Employees are demotivated in different forms across the world.

According to Gallup research

shows that 70% of employees consider themselves to be disengaged at work, meaning that
they no longer enjoy the work they perform and as a result there is little or minimum
contributory effort to the tasks assigned by the managers. One of the first problems with the
use of demotivation is the lack of a convincing definition. However, different authors do
present definitions they are rarely either clear or full. Mayer (1978 p.260 n.d.) saw
demotivation as a ‘counterproductive process’, further to this Collins dictionary (2017) states
that “demotivation is the condition of being without motivation”. Surely, demotivation
indicates a lack of motivation in general, at least if a particular behaviour is not specified.
Now to gain the whole concept of what demotivates employees in their different work places,
lets look at the definition of employee demotivation by CareerBuilder of which they describe
actions of employees pertaining to their unsatisfactory of certain conditions at work place. It
states that “Employee demotivation represents a "silent protest" by employees who feel
frustrated and unmotivated in their work” (CareerBuilder UK, 2016 Feb 16). The employer
can observe this in different signs and actions employees does when they are demotivated
such as lack of punctuality or spending more time to start work after arrival at office,
absenteeism, lack of focus at work, changing moods to work colleagues and bad customer
service of which it will going to have a negative impact on the performance of the
organisation in achieving its objectives.

Employee demotivation is a real problem that has a significant influence on organisation and
therefore it is imperative that organisation has to address these appropriately to
prevent underperformance of employees at all cost. In this discussion, here are the five
different situations issues that can demotivates employees. These include Lack of
recognition, unappreciated and acknowledgement, unfavourable flexible working
environment and condition, Low remuneration and reward, Lack of opportunities for career
professional development and trainings, finally conflicts between groups or individuals.
 1. Lack of recognition, unappreciated and acknowledgement

“Employee recognition is the timely, informal or formal acknowledgement of a person's

behaviour, effort, or business result that supports the organization's goals and values, and
exceeds his superior's normal expectations” (Brun&Dugas,2008). Recognition is important to
many employees, but the sad thing is that it is one of the key problems when it comes to
fulfilling as far as the organisation is concerned. Employees feel demotivated and are
unhappy if there is no or little recognition at work place to the task they perform in the daily
operation of their work. When the task has been given to an employee to complete before the
due dates, and it happens that that employee has managed it at an appropriate time and has
surpass expectations, that employee need to be recognised, appreciated and acknowledged for
the job well done. However, the case is not like that in many organisations. Employees
accomplish complicated projects and tasks meeting tight deadlines, but an organisation does
nothing to such hard work attitude. Organisation thinks its just a normal operation procedure
that is attached to an employee contract. For this reason, employees are demotivated and that
energy to achieves more continuously declines which result to underperformance.

Moreover, Porter and Lawler (1968) put forward an intrinsic and extrinsic motivation model
specific to the world of work. These authors stipulate that organizational performance is
determine by gaining intrinsic and
extrinsic rewards. So, if employees in their course of duty their intrinsic and extrinsic rewards
have not been met i.e. no recognition and unappreciated, an organisation productivity
decrease due to demotivated employees. In addition to this, is the Maslow’s Hierarchy of
Needs in his paper in 1943 “A Theory of human motivation” Psychological Review. Maslow
suggested that people are in a continuous state of motivation to fulfil esteemed needs and that
the nature of motivation is variable and complex. Furthermore, the esteem needs can be
broken down into the need for self-esteem and the need for the esteem of others. The need for
the esteem of others is required to be satisfied externally through status or prestige,
recognition, and appreciation by others. In this scenario the organisation or an employer is the
one which need to motivate employees externally so that an employee can continue to be in a
state being motivated or reach a state of complete satisfaction. In contrast, if employees are
not satisfied externally they get demotivated. (Glanz, 2002) stated that “Appreciation is one
of the most top desires of employees which motivate and keep them productive”. Therefore,
by enhancing the employee's morale, which allows them to think better of themselves
and their ability to contribute towards organization goals. Herzberg two factors
described the recognition as a motivating factor that makes employees satisfied. Under this
heading, Herzberg included achievement of work task, recognition by supervisors for
achievement and quality of work. Now, when there is lack of recognition as illustrated,
employees tend to lose hope, feel unrecognised, unappreciated and start reduces the
performances, hence it demotivates employees. Employee recognition, appreciation and
acknowledgement can be in many forms based in individual needs, such as a public thank
you to an individual employee, taking them to lunch, giving shout outs, throwing a party and
distributing non-cash rewards.

2. Unfavourable flexible working environment and conditions

Another situation issue which demotivates employees is the fact of not having a comfortable
work environment. Work environment in simple terms it can mean an environment which
people work. As Briner (2000) stated that “Work environments have many properties that
may affect both physical and psychological well-being”. He further distinguish between the
two saying that “The psychological environment can be thought of, more specifically, as
those features of the work environment which are relevant to worker behaviour. By
behaviour, the three related types of psychological phenomena are considered: affect (e.g.
emotions, mood, psychological symptoms, affective disorders); cognitions
(e.g. attitudes, perception, decision-making); and behaviours (e.g. effectiveness, absence,
motivation)”. The psychological environment is therefore the set of those characteristics of
work environment that affect how the worker feels, thinks and behaves. According to the
statement of Briner for example, it means that if there are unfavourable working conditions,
an employee can be psychologically affected which can lead to an employee demotivation.
Therefore, there is a direct relationship between unfavourable working condition and
psychological work environment.

The physical work environment can be such as deteriorated infrastructure of the office
premises, health and safety issues such as hazardous chemicals or sharp objects. This implies
that if employees have met these unfavourable physical conditions, will lead to demotivating
them and be unwilling to perform their duties comfortably. In support to this, is the already
partly captioned theory of Frederick Hertzberg. Hertzberg in writing in the late (1950s-
1960s), identified two sets of needs in individuals working in organisations: the need to avoid
pain and discomfort and the need to develop psychologically as a person. These can be
translated as Hygiene or extrinsic factors of which we will focus on now and Motivators.
Hygiene factors these include working conditions, quality supervision, interpersonal
relationships at work place as well as organisation policies and administration. If these are
not met adequately, there will be demotivation and dissatisfaction therefore work output will
suffer.

Unfavourable flexible working environment and conditions can also mean organisation
culture, and leadership management style. It can also be the work load itself an employee is
being assigned in daily operations of the business. Firstly, lets talk about the organisation
culture. People are sometimes stressed with not fitting with organisation culture, in other
words there is a mismatch between employee values and that of an organisation. So, if there
is family like organisation culture where everybody feels like supporting each other and have
positive experience, its more likely that you are going to be motivated to be a member of that
family to contribute positively as an asset of that organisation. By contrast, for example what
if you work in a place that is very paralysis structured rule oriented. That kind of place would
different in terms of how it impacted your motivation, because if you are an employee that
would like to be heard of ideas you have raised and then nobody is interested in my point of
view, why bother and can lead to a source of demotivation. Secondly, then there is leadership
management style. If there is an autocratic leadership by those in management position such
as managers and supervisors, junior employees may have little or no input in decision
making. This can demotivate employees as decisions are made from top without considering
of employees concerns or ideas, so there is a top-down decision-making process. Employees
feel motivated if their input are taken into consideration to solve problems at work place, but
unfortunately if those ideas have not been considered, employees get demotivated. Thirdly,
about the workload itself. If there is not an even distribution of tasks to employees by
favouring one individual, this can also demotivate employees. For example, giving too much
task to an individual can lead to the other individual feel sidelined for not assigning him or
her a task. Or it can mean an employee been given him or her too much tasks and is feeling
too much congested with the case load. For this reason, there is need to strike a right balance
to avoid employee demotivation.
 While flexibility can mean contrary to that of an employer, but from an employee
perspective it can mean having flexible knocking off time, where, when and how to preform
job. This means that the degree to which an employee has performed for that particularly day,
may be warranted an early knocking off time. If an employee hasn’t been granted that
opportunity, that employee can be demotivated and will no longer have the ambition to
perform an extra mile. (Subramaniam et al., 2010) stated that “flexible working arrangements
are types of work arrangements which give a degree of freedom to employees in deciding
when, where and how they want to perform work”. Going further with employee flexibility,
“Flexible working arrangements allow for better employees’attainment to both personal
needs and organizational goals, which have been linked to better productivity and well-being
(Nakrosienė et al., 2019). If these flexible working arrangements are not meet by an employer
it led to employee demotivation, since an employee feel denied to personal needs.

3. Low remuneration and reward

The low economic remuneration is one of the main reasons why an employee presents a job
demotivation. This is because after having spent some time in the organisation the employee
realizes the hard work that she is doing for a very minimal price. Without proper
compensation, your employees, the business and reputation can all suffer. For this reason, an
employer can experience high turnover, low productivity and poor reputation because
employees are demotivated with low remuneration and reward. In support to this, is the
Expectancy theory by Victor Vroom. Vroom, V.H (1964) argues that the “strength of a
tendency to act in a certain way depends on the strength of the expectation that the act will be
followed by a given outcome and on attractiveness of that outcome to us”. We need to
understand there are three aspects to this in context of work, but we will focus only one
aspect of which is the performance-reward linkage. If an employee achieve goal or
performance, will they be rewarded adequately? If they have been rewarded, does it satisfy
their needs? And what can be the consequences if the haven’t been reward adequately. From
my point of view, therefore I can conclude that if these employees haven’t rewarded
adequately it will lead to employee demotivation, since the is a direct relationship between
organisation rewards to an employee and employee performance. What it demotivates so
much for an employee is not to be rewarded accordingly when that employee has put enough
effort to the task assigned. I mean, why should continue put extra effort to the job when I
know that there is handful compensation or low remuneration at the end of the day. No
wonder why most organisations do not realize enough profits year in year out because they
do not research enough for itself internally. Thats why an employee will make sure that they
produce the minimum at work place, so employees set parameters themselves.

Revolving furthermore to our topic of low remuneration and reward that demotivates
employees, is Lawler who developed further the expectancy theory. Lawler, (1970s)
suggested that “the amount of effort (motivation and energy exerted) put into work
depends on the eventual reward, the amount of effort necessary to achieve that reward
and how probable it is that the reward will be forthcoming”. This clearly shows that
remuneration and reward play a key role when it comes to employee motivation and if
employee feels are not being rewarded enough, will lead to employee demotivation. In
addition to this is the Incentive Theory of Motivation by Indeed Editorial Team. Indeed
Editorial Team (Feb. 12, 2021) stated that “The incentive theory of motivation is a
behavioural theory that suggests people are motivated by a drive for incentives and
reinforcement. The incentive theory also proposes that people behave in a way they
believe will result in a reward and avoid actions that may entail punishment”. And then
goes further to classify incentives as being positive or negative of which positive
incentives is our primary focus. It states that “Positive incentives provide positive
assurance that an employee will receive something they desire in exchange for doing their
work well. Examples of positive incentives include recognition, promotions, raises and so
forth” (Indeed Editorial Team, Feb. 12,2021). Now imagine that an employee expects a
promotion after working so hard through out the year. Later year has ended and that
employee has been confirmed through performance appraisal that indeed has work hard.
But an organisation has done nothing regarding to this, this will lead to total demotivation
of an employee because an employee in her mind there was assurance that will be
promoted. Another example could be that of employee salary i.e. raise. An employee
come to work place may be for a minimal salary as an entry level, or in anticipation that
in the future there will going to be a raise. Later, two or five years down the line has
passed no increment in salary. Even if an employee had the enthusiasm or willing to work
to the fullest, this will lead to total demotivation for an employee. No wonder why we
hear employees in government or private institutions are holding demonstration or they
are having a sit in. That is a sign for demotivated employees who are sending a massage
that we are demotivated, and we will no longer continue to work unless there is a raise.
 This clearly show that demotivated employees can damage the reputation of the
organisation if not taken seriously and also it can drive out qualified professionals who
were willing to work for that organisation and will not even bother to apply an
opportunity when available.

4. Lack of opportunity for career professional development and trainings

Antley (Jul, 2020) defined professional development and he stated that “Professional
development refers to continuing education and career training after a person has entered
the workforce in order to help them develop new skills, stay up-to-date on current trends,
and advance their career”. An employee is a career conscious and ambitious person who
will stick to an organisation where he or she feels that they have an opportunity to
showcase their talent and grow to the maximum level possible. Further to the above
definition, American Hospitality Academy World Campus concurrently defines similar
definition and it state that “professional development refers to all training, certification
and education that a worker needs to succeed in his or her career”. So, an employee will
strive for better training to the advancement of his or her career and for this reason career
professional development is both beneficial to the organisation and to an employee itself.
This is not just the responsibility for an organisation, but rather its obligation to address
the ambitions of employees. Now in regard to our topic of discussion, the demotivated
employee comes when an organisation does not support such initiatives willingly or
unwillingly. It is so much disheartening to an employee when they don’t acquire career
development that will benefit both an employee and organisation. Organisations
introduces new products and services to the market or new systems for an organisation.
But what demotivates employees is that, they have little or no trainings to such and
organisation expect employees to perform well on untrained programs. How can an
employee sell products or services persuasively when has little information to such
product? Then later an organisation gives unrealistic targets to employees to accomplish,
this demotivates employees. At some point in time employees get bored with their work
and it demotivates them not find solutions work related problems. It is for this reason
employees should be engaged in continuous training with experts to eradicate problems
related issues and to avoid demotivation for employees. Lack of opportunity for career
professional development and trainings demotivates employees and will make them to
 seek elsewhere jobs so that they should stay update. Employees do want their careers to
stuck and stagnate in the middle when their contract has ended with an organisation and
therefore it is important to build the people first and people will build the company.
Global Talent Monitor’s report on workforce activity in 2Q18 shows that the lack of
future career development remains a key driver of employee attrition and Kropp (2018),
Gartner HR practice group vice president said that “If employees don’t see you investing
in their future with you, they’re going to look somewhere else”.

5. Conflict between groups or individuals

Cole (1995) defined conflict as “a condition that arises whenever the perceived interests
of an individual or a group clash with those of another individual or group in such a way
that strong emotions are aroused and compromise is not considered to be an option”. All
organisation, employees and team experience conflict at some time during day-to-day
operation of the business. Some may argue that conflict is good, because individuals are
forced to look for better approaches to their problems. But others see conflict is
dangerous and counterproductive and should be minimised as much possible or not even
allowed in the first place. Conflicts between employees is quite common in any situation
where employees have different values or to showcase their powers or authority.
Employees are demotivated when there is frequent conflict at work place and they no
longer feel a safe environment for working. Imagine at work place a certain employee is
always being bulled for having different opinion and management take no action to such
behaviour, this can demotivate an individual and he or she can be intimidated. In certain
situation it happens that, in work place there is a co-worker that you didn’t get along with
very well and you always quarrel, this demotivates individuals and there is need to
addressed this amicably. Employees need to understand that at work place there are
people from different background with different personalities, beliefs and values. But it is
the duty or responsibility of the human resource management and supervisor to inform
employees such issues to avoid disfunction among individuals which lead to demotivated
employees. Guetzkow et al (1954: 369) distinguished between conflict based on the
substance of the task that the group is performing and conflict based on the group's
interpersonal relations, this is for Priem, Richard and Price (1991), who characterized the
two types of conflict as cognitive, task-related conflicts and social-emotional conflicts
arising from interpersonal disagreements not directly related to the task. Furthermore,
Wall, Victor and Nolan (1986) differentiated between relationship-focused people
 conflicts and conflicts about the substantive content of the task. It can be concluded that
whatever angle conflict may arisen, it has direct effects on employee’s motivation to
work. This is because it makes uncomfortable feelings and low spirits among members,
which will hinder their ability to enjoy each other and their work in group. Therefore, line
managers or supervisors need to be taking a proactive approach in management of
conflict to avoid employee to be demotivated which lead to low productivity or even lose
valuable members of the team.

Relationship conflict can demotivate team members if certain individuals are in relationship.
Concurrently to this is statement, is (Jehn, 1995, 1997;
Jehn & Mannix, 2001) who stated that “high levels of relationship conflict in a team involve
strong interpersonal disagreements and tensions among members and are usually expressed
with negative communication and lack of cooperativeness among members revealing feelings
of anger, distrust, fear, and frustration”. This means relationship play a big role among
members and if not taken it seriously it can demotivate employees because members get
bored with those in relationship with their actions. Jehn (1995) added to say that “members
of teams with higher relationship conflict are more likely
to withdraw effort from their tasks on the team and are negatively linked to motivational
states”. This is clearly a total sign of demotivated employees when one or more of its
members are into relationship and the team divided because these relationships. The more
relationship members group are into, the lower their motivation, their liking of other group
members and their intent to remain in the group. Even past theorist, Argyris (1962) suggests
“that when group members have interpersonal problems and are angry with one another, feel
friction with each other, or experience personality clashes, they work less effectively and
produce suboptimal products”. This implies that due to their demotivated state, employees are
less productive because of conflict among themselves.

In conclusion, its clear that there are many factors demotivates employees and we have just
mention few. These have negatives effect to employees, and not only that it has got also a
negative effect to the organisation as whole. Studies have shown that what it demotivates
employees affect their performance at work, but also it does affect their cognitive
psychological thinking. When employees are demotivated, the performance dwindles and
organisation experience low productivity. What it demotivates employees mostly is that, they
are trying to satisfy their intrinsic or extrinsic needs such as recognition, reward and it is
imperative that organisation need to take serious consideration to balance the needs of
employees and organisation resources. It has shown that employee need to climb the ladder
with their career to avoid stagnation in the future. Finally, whether its relationship conflict, it
demotivates individuals within the teams hence it affects performance of an organisation.

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