This report aims to explore different ways in which levels of motivation and morale can be increased among managers, administrators and staff; will explore different ways to improve the emotional state of the workforce and reduce staff illnesses. Motivation has been defined as the literal desire to achieve a goal, for example people are motivated to undertake training to gain knowledge or a qualification (Abeysekera & Dawson, 2014), and emotion is argued to act as a response to motivation that is In addition to stimuli, research has also supported that motivation mediates the effects of emotions on achieving a goal or completing a task (Mega, Ronconi & De Beni, 2014). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Motivation can be intrinsic or extrinsic. Extrinsic motivation refers to motivation caused by external influences (Gerhart & Fang, 2015), such as promotions, salary increases, and even recognition from people with higher positions in the workplace. Intrinsic motivation refers to motivation that comes from oneself (Abuhamdeh, Csikszentmihalyi & Jalal, 2014), it could be personal goals, a desire to expand skills, or opportunities to improve. Research has supported that both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations have a strong relationship with task performance, with intrinsic motivation having a stronger relationship, however, extrinsic motivation has been found to be associated with contextual performance (Yousaf, Yang & Sanders, 2015), making it necessary for improved workforce performance. There are many factors that can cause a lack of motivation in the workplace, these can be lack of progress, job security, company leadership, poor communication and even boredom. A mistake many organizations make is using money as a motivator for employees, however several studies have looked at workplace progress and money as a motivator, it was found that workers would prefer to receive reduced pay and be satisfied with their job , than being paid more and not being satisfied (Jin & Huang, 2014). This shows how money is not a motivator for employees, but suggests that one's satisfaction in what they do plays a huge role in motivating them to do a job, thus making intrinsic motivation an important factor. Having motivators in the workplace can lead to positive emotional outcomes that can lead to an improvement in the quality of work produced and increase worker morale. Having positive emotions in the workplace is beneficial as research has suggested that negative emotions are linked to feelings of discomfort and frustration in the workplace, however, positive emotions are linked to more creative ideas from the workforce and thinking generative (Crawford, Soto, de la Barra, Crawford & Olguín, 2014). The equity theory of motivation argued that employees expect fair and equitable compensation for their contributions to the work they perform (Ryan & Wessel, 2015), it is argued that they determine what is fair by comparing their output to work with that of their colleagues or those who work in a similar field to them (Ryan, 2016). If a worker feels they are in an unfair situation, they will try to make it fair (Ubeda, 2014), this could include reducing the amount of work they do to match that of their colleagues, or even stopping working for the organisation; this could explain why there is dissatisfaction frompart of customers and why customers are lost to rival supermarket groups, as employees may no longer pay as much attention to their work as they would if they felt the work was fair. The first step to increase productivity and motivation in the workplace would be to introduce fairness among workers. It is important that all workers feel equal and have equal opportunities to progress within the organization. According to Collins & Mossholder (2016) the lack of equity in the workplace can lead to a lack of productivity and counterproductive behaviors; they also found that when workers thought their work was fair, their production increased. Further research on the effects of emotions found that negative emotions in the workplace also had a relationship with fairness and counterproductive work behaviors (Matta, Erol-Korkmaz, Johnson & Biçaksiz, 2014). The first step in making a workplace fair is to introduce common and consistent rules among workers (Christoforou & Ashforth, 2015) such as disciplinary actions, qualification for workplace benefits or promotions and raises. Having common rules gives employees a level playing field where they have the same chance of getting promoted as everyone else, which will all depend on how they work and how well they develop their skills as a worker. Having the sense of fairness can increase motivation in the workplace as the feeling alone can lead to positive emotions that lead to determination, thus better morale among workers and an increase in production which later turns into profit. As well as having common rules it is also important to look at each employee individually and have rules that may apply to them as an individual, for example if an employee has a disability they may need a slightly longer break than other employees. Having rules suited to each employee based on their situation can give them a sense of value and importance within the organization (Anthony-McMann, Ellinger, Astakhova & Halbesleben, 2016). This can lead them to see fairness in the workplace, which in turn will lead to positive emotions and increased motivation, this can also reduce staff illnesses and increase the length of time they work in the organisation. Research has found that negative emotions are strongly linked to illness (Csikszentmihalyi, 2014). Along with using fairness to increase motivation within the organization, introducing incentives that every employee has an equal chance of achieving based on individual progress and productivity in the workplace, it can also help increase employee motivation. workforce (Cerasoli, Nicklin & Ford, 2014). According to incentive theory, behaviors are not driven by needs but by the desire for something, it also assumes that people are more likely to exhibit behaviors that lead to rewards (Gupta & Shaw, 2014), i.e. workplace bonuses, compared to behaviors that are more likely to lead to sanctions such as disciplinary action or potentially dismissal. Having an incentive in the workplace can help employees work towards a goal, they allow employees to not only focus on production so as not to lose work and get paid at the end of the month, but to also focus on the quality of the work they are doing (Garbers & Konradt, 2013). It can also be argued that having incentives would make the job more interesting and could give employees a reason to stay in the organization. Having clear incentives such as employee of the month can increase customer satisfaction as they can clearly see thatthe organization cares about the quality of the work performed by its employees, hence a sense of pride (Koo Moon and Kwon Choi, 2014). It could be argued that incentive theory is focused on extrinsic motivation more than intrinsic motivation, so by having incentives such as employee of the month, salary increases and bonuses you can alter employee behavior (Casey, 2015). In addition to having incentive goals or objectives that can be achieved by all employees, goal-setting theory of motivation suggests that specific and challenging goals (Frese & Gielnik, 2014) accompanied by good feedback lead to better and higher performance (Harks , Rakoczy, Hattie, Besser & Klieme, 2013). This means that to increase motivation the company could have individual goals for each employee, which could be daily, weekly or monthly goals they meet, so they are working towards something. Objectives might focus on different aspects of the job, such as customer service and sales. According to various research, for goal setting to be effective there are several things that need to be taken into consideration, firstly the goals need to be made known to the employee as well as the respective managers (Alexander Haslam, 2014); they should also be allowed to provide input so that they have a goal that they believe they can achieve (Hamstra, Van Yperen, Wisse & Sassenberg, 2013), as goals that seem difficult to achieve can be daunting and may lead to lower productivity rather than to an increase in productivity. Goals set for employees must be consistent with the vision and objectives of the organization, according to researchers they are demotivated by the lack of progress in what they do (Zou, Scholer & Higgins, 2014), this it's why money was found not to be a motivator in the workplace. Having individual goals can lead to feelings of determination and greater interest in the job as it would become more challenging, this in turn will increase each employee's morale (Martin, 2015). According to the Yerkes Dodson law, to have optimal performance it is necessary to have a level of arousal that is neither low nor high, in this case the arousal can be determined by the goal, this implies that the goal must not be too difficult nor too easy, it must be achievable and challenging at the same time. The desire to achieve something mixed with positive emotions, for example happiness, excitement or determination, can lead to better morale, increased production and can even decrease the chances of illness (Meneghel, Salanova & Martínez, 2014). An important aspect of goal setting theory and all the theories given is the idea of ​​feedback. Setting a goal or incentive for employees without providing them with feedback on completion or non-completion can be discouraging and can only motivate for a very short period (Boudrias, Bernaud & Plunier, 2014). Feedback to and from employees can lead leadership to understand what may be demotivating the workforce and perhaps discuss ways in which this could be improved or changes employees would like to see (Butler, Marsh, Slavinsky & Baraniuk, 2014); enables the organization to set interesting, dynamic and challenging goals for employees; it allows leadership to understand the concerns employees may have, it also allows them to compare the company's desired outcomes with the performance levels expected of employees (Hodge & Rainey, 2014). Feedback between employers and employees can be done in many ways. You can use questionnaires in, 2014).