Workforce inspiration is a favored and critical subject in the management of a business entity. It is well known that motivation is a procedure that eventually prompts people to behave in the desired way. Highly motivated employees are essential to the success of an organization (Jungert et al., 2017). Over the years, several motivation theories have been developed, including but not limited to Herzberg’s two-factor theory and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. All developed theories of staff motivation emphasize the importance of employee motivation in the success of a business organization.
A business can make do with commonplace staff, but capable employees can propel an average organization to achieve prominence. Likewise, crummy employees can result in a prosperous business empire flounder and collapsing and thus, a well-functioning workforce is essential (Jungert et al., 2017). With job markets being more and more inflexible, the retention and development of employee loyalty have become important to a greater extent and a continuous task for business managers. It is less feasible for an appeased staff member to pursue greener pastures and thus, the implementation of positive management policies will have a desirable result in employee loyalty.
Motivation is a way of actualizing high levels of employee devotion in order to achieve organizational goals, and this circumstance is sustained by meeting an employee’s needs. Dohlman et al. (2019) found that motivation has a positive role in employee retention. The Timber Building Company, the company has managed to retain most of its original employees over its thirty-five years of existence by providing competitive salaries and great benefits. The employees were thus motivated to remain at the company due to this and hence the success of the company was achieved. Maslow’s theory states that employees are driven by unmet needs, which are in a stratified form and prevent staff from being motivated by a need area unless all lower-level needs have been met.
According to Maslow’s theory, employees’ desires are stratified into five distinct levels. The needs at the lower end are much more intense drivers of employee motivation than the subsequent upper levels. He posed that the lower levels must be partially satisfied before an employee will be motivated to work toward the higher categories (Dohlman et al., 2019). Physiological, safety, social, self-esteem, and self-actualization needs were the five categories that he hypothesized.
At the Timber Building Company, the employee’s psychological needs, which are at the lowest level of Maslow’s theory, were satisfied by having a job in the first place. These were the need for food, shelter, clothing and security which having the job provided. By providing competitive salaries and benefits, the safety needs which are the subsequent part of Maslow’s theory were met. This included, but was not limited to, the ability of the staff members to provide financially for their families, and their psychological and physical needs.
Progressing with Maslow’s theory, the need for social acknowledgment comes next. Having strong personal roots in an organization or company is a good predictor of employee retention (Dohlman et al., 2019). A sense of belonging, forming friendships and social groups within the company was essential. This was partly met at the Timber Building Company because as the success of the company grew, creative activities were automated, and thus the number of staff was reduced, limiting the social interaction among employees. Although the other motivators were being met, the decrease in interactions among employees affected the social connections that could be had within the company. It was hard for the supervisors to connect with employees when all they dealt with were robots.
The fourth level of Maslow’s theory is the eagerness for educational and professional advancement opportunities. When the creative process was automated and the number of clients was limited by the niches chosen, the employees could no longer challenge themselves by creating new designs. Their work became monotonous and boring as the job was not as challenging as before as a result of the automation. This led to stagnation in professional development for the engineers and designers.
Self-actualization is the final and top level in Maslow’s theory. In their research, Dohlman et al. (2019) found that this was the most common reason employees quit their jobs in search of greener pastures. No matter how great the benefits and competitive salaries are offered, the opportunities to shine professionally and attain new understanding are more important than financial abundance (Dohlman et al., 2019). It is not about the money, with most of the work automated and the CEO and Chairman of the company dealing with clients, the supervisors, technicians, and engineers at the TBC felt they could not grow professionally.
In conclusion, Maslow’s Hierarchy can be said to characterize human needs. Velmurugan and Sankar (2017) state that most staff members have different interests and different thoughts, but not everyone is only in need of money. With this in mind, the CEO and Chairman of Timber Building Company should apply Maslow’s theory of motivation to retain their employees and motivate them more. Vemurugan and Sankar (2017) noted that Maslow’s theory is the best for motivating employees. They should not just offer financial incentives and benefits but also cater to their basic, psychological, and self-fulfillment needs too. This will help in ensuring the longevity and success of their company after they retire.
References
Dohlman, L., DiMeglio, M., Hajj, J., & Laudanski, K. (2019). Global brain drain: How can the Maslow theory of motivation improve our understanding of physician migration? MDPI. Web.
Jungert, T., Broeck, A. V. den, Schreurs, B., & Osterman, U. (2017). How colleagues can support each other’s needs and motivation: An intervention on employee work motivation. International Association of Applied Psychology. Web.
Velmurugan, T. A., & Sankar, J. G. (2017). A comparative study on motivation theory with Maslow’s hierarchy theory and two-factor theory in the organization. Indo-Iranian Journal of Scientific Research, 1(1), 204-208.