Discretionary Work Effort and Employee Motivation: Theory and Practice

Business management is undergoing dynamic changes as a result of multitude of factors, including globalization, rapidly changing technology, unprecedented access to resources, cost pressures, cross cultural phenomenology, changing demographics, dynamics in QWL, cut throat competition among organizations etc. The fact is, managing the workforce is complex and uncertain and all these changes call for a fresh and innovative look into the human resource management theories and practices. There is not a magical single solution. The major challenge for the present organizations is that employees are leashing discretionary work behaviors. Discretionary work effort is a crucial factor for enhancing efficiency and productivity of an organization. In the normal discourse of organizational functioning, employees expend their discretionary efforts to perform jobs which in- turn are linked to reward expectations and career pursuits. The amount of effort as a percentage of work effort tends to vary greatly from individual to individual. The effort an employee puts at the work place above and beyond the minimal effort required to keep a job is referred to as discretionary work effort. On the other hand, employee motivation has emerged as most widely researched area because of its complexity and significance. In this challenging corporate scenario, it has become indispensable for the employers and managers to study what motivates their employees. Motivation is the key to break the classical shackles of collection inertia to unravel the infinite capacity to experience joy at work. Competency comes from knowledge. Discretionary Work Effort and Employee Motivation: Theory and Practice seeks to provide such conception to the academicians, professionals, practitioners and the allied stake holders. The book is an endeavor to provide essential learning with a main focus on discretionary work effort and its relationship with employee motivation.