Book Description

Employee motivation, i.e. methods for motivating employees, is an intrinsic and internal drive to put forth the necessary effort and action towards work-related activities. It has been broadly defined as the "psychological forces that determine the direction of a person's behavior in an organization, a person's level of effort and a person's level of persistence".[1] Also, "Motivation can be thought of as the willingness to expend energy to achieve a goal or a reward. Motivation at work has been defined as 'the sum of the processes that influence the arousal, direction, and maintenance of behaviors relevant to work settings'."[2]Motivated employees are essential to the success of an organization as motivated employees are generally more productive at the work place. An attitude is a psychological state of mind. It is the way a person thinks about situations, and it ultimately determines a person's behavior. In the workplace, employees can have either a positive or negative attitude about specific work tasks, products or services, co-workers or management, or the company as a whole. Bad attitudes result in apathy to daily tasks. Employees are easily agitated by minor problems. Tasks are completed at substandard levels. Positive attitudes among employees make workdays more enjoyable. Tasks are performed to a higher standard and without complaint. An example of a positive employee attitude occurs when an employee views a negative customer service call as an opportunity to change the narrative for the customer from a bad experience to a good one. Performance management (PM) includes activities which ensure that goals are consistently being met in an effective and efficient manner. Performance management can focus on the performance of an organization, a department, employee, or even the processes to build a product or service, as well as many other areas.