Question

6. Ques: Discuss the role of feedback in employee performance.

7. Ques: What is the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards?

9. Ques: How does money influence employee motivation?

Subjects. Organization Behavior Management

Answer 1

Ans. 6. Feedback plays a critical role in improving the performance of employees working at different levels and the hierarchy of a business organization. Timely and effective feedbacks and structured feedback frameworks are nowadays used by performance managers along with the setting of performance goals, for achieving successful performance. The simple fact behind it is that people would be performing better when they know timely what they are doing good and what isn't working well enough. This feedback can be gathered from several sources. These sources include the immediate supervisors and managers, peers, colleagues measurement systems, and even customers. Feedback systems for improving performance include components like:

Specificity- feedbacks that relate to a particular goal, are set following the performance-related expectations and has been laid before the work processes begin are effective towards providing objective, tangible, and powerful clues on performance.
Timeliness- feedback should come to the employees at the right moment so that they can be more confident and can improve the work processes in time.

Communication- feedbacks should be e rendered and delivered to the employee on a more positive note, which leaves room for improvement and prevents depression or frustration. Complete, factual, and accurate feedbacks help employees gather clues, ideas, and information in the right areas and provide for performance improvement.

The naturally-occurring feedbacks for the employees include the self-evident feedbacks (feedbacks that the employees can see themselves) and the automatic feedbacks which may involve the scope of work. For instance, a broader work scope of an employee would mean that he can better determine the quality-related aspects of the end products and hence can self evaluate better. Carefully planned feedbacks are the other category of feedback that may be provided using a well-formulated and implemented measurement system, as in the Total Quality Management systems. Self-evaluation, self-efficacy, and planned improvement in performance can be all attained through feedbacks, which are help employees know their goals and processes better and provide for improvement in quality and effectiveness of work.

Ans.7. Intrinsic rewards are intangible and may be realized in the form of a feeling of achievement, recognition, or conscious satisfaction. These awards may arise due to the performance of a certain kind of behavior. The realization of intrinsic reward can be in the form of a feeling, emotion or thoughts. Intrinsic rewards are related to performance at a job. The more an employee achieves greater success rates at a given task or job, the more intrinsically rewarded he or she may feel. For instance, an employee may produce a certain number of labels in the packaging department of a business organization. When he finds himself producing an even greater number of labels in the same period, he may feel satisfied and the reward felt can be classified as an intrinsic reward. Feeling proud of a job or feeling of playing a vital and important role in a work/team environment is also an intrinsic reward. Note that the reward does not take any physical form here and may do not have any monetary value.

Extrinsic rewards are tangible and take physical forms. They are awarded to the employees who achieve a certain level of performance, act in the desired way, or help the business organization in realizing its objectives in any other way. For instance, the sales representatives may be rewarded a tangible or physical reward (like a smartphone) by achieving the desired number of sales in their territory.

Ans.9. Like all other individuals, employees also need money to realize their own/personal goals, needs, and aspiration. Money can be motivating to a certain extent, especially for the employees working at the lower levels of hierarchy. At these levels, the employees are working to attain the earliest levels of psychological/physical needs and satisfaction of the Maslow's hierarchy of needs model. Many of these needs are quite basic and may include the needs of food and shelter, and later on security and social status among others. Money can be exchanged to meet many of these needs. Later on, as the saturation, psychological, and maturity levels of employees improve, they may get satisfaction in meeting other kinds of need, including the need of being creative/innovative, attaining self-actualization (doing what the employee always wish to do and achieve) and realizing the true self-potential.

Certain theories also point out the role played by money in motivating employees and in helping them achieve better performance. For instance, the expectancy theory postulates that money can motivate the employees to the extent they find it fulfilling their personal needs. The reinforcement theory says that if salary and money are contingent on parameters like performance, they will encourage the employees to achieve better performance and to maintain it. Therefore we can say that for money to be an important and successful motivator, the below-given condition should be met.

a.Money should be important for employees.
b.Employees should see money as a kind of reward for their performance.
c.Any amount of money (even the marginal amounts) given to employees for performance should seem to them as significant.
d.Management should have the power to give money (for performance) at their discretion.

Because these conditions can be met in a business organization to varying extents, the role of money as a motivator or its power towards motivating employees may also vary in different organizations.