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Workplace Motivation The word motivation is often used to describe certain sorts of behavior. A student who studies hard and tries to get top grades may be described as being highly motivated, while her friend may say that he is finding it hard to get motivated to study for an exam or to start an assignment (Motivation in 21 century). Such statements imply that motivation has a major influence on our behavior but they do not really tell us how. Motivation can be defined as a concept used to describe the factors within an individual that arise, maintain and channel behavior towards a goal (Motivation in 21 century). While it is easy to see the things that people do, it is much harder to guess why they are doing it. As an example let us look at our hard-working student.
It may be that the mentioned above student is working hard because she wants to get high marks, but it might also be that she really enjoys learning that subject. She may be striving for high marks because she wants to impress her friends or because she wants a good job, so that the marks themselves are really a step toward another goal. It is dangerous to assume that you know what is motivating someone because one really cannot read their minds. Many businesses use Maslows hierarchy of needs to motivate their employees. A human being, according to Maslow is a perpetually wanting animal, which has 5 levels of needs. In order to motivate someone, it would be necessary to determine on which level of needs the person is.
There are physiological, safety, ego, self actualization and self realization needs. Another very popular way of motivating employees nowadays is high and fair compensation for their work. It is usually done in the following ways (Stone, 44): pay-for-performance strategies that reward collaboration, teamwork, and superior results are established; career pathways and job transfer strategies that facilitate the career growth of high-performing staff are created; a set of tenure, promotion, and salary enhancement criteria that recognizes and rewards those staff who meet and exceed these expectations is maintained. staff members, who advance the companys commitment to excellence at or above the levels is awarded (Stone, 44). It would be very wise to use Theory Z as an alternative motivational strategy. It is often called a Japanese style of management, because a Japanese American, William Ought, developed it.
Theory Z assumes that the best way to motivate employees is to make them feel like a family. This theory is considered to be the most complete one because it satisfies all levels of human needs. It satisfies lower-level needs by taking care of employees physiological need, and higher-level needs by giving people responsibilities and enabling them to take part in the decision making process (Cenzo, 46). Another very effective motivational strategy that can be implemented in modern organizations is empowerment, which is the delegation of authority from high level to lower-level employees. It is a very strong motivational tool, because it gives employees a sense of belonging, it makes them feel important and needed. Empowerment is a very good tool to satisfy esteem and self-actualization needs.
It is common, that low-level employees feel that they are nobodies in the company and any person could do the job they are doing. Such an employee is surely concerned for money. However, if there were an alternative between working in a company where all the tasks were predetermined and a company that gave every employee a chance to participate in decision making (on their levels of jobs), make their contribution, the employee would certainly choose the latter company (Cenzo, 35). It is obvious that at this stage of development of the system of management and motivation, money is not the main motivational factor anymore.
Now, people want to realize their value for their team, they want to have a sense of belonging. An employee wants to feel empowered and all of his / her needs should be satisfied. It is also obvious that happy and motivated employees are beneficial for organization, because people is the main resource of every company. Bibliography: web Motivation in 21 century, article Stone, R. J. (1995). Human resource management; John Wiley and Sons, Brisbane.
David A. De Cenzo, 1994; Human Resource Management: Concept and Practices
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Research essay sample on Human Resource Management Sense Of Belonging
