths. For example, one employee might achieve this feeling of self-actualization by working as confidential secretory to a director, while another can achieve it by working as a service franchise agent in a town.

 

References

Abbah, M.T. (2014). Employee Motivation: The Key to Effective Organizational Management in Nigeria. Journal of Business and Management. Volume 16, Issue 4.

Gargasz (2010); http://www.gargasz.info/maslow_hierarchy/, (Accessed Date: 11.1.2020).

Jerome, N., 2013. Application of the Maslow’s hierarchy of need theory. International Journal of Business and Management Invention, 2(3), pp. 39-45.

Kaur,A. (2013). Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory: Applications and Criticisms. Global Journal of Management and Business Studies. Volume 3, Number 10 (2013), pp. 1061-1064.

Kochan, T. A. (2002). Addressing the crisis in confidence in corporations: root causes, victims, and strategies for reform. Academy of Management Executives, 16(3), 139–141.

Maslow, A. H. (1954). Motivation and personality. New York: Harper.

Mitchell, T. R. (1982). Motivation: New directions for theory, research, and practice. Academy of Management Review, 7, 80–88.

Ozguner, Z., Ozguner,M.,(2014). A Managerial Point of View on the Relationship between of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg’s Dual Factor Theory. International Journal of Business and Social Science Vol. 5, No. 7.

Robbins S, Judge T. A, Millett B, and Boyle M (2014). Organisational Behaviour. 7th ed. Frenchs Forrest: Pearson Australia.

Rollinson D (2008). Organisational Behaviour and Analysis. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

Saif, K.F., Nawaz, A., Jan, A. & Khan, M.I. Synthesizing the theories of job-satisfaction across the cultural/attitudinal dimensions. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, 2012,3 (9): 1382-1396.

Challenges to Employee Motivation in Consumer Durable Industry

 

The basis of motivation is to give employees what they really want from their work (Dell, 1988). Employee retention is the strategy take on by the employer to prevent talented employees from quitting their jobs (Fox, 2012). Factors such as salary, flexible working hours, appreciation and rewards for excellent performance, growth opportunities and job security are critical for reducing the rate of turnover (Patgar & Kumar, 2015). The standard of motivation and involvement offered to the employee were found to be the big reason for retention (KM & Christopher, 2015). Employees favour to stay longer in the organization when they feel involved in their work (Mttoi, 2013). Employee retention strategies should be beneficial and should be highlighted in comparison with other policies and procedures (Twum, 2015). Employee retention methods are common to managers and are not depend upon the company’s size, technology and market focus (Manzoor, 2011). Organizations found difficult to motivate employees because of several characteristics and most powerful factors which challenges employee motivation are as follows.

 

• Workforce of the organization

According to Sengupta & Gupta (2012), individual employees have different beliefs, behaviour, values, backgrounds and thinking. But all the organizations are not aware of the variety in their workforce and are not and clear about different ways of motivating their diverse workforce. Monotonous work and low perceived value were found to be the very first reason for attrition followed by high salary expectation and unusual working hours as second, third was demoralize employees; fourth was tire work environment and lack of motivation. Finally, fifth was equally shared by privation of job security and social interaction.

To retain employees, organizations must inspire the employees in the sense of achievement and esteem, autonomy while performing a task, job rotation to avoid boredom, exciting and challenging tasks (Sengupta & Gupta, 2012). Interesting and challenging work has an minor relationship with employee retention when compared with other motivational aspects (Kassa, 2015). Employee feels independently motivated to work and also engenders a sense of belongingness and involvement with his work, he is likely to stay longer with the organization (Sengupta & Gupta, 2012).

Human resource has become an organization’s main asset; its success is dependent on the employee performance. Employee performance can be expressed as a mutual factors of ability and motivation  (Devadass, 2011).

Majority of today’s organizational workplaces are represented by four different formations of employees, namely traditionalist (Matures/Veterans), Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y (Millennial) (Gladwell & Dorwart et al., 2010). Managers must understand the usefulness and attitudes of each generation to successfully influence the different generations’ satisfaction (Gladwell & Dorwart et al., 2010). Employees from different formations require different management strategies when it comes to recruiting, retaining and motivating employees (Glass, 2007).

Managers must take to account the diverse values and attitudes of each generation that may influence different generations’ drive in the workplace (Gladwell & Dorwart et   al.,   2010). When employees are motivated, they turn out to be responsive to the organization’s goals and objective and can efficiently direct their talent towards achieving them (Manzoor, 2011).

Organizations have used mostly external rewards (increased pay, bonuses, promotion) as a management tool to inspire high employee performance as well as maintain high employee motivation (Ali & Ahmed, 2009). Also, Nohria & Groysberg et al., 2008   defined   a   new   model   of   employee motivation concluding that managers try to increase employee motivation by satisfying the four fundamental emotional drives; that is the desire to acquire, the desire to bond, the desire to comprehend and the desire to defend. In modern day, monetary rewards have become less effective in keeping employees motivated and the younger generations of employees are driven by carrier development opportunities (Wong & Gardiner et al., 2008).

• Organization considerably change the job role

It was notice that the employees’ level of satisfaction does not depend on such demographic factors like gender, age and length of service with retention factors in the organization. Lack of training and development and work-life balance was found to be a vital aspect in high employee turnover (Tiwari, 2015). Likeliness of an employee to leave; rely upon the satisfaction with rewards and recognition, task identity, opinion, number of positions, age, and satisfaction with position offered by the organization (Ramlall, 2003). Low pay go along with by lack of growth and development of employees were the major causes of attrition (Twum,2015). Career advancement opportunities and challenging work to be the most remarkable motivators for employee retention (Patriota, 2009).

• Work Environment

Social intelligence can be defining as the ability to work effectively with others in any social situation (Crowne, 2009). According to Emmerling and Boyatzis (2012), social intelligence define as the ability to be aware of, understand and act on social information about others that leads to productive achievements.

People with low social surveillance are found as ‘toxic’ people (Karl Albrecht, 2009). They make others feel angry, inadequate, frustrated and degrade through their toxic behaviours that directly contribute to conflict, disaffection and worse animosity in the workplace (Wawra, 2009).

On the other hand, people with high social intelligence have a ‘nourishing’ personality and apparently own magnetic powers that attract others to them (Albrecht, 2009). Workplace friendship affects the task and contextual performance, job satisfaction and turnover desires (Amjad, Sabri, Ilyas & Hameed, 2015). Employees participation in a corporate social initiative was clearly associated with retention rates (Bode, Singh, & Rogan, 2015). Socially intelligent employees exhibit confidence in social situations, demonstrate a real interest in their fellow workmates, are confident and appropriate in expressing their feelings and emotions, are capable of adapting, understanding and responding effectively, and show a great level of conscious (Joseph and Lakshmi, 2010).

 

Challenges in employee motivation instantly affect the Consumer durable industry. During the operation; failure to attract, retain, develop and motivate the best employees across all showrooms and head office may directly affect to deliver the operational and vital objectives of the organization. Labour issues directly influence the quality, output, market share as well as the Company goodwill and reputation. As the business grows in size and geographical scope, the possibility for fraud and dishonest activity of suppliers, employees and customers may increase. As a result of these matters, Organization apply several restrictions and the level of motivation of employees may affect because of them. Figure 02, illustrates the Operational Risk of the Singer (Sri Lanka) PLC.

Figure 02 – Operational Risk - People  

(Source - Singer (Sri Lanka) PLC Annual Report 2019/20 p63-65)

Current pandemic situation of COVID-19, directly influence all the business functions of the company. In this situation employees as well as customers’ safety became the top preference aspect. All the retail showrooms need to closed in curfew-imposed areas & all the back-end work which should operate in any circumstance. Work environment directly relate with the consumer motivation. Figure 03 illustrates the safety measures taken by Singer (Sri Lanka) PLC for their employees.

Figure 03 – Risk Measures take for COVID-19 impact 

(Source - Singer (Sri Lanka) PLC Annual Report 2019/20 p63-65)

 

When considering which motivation aspect that motivates an employee better, it is important to identify the level of the need of an employee. This leads to study of Theories of Employee Motivation.

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