Essay on the Impact of Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation refers to behavior aggravated by internal rewards. Sometimes, an employee can be intrigued by a particular task at their place of work and are willing to do it without any out any outside influence. Intrinsic motivation is long lasting than extrinsic motivation. In fact, employees feel more professionally fulfilled when they become motivated internally. Some of the intrinsic motivators for nurses include responsibility, accomplishment, recognition, and knowledge. The paper below discusses my professional experience at work regarding intrinsic motivators. Employees should add value to their organization by using their intelligence and expertise to direct their job activities.

At my place of work, I once felt professionally fulfilled. In my current position, my job title is a nurse manager. That particular day, I was engaging all registered nurses through the team building process. My purpose for the team building activity was to create a commitment to sustainability among them. I gathered all registered nurses at the conference room for about 3 hours to discuss how they can learn to work together and build healthy relationships within the workplace. Lussier & Hendon (2016) articulate that a commitment to sustainability makes employees to become more motivated. I felt like the registered nurses were lagging behind when it came to teamwork and coordination. During the process, my responsibility was to manage the group and encourage them to work together as a team. I persuaded with them to foster collaboration by telling them to offer new suggestions and ideas on how to do things better. My primary intrinsic motivators during the process were responsibility and accomplishment. During the team building activity, responsibility stepped in when I felt the need to be a strong inspiration to my employees. Additionally, I reminded the registered nurses of their positive accomplishments. Kelly & Tabir (2013) assert that nurse managers can manage relationships with their employees through inspiration, team building, and motivation. A few weeks after the team building procedure, I felt professionally fulfilled because I noticed some changes such as cooperation and coordination among all the registered nurses.

On the contrary, I once felt professionally unfulfilled at my place of work. The feeling was evident when I began my career as a nurse. I was a working as a registered nurse in a community hospital. My roles were keeping patients records, administering medications, and monitoring the patients. I worked in that community hospital for a longer period, performed my duties faster, worked overtime, but still felt like I was not rewarded for my inputs. I was passionate about my work, but still felt like my nurse manager at that time could not recognize my accomplishments. Eventually, I began to feel demotivated and lost interest in the work itself. From a personal perspective, one primary motivator absent in that situation was regular feedback. My manager was not communicative and did not give me regular feedback or positive criticism that could enable me to learn and improve my performance. Lussier & Hendon (2016) assert that when employees are given immediate and regular feedback, they are able to perform highly compared to those who do not receive such response. Additionally, Dawson, Helen, Roche, Homer, & Duffield (2014) affirm that the significance of recognizing staff achievement contributes to staff satisfaction. Apparently, due to my initial passion for my job, the inability of the nurse manager to recognize my efforts made me to feel professionally unfulfilled.

As a nurse manager, I might implement organizational wide changes that would create an environment that engages staff through more intrinsic motivators in a myriad of ways. First, I would implement an annual organizational reward and recognition program. It will give me the opportunity to understand my employees and connect with them on a personal level. During the program, employees would talk about their experience in the organization, and each of them will receive a token of appreciation for their work. Burton (2012) avows that rewards and recognition programs would make employees motivated and improve their productivity. I believe that employees will become more motivated from within to improve their performance. As Obicci (2015) asserts, Muchai and Mwanyis study on employee rewards found that engaging employees through rewards reduced problems and complaints. Regarding departmental changes, I would implement quarterly mentorship programs. I would engage and mentor my employees, energize them, and make partners out of them. During the sessions, I would encourage the staff to perform better through cooperation and coordination. Obicci (2015) affirms that employee engagement is a primary driver for organization success. The above organizational and departmental changes would increase employee engagement and develop their intrinsic motivators.

In summary, employees should add value to their organization by using their intelligence and expertise to direct their job activities. Notably, intrinsic rewards have a positive effect on employee engagement. On a broader perspective, effective leadership among nurse managers improve nurses satisfaction and contributes to healthy working environments. Overall, nurse leaders have to guide their employees to work through intrinsic motivators to improve their performance levels.

References

Burton, K. (2012). A study of Motivation: How to get your Employees Moving. Retrieved from https://spea.indiana.edu/doc/undergraduate/ugrd_thesis2012_mgmt_burton.pdf

Dawson, A. J., Helen, S., Roche, M. A., Homer, C. S., & Duffield, C. (2014). Nursing churn and turnover in Australian hospitals: nurses perceptions and suggestions for supportive strategies. BMC Nursing, vol. 13, no. 11.

Kelly, P., & Tazbir, J. (2013). Essentials of Nursing Leadership & Management. Boston: Cengage Learning.

Lussier, R. N., & Hendon, J. R. (2016). Human resource management: Functions, applications, & skill development (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Obicci, P.A. (2015). Influence of Extrinsic and Intrinsic Rewards on Employee Engagement.(Empirical Study in Public Sector of Uganda). Management Studies and Economic Systems (MSES), vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 59-70.