1.1 Introduction: Development of an organization largely depends on the developments of its human resource therein. Both developments are directly related to each other. Institutional development depends on infrastructure, administrative boosters, financial strength and most importantly the effective and efficient utilization of the human resources. In any organization developments of employees depends on the mandate and scope of the institution, the support from the authority towards qualitative development of employees influencing and encouraging them to increase personnel ability. The process, influencing employee for developing professional skills and contributing to achieving organizational goal can be regarded as Motivation.
In the word of Jana and Panigrahi (2010) -Any organization (commercial or educational) can be successful only if its employees work with interest and enthusiasm. Organizational failure occurs due to employees’ frustration, low morale and unwillingness to work” (p. 12). For understanding motivation, and identify factors related to people’s motivation several studies have been carried out. In this connection, it may be noted that motivation is the process that accounts for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal. Like any other organization, the quality of library services as directly related to the motivation of its professionals or workers.
Libraries are non-profitable, labour intensive service organizations where library users are served by the library staff. One of the prevalent challenges that libraries are facing is how to motivate library staff to get competitive advantage. Digital culture in libraries arouses the need to find out the innovative ways to motivate the employees who are working in library for Delivering excellent service in library it is vital to motivate and improve professional competency. It can be noted that only satisfied and motivated employee can facilitate the users in excellent way. Today competitive environment made it critical to know what motivate the employees to improve their performance. In the same way, to know the LIS professionals motivational preferences on work place is also essential to provide effective and efficient services to users.
1.2 Motivation
Motivation is the art of influencing people, a kind of encourage incentives whenever encourage a person to do work which is for the betterment of the society. The term motivation derived from the word motive, which may be defined as needs, wants or impulses within an individual. Motivation may be defined as the complex of force inspiring a person at work to intensify his willingness to utilise his capabilities for the achievements of certain objectives.
The word motivation is derived from motive, which is an active form of a desire or need, which must be satisfied It is a common phenomenon often talked about the need of people in any given organization. Allan, Gadon, and Willits (2001) define motivation as an inner state of mind that causes a person to behave in a way that endures the accomplishment of stated goals. Motivation is something, which impels a person to act, a reason for the behavior. They further stated that motivation is not manipulation of people but understanding of needs, wages which prompt people to do things (Adio and Thomas, 2015, p.19).
There is a need for understanding fundamental drives, urges, needs and desires of the individual which can be manipulated and stimulated and a sense of communication and methodology that would provide stimulation to these urges. Some of the methods used for this purpose may be the provision of financial incentive, cordial working environment, challenging job and responsibility, personal accomplishment, recognition for such accomplishment and an opportunity for growth and advancement.
Halepota (2005) defines motivation as a person’s active participation and commitment to achieve the prescribed results. He observed that the concept of motivation is an abstract construct because different strategies produce different results at different times and there is no single strategy that can produce guaranteed favorable results all the times.
According to Jones (2000) motivation can be defined as “psychological forces that determine the direction of a person’s behavior in an organization; a person’s level of effort, and a person’s level of persistence in the face of obstacles”. Managers try to motivate employees to contribute their inputs to an organization so as to ensure that employees satisfy their individual needs when they perform at a high level (p. 249).
It can be observed from the above that motivation in general is more or less concerned with factors or events that moves, leads, and drives certain human action or inaction over a given period, given the prevailing conditions. Furthermore, the definitions suggest that there needs to be an invisible force to push people to do something in return.
1.3 Types of Motivation:
There are two types of motivation, Extrinsic and intrinsic motivation
a) Extrinsic motivation: This motivation is induced by external factors, which are primarily financial in nature. These incentives and reward have been a subject of debate, whether they really motivate the employees or simply move them to work.
In their research paper, Ryan and Deci (2000) mentioned the term extrinsic motivation is the attainment of a separable outcome from the performance of an activity. Extrinsic motivation encourages staff to complete their task in order to receive the reward. In other words, rewards motivate people to get rewards.
b) Intrinsic motivation: Intrinsic motivation includes the performance of an individual or an activity for the inherent satisfaction of the activity. Intrinsic motivation is personal, “internal” responses, such as satisfaction or pride in an accomplishment. Intrinsic motivation is synonymous with a desire to work hard solely for the pleasure of task accomplishment. According to Mallaiah (2009) “public recognition and professional opportunities are motivators and can be as effective as extrinsic rewards such as monetary reward and gifts”. Intrinsic motivation results from an individual’s need to be competent and self-determined irrespective of possible external rewards (p.36).
1.4 Motivation and its Need:
The LIS Professional should be enthusiastic with new ideas, zeal and have an urge for growth. In the word of Tuzzolino (1981) the spirit of unjustified attitude and inertia on the part of the library, personnel is suicidal both for the rise of individuals as well as for the betterment of the institution served by them. In that the terminology Motivation and its
need for professional is essential. Individual needs are divided according to their necessity of their life. The basic needs based on Maslow theory are:
➢ Psychological Need: This is the basic needs of employee motivation. This need implies the basic needs of the employee. People can be easily motivated by providing food and shelter and salary. If a library sufficiently provides the basic physiological need then it’s professional easily motivated towards their work.
➢ Safety or Security Need: Another parameter for motivation is Job security and the safety of their job. LIS professional can easily be motivated if their job is secured. Safety needs included work safety, job security, health insurance etc.but working condition and job atmosphere is also necessary for motivating individuals engaged in the library.
➢ Esteem Need: If a person gets job security, the next need for him is the status of the job. In other word, esteem needs included recognition, high status, responsibilities of their position etc. Sometimes it is noticed that in the case of the library, the professionals have quite a good salary or other benefits, but authority does not recognize the status of the job. Therefore, esteem need is another parameter for motivation.
➢ Self-Actualisation: After a level employee wants social recognition. Self-actualization need included responsibility of performance, the power to decision making, high status, honored from subordinate as well as people from outside. It is the ultimate desire of people who achieve a respective position in their job. If the above-mentioned need is fulfilled by the authority than a library person can be motivated and perform his service in an excellent way.
1.5 Motivating Factors:
There are some factors, which plays a key role in motivating staff. Some of the factors are as follows:
■ Monetary benefits: Finance is the most important factor for motivation in an organization if the monetary benefit of an organization is high than the workers are motivated and perform their job very effectively.
■ Organizational work background: Being a member of a general working community, the employees often experience pseudo-leadership behavior from people in key position. Therefore, the work background of a particular organization is very important for the development of the work environment and efficiency of a particular employee.
■ Status of the job: Status or position of the job is an important factor for motivation. The professional of any library is very much aware of their position. If the right professional in the right position then he will be satisfied in his job and tried to perform his service effectively.
■ Cooperation from the authorities: If the authority does not cooperate with the employee then it will dissatisfy the worker. So authority should be cooperative to fulfill the desire of its professionals.
1.6 Importance of Motivation:
■ The workers are generally immensely capable of doing some work. Motivating can be achieved if he is not willing to work. So motivation is an effective instrument in the hands of management in the creation of will to work(inspiring the workforce)
■ Motivation helps in the better utilization of resources, abilities, and capabilities of the professionals.
■ Motivation can create a team spirit among the professional and increase their loyalty to the workgroup.
1.7 Eight Key Principles to Motivating Others:
Adair (2008) in his book “leadership and motivation” suggested eight key principlesfor motivating people towards their work. These principles are discussed below are:
a) Self-Motivation: The golden principle of motivation is self-motivation i.e. a person will never inspire others unless he/she inspired by own. Only self-motivated authority can able to motivate its subordinate or employee. Self-motivation is considered as one of the basic parameters for motivation. For qualitative development of LIS professionals motivating by own is effective and efficient for them.
b) Selecting highly motivated people: It is a hard task to motivate persons who are not self-motivated. In the word of John Bunyan, “you select someone for a job a high motivation and modest talent is to be preferred to considerable talent but little or no evidence of motivation”(as cited in Adair, 2008, p.93). Here the individual which are highly motivated towards their work is selected and on the basis of their performance remaining individuals are tried to motivate.
c) Treat each person as individual: Authority should treat its employee as an individual so that is able to know what motivates them most. Unless to ask a person it is not possible to know what motivates them, what they want. The Greek dramatist Menander once said, ‘Know thyself,’ which is a good saying, but not in all situations. Instead of knowing thyself’ it is better to say ‘know others’ (as cited in Adair, 2008, p.111). A good leader always listens to subordinates and tried to fulfill their hope. In the case of the library, library management tries to know the desire and problems and give them an opportunity to express their need.
d) Set realistic and challenging targets: “There is no inspiration in the ideals of plenty and stability,” wrote John Lancaster Spalding (as cited in Adair, 2008, p.119). People are to respond to the task, which is challenging. In the case of the library, most of the library professionals want feasibility but a demanding task. A skilled leader always set targets to achieve their goals and develop the team and its individual members. However, the condition is that the objectives should be realistic in nature and affect in professional working life.
e) Work progress as motivator: It is one of the sound principles of motivation is that progress motivates. If an individual knows that, they are moving forward, it leads them to increase their efforts towards their job. It is observed that people need positive feedbacks, which are moving in the right direction. Therefore, it is important to ensure that people receive proper feedback. Feedback is defined in Webster’s Dictionary as the return to the input of a part of the output of a machine, system or process. In the library, it is essential to receiving feedback from the user for better utilization of the library as well as the qualitative development of library professionals.
f) Create a motivating environment: Although peoples have a limited ability to motivating others but they can contribute to create conducive environment where others can find motivating by properly considering Herzberg’s Hygiene factor. In doing so the physical and psychological well-being of people showed get top priority. Steps such as introducing control systems only where necessary, involving people in making decision that influence their professional life, introducing job variety in workplace and sensitizing on job responsibilities and their attributed significance act as a motivator where people can contribute to new ideas and help forward the essential process of innovation.
g) Provide fair rewards: Provision for reward system is a strong motivator for library professionals working in library. It is mentioned that in every job performance balance of providing service and expectation for receiving is important. Performance ought to be linked to rewards, promotional avenues and facility based on merit. As a general principle, monetary rewards match with the contribution in particular kind of work. In McGregor theory it is mentioned that provision of reward is necessary for better contribution in service by worker.
h) Give recognition: Recognition is one of the powerful motivator. It is expected that library management show recognition to all members working in library. Job recognition is considered as one of the sound motivating parameter. It is mentioned that where the work of people is valued there is always motivation to do it and to perform it well.
1.8 Job Satisfaction:
Hurt (2005) in work defined Job satisfaction as “job satisfaction is generally in terms of people’s emotional reactions to their jobs” (p.173).
Lim (2008) distinguishes between conceptual definitions and operational definitions, in which measures of satisfaction are given, such as a sense of belonging, job autonomy, promotion opportunities, and role identity. In common with other studies of job satisfaction in LIS, the project is informed by the classic HR theories which are covered in Human Resources Management (HRM) textbooks, specifically Hackman and Oldham’s Job Characteristics Model (JCM) of job enrichment and Herzberg’s incentives theory. According to the JCM model, designing meaningful jobs, that call for a variety of skills, that have an identity, that offer room for autonomous decision-making and that build in feedback is the key to job satisfaction, motivation, reduced turnover as well as improved performance. Most approaches to workplace motivation and satisfaction agree that a mix of factors motivates employees. Some come from outside but equally important are the inner factors related to human needs for growth and learning. Library leadership has little control of what Herzberg calls “hygiene” factors like remuneration, which are dictated by the parent university. However, the agreement in HR theory on the importance of employees’ self- motivation provides opportunities. The task of a leader is to provide a motivating climate in which people choose continuously develop them to the benefit of the organization. The rise of the notion of a learning organization in management circles seems particularly appropriate for a library, whose business is the communication of knowledge (p.122).
Van (1998) review of job satisfaction studies in LIS found that:
- Older staff is more satisfied than younger,
- Department heads with more responsibility are happier in their work than the staff under them,
- Reference librarians are more satisfied,
- Professional staffs are more satisfied and the biggest cause of job satisfaction is nature of employment.
1.8.1 Motivation and Job Satisfaction
A number of researchers examine the relationship between an employee’s motivation and job satisfaction. Heneman (1988) in their article examine significance of motivation in job satisfaction and have concluded that work motivation and job satisfaction should be treated separately, so that factors of influence can be more readily identified and to allow for better understanding.
Tietjen and Myers (1998) mentioned that Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory identifies intrinsic motivators (e.g., achievement, recognition, the work itself) and hygiene factors, which tend to be extrinsic factors (e.g., company administration, supervision, salary). Herzberg’s view is that these motivators lead to job satisfaction because they satisfy an individual’s need for self-actualization.
Intrinsic motivation can increase because of work enhancement programme that has increased work morale When employees’ enjoyment of their job increases; intrinsic rewards may undermine the extrinsic motivation. The proponents of self-determination theory argue that pay can have a positive effect on intrinsic motivation by being supportive and encouraging employee autonomy and self-esteem (Mensah, 2016,p. 255).
1.9 Qualitative Development:
Wilkinson and Willmott (1995) mentioned that the word ‘quality’ conveys the suggestion of subtle and nebulous factors that are not readily quantifiable – that is, factors that are not easily concretized, measured or tied down. Arguably, its vague, but nonetheless positive associations make the appeal of ‘quality’ immediate and extensive. They also mentioned that the appeal of the term ‘quality’ can thus be used by senior managers to legitimize all sorts of measures and changes in the name of a self-evident good. Doherty (1994) has argued that “our concerns with ‘quality’ can be traced back to the Aristotelian texts” (p. 551).
The process of Qualitative Development: In library service, continuous cost reduction and quality improvement are essential if the library is to stay in operation. Competitiveness is measured by three things: quality, price, and delivery. The theory behind the costs of quality shows that, as quality improves, costs fall through a reduction in failure and appraisal costs. Satisfying the user in terms of quality and price will clearly benefit market share. User satisfaction, increase choice, extend competition and thereby improve quality in all services.
Job Performance and Qualitative Development: Job performance covers employee’s contribution to organizational performance, refers to actions that are part of the formal reward system and addresses the requirements in job descriptions (Williams and Karau, 1991).
Job performance at general level consists of activities that transform materials into the goods and services produced by the organization or to allow for the efficient functioning of the organization (Motowidlo et al., 1997). Thus, job performance covers the fulfillment of the requirements that are part of the contract between the employer and employee. Moreover, job performance in itself can be described as a multidimensional construct.
Libraries provide key support to economic development through direct job creation, contribution to the cultural development of the local area, education, training and skills development, and the development of social capital and social inclusiveness (Ashu and Clandening, 2007). In the case of academic libraries like an engineering college library, polytechnic library etc., a feasible plan to enhance user services is to be organized with library professionals located at each division in the library.
Qualitative development of staff consists of the development of people in the library, its culture, attitude, work environment, and appearance. It requires a commitment to communication and training to develop an employee’s skills. It also requires libraries to identify and take advantage of the opportunities and strengths of human resource. In this digital age, as libraries are making great efforts to deliver information services tousers, they are also facing a serious problem: fewer users are physically visiting libraries as a response to the unprecedented development of technological innovations and as the traditional library has less physical space to offer today’s user. There are question arise How can libraries continue to justify their occupation of physical space in this climate? as a remedy to this effect, libraries can fill an important role in building professional skills by using new technology and training programme. Sometime it is noticed that digital divide isolates people who cannot afford the technologies and lack digital literacy skills or motivation dissatisfied library professionals towards their job (Sidorko and Yang, 2009).
Component for Job Performance and Qualitative Development:
Stella (2008) in her work mentioned about some component of job performance and qualitative development. These components are:
a) Performance Planning: A communication between a supervisor and employee to establish clear, specific performance expectations at the beginning of the performance cycle.
b) Coaching: Coaching or two-way (both from the manager and employee) discussions which focus on recognizing employee excellence(talent) and areas for improvement and learning, as well as identifying barriers to performance.
c) Multiple Sources of Feedback: Feedback is a process, which provides employees with performance information to supplement supervisory recommendation. For different sources, feedback may include self-evaluation, peers, constituents or direct reports etc.
d) Performance Review: Performance review consists of summative two-way discussions and written documentation focusing on employee performance: areas of excellence, goals for improvement and development needs.
e) Reward system: The overall aim of reward systems is to inspire, attract and retain the quality of human resources. When the reward received by the employee as equitable and in relation to their performance improvement then their quality of service may be increased.
Original Reference Article:
- Kukila, G. (2018). Motivating library and information science lis professionals in engineering college and institute libraries of assam for qualitative development. retrieved from: http://hdl.handle.net/10603/230392