The employees are the backbones of a company and thus it is essential that the company motivates them to work harder and succeed. Their success will indirectly be beneficial for the company. Therefore the HR of a company must be well acquainted with the pros and cones of motivation (Watt, 2010). Considering this case Mr. Simons had really worked hard and is also well qualified, however by some twist of faith he had been missed out on his promotion all the three times. Naturally this has left him in

1. Contents
Contents......................................................................................................................................................1
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................2
Detailed study about motivation and management from different perspective.........................................2
Perception and attitude, and their link to motivation.................................................................................4
Analysis of the motivational theories in practice, their advantages and disadvantages..............................6
A parallel between theory and practice.......................................................................................................8
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................10
References ................................................................................................................................................11
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2. Introduction
The employees are the backbones of a company and thus it is essential that the company
motivates them to work harder and succeed. Their success will indirectly be beneficial for the
company. Therefore the HR of a company must be well acquainted with the pros and cones of
motivation (Watt, 2010). Considering this case Mr. Simons had really worked hard and is also
well qualified, however by some twist of faith he had been missed out on his promotion all the
three times. Naturally this has left him in despair and hopeless of his chances of getting
promoted and becoming successful in this company. Thus he has planned to leave his position.
He is an asset for the company and lack of proper motivational steps have forced one
trustworthy, potential employee to think about other options. Thus in the following part of this
assignment a thorough study will be done based on how this could have been avoided and how
different aspects of business like motivation, attitude, perception, etc. can be utilized to explain
the situation and provide a solution.
Detailed study about motivation and management from
different perspective
Motivation is one of the most important aspects that rule the theories of business management.
The main goal of the HR and the management is to make sure that all the employees working
under them are motivated properly and they get the maximum outcome from the employees
(Leary, 1996). Motivation can be in various forms varying from a hike in the salary to a reward
for the best employee every month or an incentive or even a promotion, which is most applicable
in this case, Mr. Simons deserved to be promoted considering the fact that he was a diligent
worker, with vivid knowledge and experience that matters a lot (Elsbach, 2004). Had he got that
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3. promotion he would have felt motivated and would have used his skills and knowledge for the
improvement of the company. The employees also feel motivated when a regular appraisal of the
performance is done, as this indicates that the work of the employees is under consideration and
is being recognized by the authorities. This boosts the confidence and the enthusiasm in the
employees to put in extra hard work which will help them be successful in the future.
Management is a skill and to utilize those skills to motivate the employees as and when required
is what makes a management worth for the company. ‘Maslow’s hierarchy of needs’ helps to
explain the concept and the effect of motivation the best. He described a triangle in form of a
pyramid and the pyramid was divided into five different parts. Starting from the top the needs
that have been described are self-actualization, self-esteem, love or the feeling of belonging
somewhere, needs for safety and lastly the physiological needs(Parry, 2006) . The basic structure
indicates that if each need starting from the base is not satisfied to a particular extent, the other
needs cannot be reached. Thus completing each level of need is a must for a person to be
successfully motivated. The basic needs known as the physiological needs are the basic needs
like food, air, water, etc. which is the basic aspect of survival of a person. Next comes the
security needs, a person needs to feel secure in an environment. An employee must feel secure
working in a company, and must express himself without fear of being ignored or overtaken by
his fellow colleagues. The third kind of needs deal with love, a person or an employee must feel
that his piers love and respect him and the management loves and appreciates his works (Ahola,
2005). Then only will he feel motivated to express his talents. The fourth kind of motivation
deals with factors like building self-esteem and boosting confidence. Only when an employee
feels confident, can he express his talents and be confident enough to present it to the
management for consideration. The last is the most important part deals with creativity and the
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4. spontaneity of a person. Once the employee has gained confidence he can now work to show his
creativity to the management and also to come up with new ideas and new products that will help
get the company great success.
For example, if we consider Starbucks the world most famous coffee shop, they have developed
different measures and techniques that help them motivate their employees. They firstly have an
‘employee of the month’ reward that they give away to the best employee at the end of the
month. Moreover they set a particular budget for sale per day and if those budgets are met and
exceeded by the end of that day, then the money which has exceeded the set budget is divided
amongst its employees as incentive. Thus this helps to motivate the employees working for the
company and they put in extra effort every day to cross the set benchmark. It can be
automatically concluded from this example that motivation is only valid when the employees get
to gain something from it at the end of the work, otherwise they do not put in the effort they
would have put otherwise (Bernstein, 2008).
Perception and attitude, and their link to motivation
The manager must have a clear perception regarding what he wants from the employees of the
company. Perception denotes a clear idea when the manager knows what he wants and knows
how the market is going to respond to the product that has been launched. In relation to the
employees, the perceptions of the HRs help decide the needs of the employees, the expectation
of the employees from the organization (Robert, 2004). It also helps the manager to decipher
what must be done to keep the best asset of the company rooted to their organization and not
leave the company under any circumstances. In order to keep the asset of the company in their
organization different motivational techniques are adopted like promotion of the employees
depending on their merit and their job experience and skills. Motivation can also be done when a
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5. bonus is given to the employees or incentives on regular intervals. A HR with a clear perception
will be able to motivate the employees.
Steve Jobs had a clear perception about what the market demands and what the market wants
from their company. When he was on his path to produce and launch i-pad, he needed the help
from the other fellow employees. Without his constant motivation and strong perception, i-pad
would not have been a success today. Of course he was naturally brilliant; however the other two
factors also played a key role in the success of i-pad.
Attitude is an important factor as well when it comes to being successful in an organization. An
employee must have the correct attitude so that no one in the organization takes him for granted
(Guma, 2008). A meek parson is always taken advantage of, however a person who has
confidence has an attitude that no one can take advantage of. Rather a confident person has
already reached the fourth level of the motivational theory of ‘Maslow’s hierarchy of needs’.
Confidence motivates a person to express himself and prove to the management what he is
capable of. He gets the vigor to express his creative side and produce something for the company
that will boost the revenue of the company.
TMI is a UK based company and they have revolutionized the market with their positive attitude
and confidence in their work. This company has been able to deliver programs for
comprehensive development across 24 countries in Europe and more outside the continent. They
have also maintained a positive attitude with their employees so that they are able to get
maximum profit from them. The productivity of the company has thus increased over the years
and the downtime for the company has also decreased.
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6. Analysis of the motivational theories in practice, their
advantages and disadvantages
Motivation defines three most important theories:
1. Goal setting theory
2. Expectancy theory
3. Equity theory
The first theory states that a particular goal must be set so that the employees are well
aware of what they need to achieve and what is expected of them. The employees in this
situation will be aware of the fact that their assessment of the work done will be based on
how far they have been successful in achieving the goal that the company has set for
them ( Dann, 1981). Thus this will motivate them to work harder and reach the set goal
even before anyone else reaches it. They will compete with their own colleagues in order
to be the first one to reach the goal.
The second theory that governs motivation is known as expectancy theory. This is based
on the fact that the employees expect something from the company in return for the
labour they have put in their work in achieving the goal the company has set for the
employees. This can be achieved if the management announces that a reward will be
given to the employee who has put in maximum effort and have produced successful
results. This will help the employee feel motivated and he will try harder than usual to
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7. reach the goal, put in extra effort so that the reward at the end of the test is his (Mannel,
1987). This reward can be an award like the ‘best performer of the month’. It can also be
a promotion, which in Mr. Simons case would have been the perfect motivation for him.
He has expected to be promoted for all the hard work he had put in the company and thus
this would have been the perfect reward for him. The reward can also be incentive if the
goal is surpassed in case of the example of Starbucks, cited above.
According to the Equity theory all the employees expected to be given fair and equal
treatment devoid of segregation based on caste, creed, religion, nationality, race,
community, culture, etc. Thus the management must always be unbiased and treat all the
employees equally. Another important pint in this case is that the employees do not want
any kind of favouritism spoiling their chances of getting the rewards (Wegner, 2011).
They wish to be judged under the same points. If an employee feels that for some reason
his talents and efforts are being over looked by the company for some reason or the other
then he will not put in the extra effort. Rather he will feel demotivated and might decide
to leave the company like Mr Simmons had decided to do in the example, as he felt he
was not being judged on a fair basis.
The advantages are:
• Employees feel that their work is being recognized and work hard
• Better quality of work
• Better output
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8. • More creative methods adopted to launch new products
• Confidence is instilled in the employees
• The benchmark of the performance will be quite high
• The company will be more successful
The disadvantages on the other hand are:
• It might lead to over confidence sometimes that is fatal
• The level of competition might be too high
• The employees do not get proper job satisfaction
• High competition makes survival in the company a struggle everyday
• The employees who are not much efficient might end up losing their job
• The less successful employees might not get proper recognition
• Lack of motivation might demoralize the employees and crush his potential to come up
with creative discoveries
A parallel between theory and practice
In order to draw a parallel between theory and practice of motivation, the example of Philip
Green is taken, the CEO of Arcadia Group in UK. He own a chain of various retails shops and is
one of the most successful men in UK. He was a great motivation to the employees working
under him. He made sure that all the employees working in his company get equal and fair
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9. treatment and never feel out of place. Since it is a huge company, there are many employees
from different walks of life, yet all of them are treated fairly, without being shown any kind of
partiality (Ashwood, 2008). He does not allow the managers under him to favor someone when it
comes to accepting idea from the employees and taking the best idea among the lot. For him
equality plays and important role and he makes it a point that that is provided to all. All the
employees are asked to share their work and ideas and then the best ideas are chosen by them.
Richard Branson is the CEO of the Virgin Groups that has produced many products including the
virgin mobiles. He has a sharp sense of drawing and setting the goals before any step is being
taken by them. He informs the managers of his company to set the objective and the goals of the
company that they deem fit (Ashwood, 2008). After the goals have been set they are run by him,
and then if he permits then only the employees are briefed about the goal and the objectives of
the company. Thus the employees get a clear perspective about what is expected of them and
work as hard as they can to reach the goals of the company successfully.
Andor Technology is one of the most successful businesses in UK and they had a very good
system of rewarding the employees on reaching a set goal. This company sells scientific digital
cameras and thus they need maximum output from their employees to come up with the best
possible technology that they can use in their cameras (Leary, 1996). Thus they have set and
inventive along with a great offer of a family vacation for the best idea for the cameras. As a
result of this the employees are working really hard, as the incentive is quite an amount and each
employee wants to get their hand on that incentive.
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10. Conclusion
Thus this assignment deals with the main goals and theories that are etched with motivation. It is
important that companies practice motivational theories as this enhances the output from the
employees and increases the competitive spirit as well. The motivational theories are better
explained by ‘Maslow’s hierarchy of needs’, which explains the 5 five different steps that helps
motivate the employees. Companies make it a point now that they set goals and make the
objectives very clear to the employees such that they are not misled. The employees must get
what they expect from the company occasionally least they end up like Mr. Simmons in the
example and decide to leave the job as they feel that their talent and potential is not recognized
and not properly utilized by the company. time to time employee appraisals are also important as
this also helps motivate the employees and instills vigor in them to work harder.
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11. References
1. Watt, J. (2010). "Organizational Perception Management: A Framework to Overcome
Crisis Events.", USA: Organization Development Journal
2. Leary, M. (1996). “Self-presentation: Impression management and interpersonal
behavior”, London: Westview Press
3. Elsbach, K. (2004). “Managing images of trustworthiness in Organizations. In R. M.
Kramer & K. Cook (Eds.), Trust and distrust in organizations: Dilemmas and
approaches”, New York: The Russel Sage Foundation.
4. Parry, D. (2006). “Organizational perception management”, New Jersey: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associate Publishers.
5. Ahola, S. (2005) "Pentagon Sued for Records on Propaganda, PSY-OPS and 'Perception
Management' Targeting U.S. Civilians.", Washington: Judicial Watch Inc.
6. Bernstein, C. (2008). "The CIA and the Media", Berkeley: Counterpoint Press
7. Robert, F. (2004). "Bush's Perception Management Plan", USA: Consortium News.
8. Guma, G. (2008). "The Evolution of Perception Management Tactics", London: The
Telegraph
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12. 9. Dann, S. (1981). "Tourist motivation: an appraisal." Canada: Annals of Tourism
research
10. Mannel, R. (1987). "The Psychological Nature of Leisure and Tourism Experience",
Canada: Annals of Tourism Research
11. Wegner, D. (2011) “Psychology. 2nd ed.”, New York: Worth Press.
12. Ashwood, E. (2008). “Managing Motivation”, New York: Taylor & Francis Group.
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