Foundation of employee motivation Essay

The effectiveness of organizational motivation management can become a unique competitive advantage, but the problem is how to create and maintain the environment that motivates employees to work with full dedication. The relevance of the motivation issue is not doubted by either scholars or practitioners, as on distinct development of an effective motivation system depends not only the increase of social and creative activity of a particular employee, but the final results of the company. In this context, a task appears associated with the investigation of factors of motivation improving employees’ performance.
The purpose of this annotated bibliography is to study problem of motivation of employees through different methods and approaches. Motivation problem is being actively examined today in the scientific and professional literature. However, attempts to adapt the classic motivation theories to modern organizations are largely unsystematized, which complicates practical use of technology and methods of motivation. The difficulty of practical organization of personnel motivation system is determined by the lack of studies of peculiarities of motivating workers from specific industries and types of production. Certain assistance in studying the structure of incentives and motivations of personnel is brought by the current researches on the characteristics and trends of development of motivational activities.
The ten annotations in this bibliography consist of seven quantitative research articles and three literature review. The articles present studies of such problems as : organizational policy in terms of employee motivation, factors that motivate employees for good performance, rational job design to motivate employees, demotivating factors, applied material and non-material methods of motivation, strong motivating environment, and ability of managers at various levels to motivate their staff. In the articles are studied different areas and methods of employee motivation, including motivation associated with politics and power.
Altman, B.A., & Akdere, M. (2008). Towards a Theoretical Model of Performance Inhibiting Workplace Dynamics. Human Resource Development Review, 7(4), pp. 408-423.
The authors introduce a pattern and structure of workplace dynamics, which negatively affect performance and motivation level, show the undesirable effects of specific interpersonal relations on performance and quality of work of employees.
The article contains a literature review that distinguishes a range of workplace interrelations associated with lowered efficiency and quality. On the basis of the reviewed approaches authors provide their own theoretical model, in which interpersonal interactions and behavioral instructions are used as the key factors. The article presents a hypothesis that the performance inhibition is caused by change of one or more of the Swanson’s three performance factors at the personal level: motivation, capacity, or goal. It is important to point that the article presents motivation as a performance variable. In the conclusions it is suggested that the replacement of interpersonal relations or conducts causing double binds can lead to improvement of employees’ general work performance and results achieved.
The strength of the article is that it provides a full description of the theory, practical implication of the proposed theory, as well as proposes possible direction for future research. The model introduced in the article can encourage significant further discussion by scholars. The weakness of the article is that the model of performance presented by Altman & Akdere is not detailed, but is too schematic, therefore, a specific map would be useful to illustrate the phenomena.
The limitation of the article is that the research relies only on hypothetical suggestions about influences of interpersonal relations and specific behaviors in workplace on employees’ performance. To prove the theory an empirical research is necessary, to study a real work situation with corresponding problems.

Avey, J.B., Wernsing, T.S., & Luthans, F. (2008). Can Positive Employees Help Positive Organizational Change? Impact of Psychological Capital and Emotions on Relevant Attitudes and Behaviors. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 44(1), pp. 48-70.
The article covers the problem of impact of psychological capital and emotions on relevant attitudes and behaviors of employees. The aim of the article is to study the effects of positively oriented and motivated employees can have on organizational change.
The authors present a research on the possibility of employees’ positivity to influence on relevant behaviors and attitudes. The research was made on the basis of interviewing of 132 (68 male and 64 female) adult employees, aged from 18 to 65, and working in a wide range of US organizations for no less than 6 years. It was noted that 32% of them worked for the manager, 65% were non-managerial employees, and 35% had supervisory positions. The findings showed that (1) employees’ psychological capital (a core factor consisting of optimism, efficacy, hope, and resilience) was correlated with their positive emotions, which were associated with their behaviors (deviance and corporate citizenship) and attitudes (cynicism and engagement), both important for organizational change; (2) mindfulness (finely tuned awareness) correlated with psychological capital in forecasting positive emotions; and (3) positive emotions in general arbitrated the relation among psychological capital and the behaviors and attitudes.
The limitation of the research is that it didn’t have experimental or random manipulations, and the data on both dependent and independent variables was collected from the same source. The research had also to take into consideration such factors as different organization and cultural levels of employees as well as the role of moderators in manifesting emotions. That is why the weakness of the article is that due to the research design limitation, causal conclusions can’t factually be drawn.
The strength of the article is that the research results provide evidence for the theory of cognitive mediation. The demonstrated example of positive psychology integration into organizational behavior field contributes to producing knowledge (in the sphere of individual positive constructs) and has impact on organization performance.
The article is of great value from the aspect of summarizing the applications of research results for positive organizational change.

Deckop, J.R. & Cirka, C.C. (2000). The Risk and Reward of a Double-Edged Sword: Effects of a Merit Pay Program on Intrinsic Motivation. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 29(3), pp. 400-418.
The article examines an increasingly wide-spread merit pay programs which are used in non-profit organizations, and discusses their risks. The authors suppose that one of such risks is the program’s possible negative impact on employees’ personal motivation. They present a research of employee motivation in a non-profit organization before and after the implementation of a merit pay system. In the research was studied motivation of 173 employees in a non-profit organization (religiously affiliated 4-year college, North East of the United Stated) before the introduction of merit pay plan and after it with the help of questionnaires. The results showed the decrease of employees’ personal motivation caused by merit pay program. It is important to point out that the factors related to justice also had an influence, as those employees who were initially supporting merit pay plan, after its implementation believed to be assessed unfairly, and consequently showed a significant fall of intrinsic motivation. On the basis of the research was made a conclusion that the merit pay produced a decline in intrinsic motivation for employees who were highly intrinsically motivated.
The weakness of the article is that it not informative from the aspect of individual perceived fairness and motivation dynamics, while these observations could be significant for understanding performance appraisal in the organization.
The significance of the research and results is that the problem of merit pay program’s influence on motivation may be particularly critical for mission-driven organizations, which are characterized by the high percentage of employees who are well intrinsically motivated. But the article has several limitations. The first limitation of the research is the low response rate (68% on the first stage, 54% on the second), which led to the necessity to reduce the sample significantly. The second limitation lies in the fact that the data was collected after only one round of program’s rewards, thought the situation might have changed significantly if the test continued.
Jong, A., Ruyter, K., & Wetzels, M. (2006). Linking Employee Confidence to Performance: A Study of Self-Managing Service Teams. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 34(4), pp. 576-587.
The topic of the article is causality in the correlation between worker’s confidence beliefs and efficiency for boundary-spanning SMTs providing financial services. The paper contains lagged analyses of customer and employee polling data and financial performance data of 51 SMTs with an average personnel of 20 employees, for two periods of time (7 month interval). The SMTs are a random sample out of 848 service SMTs of a large European bank. The customer survey based on the random samples of 150 clients per each SMT.
According to the research the authors differentiate employee’s task-oriented (team effectiveness) and generalized (group strength) confidence, as well as customer-perceived (customer-based service quality) and financial (service incomes) efficiency. The results of the research revealed diversities between team effectiveness and group strength, showing that unlike the group strength, team’s effectiveness has mutual, causal relation to service incomes and customer-based service quality. Also, customer-based service quality suggests group strength, though no reverse connection is observed.
The research has an important limitation: of the sample of 100 SMTs representing 848 SMTs delivering financial services, the researchers had to end up with only 51 SMTs due to lack of the data and non-response of the participants. Also the article failed to correlate at an individual level the employee’s confidence beliefs with customer’s evaluation and objective efficiency criteria, that is its weakness.
In general the results of the study, which were produced from the longitudinal data of customers and employees that were collected and processed at the team level, provide a significant evidence for further research and theoretical framework. The significance of the article is due to the increasing popularity of Self-Managing Teams in service supply, that leads to the importance of rising confidence ideas about a team’s collective proficiency. The article’s significance lies in revealing the motivation dynamics in non-managerial team work and its effectiveness for organizations’ policy.

Grant Adam M. (2007). “Relational job design and the motivation to make a prosocial difference”. Academy of management review, 32 (2), 393–417.
The article is intended to show how work contexts motivate employees. The main idea of the article is that relational job design can motivate employees and have influence of their actions and work results. The research is focused on questions of individual differences of employees and jobs structures, that is, the connection between the task structures of jobs and employees motivation to make a prosocial difference.
One of the strength of the article is good literature review on the topic, that is an overview of the basic ideas and views and research findings on the issues under examination. According to the literature review made by the author, it is widely assumed that many employees see the purpose of their work in making a positive difference in others’ lives. Also review of qualitative and quantitative researches on this topic proved the fact that motivation to make a prosocial difference is common to many professions and fields of activity: for example, management, public services, administration, social jobs. Also it is important that the author points from the literature review some sources of that type of motivation: such behavior is peculiar to employees with altruistic values, who want to make world a better place, and benevolent employees. The author states that interpersonal relationships are the main reasons and sources of such motivation, that is especially seen in the sphere of public service where interpersonal relations are of great importance. It is supposed that good interpersonal relationships, for example, with clients, customers and team members, are the driving force that motivate and encourage workers to make a positive difference in the lives of coworkers, subordinates, clients, customers, students, and patients.
That is, on the basis of the literature review the author assumes that dispositions may form employees’ motivations to make a prosocial difference. So the possible factors of such motivation are employees’ dispositional orientations and enduring values. Though, the author claims that existing organizational literature does not provide enough evidence on this issue.
The main claim of the author is that very little literature covers the role of job contexts in forming the motivation. That is why it is necessary to make a research and find out how work contexts influence the motivation to make a prosocial difference. The author sees his task to make a research to find a connection between job design and work motivation. That is why the author makes a research on such questions as job architecture and job design, and defines the concept of rational job design.
In the first part of the research the author speaks about job impact on beneficiaries and contact with beneficiaries. Then the author shows the constructs of perceived impact on beneficiaries and affective commitment to beneficiaries, and illustrates how they are formed with the help of relational job design. In the second part of the research the author examines the behavioral and psychological effects of the motivation to make a prosocial difference on employees.
The main ideas found are that relational jobs design and architectures have important influence on employees work and can be used to motivate employees to make a prosocial difference. The concluding part of the research shows the theoretical and practical implications, and directions for future research.

Lount, R.B., Park, E.S., Kerr, N.L., Messe, L.A., & Seok, D.H. (2008). Evaluation Concerns and the Kohler Effect: The Impact of Physical Presence on Motivation Gains. Small Group Research, 39(6), pp. 795-812.
This article presents a research which aims at examining the interrelation between increasing evaluation concerns and the Kohler effect magnitude ( a motivation gain type that has been observed to appear in small groups). Evaluation concerns were stimulated by making an employee work in physical or virtual presents of his colleague. The study involved 123 male students of Midwestern University, working in different conditions (physical and virtual presence of coworker, male and female coworker, competing first versus second or at the same time) with computers recording the performance of each participant.
The experiment showed that motivation gains were considerably greater for employees working in the physical presence of their colleague, that could mean that evaluation concerns are able to increase the Kohler effect magnitude. The study results conform with CEM stating that increased assessment concerns lead to increased efficiency of work. The research also confirms the social impact theory that physical presence of coworker has more influence on performance than virtual. The limitation of the research was that the experiment involved the maximum of two participants at a time, since it is more difficult to see individual results in a large group, but this condition might have changed the results.
The strength of the article is that the results of the study show how the motivation can change depending on the surrounding an individual work in (virtual group, face-to-face, alone). Thus, the paper contributes to the research of the social factors that positively or negatively affect the motivation. But the weakness of the paper is that the study was focused on an individual control rather than on coactions control, because non-individual conditions reduced the evaluation concerns, therefore, the results show only one side of the issue.
This article can be recommended as its research and ideas can be useful for further researches focused on the differential influence of physical and virtual mediums on motivation in groups.

Mickel, A.E. & Barron, L.A. (2008). Getting “More Bang for the Buck”: Symbolic Value of Monetary Rewards in Organizations. Journal of Management Inquiry, 17(4), pp. 329-338.
This is a critique article, which covers the topic of stereotype about monetary reward as purely material motivational tool. The authors aim to examine the symbolic meaning acquired by this measure, either prove or deny it. The focus of the article is an argument that the symbolic value added to the material value of the motivation increases the general perception of the reward’s value and thus can serve an additional motivation for an employee.
The article is based on theoretical proposals about the symbolic meaning and value of monetary rewards and the reward distribution practices. The authors suggest that the reward value enforced by symbolic value can bring desired results more likely than when such symbolic value is absent, which can even worsen the performance. Moreover, according to the authors, employee’s perception of justice influences on the effect of the rewards on potential company’s achievements and employee’s motivation.
The limitation of the article is that its ideas are based on theoretical proposals about the symbolic meaning and value of monetary rewards and the reward distribution practices that can increase the perceived overall value of such reward, however, no empirical evidences are provided to confirm the hypothesis. It is necessary to say that the authors focus on monetary reward only, not taking into account other diverse types of bonuses and rewards implemented in a variety of forms, that is the weakness of the article.
Article’s significance lies in its strong hypotheses, that can be useful for both theorists and practitioners in issues of monetary rewards and their distribution in organizations. Motivation is seen here as the factor influence by the possibility of reward and recognition. This article can be recommended for its strong position of how the deeper understanding of the symbolic meaning of the material reward can improve theorists’ understanding of motivation mechanism, and can serve another tool for practitioners to motivate employees.
Rupp, D.E. (2011). An employee-centered model of organizational justice and social responsibility. Organizational Psychology Review, 1(1), pp. 72-94.
This article by Rupp D. is a literature review, which presents some of the latest studies in the field of organizational justice. The author states that a core element of the experience of an employee is the shaping of perceptions of how the self and other employees are treated by company’s management, as well as the degree of respect and dignity granted by the company to external groups. According to Rupp D., employees assess their internal and external surroundings in order to realize their working experiences, and rely on these estimations to adapt to the organizational environments. The author supposes that a complete understanding of justice concept demands taking into account such aspects: individual differences; contextual impacts; affective, social, and cognitive processes, as well as a person-centered focus that allows time and memory to effect the social construction of employee experiences.
The study examines how employees’ behavior and attitude is influenced by their internal and external surroundings, but no other factors are analyzed, that is a limitation. Another weakness of the article is that it presents a person-centric research, that should have a primary aim of determining the very nature of employee justice as perceived by the employees themselves.
The strength of the article is that it contains important suggestions for the further development of the research of employee-perceived justice. Also its ideas and results can be useful for employees to better adaptation to the social coactions at workplace, which presents its significance.
Twenge, J.M., Campbell, S.M., Hoffman, B.J., & Lance, C.E. (2010). Generational Differences in Work Values: Leisure and Extrinsic Values Increasing. Social and Intrinsic Values Decreasing, Journal of Management, 36(5), pp. 1117-1142.
This is a research article on a very interesting problem of generational differences in work values, devoted to the comparative analysis of work values existing in different generations throughout the latest several decades in the U.S. and their changes in time. The article presents a study which covered 16,507 high school seniors of 1976, 1991, and 2006, representing respectively Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Me. Due to the data from different time points, these studies can separate age differences from generational differences. The study presents very interesting results: it shows that leisure values grew progressively over the generations (with 57 points more among GenMe than among Boomers), while work focus reduced. External values (money, status) though dominated in GenX, however, were by 26 points more important for GenMe than for Boomers, confirming that GenMe representatives support altruistic values (community welfare, public responsibility) much less than previous generations. Boomers also rate social values (friendship) and internal values (high motivation to work, interesting job, self-actualization) higher than GenMe.
The strength of the article lies in the time-lag approach applied by the authors, which allows them to compare the values of the same age groups belonging to different historical generations. Its weakness is that the results of the research can in no way be applied to describe every worker of given generations individually, as the study provides only average indicators.
The limitation of the article may be the fact that since the data for Baby Boomers and Generation X were aggregated long time ago, work values of these groups might have changed due to individual development, socialization or retraining during their career movements.
In general, the article presents a good research which comprises generation approach to motivation as a job value. These results may be useful for recruitment and HR management, especially in issues of managing the growing generation of GenMe employees.

Conclusion
This annotated bibliography has shown that a thorough understanding of the nature of the factors and foundations of employee motivation, that are discussed in the reviewed articles, are mainly the moral incentives needed to create an atmosphere of interest in any enterprise. Without their implementation, it is impossible to count on attracting and retaining highly qualified specialists and getting high returns on the part of employees. However, their presence is not enough to create an effective motivational strategy, i.e. motivation is considered from so many different aspects.
The articles reviewed cover practically all aspects of employees motivation, both material and non-material. The researchers made in the articles showed practically one opinion that organization policies should be implemented in a unified direction, and must ensure the staff motivation from different aspects.
Consequently, the inclusion of all the above mentioned aspects requires a new approach to motivation. This bibliography has demonstrated that in general, the purpose of any company is to build a system of motivation comes up to building an optimal and balanced system of tangible and intangible incentives for employees, and to establishing a system aimed at encouraging the staff to achieve the goals set by the organization, that is proved in numerous quantitative and qualitative researches.