The Effects of Employees’ Perception of their Manager on Their Motivation to Achieve Performance Goals
Introduction
Employee motivation is crucial to every organization and the management has a significant role to play in the organization’s success. However, employee motivation poses a serious challenge for the management of most organizations, and most organizations spend a big portion of their fortunes enforcing measures to motivate their employees. The reason is that employees that lack motivation do not place sufficient effort in their roles, evade the workplace, leave the organization when afforded the opportunity to do so, and their work is of poor quality. Conversely, motivated employees are industrious, creative, determined, and produce high quality work, which they readily embark on. For employees to be properly motivated, the management should act more like leaders than managers (Day, 2014). Managers and leaders have different approach to leading their employees. Leaders consider their employees as followers, and not subordinates, meaning that leaders lead by example. They also focus on the employees’ needs and wants, ensuring that they pay close attention to their needs to create a personal relationship.
Motivation can be defined as the will or desire to perform an act and differs amongst different individuals. Motivation can also be defined as the desire to put a certain level of effort in their work. Motivation emerges due to goals, values, expectations, needs, and incentives. It is up to the leaders to direct and cultivate motivation according to the motivation within the employee. Motivation originates from employee goals, thoughts, ambitions, and intentions. It is crucial for the leaders to ensure that bring out the best out of their employees through motivating them.
StatementoftheProblem
Is to explore whether the perception of the employees towards management motivates leads to employee motivation and help them attain goals related to productivity. Almansour’s explains the results of his studies in the article “The Relationship between Leadership Styles and Motivation of Managers Conceptual Framework” regarding the effects of leadership on motivation (Almansour, 2012). The author reviews literature from various authors to research and concludes that a good leadership style increases employee motivation. Companies have often overlooked leadership style as a vital component for motivating employees, which has led to such companies imposing measures that do not bring out the best of the employees, thus, their productivity is not maximized. While motivation has been established as vital to increasing the productivity of the employees, little has been done to explore how the perception of leadership style influences the motivation and ultimately the productivity of the employees. The paper shall analyze various sources of information in order to establish how the management of companies can improve their perception to the employees in order to elevate the levels of productivity.
Hypotheses
1. Employees who perceive their manager as a leader are more likely to be motivated to achieve productivity related performance goals than are employees who perceive their manager as a manager.
2. Employees who perceive their manager as a leader are more likely to be motivated to achieve work quality related performance goals than are employees who perceive their manager as a manager.
3. Employees who perceive their manager as a leader are more likely to be motivated to achieve relationship related performance goals than are employees who perceive their manager as a manager.
Purpose of the Study
The proposed study is required to increase the productivity of employees in the workplace through the utilization of contemporary leadership practices. Lack of motivation by employees will lead to the company loosing huge amounts of funds, loose loyal customers or eventually close the company. In contrast, well-trained and motivated employees specifically using effective leadership styles, then the company profits through increased profits, efficiency in utilization of company resources, gaining new customers and the market share increases (Day, 2014). Therefore, this paper will assist companies to identify ways they can positively motivate their employees to ensure maximum productivity. The paper will help
