Albert Adusei Brobbey

International HRM and Motivation

According to many, including Todes et al. (1977), the role of motivation within the
work environment has great value. Many studies and research are developed around
various motivational technique and methods for guiding employees towards
achieving desired goals. However, the challenge to international human resource
management is to acknowledge and punctiliously understand the effect of
these various motivational techniques on individuals and group behaviour in an
organised work endeavour across various different cultures. The success or failure
of motivation depends not on the technique itself but on management's ability to
align the wants of people with appropriate rewards” (Todes et al., 1977).
Many theories of motivation have evolved with the understanding of how employees’
behaviours are energized positively and also the way they'll better use to
understand desired objectives. the target of this research is to identify the relation
between IHRM and motivation hence draw attention to the roles of the IHRM in
identifying motivation theory building across cultures. Motivation practice in
numerous societies requires identification of the 'growth-positive' and 'growth-
negative' culture based-factors.

IHRM is defined as performing human resource management and its related

activities and arranging for related and necessary cultural and immigration facilities
for prospective and current employees, by organizations operating in domestic and
foreign countries. (Subba Rao Pulapa, 2007).
Thus, it's clear that international human resource management deals with every
function of HRM additionally to performing other functions exclusively for expatiates.
However, certain additional functions like resolving dispute between domestic and
foreign employees, cross-cultural management at varying levels and collaborating
domestic and foreign employees are be performed under IHRM.
Essentially, IHRM contributes to the worldwide understanding or management of HR
activities within an organisation. There are three broad approaches that relate to
IHRM, Namely,
Strategic or cross-cultural IHRM; it involves managing HR practices within any
organisation from a world perspective (e.g., taking into consideration the
globe trends, talent etc)
Comparative IHRM; every organisation describing, seeking, comparing and
analysing HRM systems and methods in various countries (e.g. review of
business relations or HRM theories to assist in HR policy development)
Multinational enterprises (MNE) focus: management of HR activities for
organisations that have offices, and employees or representatives spread across two
or more countries.

Susan (1995) defined motivation as an energizing force that stimulates arousal,

direction, and persistence of behaviour. Motivation is both a force within a
private and a process to urge others to expend effort. Andrew (2000) says that
motivation is concern with the "why" of behaviour; the reason people do things. in
step with Stephen (2000), motivation is that the willingness to exert a persistent and
high level of effort towards organizational goals, conditioned by the effort's ability to
satisfy some individual needs.
Motivation theories is also classified into two groups. Thus, content theories and
process theories. Content theories provides an understanding of what motivate
people. In essence, what arouses and energized the behaviour of employees. the
foremost common content theories are Maslow's need hierarchy, Herzberg's two-
factor theory, and McClelland's three-factor theory. Process theories explore the
specifics of the motivation process. It includes the Vroom's expectancy theory and
Adam's equity theory are well-known process theories. within the method of
reviewing these theories, we should always always bear in mind that level of
motivation varies both among individuals and within individuals at different levels.

In today's workplace, there are several key factors that can determine an
organizations success or failure. One of the key factors that can determine this
outcome is motivation. Even though some employees may require motivation in
various ways, all employees need some form of motivation in order for a company’s
success. Motivation can be the tool that differentiates between an individual being a
productive, effective worker or one that just does enough to get by. One of the major
causes of lack of productivity and inefficiency in today’s workplace can be a result of
lack of motivation.
I sincerely believe that motivation, job satisfaction, and work performance are
intertwined when trying to realize organizational success. An employee who feels
motivated will find some kind of satisfaction in their job. This job satisfaction will over
likely cause the worker to want pride in their work so cause work performance to
rise. Lack of motivation can also cause employees to develop a way of stagnation.
This stagnation can cause individual performance to mention no and should also end
in a decline in team performance. When this happens, it'll cause severe issues within
the organization’s growth and a possible rise in turnover rates.
Two years ago, I had a manager who was horrible in motivating her workers. instead
of motivating employees she would constantly signifies what employees did
wrong. to make this even worse, this manager would vocalize whatever employees
did wrong earlier than the other employees. instead of build up her staff, she would
move out of her due to make them feel even the simplest way of unworthiness. for
instance, I remember a particular incident where an employee was having trouble
completing missive of invitation and ask the manager for her assistance. instead
of taking that chance and using it as a teaching and provoking moment, the manager
used this opportunity to belittle the worker. She shouted at the worker on the
bottom prior to the full staff and stated: “hurry up because I have to go and attend to
something else”! thanks to this, employees became disgruntled and mostly did the
minimum of what was expected and requested of them. Some employees even had
hard time functioning at work and caused chaos throughout the department.
Employees who needed to be praised or acknowledged struggled with self-
confidence issues. Employees who did not have self-confidence problems just
became uninterested in their work. This disinterest caused their performance level to
drop, which caused a decline in productivity within the department. “Motivated and
satisfied employees tend to retain a high level of innovation, higher-quality work,
and a far better level of efficiency” (Rožman, Treven & Čančer, 2017). Lack of
motivation also caused some individuals to believe that there was no room for
organizational growth. Constant complaints were at an all-time high, employees did
not strive to travel above and beyond, because they felt like that they'd already
peaked at their level within the company. “High grumbles are addressed by the
organization with thoughtful intrinsic motivational activities that encourage knowledge
sharing and self-efficacy for growth and development” (Crumpton, 2016). We have
daily and weekly deadlines that we are required to meet that severely impacts
revenue, not only for our department but for the company as a whole. This
motivational issue became so bad that employees did not even hide the fact that
they were not meeting deadlines. I recall a meeting that my manager called because
we were not meeting budget due to poor productivity levels. Not because the
company was having issues but because employees were blatantly not doing their
work. One employee responded and said “oh-well whatever” my manager had the
look of you must be kidding me on her face. The employee proceeded to say “what
are going to do fire all of us, the majority of us don’t want to be here because of you
anyway”. Even though the atmosphere at work was like that for a period of time, I
was dumbfounded at the employee’s response. For the first time, I saw firsthand the
effects that lack of motivation can create and the severe backlash that it can have on
an organization’s success as well as lack of respect for leadership. When an
organization lacks implementing an approach to motivational measures, a severe
rise in unproductive behaviour and patterns can occur. Some of these issues can
consist of lateness, absenteeism, unfocused employees which can result in a rise in
leisure activities during work hours. When an employee does not feel motivated, they
will lack job satisfaction. Individuals tend to strive for satisfaction in everything that
they do and the workplace is no different. Lack of job satisfaction can create un-
comfort for employees that can cause them to become combative, constant
complainers and eventually cause them not to want to be there. The end result of
this is usually the employee finding a new place of employment or requesting to be
transferred to another department. Lack of motivation and job satisfaction will
definitely spike a rise in the decline of employees work performance. Some of the
declines can include not meeting or adhering to deadlines, excessive mistakes, not
following policies and procedures and overall, not willing to be a team player. A
combination of lack of motivation, job satisfaction, and work performance is a recipe
for disaster and a perfect combination that can lead to the detriment of an
employee’s career and the organization's success.

Motivation can present itself in many different ways. In order for employees to reach
the highest level of productivity, some form of motivation is needed. Lack of
motivation is a clear path to organizational failure. These failures can stem from the
loss of respect for peers and leadership, loss of organizational interest, financial
disappointment, and loss of self-worth. In today’s workplace, organizations should
strive to implement motivational methods to ensure goals are achieved to aid in
guaranteeing success in both their employees and their organization.

Reference

Iguisi, O., 2009. Motivation-related values across cultures. African Journal of

business management, 3(4), pp.141-150.

Subba Rao, P., 2010. International Human resource management. Mumbai [India]:

Himalaya Pub. House, pp. page 4 - 5.

Mak, B.L. and Sockel, H., 2001. A confirmatory factor analysis of IS employee
motivation and retention. Information & management, 38(5), pp.265-276.

Jeanes, E., 2019. A dictionary of organizational behaviour. Oxford University Press,

pp.3

SILM developed by Uttarakhand Open University for MS-108 (Human Resource

Management), Year 2020, ISBN: 978-93- 85740-14-5.

https://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/M_Crumpton_Understanding_2016.pdf/