The Most Effective Methods for Improving Employee Motivation Dissertation

The Most Effective Methods for Improving Employee Motivation - Dissertation Example Literature Review One motivational theorist states it plainly: â€Å"Aspiration is the source of all motivation† (Freemantle, 2004, p.22). Aspiration is akin to desire and ambition, therefore the author suggests that an effective organization aspires to achieve performance and works to get staff members engaged in this process. This points toward giving cause for each and every organizational scenario or policy to remind employees that they are very much a part of organizational goals and should be reminded to aspire to achieve short- and long-term business ambitions. From this author’s perspective, motivating employees should be as simple as leadership engagement and vision. One difficulty in motivating people, for those organizations which take a Theory X approach to business, is offering employees more autonomous work environments (no micro-managing) and giving them more inclusion in organizational situations. The Theory X philosophy, proposed by Douglas McGregor, suggests that employees are simply lazy by nature, incapable of self-direction, and incapable of providing innovative or creative solutions to enhance organizational effectiveness (Kopelman, Prottas, and Davis, 2008). Under Theory X leadership, employees are rigidly-controlled by top-down hierarchies of management and are expected to simply conform to organizational mandates. Additionally, Theory X leaders seem to command and control employees, expecting no more contribution than generic job function each and every day in the business or organization.