Relationship Between Motivation and Performance

Abstract

Motivation plays a significant role in employee performance within a company. Highly motivated employees will put forth a certain amount of energy and time to achieve goals, whereas employees who are unmotivated will be less engaged and show decrease in performance. In order for employers to increase productivity and sustainability, they must first understand the forces that drive employees to be motivated in the workplace. Goal setting, employee engagement, organizational justice, and organizational behavior modification can improve employee motivation if used properly.

Relationship between Motivation and Performance

Motivation refers to the forces within a person that affects the direction, intensity, and persistence of his or her voluntary behavior (McShane & Von Glinow, 2013, p. 130). Motivation is one of the four essential drivers of individual behavior and performance. According to McShane & Von Glinow (2013, p. 130), the prime movers of employee motivation are drives and emotions. When drives, or primary needs are met in the workplace, employees feel a sense of balance. Drives and emotions ultimately determine employee decisions and behaviors. This paper examines the Cincinnati Super Subs case study, to identify problems that exist in the restaurant due to lack of motivation and low performance. This paper concludes with solutions management can implement to increase employee motivation and performance.

Cincinnati Super Subs

Cincinnati Super Subs, a larger super sub outlet with 300 take-away restaurants has experienced below average profitability over the past 18 months (McShane & Von Glinow, 2013, p. 156). This has resulted in a reduction of monthly bonuses for both the restaurant manager and assistant manager. In addition, there has been an increase in deliberate wastage by employees, which has also led to a reduction in monthly bonuses for the managers. Team leaders are reluctant to report any accidental or deliberate wastage due to the discipline policy which requires immediate dismissal (McShane & Von Glinow, 201, p. 156).

There has been a decrease in employee morale, resulting in 20 percent of the staff leaving for other jobs, and even those who stayed discouraging friends from working at the restaurant. Due to the increase in deliberate wastage, the restaurant manager changed the food allowance policy, however the change resulted in more staff being excluded from receiving the allowance. Because employees feel that the food allowance is meager, and their paychecks are small, they continue to violate company policy by giving away free food to their friends, or eating meals when they don’t qualify for the food allowance (McShane & Von Glinow, 2013, p. 156). Due to continuous issues in the restaurant, relations between employees and managers have soured.