Content theories are a type of motivational theory which explains how people become motivated by their own individual needs. These can be personal needs and the varied strength of these needs will determine how motivated a person is to fulfil them. Process theories describe how a person creates specific goals for themselves and examine the way in which they will achieve these goals. This process will occur when a person becomes motivated to achieve their specific goal by following the requirements needed to obtain this achievement.
A Process Theory
A specific process theory of motivation is Locke’s goal setting theory which describes that employees are motivated to complete individual tasks set by them in order to achieve specific goals. These goals may be set by senior management giving them encouragement to complete these goals improving their quality of work performance. If a goal set for an employee is more personal to themselves they will be more inclined to want to achieve this goal as they will have the concentration to complete the tasks leading up to it and have the influence of other management staff. This theory also states that a strong motivation to achieve a goal is the specific feedback given to the employee encouraging them to complete tasks set.
How an organisation motivates their staff
I have chosen John Lewis as an organisation to focus on its motivational strategies for its employees. John Lewis partnership focuses highly on sharing profits with their employees taking recognition of their loyalty to the company. ‘The most tangible advantage of being a Partnership is the annual bonus, where we distribute a proportion of profits to Partners as a percentage of salary’. John Lewis also has an annual pay review to analyse their employees salary to ensure its in contrast with the standard of work. The organisation also helps to encourage motivation by changing employees responsibility when alternating their job roles on a trial basis getting employees to focus on learning new skills in the working environment. Management training schemes aim to suit everyone in the management field of work to improve their managerial skills and goals are set to help achieve this. John Lewis partnership jobs also stated that ‘Every employee at every level of the business is encouraged to take on new challenges or develop a career in Management’.
These motivational strategies can impact on employee’s standards of work and can show the factors of motivation of Locke’s goal setting theory. This is because most of these strategies are aimed at setting goals for employees to achieve such as alternating job roles which can provide the input of a task set followed by the motivation gained to complete it resulting in a goal achieved by the individual employee. This follows the process pattern of the goal setting theory with an outcome of achievement and therefore further motivation to achieve more goals set. John Lewis’s annual pay review is an example of the feedback process in Locke’s theory as manager’s look at individual’s contracts and give single advice ensuring that employees feel they are treated fairly encouraging motivation within the workplace. ‘Chris Charman, a senior consultant in executive compensation and rewards at Towers Perrin, believes the John Lewis Partnership is an ideal type of organisation to offer a profit-sharing scheme because it enables front-line retail staff to identify how they impact on the business' profitability’. This statement suggests that employees will feel more motivated to work hard for the business in the long term as they will have an individual identity seen by senior management. This also benefits team morale and social relationships within the work team as all employees feel there is equality within the work place reducing risks of industrial action which may cause bad reputation for the organisations brand. . If more goals are set to a higher standard for staff to achieve within the job roles that are altered on a trial basis, staff will be able to combine what they have learnt previously to focus on learning new skills increasing their future motivation levels.
Other Process theories
Locke’s findings of his goal setting theory established that more specific goals improved individual’s task performance than goals with less importance resulting in reduced motivation levels. Findings have shown also that feedback is a crucial part in the process theory to reward employees of their achievements when reaching desired goals. This can also relate to other process theories such as Expectancy theory (Vroom, Porter and Lawler) which explains that following effort and performance behaviour, a perceived reward is gained resulting in job satisfaction which in turn achieves increased motivation levels. This theory states that effort is required to achieve a goal set which relates to Locke’s theory as the more difficult the goal set is the more effort will be given in task performance to achieve the desired goal. The other process theory of motivation is Adam’s Equity theory which defines that a person’s motivation changes depending on the equity of work and that performance behaviour should be level to the perceived outcome. This links to the other two process theories as effort alters with the skill needed for each goal to be achieved therefore contrasting with Locke’s theory stating that motivation levels alter with task and goal difficulty.
In conclusion, the process theories can be effective when contrasting ideas of how organisations motivate their staff and how this affects their task performance. However employees must be willing to want to achieve goals set, and these goals must be developed by the individual to encourage them to seek goal achievement and become more motivated. Research from all three process theories can help to understand the fundamentals of how motivation is formed within a work environment and shows that steps must be taken to work up the levels of motivation encouraging loyalty of workers to organisations and improvement of work quality in the long term.
Reference List
John Lewis Partnership jobs (2011) John Lewis Partnership (online) Available from: http://www.jlpjobs.com/your-career/training-development.htm [Accessed 22nd November 2011]
John Lewis (2011) John Lewis (online) Available from: http://www.johnlewis.com [Accessed 22nd November 2011]
