Internal and External Motivation Factors
Motivation in nurses and excellent quality patient outcomes
As noted by Dunn (2015), motivation has a positive effect on patient health outcomes when nurses are willing to apply their knowledge and skills to work and achieve their full potential.
Employee characteristics and demotivators
Demotivators can lead to frustrated, inflexible, and lazy employees. Also, demotivators contribute to hostility, defensiveness, absenteeism, apathy, and high turnover (Dunn, 2015).
Organizational citizenship in the employee’s role in motivation
The term “organizational citizenship” is used to describe a positive relationship between the employee and the employer. When organizational citizenship is evident, nurses are willing to contribute to the organization’s success and feel part of the organization (Dunn, 2015). Organizational citizenship can be developed using effective leadership and motivation strategies, such as reward and benefits schemes, job enrichment opportunities, and training. Organizational citizenship is critical to motivation theory. It can help promote a positive perception of work by the employee and contribute to workforce characteristics, such as retention, skill mix, loyalty, and more.
The key leadership styles
Dunn (2015) discusses three key leadership styles: transactional leadership, passive-avoidant leadership, and transformational leadership. In transactional leadership, the leader is perceived to be the major authority figure. The relationship between employees and the employer is perceived as a transaction, where the employer provides benefits and monetary compensation in return for employees’ behavior and performance (Spahr, 2016). On the contrary, passive-avoidant leaders steer from involvement in decision-making, instead of leaving the vast share of responsibility with the staff (Dunn, 2015). Lastly, transformational leadership is considered to be a useful leadership style that promotes healthy workforce characteristics. Transformational leaders rely on values and ideas to motivate workers to aspire to a shared goal (Dunn, 2015). They also provide employees with a chance to develop their skills and share ideas that could contribute to company success. When used in healthcare settings, a transformational leadership style can generate a motivated, productive, and coherent workforce, leading to improved patient outcomes.
The transformational leadership style considering motivation in the workplace
Transformational leadership improves employees’ motivation using shared goals, ideas, vision, and effective communication strategies. Empowerment is among the key goals behind transformational leadership (Dunn, 2015).
The difference between job satisfaction and motivation
Job satisfaction refers to the employee’s perception of various job characteristics, whereas motivation is an internal force that makes the employee more proactive and effective.
References
Dunn, D. (2015). Motivation: What makes you tick? OR Nurse Journal, 9(2), 38-47.
Spahr, P. (2016). What is transactional leadership? How structure leads to results.