The Employee Motivating Strategies to Work during Economic Hardship and the Employee Response

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, on the condition that users give exact credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if they made any changes. The Employee Motivating Strategies to Work during Economic Hardship and the Employee Response Ghalib Madlool Mohammed Al-Muthanna University, Iraq Abstract This study aims to analyze the impact of the response to motivation strategies on the performance of workers in difficult economic conditions, and to identify the most effective strategies in enhancing performance. The study population was identified from employees working in Iraqi private universities, totaling 8876, from which a random sample of 384 individuals was drawn. The research relied on the questionnaire as a data collection tool, designed based on previous studies, and distributed to sample members. The hypotheses were tested by calculating the Pearson coefficient, estimating the 's stability and bias for each hypothesis. The structural equation was also used through AMOS software to test the effect of the modified variable to analyze the relationship between response to motivation strategies and employee performance . Based on the results, it can be said that rewarding employees for their exceptional work consistently and according to clear criteria will generally improve their response, whether in terms of loyalty, job satisfaction, or morale. These results indicate the importance of providing suitable rewards for employees in private universities to improve overall performance and enhance loyalty and job satisfaction. As for financial constraints, they may affect the ability of private universities to provide rewards and benefits to employees . Therefore, other options for motivating employees can be considered, such as providing training and development opportunities, the possibility of internal promotion and similar promotions, and providing a healthy and safe working environment. By providing these alternatives, employee response can be improved without relying solely on rewards . The research also provided several recommendations, the most important of which is the adoption of a system of incentives and rewards based on objective and accurate criteria, and known and understood by university employees. Additionally, a selection and transfer system based on skills and competencies that are compatible with job descriptions and rely on performance evaluation results should be adopted . Keywords: motivation strategies, employee response, economic hardship. JEL Classification codes: J28. Suggested citation: Mohammed, G.M. (2025). The Employee Motivating Strategies to Work during Economic Hardship and the Employee Response. European Journal of Management, Economics and Business, 2(6), 47-55. DOI: 10.59324/ejmeb.2025.2(6).05 EJMEB (ISSN 3041-2102) | VOLUME 2 | NUMBER 6 | 2025 48 Introduction Attention to the human element is one of the most prominent reasons for companies' excellence and the development and enhancement of their performance. Performance is how leaders continually monitor their subordinates' tasks. It determines the effectiveness of employee performance and the extent to which individuals understand their jobs. To determine the extent of employee efficiency, companies monitor their performance to identify strengths and weaknesses in the performance of assigned tasks and then eliminate these weaknesses by various means. Basic Concepts of Employee Performance Since the early twentieth century, organizations' focus has shifted from a strategy focused on the amount they can produce to a strategy focused on the amount they can sell. Performance, then, represents controlling product prices by controlling internal costs based solely on the amount of time and equipment spent. However, over time, performance has undergone new developments in its content. Instead of using the time required for individuals and equipment to determine performance rates and price control, the concept of work has shifted to reflecting the changes observed in the entity's environment (Lakhal, 2018). The most important of these developments are represented by science and art, the emergence of strategic management thinking, and the growing trend toward implementing diverse management plans, particularly the differentiation strategy. All these developments, and others, have clearly impacted management methods. The Concept of Performance, Its Importance, and Characteristics The Concept of Performance It is considered one of the concepts related to the activity and behavior of individuals and organizations. It occupies a prominent position within any organization, as it is the final outcome of all the organization's work. Performance has taken on several definitions. Finch defined it as "the ability to use a special skill or functional skill in response to specific requirements." He also defined it as "the completion of tasks as they are supposed to be completed (Wagtley, 2009)." The Importance of Performance Evaluation The Importance of Performance Evaluation for the Individual: The individual benefits from the results of their performance evaluation, as they guide them to the extent of their success or failure in performing the tasks assigned to them within their group. It is also a guiding light in determining their progress or decline. If their performance improves, they know the reasons for this progress and work to continue on the same path and maintain the same behavior. If their performance declines, they also know the reasons behind this decline, and thus work hard to avoid them in the future and attempt to avoid behavior that, from the perspective of their leader, diminishes their effectiveness (Aw Al-Nasr, 2010). The Importance of Performance Evaluation for the Work Group: The work group benefits from performance evaluation in several ways, including: • Identifying training needs: Performance reveals areas of deficiency in the information and skills required by individuals based on all evaluation results. • Reconsidering personnel selection policies and methods: The results of performance analysis and evaluation reveal shortcomings in the sources the work group resorts to obtain the required personnel. EJMEB (ISSN 3041-2102) | VOLUME 2 | NUMBER 6 | 2025 49 Characteristics of Performance Evaluation The performance evaluation process is characterized by several characteristics, including (bin Ahmad bin Driri, 2017): • Performance evaluation is a comprehensive activity that affects all employees within the organization. • Performance evaluation is a systematic and pre-planned method. • The performance evaluation process is flexible, meaning it can be applied to various types of activities (Al-Kafafi, 2008). Reasons Affecting Employee Performance Individual Performance Ratings Different organizations have numerous performance reviews. The University of North Carolina's Performance Management System classifies employee performance into the following categories: • Excellent Performance. Performance that exceeds the established expectations of traditional work, usually achieved through the employee's effort and skill. • Very Good Performance. Performance that meets and sometimes exceeds established job expectations, usually driven by the employee's effort and skill (Hijazi, 2005). • Good Performance. Performance and job expectations are met through the employee's effort and skill. • Below-Good Performance. Performance that meets some job expectations but not others. This is usually due to a lack of employee effort and skill, and in some cases, the work environment. • Unsatisfactory performance. Here, work often fails to meet job expectations or requirements. Employees may need direct supervision or repeat the same task multiple times to complete it. This can also be due to the employee's weak efforts and skills, or the work environment. Factors Hindering Employee Performance There are several factors that negatively impact employee performance, including the following (Al-Jassasi, 2011): • Authority style. For example, if the nature of governance is authoritarian, this leads organizations to move toward greater centralization and bureaucratic organization. In this situation, the state tends to enact legislation and laws to impose strict control over organizations and legally restrict them. This leaves the individual administratively bound by regulations, laws, and routine, resulting in a lack of participation in decision-making and a lack of creativity. This negatively impacts their performance (Hamid, 2013). • Work pressure. When work pressures increase on an employee, job satisfaction decreases, thus negatively impacting their performance. • Role Ambiguity. This refers to the lack of information an individual need to perform their role within the organization, or the lack of clarity regarding job obligations and requirements. Lack of complete understanding of the nature of the job, resulting from a lack of true knowledge of the duties, tasks, and responsibilities of the position, as well as the duties and responsibilities of the employee, can negatively impact job performance. EJMEB (ISSN 3041-2102) | VOLUME 2 | NUMBER 6 | 2025 50 • Organizational Conflict. Organizational conflict negatively and significantly impacts performance levels, as attempts at development, innovation, change, and the ability to adapt to the surrounding community are unlikely to emerge. • The Need for Security. The lack of security and its provision for the employee will be a red line that significantly limits employee productivity and their role in achieving desired performance (Belhayya, 2013). • Unsuitable Physical Work Conditions. The lack of physical requirements for work, such as adequate lighting, proper performance, maintaining a clean work environment, and taking preventative measures to ensure employees avoid noise, vibrations, and noise from within and outside the organization, may limit employee performance. • Weak incentive system. A weak incentive system leads to low job performance, resulting in lower than desired productivity (Boukrish, 2012). • Weak wage system. An inappropriate and unfair wage program negatively impacts enthusiasm and motivation, thus decreasing employee performance. • Weak organizational culture. Most of the activities and actions of individuals within an organization stem from their own minds, i.e., a result of their culture. Therefore, a weak organizational culture negatively impacts employee performance. These are the most prominent underlying causes that negatively impact work performance. Other factors also have a direct negative impact, including (Bouzen, 2016): 1) The Relationship between Performance Incentives and Employee Response Performance incentives are important in identifying the appropriate path to achieving optimal performance while simultaneously identifying shortcomings in performance incentives (Ben Dahdi, 2018). 2) The Concept of Performance Incentives Excellence in work is the primary, and perhaps sole, measure for some organizations for distributing incentives. Performance excellence means exceeding average performance rates, either in terms of quality or quantity. Performance incentives are considered the equivalent of outstanding performance and thus represent a complementary component of wages and salaries. Performance that merits an incentive is exceptional performance. This definition assumes that the wage (salary) must be capable of fulfilling the value of the task and meeting the basic requirements of life and the nature of the job. Performance incentives are defined as rewards for employees' outstanding performance (Amina, 2014). It is also defined as a form of direct compensation linked to individual, group, or organizational performance. Organizations adopt performance incentive programs for several reasons, most notably achieving the following objectives (Ben Dahdi, 2018): - Creating an effective link between the organization's strategic goals and employee performance. - Improving organizational outcomes and rewarding employees based on their contribution to achieving them. - Giving specific weight to individual performance levels among employees. - Achieving personnel management objectives, such as increasing the organization's ability to retain employees. EJMEB (ISSN 3041-2102) | VOLUME 2 | NUMBER 6 | 2025 51 - Reducing employee turnover rates, benefiting from training, or rewarding individuals for safe or proper behavior and attendance. Forms of Performance Incentives Performance incentives can be divided into three categories: personal incentives, group incentives, and organizational incentives (Amina, 2014). Individual Incentives Individual incentives are awarded as rewards for the efforts or performance levels demonstrated by individual individuals. Common forms of individual incentives include systems that link wages to production, sales commissions, bonuses, and individual appreciation rewards, which include freebies and merchandise. Individual incentive systems attempt to link an individual's effort to the additional rewards they receive. However, implementing individual incentive programs requires several essential factors, including (Hamza, 2006): Determining individual performance levels. Everyone’s performance must be measured and their level determined, as each worker has responsibilities and work tasks that distinguish them from other individuals. Individual actions must be independent of each other. The contributions of individuals for which they are rewarded must result from independent activity or effort each of them provides individually. Expressing the organization’s desire. To create a kind of competition between individuals. While individuals strive to achieve gains, each for themselves, a kind of competition will appear among them. Therefore, the organization’s inclinations towards this kind of competition must be expressed, in which some gain while others do not. Emphasizing individualism in organizational culture. Organizational culture should emphasize individual achievements and individual rewards for employees. When organizational culture focuses on teamwork, individual incentives become ineffective (Hamza, 2006). Group Incentives (Team Incentives) Group incentives are based on the idea that when the organization assigns the entire group its performance, this will lead to increased cooperation among its members. The most common form of group incentives is profit/gain sharing. According to these programs, members of groups that achieve specific goals share the gains determined based on the principle of achieved performance targets. Other forms of group incentives focus on improving production quality, reducing costs, or other measurable indicators (Ben Dahdi, 2018). Organizational Incentives These reward employees based on the organization's overall performance. This type of reward assumes that employees working together can achieve better organizational results, leading to more efficient financial performance for the organization. Organizational rewards achieve this by having employees share in some of the organization's economic gains through additional payments calculated as a specific percentage of each employee's base salary (Bouzen, 2016). The most common forms of organizational incentives are profit-sharing programs and employee stock ownership programs. Organizational rewards aim to reward all employees within the organization based on the overall quality of the organization's performance. Organizational incentives are based on the idea that the organization's best results are based on the performance of all its employees. They aim to achieve better results by supporting and encouraging cooperation within the organization. For example, the discrepancy between the production and marketing EJMEB (ISSN 3041-2102) | VOLUME 2 | NUMBER 6 | 2025 52 departments can be overcome if management uses an incentive system that assigns employees based on the organization's overall profit and production (Bouzen, 2016). Requirements for the Success of Effective Performance Incentives For an effective performance incentive program to be effective, the following elements must be present (Bouzen, 2016): • The suitability of the performance incentive program to the organization's strategies and culture: There is no single performance incentive program that fits all organizations. If a program is successful in one organization, this does not necessarily mean it will be successful in another. For a performance incentive program to be successful, it must be linked to the organization's goals and objectives. • The success of any performance incentive program also depends on the extent of its connection to the organization's culture. If the organization's management style is based on dictatorship, authoritarianism, and an emphasis on rules and procedures and adherence to them, then a performance incentive program that relies on flexibility and collaborative work will not succeed if the organization implements it, simply because it has not been implanted in the appropriate environment for its success (Ben Dahdi, 018). • Directing the performance incentive program toward appropriate activities: For a performance incentive program to achieve its goals, the rewards it awards must be linked to the desired performance. Employees must find a direct link between their efforts and the rewards they receive, as individuals tend to perform according to what is measured and rewarded. Organizations must ensure that the element based on which rewards are determined is linked to their objectives (Bouzen, 2016). It is worth noting here that the use of validated measures ensures that employees perform the various elements required to achieve the organization's objectives and that none of them are overlooked. On the other hand, a reward program is not always appropriate, especially when the outcome cannot be measured and evaluated objectively, making the process of determining fair rewards nearly impossible. • Managing a performance incentive program appropriately. The program can be complex or simple, but in both cases it will only be successful if employees understand what they must do to receive the rewards. Therefore, the more complex the program, the more difficult it will be for employees. • Experts in this field prefer that the program include several performance criteria, as this is often easier for employees to understand. However, using several criteria to focus on should not make it difficult to understand. The processes required to calculate an employee's bonus are extremely complex for employees themselves. Furthermore, managers must be able to clearly explain the performance objectives required to receive the bonus. (Amina, 2014). Factors for the Success of Performance Incentives Successfully implementing the desired performance incentive program is extremely complex and requires significant and ongoing effort. However, the following suggestions can help in this regard (Bouzen, 2016): EJMEB (ISSN 3041-2102) | VOLUME 2 | NUMBER 6 | 2025 53 • Develop clear and easy-to-understand programs and communicate them consistently with employees. • Provide administrative support and support for this program. • Implement logical and clear performance principles and indicators. • Continuously develop programs and align them with the organization's goals. • Provide a real, visible link between performance and rewards, and differences in performance must be taken into account. • Differentiate performance incentives from base pay. • Encourage group incentive programs to work together in small groups and encourage the use of group performance criteria within such groups. • Establish a fair incentive system. • Consider employee feedback when designing a performance incentive program. The Effectiveness of Incentive Systems on Responsive Performance The rewards organizations offer their employees play a significant role in increasing their efficiency and achieving company goals. Here are the key points that illustrate the effectiveness of reward systems and the processes that contribute to their development. The Impact of Incentives on Improving Performance Incentives play a significant role in improving performance and reducing turnover and absenteeism in organizations. In addition, incentives help attract qualified employees and encourage them to continue working for the organization. The expectation of rewards is a powerful factor influencing employee motivation and increasing behavior and job performance. Employees are drawn to the style of rewards the organization rewards them for, and rewards can be an effective motivator for increasing performance and commitment to the organization. Incentives can also make the organization a preferred place to work for employees. In addition, incentives address work-related needs; they encourage different types of individual behavior and meet employee needs. Incentives can also lead to learning new patterns of behavior and motivate employees to better achieve their goals. Ultimately, the relationship between incentives and performance demonstrates that they play a vital role in motivating employees and improving the overall performance of the organization. In interacting with employees, there are a set of stages and mechanisms that help organizational management encourage employees to strive more efficiently and work that links personal interests and goals with those of the business. The steps of incentives that help improve performance are as follows (Al-Ilmi, 2016): 1. Helping employees develop: Employees, as a general rule, are willing to advance and develop. 2. Setting the work level: By measuring the output where productivity is characterized, determining whether this performance is good or unacceptable, discussing this issue with all employees and listening to their suggestions, productivity encourages them to provide characteristics they consider true for measurement. EJMEB (ISSN 3041-2102) | VOLUME 2 | NUMBER 6 | 2025 54 3. Defining the scope and extent of employee responsibilities: This means defining the scope and extent of the responsibilities and tasks each person within the company bears. This definition aims to define what is expected of each member of the team or organization and ensure they have a clear understanding of their role and responsibilities. Knowing how each person will behave in their assigned way makes them feel responsible, which will further encourage them to perform better. 4. Helping employees achieve higher work grades: Most employees have expectations and expectations that allow them to increase their productivity levels (Al-Ilmi, 2016). 5. Using a clear approach to incentives and rewards: In addition to a variety of incentives and rewards, it is important to ensure that the results exceed the expected performance of employees. Motivational Processes Contribute to Work Development Ensuring motivational processes that contribute to work improvement embodies important aspects of employee management. These mechanisms are as follows (Hamza, 2006): 1. Setting clear and measurable goals: Motivation involves setting specific, tangible goals for employees and involving them in achieving them. When goals are clear, specific, and meet employees' aspirations, they are motivated to put in a lot of effort to achieve them. 2. Contributing to implementation: Employees are motivated when they feel they are part of the organization's decision-making process. Commitment and participation can be developed when employees are included in the development of decisions related to their work. 3. Behavior modification: Employees can be motivated when reinforcements and rewards are provided to encourage desirable behaviors and reduce undesirable behaviors. With clear guidance on the desired behavior, they are more willing to improve their performance. 4. Expanding employee responsibilities: Employees can be motivated when their responsibilities are expanded, and they are given opportunities for development and improvement. When they feel their work is valuable and important, they are more likely to reach their potential. 5. Providing constructive feedback: Providing positive, clear, and timely performance feedback is an area of work that can be improved. Identifying the causes of shortcomings and how to overcome them through helpful and supportive employee feedback can help. Conclusion Providing and effectively implementing these mechanisms helps improve employee performance and enhance motivation and engagement, thus maximizing organizational success. References Al-Ilmi, K. (2016). Contribution of the incentive system to improving human resource performance (Unpublished master's thesis). Al-Jassasi, A. (2011). The impact of material and moral incentives on improving employee performance in the Ministry of Education in the Sultanate of Oman (Unpublished master's thesis). Arab British Academy for Higher Education, Sultanate of Oman. Al-Kafafi, M. J. (2008). Investing in human resources (1st ed.). Dar al-Yazouri Scientific Publishing and Distribution. EJMEB (ISSN 3041-2102) | VOLUME 2 | NUMBER 6 | 2025 55 Al-Wahhab, A. M. (1982). Effective motivation strategies for outstanding human performance. Dar al-Tawziʿ wa-al-Nashr al-Islamiyya. Amina, J. (2014). 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