Motivation and Its Impact on Employees Commitment and Work Performance Essay

Motivation and Its Impact on Employees Commitment and Work Performance - Essay Example According to Gallup Organization research, â€Å"only 29 percent of employees are motivated and energized† (Daft 2007: 248). A similar Towers Perrin global survey reveals even lower results with only 14 percent of employees across the world showing high engagement levels in their jobs. Empowering employees promotes motivation which in turn increases their engagement and commitment to their jobs, these factors raise their performance levels, and ultimately increase the company’s competitive advantage. Employee motivation is inducement or incentive which may be self-generated or produced by external forces, that promotes satisfaction and an urge towards improvement in performance. Employee commitment is defined as the attachment, loyalty, and the â€Å"strength of the individual’s identification with, and involvement in a particular organization† (Armstrong 2006: 271), and includes the employee’s extent of engagement in his job. Productivity is define d as â€Å"the efficient as well as the effective use of resources to achieve outcomes† (Berman, Bowman, West & Van Wart 2005: 309). Productivity is related to the quality of human resources and their performance. Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to examine the significance of empowering employees to increase their motivation levels, and with the help of relevant theories and examples explain how motivation can affect employees’ commitment and performance at work. The Empowerment of Employees to Motivate Them Empowerment is the process of increasing employees’ responsibilities while holding them accountable for outcomes. The purpose of empowerment is to get employees to take responsibility for producing results rather than merely â€Å"following rules and regulations without producing tangible results† (Berman et al, 2005: 316). It includes various factors such as re-engineering and re-designing existing delivery processes to make them less error-prone, more efficient, effective, and timely. Re-organization of the company’s operations to eliminate wastage of resources and personnel, and replacement of earlier methods of working with information technology are also reforms that empower the workforce. Replacement of old tasks with high technology equipment or new approaches would require staff training for new responsibilities. Any anxiety on the part of workers should be addressed by human resources personnel to help employees increase their skill sets, and when any jobs become obsolete the employees should be helped to find comparable jobs within the organization. An example of addressing employees’ concerns regarding management’s disinterest in their welfare, is the Scotland-based insurance intermediary Kwik-Fit Financial Services.