1. Concept of Motivation

A company can hire skilled employees and develop their abilities; however, the endeavor does not always result in satisfactory performance. This means that the employees' performance is autonomous and affected by their inclination to perform the job. Performance, ability, and motivation are functionally interrelated as follows:

Performance = f (ability, motivation)

To acquire optimal performance, the employees shall not only exhibit ability but also strive to achieve the company's goals and contribute to attaining them. There are substantial differences in the level of employee motivation. According to psychologists, performance result is differentiated ±30% based upon employee motivation level among those who possess the same capabilities to perform the job.

2. Combining the Interests of Employees and Company


Employees have their own interests, as do companies. Conflicts arise when the employees' desires do not match the company's pursuits. Accordingly, the company shall provide more benefits to those yielding to the company's pursuits far above other pursuits. For this type of incentive reward, a structured reward system must be developed so as to combine employee and company interests.

3. Motivation Theory

It is necessary to understand how employees behave in order to satisfy individual desires and improve company performance at the same time. Thus, the company needs to understand employee motives, their causes, and their development.

(1) Level of desires (Maslow)

1) Physiological needs

Physiological needs include sleep, food and drink, etc. They are basic and influential. Survival needs in the company are wages, welfare, etc.

2) Safety and security needs

In addition to survival needs are safety and security needs, which include security from danger, accident, disease, violence, crime, cold, heat, etc. The company takes measures to fulfill safety and security needs through job security, pension system (or severance pay), etc.

3) Social needs

Social needs are desired when survival needs and safety and security needs have been met. Social needs include friendship, affection, membership, etc. with other people or groups. For these needs, the company should encourage a friendly atmosphere among its employees and promote collegiality.

4) Esteem needs

Esteem needs are desires of people for recognition in society, desires to maintain self-esteem and self-respect, and to earn respect from others. Esteem can be identified with feelings of dignity, high social standing, self-esteem, etc. Thus, the company shall strive to appoint a job appropriate to employee age and assign positions after proper career development.

5) Self-Actualization needs

Self-Actualization needs are the greatest needs among all human needs. They are needs for self-satisfaction and a realization of one's dreams.

(2) Expectation theory

An individual chooses the best behavior to produce optimum results after evaluating all possible alternative behaviors in the process of behavior-related decision-making. In this case, motivation is affected by three factors.

First, expectancy is a person's reliability factor to bring about specific results in certain activities. Secondly, instrumentality presents rewards when one establishes a certain level of results. Lastly, valence is the intensity of preference concerning specific rewards.

For instance, when a student prepares for a test, they may expect to get a higher score if he studies hard for it (expectancy). The student also believes that they may qualify for a scholarship if they receives a high score on the test (instrumentality). Thus, when the student sees that the test score and scholarship are important (valence), they is motivated to study harder.

(3) Reinforcement theory

According to the reinforcement theory, desirable behaviors cannot persist and will gradually disappear unless there is continuous reinforcement. That is, rewarded behaviors have a greater tendency to be repeated. Therefore, when an employee performs excellent work or improves productivity substantially, or suggests a contributing idea, such behaviors can be maintained with rewards. However, absence of rewards lowers the expectancy of the recurrence of such behaviors. This means higher performance can be least expected if the employee's performance or contributions are not reinforced.

4. Methods of Motivation

(1) Tangible rewards

A powerful incentive to promote higher performance is offering tangible rewards such as additional wages and welfare. Monetary rewards are especially effective to those employees who are especially concerned about survival needs on account of their living status. Nevertheless, such tangible rewards are limited since they can degrade the company's market competition due to excessive private expenditures.

(2) Intangible rewards

1) Job designing
Employees are often discouraged from work due to simplicity of the work, weariness, boredom, etc. or on account of extreme job standardization. The company can overcome this problem through job rotation, job enlargement, job substantiality, job crossing, semi-autonomous work groups, working hours adjustment, etc.

2) Job security
Maslow's theory on the safety and security needs is applied.

3) Working conditions
Employee desires for safe and comfortable working conditions are attributable to their safety needs. The employer cannot expect the employees to be enthusiastic about work if they are working under poor conditions.

4) Fair leadership
An employer's outstanding leadership not only promotes effective work performance but also contributes to the company's overall performance.

5) Company culture
The employees are affected greatly by the values upheld by their company and the amount of autonomy and decision-making authority bestowed upon them. Successful companies emphasize creativity and active participation. Employees of such companies tend to work harder.

(3) Human-relation systems

1) Counseling
Counseling from psychologists with professional knowledge assists employees with problems they cannot handle alone. Accordingly, it reduces the number of conflicts among employees, helps them maintain a positive attitude, and addresses many personal issues.

2) Participation system
This system is designed to motivate the employees to work by providing an opportunity to participate in management.

3) Grievance handling system
A mature society has the social power and ability to disclose potential conflicts and solve problems through discussion. Although not all conflicts can be solved, many can be mitigated through disclosures. Thus, the employer shall prepare certain procedures to fairly handle the complaints or grievances of the employees.