Excitement is a feeling of enthusiasm and eagerness at a very higher level, the other definition can be that when a person is having a lot of energy and is zealous. Excitement is like an incentive been added to any action, it can also be said as encouragement. It can also be referred as a condition in which a person becomes mentally excited due to the various changes taking place in the environment
If the people in organization are not excited to work, then that organization is in trouble. If any of the employees says that he si not having fun in the organization! Then Creating Excitement in the Workplace is designed for such an organization. Workplace excitement helps in putting back the fun in the workplace. It is actually used to improve the work performance. The more the employees play and have fun, the more efficiently they work.
The main motive of creating excitement at workplace is to increase employee participation and involvement, because if the employees are more committed and motivated then they would serve the customers more efficiently and hence improving organizations performance.
What is Employee Participation?
It is the process in which employees are involved in decision making process of the management. Employee participation directly leads to employee empowerment. Employees are encouraged to take responsibility and are also given authority to carry out activities.
The topic Excitement factor at workplace is incomplete after a lot of research. Each and every management subject requires a massive research work.
Following are some of the reviews of few authors
Literature Review on Employee Engagement
First we need to understand what is Employee engagement ,
If the employees will be excited to work then they will be automatically motivated, and the get themselves involved in new projects also. The employee's become more committed towards the organization's goals. If the workers of the organization are less engaged in the work then there is no fault in the employees but actually the manager is ineffective.
Kahn (1990)
Kahn (1990:694) defines employee engagement as "the harnessing of organization members' selves to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances".
Kahn says that employees want to express themselves physically, cognitively and emotionally. The physical aspect is regarding the physical capabilities of employees. The cognitive aspect here refers to employees' beliefs about the organization, its leaders and working environment. The emotional aspect here refers to, employees positive or negative attitudes towards the organization.
Frank et al 2004 the amount of discretionary effort exhibited by employees in their job.
Truss et al 2006 defines employee engagement as 'passion for work'
Robinson et al (2004) defined engagement as 'one step up from commitment'.
May et al (2004) engagement is most closely associated with the job involvement and flow, flow here refers to a feeling which one gets when he/she is totally involved in an act.
Maslach et al's (2001) and Kahn's (1990)
An alternative model of engagement comes from the 'burnout' literature, which describes job engagement as the positive antithesis of burnout, noting that burnout involves the erosion of engagement with one's job (Maslach et al 2001)
The definitions of both authors show that psychological conditions are important for Employee Engagement.
Psychological Conditions in case of Kahn 1990
The physical aspect
The cognitive aspect
The emotional aspect
According to Maslach et al, six factors which can lead to employee engagement are:
Workload
Control
Rewards
Recognition
Social Support
Values
Maslach et al says that a valuable work load should be given to the workers and good control mechanism should also be formed for the same, to perform the tasks assigned supportive workers also required.
Saks (2006) had formulated the SET theory (social exchange theory) it tells that whether an employee will be engaged in the work of the organization. The only way by which individuals can repay to their organisation is through their level of engagement. And for working the individuals require resources from the organization and if these resources are not provided then the employees will withdraw themselves from their roles. It also explains that there is a direct relationship between employee engagement and and the result of business.
Two types of Engagement according to Saks:
Job engagement
Organization engagement
Baumruk 2004, Richman 2006 and Shaw 2005
According to Baumruk 2004, Richman 2006 and Shaw 2005 emotional and intellectual engagement with the organization.
Harter et al (2002:272) "…employee satisfaction and engagement are related to meaningful business outcomes at a magnitude that is important to many organisations".
The definition of Harter et al explains the fact that if the employees will be more engaged in organization's work and if they will be more committed then it would lead to good results and only good results are of importance to the organization.
McCashland 1999, Miles 2001 and Harter et al
2003
Employee engagement is something that is produced by
aspects in the workplace.
Goddard 1999 and Harter et al 2002
Employee engagement is something that the individual brings to the workplace.
According to Robinson (2006),
Employee engagement can be achieved thru an environment where there is employee involvement and where employees are rewarded for good performance, these aspects automatically lead to better organizational performance.
Towers Perrin (2003),
Building engagement is a process that never ends and it rests on the foundation of a meaningful and emotionally enriching work experience.
FINDINGS
There are various conflicting definitions in the literature review for example, the definitions by McCashland 1999, Miles 2001 and Harter et al2003) suggest that employee engagement is something that is produced by aspects in the workplace while on the other hand (Harter et al 2002 and Goddard 1999) suggest that it is something that the individual brings to the workplace.
A research was done by Gallup organisation by using the sampling technique on the UK workforce (Buckingham 2001),
They came with a result that the employees can be divided into three groups on the basis of employee commitment and the excitement factor in the workplace.
Engaged employees
Non-engaged employees
Actively disengaged employees
Engaged employees refers to those employees who are loyal and committed towards the organization. These workers are more productive also, they can be more motivated to work if they are involved in decision making so that they can give their creative ideas. Excitement factor can enhance the performance of the engaged employees.
Non engaged employees are those employees which work on the orders given by the managers, these employees are mostly tempted by Financial incentives, they have nothing todo with organization. They think about their personal growth only. If the managers try to give them any Holiday packages or throw surprise parties in the workplace then I think it would be not that fruitful , instead these workers would demand the money which will be spent on the holiday package by the organization.
Actively disengaged are those employees who are physically present, but psychologically absent. These employees have a negative attitude ie. Negative thinking, these employees are also unco-operative .These employees can be improved they can be made more committed and zealous through the excitement factor at the workplace.
THE FOLLOWING IS A PIE CHART OF THE STUDY DONE BY GALLUP ORGANISATION
No excitement a big problem!
If the people are made to do the same work in the origination, they are told to come at 9 do the work, have lunch and leave at 5, then following this schedule for them would be quite boring, they would not get themselves involved in organization's success, because after following such routine they will find the the managers, the workplace environment very boring. And hence they will not be able to concentrate on the tasks assigned and thus affecting the results of the business. If the people feel bored all the time then they would find different methods to fight boredom, sometimes they would also get into fights and quarrels with their co-workers. Because if people are bored then they get very arrogant sometimes. If there will be no excitement in the workplace then people would work hence effecting organizations productivity. Sometimes they would also prefer to leave the organization, thus would eventually lead to increase in the staffing and training costs of the organization.
So to oversome this problem following steps can be taken:
1. Let people use their own creativity: We should motivate the employees to employ creative and innovative ways to work, employees should also be encouraged for those decisions which had boosted the profitability of the organization.
2. Have flexibility in work: The work schedules of employees should be more flexible helping in keeping the employees relaxed.
Flexibility here refrers to Allowing workers to work from home, reducing the monthly targets, Various events should be celebrated the in office will make the environment more productive and less stressful.
3. Give them a break: Short Breaks should also be given to the employees so that the employees are able to fulfill their social needs when the workers chat and discuss with each other they feel more relaxed and refreshed.
4. Fun: Contest, games, celebrations and other activities should be organized at the workplace to inculcate more excitement at the workplace . A surprise party can also be organized with tempting delicacies.
5. Creating a fun atmosphere: Funny ideas and techniques can be implemented to relief employees from tensions and work load. Hence reducing stress and increasing productivity of the employees.
6. Getting more ideas: Employees should be asked for new ideas and tricks to maintain fun and excitement in the workplace. A Fun Group should be made to crack jokes in serious situations and relieve stress of the people.
7. Food : Everyone gets excited about the food which will be served by the organization or the food they have brought with themselves. Surprise delicacies should be served at the lunch time.
10. Creating Special Days : Special Days should be celebrated at the workplace for appreciating any employee who has reached his monthly target. A special day can be celebrated on this day no employee will wear the formals and will be a half day for all of them.
11. Assigning nick names to the Co workers:
Nicknames can be assigned to the co workers to make the work more fun and stressless.
12 .Job Rotation: it is process in which an employee is transferred from one part of organization to another, the level of management may or may not change. Ie an employee name Mr. A is made to work in different parts of an organization like he can be made to work in HR Department or PR department this will ultimately make his job less boredom. When the employee is given a surprise that he will now work in his favorite department then it will make him more excited to work. Job rotation also helps in incrasing the experience of the workers.
Source: http://humhumhum.wordpress.com/2008/01/25/top-10-ways-to-introduce-a-little-excitement-into-your-workplace/
CONCLUSION
An organization cannot survive if it has no excitement at the workplace. Various literature views show that employee get themselves engaged , it is something which employees bring to the workplace. The work of the managers is to create excitement in employees so that they get themselves engaged in tasks assigned by the organization. Excitement can be created by Having special days like Informal day : day on which no one wil wear formal clothes, short breakes, alterations in food menu, involving the employees in decision making, job rotation can also be used to make employees more committed towards the organization.
