5.2 Response

Student Post 1

You have provided thought-provoking comments on Expectancy Theory in public safety management. The constraints of budget restrictions and union rules lead to specific difficulties in motivating employees profitably. Your stress on intrinsic rewards and job enrichment as other ways of motivation represents an overlooked aspect of most traditional productivity improvement programs. Additionally, investigating non-financial incentives and creative solutions that take into account the public sector’s particular requirements will provide potential answers. Jobs with varying duties, responsibility, freedom, empowerment, and career advancement opportunities are critical in satisfying workers’ specific needs and can come to a position where the employee feels that the work by itself is worthy of putting more effort without the necessity of any external reward (Agbenyegah, 2019). Non-monetary incentives can have a strong effect on motivation and performance despite tight financial constraints.

Further, the inclusion of technology solutions or process improvements could be of help. Technology simplifies processes and decreases administrative overhead, and in the end, improves production without considerable financial investments. Your view emphasizes the need for developing innovative methods to encourage workers based on rewards other than old monetary rewards. Through the introduction of alternative approaches and the right utilization of available means of production, public safety managers can develop an active and efficient team, which will eventually ensure the success of the organization. In general, your thoughts provoke an important discussion of the subtleties of motivation in the public sector. By realizing these limitations and searching for new perspectives, managers can overcome these hurdles and establish an environment of motivation and success inside the organization.

Student Post 2

You provide an integrative view of productivity improvement programs and the manager’s role in motivating employees from the perspective of the Expectancy Theory. When you stress the significance of the match between rewards and organizational values and a supportive working environment, you capture critical aspects for improving employee motivation and performance. To close your discussion, the consideration of intrinsic motivation might provide useful knowledge. Competence, achievement, and autonomy requirements of people determine intrinsic motivation, which aligns with the finding that intrinsic motivation comes from an internal perception of autonomy during task engagement (Morris et al., 2022). The importance of intrinsic motivation is based on doing some activities for the sake of their satisfaction itself but not for external awards. Managers can benefit from this by giving you autonomy, mastery, and purpose i.e., identified in self-determination theory. This method dovetails with your focus on developing non-trivial opportunities for employees to be helpful and see the results of their work.

In addition, taking into account the dynamic remote work and virtual team environment, it is worthwhile to talk about approaches to develop motivation in this environment. The value of autonomy-supportive leadership and the provision of chances for skill development and feedback, especially in virtual settings. That is in line with your idea of keeping regular communication, giving feedback, and acknowledging people’s achievements, to keep the employees motivated all the time. Intrigue and enjoyment in activity can enhance intrinsic motivation by causing ‘flow,’ a prolonged state of attention and pleasure during task involvement that stretches one’s skillset (Morris et al., 2022). All in all, reward-value alignment is important, but understanding deeper drivers of intrinsic motivation and adjusting motivational approaches to the dynamic work environment can help employees work better within organizations.

References

Agbenyegah, G. K. (2019). Effect of financial and non-financial rewards on employee motivation in financial institution in Ghana. International Journal of Innovative Research and Development, 8(8), 121–130. https://doi.org/10.24940/ijird/2019/v8/i8/jul19029

Morris, L. S., Grehl, M. M., Rutter, S. B., Mehta, M., & Westwater, M. L. (2022). On what motivates us: A detailed review of intrinsic v. xtrinsic motivation. Psychological Medicine, 52(10), 1801–1816. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291722001611

5.1 Response

Response to Student Post 1

Thank you for sharing an insightful post! I should agree on the moment that a job enrichment strategy can serve as an alternative to a financial reward system and may be applicable to organizations that cannot afford extrinsic rewards. Job enrichment refers to the intrinsic motivation strategies that promote employee retention due to increased engagement. Instead of focusing on only their primary responsibilities, the worker can have an opportunity to contribute to the additional aspects of work within the organization, like in the instance with the patrol officer’s investigation you presented. I should expand on the benefits of job enrichment, which represent improvements in self-control, self-actualization, and self-respect (Tumi, Khasan, & Khalid, 2022). Job enrichment is beneficial for organizations that cannot afford financial rewards due to its alignment with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs for self-actualization because the worker feels they can contribute and that their contribution matter and is encouraged. The instance with patrol officers is that during the investigation of the area of crime, they notice some details that can help analyze the whole image of the peculiar crime. Instead of ignoring them by indicating to do their job, the detective and the team will listen to the details encountered by the patrol officer. From this point, job enrichment benefits the employee’s opportunity to gain additional professional experience. The problem, however, relates to the cost of training the workers on the additional skills. I should expand on the fact that sometimes employees feel so encouraged by their professional opportunities that they can fail to filter the precise and correct information from the basic assumptions. Consequently, job enrichment might deteriorate job quality, such as the investigation of the crime scene, if the worker is not competent enough to distinguish between illogical assumptions and practical facts.

References

Tumi, N., Khasan, A., & Khalid, J. (2022). Impact of compensation, job enrichment and enlargement, and training on employee motivation. Business Perspectives and Research, 10(1), 121-139. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/2278533721995353.

Response to Student Post 2

Thank you for sharing a thought-provoking post! I agree with you that informal participative decision-making programs represent the degree of autonomy in an individual’s decision-making on a specific project. The identified type of program implies that the worker does not have to report each step of their decision to the leader. I will expand on the theme by clarifying the interdependence of the informal participative decision-making programs and the goal-setting theory. Goal-setting theory indicates that the company exists to achieve goals, and goals’ achievement is directly interlinked with workers’ participation, motivation, and contribution (Goka, Agormedah, Achina, & Segbenya, 2024). The identified programs will benefit the organization when the goal is clearly set and when it aligns with the employees’ needs. In some cases, the professional requirements might be contrary to the workers’ professional and personal needs; the key task for a leader is to bring parallel how this specific task might benefit the worker and what long-term professional benefits they can get, like problem-solving, keeping temperance during the stressful tasks. The problem appears if, initially, before launching the program, the workers are not motivated to perform the tasks, neither personally nor as a whole team. The leader or supervisor has to focus on the individual’s goals first to prioritize their overall importance, contributions, and how the project can help them personally and professionally on a long-term basis. Consequently, due to goal-setting theory, the leader can ensure the worker’s autonomy in decision-making and their overall motivation to minimize involuntary participation in the participative decision-making programs.

References

Goka, K., Agormedah, E., Achina, S., & Segbenya, M. (2024). How dimensions of participatory decision-making influence employee performance in the health sector: A developing economy perspective. Journal of Chinese Human Resources Management, 15(1), 79-95. 10.47297/wspchrmWSP2040-800506.20241501.

References