Introduction

The productivity in an organization depends on the people’s ability to work. The human resource department in an every organization has the sole obligation of ensuring that the work rate in an organization reaches desired levels. This has been necessitated by the increasing global financial pressures that force organizations to achieve more with less finance. Collaboration and team work remains a core item in ensuring that desired levels of productivity are realized.  Setting required standards and reward systems can be very instrumental in ensuring that desired levels of productivity are achieved. It is also the obligation of the organization to ensure that the selection and recruitment of staff is of high quality (Notter, 2012).

Motivation and job satisfaction

Organizations view human resource as the main route of the organizations productivity. In order to achieve the desired levels of productivity in an organization, it is always vital to ensure that the workers are satisfied and motivated what they usually do. The human resource department in an organization should strive to ensure that the satisfaction of workers is high. This will ensure that there is increased productivity, quality, responsiveness and customer service.  However, it is important to note that employees’ satisfaction is directly related to the motivation of the workers.

Motivation refers to a situation whereby employees are encouraged or induced to work and expect to get reward for their productivity. Motivation in an organization is concerned with factors which will instigate, give direction in order to maintain desired levels of productivity or to stop unwanted behavior in an organization. In order to have an effective motivation program in the work place, it is always important to have a proper understanding of human behavior. This involves understanding human needs and thus determining the factors to be used in the motivational process.

In order to motivate and ensure job satisfaction, it is always vital to understand the human needs and ensure that they are sustained in an organization. One of the most important theories that help in determining the level of motivation is the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. This theory was proposed by Abram Maslow and is also referred to as ‘’The Motivation Theory’’. The theory explains the human needs that worker in an organization would prefer. According to this theory, human being is always motivated to achieve certain needs. However, when one of the needs is fulfilled, there is the tendency of trying to achieve the next one and the process is endless.Abram outlined the needs in order of hierarchy and asserted that the needs must be fulfilled starting with the most basic ones to the non-essential needs. The needs start from physiological, safety, social, self-esteem and self-actualization in that order.

Another theory that explains motivation and job satisfaction is Herzberg’s Dual factor theory. This theory stipulates that there are certain factors I a work place that are responsible for job satisfaction while other factors are responsible for dissatisfaction in a workplace. Herzberg proposed a motivator-hygiene theory which suggested that job satisfaction is influenced by two sets of factors. For instance, presence of hygiene factors such as toilets and chairs may not motivate but their presence may lower motivation. On the other hand, motivational factors may not necessarily lower motivation but can be responsible for increased motivation. Some of the factors that affect satisfaction include; achievement, recognition, responsibility among others. Hygiene factors that affect dissatisfaction include; company policy, supervision, salary, interpersonal relations and working conditions.

The theories of motivation as described by Herzberg and Abram have several limitations. For instance, if an organization has employees with low motivation needs maybe very difficult to deal with. Some workers do not have conventional hierarchy of needs especially due to the different levels of education. The application of these theories should be selective and should be applied where the workers meet the set standard of the theory(Notter, 2012). Many organizations have adopted several measures that will help improve job satisfaction and motivation among workers. For instance, Starbucks have a good job satisfaction and motivation. It is believed that the employees in this organization have 82% of satisfaction rate. This has been achieved through intrinsic and extrinsic reward systems. The reward systems in that organization have been very effective in ensuring that the job satisfaction of employees is realized. This will ensure utmost productivity within the organization.

Perception

Perception in an organization is a psychological process of identifying and interpreting of sensory data. Different people within the organization have different view of the world. It is for this reason that the managers in an organization should be aware of their own perceptual processes and how they differ from those of others. Existence of perceptual differences amongst one another can lead to conflict. The organization should put in place measures that will help understand the different perceptions within the organization.it is also important to have adequate measures to mitigate negative effects of perception. It is also of paramount importance to have a clear distinction between perception and reality.

Perception entails getting information from the environment and tries to make inferences from what we get. Human beings are equipped with several organs such as eyes, ears and noses which plays a pivotal role in the sensory systems of the person. The above said organs have the responsibility of receiving sensory inputs and transmit sensory information to the brain.  There have been numerous challenges in understanding the process by which the physical energy received by sense organs forms the basis of perceptual experience.  Sensory inputs are converted into perceptions of physical items, sounds, tastes, smell and touch experiences(Notter, 2012).

Several theories have been put forward to explain the perception process. The extent to which the perception relies on the information present and stimulus lays the basis upon which two theories are generated. Some psychologists argue that perceptual processes are not direct but are dependent of the perceiver’s expectations, previous knowledge and the information available in the stimulus itself. As a result of this, two theories have been put forward and they include direct theory ofperception (bottom up theory) and the constructive theory (top-down theory).

Direct theory involves bottom up processing of data before making inferences. It is also known as data driven processing since perception begins with the stimulus itself. The processing of data is a systematic process that starts from the retina to the visual cortex. The analysis of perceptions under the direct theory integrates more complex analysis of the input at different stages in visual path way. Top down processing is a situation whereby contextual information is used in pattern recognition. For instance, it is easier to understand a difficult handwriting when reading complete sentences rather than reading single words. This is because surrounding words can offer a context of the information thus aiding fast understanding.

Another theory as put forward by Richard Gregory portrays perception as a constructive process which lies on top-down processing. According to Gregory, perception is a hypothesis where inferences are made from what we see and try to make the best guess. He also argues that past experiences and knowledge is crucial in perception. The formulation of hypothesis is enabled by prior knowledge and past experiences and in most cases the guesses are very correct and disconfirmed in rare cases(Prosser, 2010).

The perception of a person in an organization plays a great role in the productivity in the organization. It is formulated on the basis of a single desirable or undesirable trait or impression. In most cases, horn effect has played tremendous role in determining the perception of a person. The horn effect implies that one positive trait of a person makes us assume other positive traits and vice versa. This is a dangerous generalization since it makes wrong inferences. People have strong belief that people behave consistently which is derived from personality traits.  However, this may have negative implications such as fundamental attribution error, self-serving bias and hedonic relevance.

Recruitment and Selection

Recruitment and selection is a major role of human resource department in an organization. These are the practices and activities carried out by the organization with the primary objective of identifying and attracting potential workers in an organization. The recruitment and selection is a systematic process that is aimed at providing the organization with the best employees that match the objective of the organization. Selection and recruitment in HR involves six stages which ensure that the process is fruitful and achieves desired results. The first step in recruitment and selection process is identifying the vacancy. The next step involves analyzing and describing the job being offered. This involves identifying the suitable qualities for the expected recruits. It is also vital for the human resource to create a job specification after identifying desired qualities.  The other step should be to recruit a pool of candidates and then select from that pool. The last stage involves appointing and inducing from the pool of proosed employees.

Recruitment and selection process that must ensure that labor and work force within an organization is maintained and balanced accordingly.  In order to realize this, it is important to recruit only those who have the desire to work in the organization and ensure that only those who have desired qualities are selected. The requirements may be essentials or desirables and they vary from one organization to another. Essential are those qualities that are absolutely specified in the job requirements and one cannot be appointed in the vacancy without them. Desirables on the other hand refer to non-essentials qualities but are good to have for increased performance. Selection process must be carried out with caution to ensure that the objectives of the organization are achieved. High ethical and professional standards must be maintained equal opportunity and competitive advantage are realized.

The most common method of implementing selection is the interview process.  interview are of different types such as panel interview, telephone and interviews carried out following contents of CV among others. However, in some organizations, interviews are viewed as a time wasting process that interrupts critical business activities. It is important to ensure that the selection process enhances reliability and validity. A selection method should be concerned with ensuring consistency of results to ensure that a different selection panel can come up with the same results(Zebrowski, 2007).

Selection process must also ensure that validity is maintained. A selection method should ensure that the characteristic or ability of the interviewee is maintained. There are two types of validity which include content and criterion validity. Content validity is concerned with ensuring that the methods use in selection accurately assesses the behavior and skill required in the job. Criterion validity is concerned with determining whether the highly rated by the selection method are good performers in the job.

Interviewing process has always had several limitations. Some of the most notable limitation is the low validity and reliability of the criteria. The different interviewing process may lack consistency of results. This may actually happen if they are not properly conducted or conducted in biasness. Interviews are also prone to common interview errors and generalizations such as the horns effect. The interviewee may also lack adequate information on the vacancy thus making of wrong choices is eminent. The recruitment and selection process should be carried out depending with the nature of the job opportunity and the nature of the organization.

Conclusion

Work, people and the success in an organization are dependent on one another. This is because the people are responsible for working in an organization and their output results to the overall success of the organization. It is for this reason motivation and job satisfaction of the employees should not be compromised. It is also good to understand different perceptions in work places to ensure that there is feel good factor within the organization. A good selection and recruitment process is also recommended to ensure that highly qualified people are hired to work in these organizations. There should be proper integration of all these components in order to ensure that success in major organizations is achieved.

 References

Compton, R. L., Morrissey, W. J., & Nankervis, A. R. 2009. Effective recruitment & selection practices (5th ed.). North Ryde, N.S.W.: CCH Australia.

Cooper, D., & Robertson, I. T. 2003. Recruitment and selection: a framework for success ([New ed.). Australia: Thomson.

Fish, W. 2010. Philosophy of perception: a contemporary introduction. New York: Routledge.

Joyce, J. 2004. Becoming an employer of choice: make your own organisation a place where people want to do great work. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Notter, J., & Grant, M. 2012. Humanize: how people-centric organizations succeed in a social world. Indianapolis, Ind.: Que ;.

Prosser, S. 2010. Effective people: leadership and organisation development in healthcare (2nd ed.). Oxford: Radcliffe Pub..

Zebrowski, J. A. 2007. New research on social perception. New York: Nova Science Publishers.

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