Means of Providing Motives: Motivation - Essay Example

Motivation Motivation in simplest terms can be defined as a means of providing motives. Motives can act towards making or marring the work, towards doing a job more efficiently or for distorting the work environment. The lack of any positive motivation by the managers often results in an automatic provisioning of negative motivation. Motivation may be defined as the state of an individual's perspective which represents the strength of his/ her natural inclination to exert efforts towards some particular behavior. How somebody makes use of his/ her efforts towards a goal is determined by the motivating/ de-motivating factors. It is through their behavior that employees give expression to their commitment to work, level of motivation and their attitudes. Behavior includes all actions overt or covert, and verbal or non-verbal. This affects the overall efficiency of the person and the performance of the organization. Two schools of thought in psychology define the human behavior like; The psychic inner causes of behavior which states that the actions or behavior of a person emanate from the internal psychological structure often called personality. As employees differ in their personality so do they differ in their behavior. It further states that a change in behavior can only be brought about by changing the personality of individuals. The second school of thought states that the behavior of a person is primarily determined by the external situational factors, called the stimuli and the reward's associated with one's response. By bringing about a change in these factors the behavior can be redirected and molded accordingly. In practice however, it is observed that the human behavior is a proportionate mix of these two theories i.e. human behavior is a function of a person in relation to the situation, having 'personality' and 'situation' as the two variables. Motivational factors arouse a need, propelling a person to channelise his efforts and energies in the direction of fulfilling those needs. These needs are aroused in the employee of an organization to increase the output, provide quality, increase efficiency, maintain industrial peace etc. For a student the need for better marks is aroused by the class teacher to improve the results of the school, class and the teacher himself. Need arousal too is an art in itself, which requires a good understanding of the human behavior. An effective manager must understand the fact that there are at least two ways by which the behavior of employees could be directed towards the productive pursuits in the organization. One is by changing the personality, i.e. the internal psychological structures of the person, which is a long-drawn and uncertain process. Another strategy is to modify the characteristics of the situation prevailing around the employees. These situational factors have tremendous influence in shaping one's personality. If an employee, putting more efforts and energy, coming out with better results than another one having a lethargic attitude towards the work, are treated in the same manner than this may act as a negative motivation for the efficient employee. Most human resource management strategies are eventually meant to optimally utilize the capabilities of individuals and groups towards achievement of organizational objectives. Performance of an individual is a function of his ability and willingness to use his efforts towards achieving personal or organizational goals. This willingness or desire to act and to behave comes in the ambit of motivation. Motivation or lack of it gets manifested in human behavior. A good manager is supposed to keep observing such a behavior and draw inferences accordingly. In general motivation helps in; i. Better performances for the organization ii. Better working environment in the organization iii. Sense of achievement for the organization as well as the employee iv. Honor and recognition for the workaholic employees v. Sense of belongingness and responsibility amongst the employees vi. Advancement of career opportunities for the employee and business opportunities for the organization vii. Overall growth for the organization. Many people argue that the traditional "carrot and stick policy" of motivation still works quite effectively. Money being the carrot and stick is in the form of physical, financial or social punishments. It is assumed that people will work harder and produce more if substantial financial rewards are placed before them or if they are threatened with dismissal or peer embarrassment or physical punishment. At college/ school level these prove to be very effective methods, till a certain age at least. In fact, in the organizational set-up also these factors are very much relevant. Besides these factors a number of other factors add up as the person starts gaining in status/ maturity and looking for career opportunities. The tender age motivational factors also get slightly modified, for example the monetary benefits remain a motivator if; The amount of money is substantial enough The money is perceived as directly related to the required extra performance. The monetary reward must be perceived as fair and equitable by the majority of organizational members There are a number of key theories identifying the motivational factors. The motivation mind map (Fig-1) identifies them. Fig-1: Motivation Mind Map We'll discuss some of the theories as follows; McGregor: Douglas McGregor in his paper "The Human Side of Enterprise", (1960) comes out with the X/Y theory of motivation; According to McGregor theory X assumes that; People inherently dislike work People must be coerced or controlled to do work to achieve objectives People prefer to be directed People act in a very selfish manner, seeking security above everything else This theory presumes that the management has to adopt a coercive role in controlling the employees and it is the management which has a primary role in running the organization. McGregor's theory Y assumes that; People view work as being as natural as play and rest People will exercise self-direction and -control towards achieving objectives they are committed to Commitment to objectives is a function of the rewards associated with the achievements of people People learn to accept and seek responsibility Creativity, ingenuity, and imagination are widely distributed among the population and they are capable of using these abilities to solve an organizational problem. People have potential Theory Y assumes that all employees have key roles to play in running the organization and management's role is to develop the potential in employees and help them to release that potential towards common goals. McGregor theory can similarly be applied to student's motivation and correlation with learning. For example, Theory X style teachers do not view students as active learners, while teachers with a Theory Y perspective (students naturally want to learn) provide increased motivation for students and promote more active and interactive learning. The biggest drawback of McGregor's theory is that it sort of draws a dividing line. But in practice there's no such fine dividing line between type X and type Y. An organization cannot have all the people having similar capability and attitude towards work. Similarly all the students in a classroom cannot have similar caliber and IQ. Moreover a person who behaves in a particular manner today may come around and start taking things in different perspective once the manager takes him in confidence and makes him understand couple of things. Sometimes circumstances prevail upon the person and he starts behaving in a different way. Mayo: Mayo believed that workers are not just concerned with monetary benefits but they could be better motivated by taking care of their social needs while at work. He basically introduced the Human Relation School of thought which believed in treating the human beings as an integral part of the society and encouraging them to remain in social groups. This theory realized and accepted that people enjoy interacting with each other. This theory believed in an enduring relationship amongst the human beings and their surroundings. Mayo concluded that employees are best motivated by; Better communication between the managers and employees Greater managerial involvement in working lives of employees Encouraging team/ group spirit This theory, though not enlisting all aspects, still appears to be adopting a practical approach. Maslow: Abraham Maslow along with Fredrick Herzberg introduced the motivation theories focusing on the needs of human beings. Maslow's premise is that human beings are "wanting" organisms that are motivated to fulfill and satisfy certain needs in their lives. Maslow postulated that people want meet various goals and they are forever striving to meet these goals. He recognized five basic human needs in people, which constitute a hierarchy (fig-2). It also shows that higher level needs are not considered until lower-level needs are met, because the lower level needs are more immediate and urgent. Fig-2: Maslow's Hierarchy of Five Basic Human Needs As per this theory, a person starts at the bottom of the hierarchy (base of the pyramid) and seeks to satisfy his basic needs like food shelter etc. which make him physiologically strong. Once the physiological needs are satisfied, they remain no longer as motivators and now the person starts to look for safety needs like protective clothing, protection against retrenchment/ unemployment, loss of income-source etc. Then comes the social need which recognizes that most people want to belong to a group and feel the love and belongingness. Esteem needs are about given recognition for a job well done e.g. recognition in the form of promotion etc. Having fulfilled all the needs the person starts to discover himself by talking to his inner-self. This is the concept of fulfilling one's potential and becoming everything one is capable of becoming. In contemporary society the needs at the lower level in the hierarchy are more completely satisfied than the higher needs. This theory appears to be relevant as its talks about the need of family, serving others, intellectual pursuit etc. Only then can we let go of preconceived notion of how we define 'success' and pursue things which are important to us. However, this hierarchy is not always followed in a rigid pattern. At times there are reversals and substitutions. An aggressive salesperson, for example, may neglect his lunch and dinner (physiological needs) in search of meeting target sales, which in turn entitles him for rewards and bonuses. Herzberg: Frederick Herzberg's two-factor, motivation theory is another type of need theory and is considered as one of the most popular theories of motivation in business today. Herzberg developed this theory after surveying hundreds of managers, engineers and accountants. It provided additional assistance in understanding the role of motivation in organizations. After the extensive research Herzberg categorized various needs of individuals into two groups: i. Hygienic factors, or what he called "dissatisfiers" like; Working conditions Policies and administrative practices Salary and Benefits Supervision Status Job security Co-workers Personal life ii. Motivation factors, or what he labeled as "satisfiers" Recognition Achievement Advancement Growth Responsibility Job challenge Herzberg argued that the introduction of hygienic factors would directly motivate employees to work still harder. On the other hand the satisfiers, if not present, would de-motivate the employee but presence of these factors would not in themselves actually motivate them to work-harder. Motivators are more concerned with the actual job itself, like how interesting the work is and how much opportunity it gives for extra responsibility, recognition and promotion. Hygiene factors, on the other hand, 'surround' the job. Taylor: Frederick Winslow Taylor came out with the findings that workers are motivated mainly by the monetary benefits. He put forward the theory of scientific management and argued that; Employees do not enjoy the work naturally and instead they need close control and supervision. The production should be broken down into a series of small tasks Employees should be given appropriate training and tools to work efficiently. Employees are then paid to the number of items they produce in a time period Therefore the employees are encouraged to work hard and maximize their productivity. It is quite apparent that in propounding his observations Taylor made the following key assumptions; That man is a rational economic animal mainly concerned with maximizing his economic gains. People respond as individuals and not as groups People can be equated with machines as far as working is concerned. Taylor found takers to his theory in the likes of Henry Ford, who used it to design his production line for ford cars. But this theory suffers from the drawback that it propagates the autocratic style of management. In today's context when corporations are more concerned about image building and brand building, they can't afford a negative publicity in the overenthusiastic media, arising out of the autocratic behavior of a manager. Moreover this theory treats human beings like machines, which leaves little room for its practicality in modern days' management techniques. Case Study: Case-A In this case two things need to be remembered; i. We are into services i.e. service sector organizing hospitality events and not in production and manufacturing ii. Services sector has to mold its functioning as per the requirements of the client. At the most the company can give suggestions to the client, but if the client insists on some particular aspect, the company has to take not of. It is therefore for all the employees to understand that the company has reduced entertainment budgets owing to the slowdown in economy and the business. The Head Office has taken a considered view of these events and contemplating merging some of the regional offices. This would definitely involve merging of some offices which means staff redundancies. The staff from my office is to be relocated 20 miles away. Well, I'd consider relocation as not a big issue, because at the moment the bigger issue is retention of job for myself and all employees from my office. I will make it clear to all the staff in my office that for the sake of the organization we must all be ready for relocation, because our jobs are there only till the organization survives. If the economic slowdown results in recurring losses and the company is in red then we'll be jobless. Once everybody is ready, then the issue of retaining the job comes. The staff has to understand that for all of us to prove our utility, there must be enough business. Since we are into the hospitality business, so, if possible, all of us must look for some extra business for the company though our contacts. This would act as another motivational factor for the staff to do better. And hopefully all of will work for the company, keeping aside his personal agenda. If all goes well, our company gets enough business, then there would be need for more regional offices, i.e. we get back to our previous positions. Case-B Working with only two permanent staff amongst a total strength of 32 is indeed not a very healthy situation for any manager. For any department/ organization loyalty amongst the workforce develops with time. If the employee is around for a considerable period of time then he feels the sense of belonging towards the company. This tendency is observed amongst permanent staff or part-time workers having long association with the company. But, as is apparent in this case, the part-time staff is the one who are frequent job hoppers. They are with this supermarket to encash the available opportunities. But in this case I'll have to understand that I am managing a department of a big supermarket chain. I am dealing with fresh produce and such products are best income generators if sold the same day. The fact that I am not been able to present rising sales figures must be a cause of worry for me. I therefore consider it my solemn duty that I will train some of the part-time employees in the art of selling the products to as many customers as possible. I do have one advantage in the fact that I can also recruit suitable staff who have the experience and ability to make appropriate presentation to the customers. If not found satisfactory, I can go for some other new faces. This would act as a motivating factor for the part-time employees, because they know that their performances are being monitored and the results will be out at the end of the day. This way I can also turn a lacuna into an advantage. Read More