Midterm Case Study Motivating Employees

Employee Motivation

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Employee Motivation

Employee motivation is a very important aspect in any organization. This is most commonly the driving force behind every successful organization. Human beings in general are emotional beings who are most often than not driven by some aspect of motivation to get things running in an organization. Employee motivation is therefore paramount to any company that desires to bring out its best and to achieve maximum profits. Employees tend to be easily demotivated and once this sets in, it becomes very difficult to achieve your goals as an organization .

There are several advantages of employee motivation and that is the reason as to why it is a critical aspect in any organization. To begin with, it leads to increased employee commitment at the workplace. The employees tend to feel appreciated and therefore increase their efforts at work. Because of this, they also become self-motivated thus increasing their total level of commitment to the facility. Secondly, it leads to increased employee satisfaction. Once this aspect is achieved then the company can literally achieve anything. Employee satisfaction is a very important source of joy, which makes the employees work even better thus increasing the total work output and even the profits at large. Thirdly, it increases employee efficiency and improves relationships at the workplace .

At Kaluyu Memorial Hospital, there are several employee demotivation factors and this could explain the increase in the hospital returns and the reduction in the total profits attained by the organization. First, there is poor communication and relationships within the hierarchical levels of the hospital. For any facility to achieve its very best there has to be a good relationship between one employee cadre and the next. At Kaluyu, employee are seen to be afraid of the senior colleagues and therefore there is very poor communication at this level. For every organization to grow, then there has to be effective communication within the facility regardless of their position.

This encourages teamwork and facilitates easy correction between the employees, which allows for self-improvement. The delivery of files for instance can be an opportunity to interact between on employee and the other. To inquire how their days are progressing and even to inquire if they are facing any challenges.

The next demotivation factor is the existence of tension between employees, especially between the doctors and nurses. The main issue here being the lack of appreciation rendered to the team. It is brought about by the fact that the nurses feel like all the work is done by them yet the credit is given to the doctors. Lack of appreciation can be very detrimental to any organization. In this case for instance, the nurses feel like their work is not valued, neither is it appreciated. They therefore tend to dislike the doctors because of this reason. This creates unnecessary animosity within the two teams, which is quite unfortunate since for patient management to be at its very best, then the two teams have to work together to ensure the patient is taken care of wholesomely.

Thirdly, the workplace appears to be terrific and unpleasant. This makes the employees look forward to ending their shifts and getting home early enough. In a situation whereby the employee feels satisfied, then they are bound to enjoy the workplace and most often even get lost in their work to miss the log out time. In this scenario, the reverse is true. Most employees cannot wait to get home and this could only mean one thing; that the workplace is not remotely motivating or even enjoyable to be.

Next, there is very low self-motivation to do better. By the time an employee feels comfortable to come back to work in the same clothes as the previous day, then it shows that they have lost interest. They are not interested in looking presentable at work or even creating lasting impressions since there is no advantage pegged to that. This therefore depicts a very low motivation by the employees, which is partly a fault by the administration, as well as the employees themselves. Insufficient motivation is also depicted when several employees are seen to be calling in sick with the absence of valid reasons. This shows that they do not enjoy the time spent at the hospital and would rather spend it elsewhere at the expense of their jobs.A quick solution to this is to create a monthly award for the best dressed employee and the employee with the best conduct which looks into several aspects within employees, not only outward appearances.

Another factor that depicts contributes to demotivation is the presence of poor relationships between employees. It has been stated that nurses and other employees seem to dominate other individuals at the same position. This shows that there is lack of respect between the employees and therefore poor working interrelationships. This leads to poor working environments, which ultimately limits productivity among the employees. This lack of respect also contributes to the poor participation of all employees especially in meetings. The other cadre of employee who feel looked down upon then tends to refrain from contributing their points for the fear of being reproached. This makes it difficult for individuals to work together as a team generally.

The final demotivational factor is the absence of the necessary social amenities. Most importantly, the mothers working for the facility lack an area to pump breast milk for their children. They presently use bathrooms for this purpose which is highly unhygienic and albeit somewhat disgusting. Being a hospital, this exposes both the mothers and their children to easily transmissible bacterial and viral infections especially with the low immunity of breastfed infants. This could be a highly demotivational factor for nursing employees and can even contribute to several requests for day offs. The refrigerators are also in poor working condition and therefore even when they store their milk, it runs a risk of going ad very fast which can then bring about complications to their children. A very important point of motivation brought about by this scenario is the creation of a clean and comfortable room equipped with sofa sets and working refrigerators to give room to these women to be able to feed their infants without any complications and in a very comfortable manner .

According to Maslow, human beings have a hierarchy of needs that often needs to be addressed in order to come up with the best outcomes whether at work or elsewhere. This hierarchy has also been used in several instances to bring about employee motivation. This is because, when followed to the latter, then employees become motivated leading to the best outcomes at the workplace. At the base of the pyramid is the most important need. These are the basic/physiological needs. They include food, clothing, water, warmth and sex. For any human being to function effectively, these aspects have to be provided in one way or another. The employees therefore have to be provided with facilities to allow them to attain these needs either by providing adequate salaries or by provision of other measures to achieve their basic needs

At Kaluyu memorial, we can achieve this by providing housing services for the employees either within or next to the hospital. This is because on several occasions, the employees leave late from work and may be required to report early or even at odd hours, this can be achieved better when the housing is provided next to the hospital. The hospital can also provide good food to the employees over lunch hour and place a policy whereby everyone eats at the same place at a given time of the day. This will create a time for interaction within the hospital and ultimately improve communication and relations within the hospital. The hospital should also ensure that the employees receive adequate salaries befitting their titles and that can enable them to sustain their other basic needs.

The second level of needs are the safety needs. These include the need for security, order and stability. For the best outcomes, the employees require a sense of security within the workplace. This includes both physical security from harm, which may be done to them at the workplace, and psychological security of mainly job retention. This can be achieved by the presence of security firms around the hospital to ensure that the employees are protected from rogue patients and relatives. In addition, those working on short term contracts can be placed on long-term employments.

The third level is usually a social need of love and belonging. For the establishment of stable relationships, employees have to feel accepted by the others and even by their bosses. At Kaluyu this is mainly lacking due to the poor relations at the workplace. Everyone should be allowed to respect the opinions of others and there should be a system to allow for good communication within the different cadres at the hospital. There should also be a bonding mechanism created by the administration to ensure that employees form a loving bond between one another.

The fourth level is the need for esteem. Individuals need to be recognized by the peers for whatever they set out to do and achieve the initial goal. This gives them a sense of power and achievement. This is whereby the provision of awards come in. Self-actualization is the fifth level. Humans need to attain their potential fully and when this is achieved then they get motivated even better. This can be achieved once self-motivation at Kaluyu is worked on to ensure they achieve their very best

At the very top of the hierarchy is the need for self-transcendence. Here, the employee needs to attain the ability to unite with their entire being by achieving all thy desire and experience full satisfaction. In conclusion, a communication system needs to be put in place to ensure that this situation at hand is handled extremely well. First, the human relations unit needs a loving figure, an individual who can easily relate with the employees at a personal level and look at the employee as more than just an employee. In addition, there needs to be a direct line through which an employee who desires to talk to the director gets a chance to do so. Thirdly, suggestion boxes need to be increased at the hospital to ensure all suggestions and feedback reach the necessary offices. In addition, free communication between one employee and the other should be encouraged to allow for transparency and better relations within the facility.