Motivating Employees

Introduction

All organizations want to succeed even in the current setting that is highly competitive. Employee motivation and performance are imperative tools for the success of any company in the long run. Contrastively, measuring the performance is essential to a company’s management since it indicates the evolution as well as the achievement of the company. There is a positive correlation between the staff motivation and organizational effectiveness, highlighted in several studies. Employee dissatisfactions resulting from pressure from their leaders, monotonous jobs, lack of recognition, too many assignments, and pressure from clients can have diverse effects on performance. In this paper, the case study at Kaluyu Memorial Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya is being analyzed. In this case study, the employees work under tension, the nurses work hard as doctors get the praise, employees do not concentrate on their work, employees stay at home giving lean excuses, and employees are dominated by nurses and other employees. The paper highlights how to motivate these employees.

Major Demotivational Factors at Kaluyu Memorial Hospital

Employees make up a company, and if they do not receive an organizational commitment, there is no motivation to excel at their jobs (Dobre, 2013). At Kaluyu Memorial Hospital, there are several things that are demotivating the employees and making them not to deliver. For one, the absenteeism that is rampant in the organization coupled with a request for leaves out of lean excises is very dangerous to the performance of the hospital. Also, the behavior of employees to eagerly wait for the day to end means that they do not concentrate in their job shows a high demotivation for the job. When the nurses perform, the doctors get praises instead, and this does not go down well to these nurses. The nurses are always working in fear, and when such a case happens, they cannot give their best. One can enjoy in what s/he does when they feel part of the organization and are highly motivated for their work. This is not the case in Kaluyu Memorial Hospital.

It is manifest that there is a great chasm between the management and the employees and this vacuum can only be removed through employee motivation. If things go that way without being addressed by the administration, there will be very poor performance and since a hospital is a sensitive facility, expect critical results including the loss of lives. For example, failing to recognize what the nurses ‘performance and praising the doctors instead of them can make them give wrong prescriptions for the patients. Also, lack of concentration can cause the nurses make mistakes that can be very costly to the institution. A lot of absenteeism can also leave a lot of work undone, and this can taint the image of the institution thereby making clients to turn to its rivals.

Application of Theory: Maslow’s Model of Motivation

Maslow’s theory of motivation was introduced in 1943. In this theory, Maslow highlights five sets of goals that he refers to as the basic needs. These include the physiological needs, security needs, the social need of belonging to a given group, esteem, respect, and trust; and personal development (Korzynski, 2013). The physiological needs are the needs directly related to the survival of an individual such as eating, dressing, and sleeping. If these needs are not met a person may fail to function up to capacity, and thus, Maslow says that these needs are the most important for a person. The security needs, on the other hand, are the needs that are aimed at protecting an individual against various threats. In the absence of safety because of various reasons like war, natural disaster, and family violence among others, people may have post-traumatic stress disorder (Taormina & Gao, 2013).

Thirdly, the social need for belonging to a group is ranked third in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It is about the fulfillment of the need to feel accepted by a group whether it by the family, the work, friendship, associates, and intimacy. Maslow says that human beings need to feel a sense of belonging or to find themselves in a given group of their interest (Taormina & Gao, 2013). On the other hand, the esteem, respect, and trust needs are ranked number four form the top. These are the needs to feel respected, to have self-esteem, and to have self-respect. It is a desire to feel accepted and valued by others. Lastly, the personal development needs are ranked last in the hierarchy, and these are the needs to accomplish one’s dreams and become what s/he wants to become.

Maslow’s needs model has been selected as the most applicable model to motivate the employees in question because of the impending problems experienced by the employees in Kaluyu Memorial Hospital. In this theory, Maslow argues that humans have an internal need that drives them in the direction of self-fulfillment as well as personal priority. It presents the five unique positions of needs in a hierarchy whereby if one needs to be satisfied, it influences our attitudes. As a director of this institution in question, I will apply this theory to guide me in how to structure the problems the employees are facing thereby easily finding solutions to them. Ranking the employee needs using Maslow’s model will help me to address the most important employee needs first before addressing the less important ones.

For instance, the employees in the hospital do not have problems with security and psychological needs; their needs begin at the third level – the social needs. According to Maslow, people at the third stage have the social needs as there most important (Taormina & Gao, 2013). Based on this level of needs, hospital employees and nurses lack a sense of belonging to the group. They do not have a healthy relationship with their peers and with the doctors and administrators. The lower cadre employees fear those at higher ranks, and this destroys the social well being of these employees. There are several examples as per the case study that can prove this – for instance when a nurse brings the files to the director, puts them on the table and hurriedly goes out, employees are not allowed to converse with each other, nurses failing to contribute during meeting, and workers with families gather together during breaks and talk quietly.

For the employees in question, as their new director, I will start at the third level and solve their social needs. I will make the employees feel safe at work to get the best from them. According to Maslow, when employees felt safe and secured at work, they take the rules and regulations of the enterprise serious and adhere to the guidelines; also good work relationships, love, and intimacy, are formed. I will make sure that I remove any fear among the employees by freely interacting with them and encouraging them to interact with each other where necessary without fear. After meeting the employees’ social needs, the next thing is the self-esteem needs. The way the nurses and other employees are mistreated in the hospital makes them lose their self-esteem. I will make sure employees respect and value one another. Coming to work with dirty clothes means there is low self-esteem, losing your credit to another worker makes one lose self-esteem, and the lack of contribution during meetings may be due to the lack of self-esteem.

Communication System

Having a communication system gives the management the opportunity to interact with workers and address issues as soon as they arise. The first thing I will do as the new director is creating the communication system is to select the crisis team. I will meet the employees and have them to choose their spokespersons who will be acting as the points of contact with the management. The next thing that will follow will be the development of communication processes and protocols. The communication processes and protocols are the heart of the crisis communication plan (Ulmer, Sellnow, & Seeger, 2013). At this stage, the channels to be used for communication in real time and those responsible for making updates will be determined. It will also be the stage at which the chain of command will be identified to help in responding quickly and calmly thereby solving issues before they escalate.

I believe that this communication system will positively influence the employees’ behaviors. For one, involving the employees in policy development will make them feel part of the group, and this will act like a friendly relationship rather than a vertical relationship where they may act with fear. Allowing them to choose their spokespersons will assure them that their issues will be effectively addressed and so they will also have the confidence to present their grievances. Using various channels such as verbal and through the social media or other electronic channels will also make the employees feel comfortable and trust the leadership (Ramadanty & Martinus, 2016). They will not allow issues to escalate because they have many channels they can use to voice their issues. The entire process will make the employees feel part of the hospital community by having a say in its management and thus will be highly motivated.

Conclusion

This paper has discussed the issues that are ailing Kaluyu Memorial Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. Many of these issues show poor management and the demotivation of employees thereby leading to poor performance. The paper has also highlighted the way of solving the issues using Maslow’s needs hierarchy and by creating a communication process. It has been argued that communication is paramount in any organization. When the employees are allowed to communicate freely, they feel part of the organization and in its management process. The employees will be allowed to choose their spokespersons besides being provided with multiple channels through which they can reach the management. Creating such a relationship in the workplace will greatly improve the employee motivation thereby improve performance.

References

Dobre, O. I. (2013). Employee motivation and organizational performance. Review of Applied Socio-Economic Research, 5(1), 53-60.

Korzynski, P. (2013). Employee motivation in new working environment. International journal of academic research, 5(5).

Ramadanty, S., & Martinus, H. (2016). Organizational Communication: Communication and Motivation in the Workplace. Humaniora, 7(1), 77-86.

Taormina, R. J., & Gao, J. H. (2013). Maslow and the motivation hierarchy: Measuring satisfaction of the needs. The American journal of psychology, 126(2), 155-177.

Ulmer, R. R., Sellnow, T. L., & Seeger, M. W. (2013). Effective crisis communication: Moving from crisis to opportunity. Sage Publications.

Carolyn Morgan is the author of this paper. A senior editor at Melda Research in superior writing services. if you need a similar paper you can place your order for a custom research paper from best custom writing services.

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