Introduction

Universally acknowledge that human resource management plays an important role in

today’s competitive global economic environment. More and more organizations, no

matter large or small, public or private, manufacturing or service, have come to realize

that effective human resource management is essential for optimally utilizing creativity

and achieving individual and organizational goals. In the organizations, managing and

developing employees has the most powerful effect on overall performance of the

organizations.

However, in spite of the growing recognition of the importance of effective people

management, which holds a firm theoretical foundation, actually helps people work

better in business practice. Two aspects are very critical in human resource management.

Motivation is one aspect that plays an important role in an effective human resource

management. On one hand, motivation is involved with the formal process of work well

on employee performance against agreed objective, with the primary aim to improve

performance and motivation. On the other hand, when motivation theories put into

practice, numerous problems come into existence which managers need to address them

in order to make their employees work effectively. Another indispensable aspect to

achieve an effective human resource management is reward. “Reward management is the

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design, implementation, maintenance, communication, and evolution of reward processes

which help organizations to improve performance and achieve objectives” (Marchington,

1996). An organization should combine financial reward such as extra pay with non-

financial reward like job promotion and extra holidays. In practice, different employees

demand various kinds of reward, so organizations and managers are required to adjust the

reward ways according to different employees and situations.

Based on this, this paper intends to study and identify motivation works well in theory

but to some extent fails in practice. Firstly, it will analyze and evaluate whether the

theory of motivation itself works well. Secondly, it will focus on an analysis and

discussion of some problems and issue when motivation theory put into practice. In this

regard, problems associated with the implementation of motivation will be demonstrated

concerning four aspects, Hertzberg’s two-factor model, Hierarchy of needs, Goal-setting

theory and reward. Finally, on the basis of all the above argument, it will safely reach a

conclusion after careful consideration on motivation in theory as well as in practice.

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Motivation and Reward in Theory

Motivation is important in defining performance expectations and providing valuable

information of improvement. There have been a number of theories putting forward as to

why people choose to exert their efforts in particular directions at particular times. A

knowledge of motivation theory provides a framework for managers who make use of it

into practical work. Therefore, Hertzberg’s two-factor theory, Hierarchy of needs theory

and goal-setting model will be discussed and evaluated that they work well. If done

correctly in theory, motivation could become the most valuable instrument for effective

operation management.

According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, human needs include physiological, safety,

belongingness, self-esteem, and self-actualization needs. Maslow states that the lower

needs must be met before the others can be achieved (Bittel, 1990). A person starts at the

bottom of the hierarchy and will initially seek to satisfy basic needs. Once basic needs are

met, attention will turn to safety needs at work which include physical safety, protection

against unemployment or loss of income through sickness. Once a person has met the

basic and safety needs, the higher level of needs become important. So people want to be

accepted and to belong to different groups. And also people seek the esteem to gain

recognition through activities in the work. Self-actualization needs are the summit of

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Maslow's hierarchy of needs. This is often measured by the extent of success or challenge

at work.

Therefore, Maslow's model has great potential appeal in the business world. It seems

work effectively in theory which is the most important implement for managers to

motivate their employees. However, managers must be able to organize which level each

employee has reached, and then they can decide on suitable rewards.

Before Hertzberg proposed his two-factor theory, it was widely accepted that job

satisfaction and job dissatisfaction were regarded as opposite ends of the same continuum

(Gray, 1984). That is to say if something that cause job satisfaction is taken away, then

dissatisfaction will happen. But Hertzberg took his research and found out that one group

of factors was causing job satisfaction and another group of factors was causing

dissatisfaction (Gray, 1984). Hertzberg labelled the factors, which, when present, cause

job satisfaction, “motivators”, and the factors, which, when not present, cause job

dissatisfaction “hygienes”. According to Hertzberg, motivators are usually related to the

nature of the work itself, such as achievement, recognition, possibility of growth and

advancement. Hygiene factors, on the other hand, generally refer to the environment in

which the job is formed, like the salary, job security, working condition and company

policy (Gray, 1984).

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Hertzberg's two - factor theory is another much applied theory in the business. In theory,

if an employee did a good job and got recognition from colleagues and managers in an

organization, he would feel satisfied. But if recognition was not given, dissatisfaction

would not happen. On contrary, if the employee worked a lot of extra hours, but no extra

money was paid, he or she would feel dissatisfied, because salary, which belongs to

“hygienes” does not appear.

Goal setting as a motivational tool will lead to improved performance in the organization

when the goals are specific, accepted, challenging and feedback provided. Firstly, setting

specific goals means managers should set the goals that employees can work toward

(Gray, 1984). This indicates that managers cannot just ask employees to work their best,

but should tell them what they are required to achieve at the end of the work. Secondly,

“employee performance will be higher if the goals are accepted by those who must

achieve them” (Gray, 1984). Thirdly, goals should be challenging for employees to exert

themselves to achieve, but not too hard because employees may feel frustrated and give

up. Finally, employees should get feedback on their performance (Gray, 1984), which

means managers need to give comment on employees’ performance.

Setting goals is also considered very important for people to be successful in starting their

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own business. According to the goal setting theory, managers set goals of the

organization which should be specifically explained to workers and challenging enough,

after the goals were accepted by the employees, they would be finally achieved through

hard work. Therefore the performance of the organization would be improved.

The ways in which rewards are distributed within organizations have impact on the levels

of employee motivation. All reward systems are based on the assumptions of attracting,

retaining and motivating people. There are a number of rewards that can be obtained,

such as pay, promotion, praise and feelings of accomplishment. However, employees are

motivated by both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards (Hunt, 1992). On one hand, intrinsic

rewards are praise, achievement and challenge that provide by individuals as a result of

performing some task. On the other hand, extrinsic rewards are those that are provided to

the individual by someone else, such as salary, bonuses, prizes, etc.

The theory of reward is applied widely by organizations for their human resource

management. To ensure the reward system is effective, it is essential to consider the

rewards and strategies utilized and ensure the rewards are linked to the performance of

employees. If the employees interpret reward system as evenhanded, consistent and

relevant, this is to say, a reward system will be successful in human resource

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management.

Motivation and Reward in Practice

Although motivation and reward in theories work well, but in practice they are not going

straight. Motivation and reward in practice will address some problems and issues, plus

many more realistic situations that managers or organizations face on a day-to-day basis

when they apply motivation and reward theories in their work.

“Hertzberg’s two-factor theory is quite useful in focusing on the importance of job centre

factors, particularly in view of their relevance to job enrichment and job

satisfaction”(Williams, 1978: 107). Hertzberg argues that only the higher level of needs

act as motivators. However, in practice the basic human needs in the work, such as

enough salary to live on, job security, and comfortable working condition should be met

first, otherwise employees’ dissatisfaction in practical work will occur. That is because

salary for daily life, job security and good working condition are basic things that

employees want to get through their jobs. If these basic needs were not met, employees

would feel dissatisfied even there exists such as sense of achievement, sense of

recognition and responsibility in their work. So when motivating employees, managers

should first try to achieve the hygiene factors that employees need.

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On the base of satisfying employees’ basic needs, if the ability of employees cannot be

fully utilized by the organizations, there will be the problems of motivation. So the

manager should focus on rearranging work when necessary, because different employees

need different motivators to inspire. Moreover, employees should be given the right level

of responsibility according to their different abilities.

To put Frederick Hertzberg’s theory into practice, managers should consider that motivate

one person may dissatisfy someone else. For example, increased responsibility for some

persons may be a motivator as they can grow and develop in their role, allowing them to

further their career. But to some other persons, increased responsibility can be a dis-

satisfier, particularly if pay does not reflect the new role or if they have been over-

stretched already. Therefore, managers need to consider their teams as a collection of

individuals, not as a homogeneous group with one set of wants and needs. That is to say,

managers should have a clear idea about what each employee need so as to increase job

satisfaction.

In practice, some factors may be within control by managers or organizations and

otherwise some may not. For example, it may not be possible to influence or change

company holiday policy, but managers could decide within the team how holidays are

allocated.

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“Maslow’s hierarchy of needs suggests that people are motivated by a number of factors

at work, aiming to satisfy on e particular need before moving on to attempt to satisfy the

next in the hierarchy” (Marchington, 1996:296). That is to say some relatively basic

needs such as food, shelter, jobs and sense of security have to be achieved before

individuals begin to consider belongingness needs, esteem needs and self actualisation.

But there are three problems with the Maslow model when real-life working practice is

considered. First of all, Individual seems to require different needs. So in practical work,

managers need not only to satisfy all their different needs but also motive them in

different ways in order to make employees work effectively. For those employees who

just start their working and focus on physiological needs, a promising higher salary is a

suitable motivator to them. For those who want to get the sense of belongingness, a

united and cooperated team group is what the manager should try to organize and provide

for this kind of employees.

The second problem for managers who put the Maslow model in practical work is that it

is difficult to decide whether a level has actually been satisfied for employees or not.

Since different employees have different cultural backgrounds in the work and they have

different kinds of needs in different circumstances and periods.

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Last but not least, sometimes people may demand physiological needs and belongingness

needs at the same time. For example, an employee wants to get a plentiful salary;

meanwhile, he also demands recognition and respect of his work from his colleagues.

This phenomenon is contradicted to Maslow’s theory, which suggests that people move to

the next stage of the hierarchy before the lower one is satisfied. Therefore, when doing

motivation, managers can not just focus on one special stage, but are required to find out

what the employees need from different stages of the hierarchy.

For the goal setting theory, it is focusing on individual’s effort in order to achieve

organizational goals. So for the organizations, whether the goal setting would lead to

employees’ improved performance should be considered (Gray, 1984). That is to say,

organizations should first set specific goals. And then select those individuals whose

goals can be linked to the organizations’ goals. After that managers should encourage

workers to develop action plans, as well as, they should design reward systems to

contributing to the goals of the organization. However, in practice work, sometimes

individuals are not clear with the goals that they wish to achieve. Even the individual

goals are the same as the organizations, the duration to achieve the goals are different

according to different employees. So they will achieve the goals at different times, which

influence the overall goals achieving in the organizations. Therefore, the problems facing

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the managers or organizations are “how to get the individual’s goals linked to the firm’s

goals and rewards for the time as possible” (Hunt, 1992:223). For managers, firstly they

should get to know the individual’s goals. This can be realized through analysing

employees’ performance outcomes and through communicating with them. Employees

with the same goals should be categorised together to form a team, and then the firm’s

goals should be stated to them clearly. Finally, managers need to link the individual goals

to the organizational goals.

Another problem happens to goal setting is to different employees, how difficult the goals

should be. According to Gray, goals should be difficult enough so that workers will have

to work hard to achieve them, but not too difficult that the workers will give up (Gray,

1984). The levels of ability are different among employees and employees have different

criteria to evaluate the difficulty. Some goals may be achievable to one person, but

unconquerable for another. Therefore, managers are required to evaluate employees’

ability level and their different criteria before assigning the goals to them.

For the reward systems, it should be fair and equitable. But each employee is different,

may need quite different reward systems. For some economically concerned and lazy

employees, high pay or extra pay may be effective. But for those employees who pay

more attention to work promotion or recognition form the company may, extra pay may

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not work to them. So managers should match the reward to the interests and goals of the

employees whenever possible, as well as make sure employees feel appreciated to the

reward.

In practice, financial issue is another problem that managers must face. Organizations

should consider about the financial issue that how much should to pay for their reward or

is the payment worth. Therefore, for managers or organizations, it is important to manage

the relationship between their financial issues and reward systems. Actually, rewarding

employees doesn’t have to be costly and there are some low cost suggestions to

managers. For example, Managers can take time to personally thank employees for doing

a good job or take a few minutes during a staff meeting to recognize a successful project.

There may be disputes about how performance is measured and whether an employee has

done enough to be rewarded. In practice, it is difficult to measure the performance of

employees and there is no norm of the performance. So when managers or organizations

carry out the performance related pay, they should standardize the performance of their

employees in order to pay for individuals according to their different performance.

The problem of reward systems in practice also happens when rewarding employees

individually does very little to encourage teamwork, sometimes it even causes

dissatisfaction from other team members or the break up of an effective team.

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Dissatisfaction occurs when the satisfactory achievement is the efforts of all the team

members, but organizations just reward one person of the team. So it is important for the

organization to find out whether the achievement is a team-working result or individual

working result. If the goal was realized by teamwork, then every one of the team should

be rewarded. The break up of an effective team may happen when a team member is

promoted or changed to another post in the organization. When the situation becomes

inevitable, organizations should consider making up for it through find an appropriate

person to take over the vacancy.

Conclusion

To sum up, this paper demonstrated on the issue of motivation, which works well in

theory but to some extent fails in practice. As known, motivation has become a mature

theory in the human resource management system and holds a firm theoretical foundation

after the past century’ development. More over, no organization all over the world can

deny the significance of motivation system in performance improvement and personal

development. However, it is still difficult to successfully implement motivation system in

practice since several problems concerning needs, Hertzberg’s two-factor model, Goal

setting and reward stand in the way. As a result, managers must always adapt to the

employees’ behaviour and motivate their employees according to different theories.

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On the basis of all above, it is clear that such an analysis and discussion of motivation is

of great help to gaining a more complete understanding of key areas of human resource

management in theory as well as in practice. At the same time, it is a good opportunity to

be fully aware of various problems associated with motivation practice, which make the

final success of the motivation impossible, sometimes even lead to an unfair, harmful and

useless system.

Therefore, taking into account of all these arguments, the conclusion was safely reached

that effective motivation in practice is becoming more and more crucial to the overall

success of any organizations, even though there is still a long way for the motivation

system to successfully take effect. According to Bacal (1998), it is great importance to

make great efforts to perform the process of motivation in a more effective way for the

purpose of getting value out of the time and energy.

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