Employee Motivation essay

This issue is based on the fact that employee motivation covers a wide range of individuals concerning gender beliefs, age, political affiliations as well as sexual orientation. Body The fact that companies have to have a diversified workforce makes it more difficult to develop strategies that can cover all individuals. Most of the organizations have a multigenerational workforce, thus making a selection of motivation strategies is quite challenging. This paper focuses on motivational through the expectancy and equity theory where the strengths and weaknesses of each will be pointed out. In this paper, the discussion will be based on challenges encountered when motivating older employees who are closer to employment. This change has created a need for a good motivation strategy that can capture the elderly to perform well despite their age and the fact that they are closer to retirement.

The best approach to apply in this case would be the expectancy theory (Stone & Deadrick, 2015). This conclusion is based on the fact that elderly employees are not in line for promotions, thus the need to identify rewards that they would prefer for good performance at the workplace. Provision of incentives is one of the strategies incorporated in the expectancy theory. However, incentives are generated about the preferences and expectations of the employees. The issue of diversity, however, cuts across all fields thus posing a problem in the motivation of the elderly. The human resource department needs to have a clear understanding of the expectations and rewards that the elderly expect to keep them both active and motivated (Shields, 2015). Other factors should also be considered when choosing motivation for the elderly in the organization such as effects of aging.

While in most organizations performance is measured in accordance to work performed by the employees the elderly mare requires a different measure as their agility goes down with aging (Shields, 2015). As a result, this creates a challenge where human resource managers have to incorporate separate metrics concurrently to include the elderly in a particular motivation strategy. This challenge is also represented in the form of resistance to organizational changes where a company is determined to incorporate technology into the work process. The problem presented is based on the fact that achievement motivation decreases with age and thus an issue in motivation. Rather than creating achievement based rewards motivation among the elderly should be focused on the creation of enthusiasm to minimize the challenges faced in this area.

The motivation should also be founded on equality where individuals performing the same tasks at the same level receive similar remuneration. This solution is by the equity theory of motivation that points out that people can be motivated by ensuring fairness is maintained. The young employees in an organization are eager to grow and perform better to receive promotions and thus better pay. However, advancements in organizations are mainly based on skills and level of experience. This issue poses a challenge for the human resource department as it makes it difficult to come up with rewards that can be viewed as equitable. While the distribution of resources may be seen as fair, other factors considered such as experience form a disparity inequitable treatment and may lead to demotivation of young employees (Tampubolon, 2016).

Human resource managers have to come up with better strategies for such motivation rewards that are inclusive of all individuals to ensure motivation of employees from the younger generation. Young people in many cases feel frustrated because their contribution is not well valued and their opportunities for growth are limited. An excellent example of this challenge is in the criterion used for promotions and assigning of duties. While a young employee may be highly skilled in an area assignment of tasks is mainly based on experience, thus overlooking their contribution which in return leads to frustrations and demotivation (Call, Nyberg, & Thatcher, 2015). These frustrations pose a challenge as the human resource department has to propose for a change in policy as well as organizational culture to ensure incentives provided for good performance are inclusive of all employees and also equal treatment is provided.

Another problem encounter in this area is the extrinsic nature of motivation among young people. Organizations are continuously scouting for young talented employees who are highly skilled by giving them better offers than their current positions. The need to retain them puts pressure on managers where they have to devise strategies that ensure job satisfaction in such employees. The reason behind this pressure is to ensure they are retained in the organization. Conclusion Employee motivation faces various challenges for both the elderly and younger employees. As the paper portrays motivation of employees is best incorporated through the use of expectation and equity theory as they help in the improvement of job satisfaction among workers.  M. Employee engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage.