Factors Affecting Workplace Efficiency: An Essay On Motivational Factors For Daily Wage Earners In Facility Industries.

Strengths of the Article

The research of the article is related to daily wage earners. Motivating factors for employees of facility industries and big enterprises can be slightly different. The article is reviewed to understand the factors that can increase the efficiency at workplace. The factors which affect efficiency are well analyzed in the article which includes both intra and extra business factors. The article also analyzes the factors that can reduce workplace efficiency like unhealthy relationships at workplace and stress. The article discusses the role of manager in motivating employees and thus increasing workplace efficiency.

The strengths of the article are that the article is able to analyze the factors that affect efficiency at workplace, the research work is good in the article, the perception of managers towards employees is studied and a manufacturing facility of weaving and fabric factory is chosen for the research .The utilization of software tools which is Statistical Package for Social Sciences makes the analysis of data smooth and easy in the article. Meaningful insights are drawn from the data analysis and robust use of statistical tools help in analysis of the data in the article.

The article is successful in identifying several methodologies which can increase efficiency in organizations. Enlargement of business,  Business growth and development, job enrichment and work study, Value Analysis Method, Zero-based Budget Management ,brain storming methods are several methods to increase efficiency.  Thus the strength of the article is that it analyzes both qualitative and quantitative methods to increase efficiency.

The strength of the article lies in the fact that the article describes the conditions which negatively affect workplace efficiency like unsafe and unhealthy workplace environment, lower level of motivation and pay.

The article is successful in determining how motivation positively affects workplace efficiency. The theories and techniques of motivation which can increase the efficiency of wage earners are discussed in the article. The article provides a vivid viewpoint about the behavior and perceptions of managers and their role in motivating employees so that their efficiency is increased.

The data of the research is well presented depicting the sampling techniques, research methodologies, research tools and data is analyzed well. Inferences from the data are presented well.

The article is based on research of facility industry, weaving and fabric factory is chosen for sample collection. Thus the article focuses only on one particular industry and section of the society. The article fails to provide insights about other industries or section of the society.

Methodologies to Increase Efficiency

The article makes an analysis of extrinsic factors of motivation that affect efficiency like marital status and duration of tenure. However motivation is often intrinsic in nature and is independent of external variables (Guclu and Guney 2017).

The author describes in the article that motivation has a huge role to play in increasing the efficiency of the wage earner. The employees should be motivated by the managers and a supportive environment should be created. I personally think that flexible work structure and a supportive work environment with participative decision making can be a perfect organization structure for multi-national organizations, where employees are educated and are self driven. However, the motivation from managers may not completely increase the efficiency of daily wage earners in facility industries. Daily wage earners often require monitoring and flexible work structure can often hamper their productivity. A strong span of control can increase the efficiency and productivity of daily wage earners.

Also according to me, the daily wage earners are more driven by the lower degree of needs in the Maslow’s Pyramid like need for shelter, food, clothing and higher level of needs at the apex of   the Pyramidal structure like self-actualization needs may not fully motivate the daily wage earners because they are not completely self-driven. I agree with some points of the thesis statement and disagree with some other points.

Motivation has huge role to play in big enterprises and multinational companies. Enterprises should not follow a rigid and hierarchical structure but should have a flexible work structure. Supportive environment and participative decision making can increase the efficiency of the employees. Motivation from managers and flexible work structure can increase creativity and innovation at workplace thus making the workplace more productive. Fun at work and cheerful work environment can increase the efficiency of the employees. Employees in big enterprises are self driven and the higher degree of needs in Maslow’s hierarchical structure like need for self actualization can play a huge role in motivating these employees (Wright, Christensen and Isett 2013).

The efficiency at workplace is also increased by training and mentoring the employees. Development programs for employees should be constructed carefully in big enterprises like banking industry.  Motivation at workplace and efficiency of workers are affected by factors like training and development and career planning. Employees should have training and mentoring sessions and these sessions should be reviewed by the employees (Bliesner, Liedtke and Rohn 2014).  The objectives of the training and mentoring session should be set from before and the employees should review the training session in the beginning , middle and end of the session so that feedback from employees are taken and it is ensured that training objectives are fulfilled. Career and succession planning has also huge role to play in motivating employees and increasing their efficiency. Employees should be given opportunities to upgrade their skills to survive in the highly competitive workplace. An open model of communication should be followed at workplace and the self-efficacy of the employees has huge role to play in increasing their efficiency (Cherian and Jacob 2013). The managers should inform the employees about the details of the tasks in advance, the complexities of the tasks and the skills required to accomplish the tasks should be clearly explained by the managers to the employees. The cognitive skills of the employees should be improved and the employees should be motivated by managers to take up challenging tasks (Nielson 2013). Thus, managers do have a huge role to play in increasing workplace efficiency as discussed by the author in the research article.

Role of Managers in Increasing Workplace Efficiency

The light hearted environment at workplace created by managers can be a motivating factor in increasing the workplace productivity and efficiency. The author clearly states that productivity of the workers in facility units can increase and their stress levels can be reduced if managers encourage fun at work which is true according to me (Gerow et al 2013).

However, according to me, the daily wage earners in the facility industry might require a higher span of control for higher productivity. These workers are not generally self driven and lower degree of needs like need for food, clothing and shelter are major motivating factors for these workers. So a strong monitoring of performance of the daily wage earners might me required by the managers. There can be mismanagement and wastage of time if participative decision making is followed and the opinions of the workers are considered. Pre-defined goals can increase the efficiency of these workers. So in facility industries managers should focus on setting the goals and conveying the same to workers. The workers are driven by extrinsic motivating factors like a financial reward, bonus and incentives and they should be awarded this monetary value to increase their productivity and efficiency. The intrinsic motivating factors may not have huge role to play to increase the productivity of these workers.

The tools of motivation can be tailor made in organizations. The motivating factors for all employees are not the same. For instance, for some employees intrinsic motivating factors like a better work culture and job satisfaction can prove to be beneficial to increase their efficiency and for some employees, extrinsic motivating factors have huge role to play to increase their efficiency (Dobre 2013).These employees are affected by motivating factors like bonus and commission and other monetary rewards like a pay hike. The line managers should communicate with the employees and try to identify the factors that motivate them to improve their efficiency at workplace (Parker 2014). Also empowering the employees and recognizing their accomplishments have huge role to play in motivation of employees (Goffee and Jones 2013).  Therefore, appraisals of employees should be conducted frequently. Appraisal tools should be holistic in nature and the performance of the employees should be reviewed by self, peers and managers like 360 degree appraisal methods (Blakstad and Andersen 2013).

Conclusion

The strong thesis statement of the article is clearly developed and while critiquing the article, some points of the thesis statement can be agreed with, while disagreement can be presented with some other points of the thesis statement. The manager’s supportive role can prove to increase the efficiency of the workers in big enterprises. For daily wage earners, span of control can be effective to increase efficiency. Participative decision making may not be fully effective for these workers as flexible work structure can lead to mismanagement. Also, financial reward and extrinsic motivation may play important role for these workers.

Reference Lists

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Cherian, J. and Jacob, J., 2013. Impact of self efficacy on motivation and performance of employees. International Journal of Business and Management, 8(14), p.80.

Dobre, O.I., 2013. Employee motivation and organizational performance. Review of Applied Socio-Economic Research, 5(1), pp.53-60.

Gerow, J.E., Ayyagari, R., Thatcher, J.B. and Roth, P.L., 2013. Can we have fun@ work? The role of intrinsic motivation for utilitarian systems. European Journal of Information Systems, 22(3), pp.360-380.

Goffee, R. and Jones, G., 2013. Creating the best workplace on earth. Harvard business review, 91(5), pp.98-106.

Guclu, H. and Guney, S., 2017.The Effect of the Motivation Techniques Used by Managers to Increase the Productivity of their Workers and an Application.

Nielson, K.B., 2013. Online language learning in the workplace: Maximizing efficiency, effectiveness, and time-on-task. In Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on E-Learning in the Workplace.

Parker, S.K., 2014. Beyond motivation: Job and work design for development, health, ambidexterity, and more. Annual review of psychology, 65, pp.661-691.

Wright, B.E., Christensen, R.K. and Isett, K.R., 2013. Motivated to adapt? The role of public service motivation as employees face organizational change. Public Administration Review, 73(5), pp.738-747