Employee motivation methods selection in tourism organizations

The research object – employee‘s motivation methods. Problematic questions of the research: what factors are essential in order to create an effective system of motivation? How to choose the best/ the most appropriate motivation tools which would be effective for staff and the entire organization. The main purpose of this research is to identify means/ methods increasing employee‘s motivation in the tourism organizations. On purpose to accomplish this research, there are main points of this work to be examined: 1. To distinguish employee motivation and process of motivation concepts. 2. To reveal the main methods of motivation. 3. To identify means/ methods that motivate employees in Lithuanian tourism organizations. Hypothesis – non-financial methods of motivation are more important for employees than financial methods of motivation. Conclusions and recommendations: 1. Motivation and motivating concepts are closely related but not identical. Motivating is understood as a specific effect of employee behavior in order to achieve the organization's objectives. Whereas the concept of motivation focuses on behavior, action, action in favor of the process which is operated by motives. Motivation pushes employees to take some targeted action to achieve the outcome, while the motivating is the cause of the emergence of motivation. 2. Motivation theories are based on the experience of human behavior and by the causes of behavior are divided into content and process theories. Content motivation theories explains the specific factors that influence needs of human behavior, looking for the answer what motivates a person. In contrast, process theories explain how human behavior is encouraged and accents the needs and motives as well as the realization of specific forms of behavior. Motivating can be divided into two motivation groups: economic (direct and indirect) and the psychological motivation of employees. Direct economic motivation may be the bonuses, incentives, wages, gift certificates, certain expenses coverage. Economic indirect motivation measures include the granting of additional paid holidays, employee competence development to the account of organization, extra insurance, other benefits paid as cars, sports club accounts and so on. Meanwhile, the psychological promotion techniques using non-economic measures such as: good climate of psychological support, organized holidays, trips, public awards, thanksgiving, involvement in decision-making processes, organized annual discussions between the employee and his immediate superior, creation of organizations traditions and other methods. 3. In organizations there is a tendency to encourage employees to non-cash instruments as collective dinners, trips, working holidays, especially frequently employees are encouraged to secondments in Lithuania or abroad. Most superiors try to create a comfortable working environment for employees, promotes team communication and spending time in an informal enviroment, also develops organization traditions. Superiors prefer indirect economic and psychological forms of promotion, arguing that these methods are effective for both sides - both the employee and the organization itself. Based on the empirical analysis of the results, the staff has identified a series, in their view, the most effective measures of motivation. Under the priority, respondents identified the safe working conditions for employees, good psychological climate and the most important - competitive salary, depending on performance. Most of the employees says that superiors should take interest in employees' needs and take them into account, using the reasoning methods, or the employees themselves should express their needs superior. There are several dominant employees' needs by priority: wages, career opportunities, social security, responsibilities, work schedule and personal fulfillment.