Motivation, Creativity, Stress, and Performance: Exploring Their Impact on Decision Making and Organizational

Effects of motivation, creative thinking and stress on decision making and organization performance 

Instituting systems that favor the worker’s sense of wellbeing helps to boost the worker’s morale as well as their sense of satisfaction with their jobs. Motivation is down to many factors like remuneration, work conditions, and the working environment (Bamber et al., 2013). Motivated workers are necessary for an organization to realize increased productivity from its workforce. Motivation is triggered by a need and in most organizations the workers needs are twofold. The first category is the extrinsic needs category involving needs such as; money, security, holidays, social status, working conditions and career development. The second category of needs is referred to as the intrinsic needs category entailing needs that include; feelings of competence, autonomy, achievement, a sense of purpose and knowledge.

Properly motivated workers will guarantee the productivity of the organization. One method used by organizations to boost productivity, is the application of a flexible working system. Flexibility helps the organization to achieve benefits for both the management and the lower level employees (Beaumont, 2015). The flexible working system, can help the management to react to arising situations by adjusting the working hours flexibly, in response to changes in production volumes.  This gives the organization a competitive edge by allowing it to raise its productivity while also creating an improved business environment. This is necessary for the rapidly changing and ultra-competitive business environment prevalent in the globalized economy. A clear advantage for workers is that the flexible working system allows them to strike a needed balance between their family life and work by balancing work days and holidays. The end result is a much-satisfied worker who will, in turn, be more motivated and thus more productive (Hatch & Cunliffe, 2013).

According to the Equity theory, motivation is kept up by upholding fairness in the rewards that the workers perceive they get from the effort and work they put in in the organization (Beaumont, 2015). Workers tend to compare the fairness or equity of what they feel they deserve by making comparisons between themselves and other workers in the same organization. The workers compare the input they put in the organization against outcomes they derive from it and then make adjustments according to what they perceive from the comparison. The worker can then come up with any of the conclusions of either over payment equity, underpayment equity or equitable payment. Depending on the conclusion, the worker can then   adjust their inputs to match the outcomes which can either be favorable for the organization or not.

            Stress experienced by employees in any organization breeds a frustrated workforce. Frustrations at the workplace are a common occurrence and how they are handled is an important determinant of workplace morale, and employee satisfaction with the working conditions (Hatch & Cunliffe, 2013). Organizational implementation of new policies and unfavorable work place environments can seriously stress the employees as they can sometimes feel their needs are not adequately met or that their jobs are threatened (Fallik, 2013). Actions and decisions of the organization’s management in its implementation of restructuring programs, need to carefully consider the resulting impact on the workers. Insecurity can poison the organizational climate and any new policies introduced by an organization’s management can at times be received with suspicion by the workforce.

Tension and stress created by a negative atmosphere in an organizations work place on the workforce negatively impacts productivity. An organization’s failure to address the stressors affecting their workforce can foster feelings of exploitation and neglect (Hatch & Cunliffe, 2013). Continued workforce stress is likely to result in a deterioration of relationships between the organization and its workforce their employer (Fallik, 2013). Employee commitment to the organization is also affected by a stressing workplace and this can result in an increased employee turnover in addition to reduced productivity.

Critical thinking boosts the decision-making process as it allows for the clear formulation of processes. Critical thinking by employees in an organization helps organizational leaders to properly utilize analysis and evaluation of the organization’s goals, available resources, internal environment, external environment, and possible risks, to increase productivity (Hatch & Cunliffe, 2013). This critical thinking aided approaches help to facilitate proactive planning where through analysis and evaluation, an organization can make plans and design operational procedures that prevent the occurrence of probable productivity problems. This approach also helps the organization to design contingencies that could be quickly deployed to counter previously anticipated productivity problems arising from affected organizational operations. Such critical thinking strategies/techniques enable an organization to insulate its operations from possible shocks aiding in the achievement of the desired productivity goals and targets (Hatch & Cunliffe, 2013).

References

Bamber, G. J., Gittell, J. H., Kochan, T. A., & Von Nordenflycht, A. (2013). Up in the air:             How airlines can improve performance by engaging their employees. Cornell University Press.

Beaumont, P. B. (2015). Blending Old and New: How Low-Cost and Legacy Carriers      Are      Reshaping the Airline Industry. Members-only Library.

Fallik, F. (2013). Managing organizational change. Routledge.

Hatch, M. J., & Cunliffe, A. L. (2013). Organization theory: modern, symbolic and postmodern    perspectives. Oxford university press.