LEADING AND LEADERSHIP
MOTIVATING SELF AND OTHERS
The nature of motivation
Being able to effectively motivate employees
is a challenge that managers face in all types and sizes of
organizations. “Everything that we give to our workers gets returned to
us in terms of efficiency, quality,
loyalty, and innovation.”
Motivation
is the willingness to exert high levels of
effort to reach organizational goals, conditioned by the
effort’s ability to satisfy some individual need.
A. Effort is a measure of intensity or drive. High levels of effort are
unlikely to lead to
favorable job performance unless the effort is channeled in a direction
that benefits the
organization.
B. A need
is an internal state that makes certain outcomes
appear attractive. An unsatisfied need
creates tension that stimulates drives within an individual. These
drives generate a search behavior to find
particular goals that, if attained, will satisfy the need and reduce the
tension.
Hence motivation
is the force that energizes behavior, gives
direction to behavior, and underlies the
tendency to persist.
1. A person’s motivation is not directly measurable, but must be
inferred from
behavior.
2. Performance is a function of ability, motivation and working
conditions.
3. Besides hiring individual with ability to do the work, managers have
the challenge
to provide working conditions that nurture and support individual
motivation to
work toward organization goals.
The main elements of motivation have been identified based on numerous
studies. A simplified model of
motivation has been developed.
1. Inner needs and cognitions lead to behaviors.
2. Appropriate behaviors may result in rewards, which reinforce the
behaviors, fulfill
needs, and provide cognitive input regarding the future association of
behaviors
and rewards.
3. Lack of rewards may lead to unfulfilled needs, un-reinforced
behaviors, and
cognitive input in the form of expectations about the future.
Intrinsic Motivators
A person’s internal desire to do some thing
for his satisfaction, respect, prestige or loyalty.
Extrinsic Motivators
Factors of motivation that comes from outside
(environment) or organization like pay, bonuses, tangible
benefits etc.
FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE: SUGGESTIONS FOR MOTIVATING EMPLOYEES
Several suggestions for motivating employees
are given and are based on what is currently known about
motivation.
A. Recognize individual differences in terms of needs, attitudes,
personality, and other important
individual factors.
B. Match people to jobs by identifying what
needs are important to individuals and trying to provide
jobs that allow them to fulfill those needs.
C. Use goals because the literature on goal setting suggests that
managers should ensure that
employees have hard, specific goals and feedback on how well they’re
doing in pursuit of those
goals.
D. Ensure that goals are perceived as attainable. Employees who see
goals as unattainable will reduce
their levels of effort.
E. Individualize rewards. Because employees have different needs, what
is a reward and
reinforce to one may not work for another.
F. Link rewards to performance by making rewards contingent on desired
levels of performance.
G. Check the system for equity. Employees should perceive that the
rewards or outcomes are equal to
the inputs given.
H. Don’t ignore money. The allocation of performance-based increases,
piecework bonuses, and other
pay incentives is important in determining employee motivation.
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