The Role of Managers in Motivating Employees - Essay Example

 The Role of Managers in Motivating Employees Introduction Today’s contemporary business manager seems to encounter a great deal of diversity in the workplace, from different employee values to changing organizational structures and practices. These managers are being bound by specific responsibilities including oversight of the day-to-day functions of subordinates, meeting performance targets mandated by senior leadership, and also creating a motivational workplace in which people can contribute effectively to long-term strategic goals. This paper identifies the role of the manager in motivating employees, drawing off of various theoretical literature on the subject and applying these lessons to the modern workplace. What Motivates Today’s Worker? It is a fairly common understanding that many employees are motivated by fair and competitive salary structures. Pay seems to be a recurring theme in motivating higher levels of staff performance in a variety of business environments. Determining salary structure is largely a role of human resources, however it seems that the line manager is also responsible for a number of HR functions, and a recent study identifies that compensation is directly correlated with influencing motivation (Shahzad and Bhatti, 2008). Even though this is largely an HR function (determining pay structures), managers must work directly with their subordinates and are able to observe true worker performance in their unique work divisions. This makes them significantly persuasive when offering feedback about how best to set employee salary and bonus compensation structures. This would suggest that today’s manager must be an advocate for ensuring that employees are rewarded appropriate, from a financial perspective, for achieving performance goals and business targets. If basic cost-of-living increases can motivate employees, then giving them a reward scheme, or at least providing guidance to senior leaders on how to build one, would seem to give employees a rationale for giving more than 100 percent to the business. Reward schemes are recurring themes in research literature, with Milne (2007) identifying that reward and recognition programs impact motivation and performance positively. Rewards, however, do not necessarily have to come in the form of cash payouts. One organization, Snowfly, a consulting organization in Wyoming, has utilized company technologies to create a reward scheme set-up like a Las Vegas game in which employees, when they reach high performance targets, have opportunities to win small cash bonuses or other benefits such as time off from work (Stern, 2007). Setting up such a system would require manager intervention and persuasion, as part of negotiation tactics, as a further advocate for employee reward. Other companies, such as Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Portland, Oregon, believes that these reward structures have improved overall organizational performance and reduced turnover rates in the process (Stern). Even though the administration of the reward schemes would be a responsibility of human resources or information technology, a modern manager recognizes different business models available for motivating employees and works to ensure that these systems are incorporated into the modern business environment. A middle manager would likely report to senior members of staff, therefore they have the ability to create organizational change by persuading senior managers, who might be concerned about costs associated with low performance, to implement a new motivational reward system. Suggestions for the Manager Stanley (2008) offers a wide variety of tips for the manager to improve motivation levels in the workplace. Several of these include keeping the work interesting, keeping confidential employee information private, and allowing input from employees. Keeping the work interesting would involve giving employees the ability to work on extended projects with different workload and outcome expectations than their current work. This would theoretically remove the employee from mundane working environments and let them stretch their creativity. Keeping information private, as a motivational tool, would seem to focus on relationship-building and managerial trust in this relationship. It is a likely assumption that managers who forget their roles as leaders and succumb to unproductive social blather will be perceived as untrustworthy and not looking out for the employees’ best interests. Allowing input from employees would suggest that even above and beyond granting autonomy, the manager must allow employees to offer their suggestions and opinions about workplace scenarios rather than being managed from a rigid and centralized command philosophy. Because employee motivation “is at the heart of a motivated workplace” (Stanley, 2008: 5), it is important for the modern manager to be flexible in thinking and really seek the answer as to why employees are not contributing to performance expectations. Grant (2008) identifies that many managers believe that creativity in the job environment does not motivate employees in any measurable way. Because many managers do not seem to understand that creativity is important in job role and how employees identify with themselves in a particular job function, businesses are not offering this as an incentive to motivate. Though this is a misconception of management, it does require that an effective, motivational manager must attempt to get to the root of what drives employees to succeed and then focus on these aspects to provide workers with a maximum job experience. This would suggest that managers must draw on their leadership talents and research abilities to observe trends in employee behavior, or perhaps create a survey to identify employee needs, and then work to build a new organizational culture or climate. The importance of being a self-reflective manager is also reinforced by one management expert who suggests that many managers are simply conceptualists or knowledge workers who “rely heavily on their own expertise” (Smith, 2004: 18). What this suggests is that managers often become complacent about the workplace either because their own motivation might be low or because the workplace simply does not allow for many internal changes. Therefore, rather than conducting the necessary research to create new models of leadership, and identifying actual employee needs, they simply choose a style which best suits their personality and do not seek alternative motivational theories or suggestions. All of this would suggest that the manager must be adaptable and constantly on the proverbial look-out for opportunities to boost morale and try new structures to get people to the performance levels the manager requires. Knowing your staff One major psychological theorist in human motivation, Abraham Maslow, identified his Hierarchy of Needs, which represents a series of scenarios a person must have met in order to achieve their maximum potential. Two of these include belonging and self-esteem. This model of human behavior suggests that if an individual does not have a sense of belonging in the organization, they will not reach performance targets (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin and Cardy, 2005). At the same time, self-esteem levels can be affected by lack of belonging and social cohesion and will therefore be much less motivated to achieve company goals in their job roles. This motivational theory is quite important as it again reinforces the importance of identifying the actual needs of employees and working to establish the most rewarding environment possible or within managerial capability. A manager, under Maslow’s hierarchy, should recognize when employees are not receiving adequate social attention or may show cues in body language that a situation is uncomfortable for them. The manager would work to alleviate these anxieties or frustrations, provide a more rewarding social scenario by including the employee in various business discussions, and achieving self-esteem development in the process. Conclusion There are clearly many methods available to motivate workers, and all of the aforementioned research theories have identified the need for a flexible manager and a manger willing to explore alternative solutions to make employees feel rewarded and valuable. Whether the scheme is cash-based or through personal developmental assistance, it seems that today’s manager can motivate effectively so long as they are truly aware of what employees need and then acts as an advocate and mentor to make these a reality. Simple concepts such as being trustworthy with private employee information and ensuring that their emotional well-being, in terms of self-esteem and belonging, is developed points toward some of the most important methods for making employees succeed in virtually any type of business environment. The role of the manager in motivating employees, then, is to adopt a decentralized philosophy of management where employees work autonomously and are promoted to work creatively as steps toward business success. The manager must be a leader to motivate. References Gomez-Mejia, L., Balkin, R. and Cardy, R. (2005). Management: People, Performance, Change, 2nd ed. McGraw-Hill Irwin, 28-30. Grant, Edward A. (2008). “Does the board know whether it is money or the love? Employee motivation in the Greek public sector”. Human Resource Management International Digest, Bradford. 16(3), 14. Retrieved 11 Apr 2009 from ProQuest database. Milne, Patricia. (2007). “Motivation, incentives and organisational culture”. Journal of Knowledge Management, Kempston. 11(6), 28. Shahzad, I. and Bhatti, K.K. (2008). “Antecedents of Compensation and Relationship Among Compensation, Motivation, and Organizational Profitability”, The Business Review, Cambridge. 10(2), pp.146-154. Smith, Geoff. (2004). Leading the Professionals: How to Inspire & Motivate Professional Service Teams. Sterling, Va: Kogan Page. Stanley, T.L. (2008). “A motivated workplace is a marvelous sight”. SuperVision. Burlington. 69(3), pp.5-9. Stern, Linda. (2007). “Win Prizes Online at Work!”. Newsweek, 29 Oct, E.02. Read More