Management's Strategy is Motivation - Essay Example

MOTIVATION ………………………….. College ……………………………… ……………….. Words count: 2051 Introduction Managers cannot really do anything creatively or be effective in their roles unless their employees aren’t motivated to perform well. Employees are undeniably the most powerful and highly important assets in the organization. Motivated employees are found to perform well and help the firm achieve high performance working. As a manager or leader, it is very imperative that he continuously looks for ways to engage his people and arouse their enthusiasm, satisfaction and commitment to the organization and its goals. This piece of research work addresses motivation as an important tool that managers take in to account to get things done successfully through others. Based on Bratton’s (2012, p. 191) view that motivation highlights the nature of employment relationship, this paper explains different ways that managers use to motivate their employees. Motivation and Management Motivation is an important management strategy with which managers can accomplish their goals and lead the organization to a high performing and out-performing organization. Robbins and Judge (2011) defined motivation as a “process that accounts for an individual’s intensity, direction and persistence of efforts toward attaining a goal” (p. 204). They identified basic three elements in motivation- intensity, direction and persistence. With intensity, they meant the way people try to work hard. High or low intensity may not always lead to favourable outcome unless people’s effort is channeled through direction. They also argued that motivation has persistence dimension because it is important to see how long a person can maintain effort. Motivation is something that influences people’s behavior and attitude towards pursuing a specific outcome. As Lussier, Achua and Lussier (2009, p. 79) noted, motivation is a quest for a personal gain and therefore managers have to consider it as an opportunity to be seized to help the organization achieve its goals such as increased productivity, competitive advantage and long term profitability. Daft and Lane (2008, p. 226) argued that motivation is a force, either internal or external to people, that stimulates enthusiasm and persistence to pursue a specific action that managers or leaders want them to do. Both Robbins and Judge (2011) and Daft and Lane (2008) have considered persistence as a very important element in motivation. Managers and leaders are required to use motivation as strategic link between people and their ways to achieve organizational goals. In making motivation such as link, it should in turn direct people’s skills, talent, knowledge and experiences towards the accomplishment of organization’s goal and managers’ vision. Management creates a specific environment internal to the organization in which individuals work in groups with a view to perform efficiently and effectively towards attainment of a group or common goal. As management is a process of creating, developing and affecting organizational objectives and available resources to realize organizational aspirations, managers’ central task is managing people and motivation is at its heart. Management is simply getting things done through others and therefore managers need to understand people in the organization and their varying requirements in order to influence them by helping them meet their needs and requirements (Msoroka, 2012, p. 2). Newstrom and Davis (2004, p. 30) found that the result of an effective organizational behavior is motivation and therefore when motivation is combined with employee skills and abilities, it results in the achievement of performance goals and individual satisfaction as well. Motivation thus builds two-way relationship. The two-way relationship created by motivation is mutually supportive because manager and employee are jointly influencing each other as well as jointly benefiting. It highlights the view of Bratton (2012) that motivation underscores the nature of employment relationship. Motivation impact on Job Performance It is widely accepted that motivation affects job and performance positively, but researchers suggested different ways and put forward varying conceptual frameworks to explain how motivation impacts job performance. According to Terence Mitchell, individual inputs and job contexts play significant roles in motivation process (Buelens, Kreitner & Kinicki, 2002, p. 177). This is illustrated in the figure above. According to Buelens et al (2002, p. 177), individual inputs such as people’s skills, knowledge, emotions, beliefs, moods etc influence the motivation process. Similarly, job contexts such as physical environment, tasks one may complete, organization’s stance in reward and recognition etc also largely influence the motivation process. These two categories of factors influence motivational process of arousal, direction and persistence and thus impacts the employees’ job performance. Motivation as a process Many researchers and academicians in the field of management argued that motivation is a process. For Lussier et al (2009, p. 79), motivation is a process in which people go from need to motive, then to behavior to consequence and then to satisfaction or dissatisfaction. As depicted in the figure above, motivation is a five-step process. Employees in an organization may need education facility for their children as an additional advantage. It is one of their needs. They will have a drive (motive) to get such education facility for their children within the organization compound. When the employees get such education facility (behavior), it quenches their need for children’s’ education facility (consequence and satisfaction). A successful manager must be able to identify the most important needs of his employees to be met and most appropriate means to satisfy theses needs. Lussier et al (2009) described motivation as a five-step process that starts from ‘need’ and ends up with ‘satisfaction’. For Daft and Lane (2009), motivation is a three-step process comprising need, behavior and rewards. They explained that motivation occurred when there are either intrinsic or extrinsic rewards that in turn can fulfill employees’ needs. As depicted below, the motivation process concept developed by Daft and Lane (2009) pinpointed that managers should always use either intrinsic or extrinsic rewards to influence and inspire their employees to bring best out of them. Managers must act strategically in order to use effective methods to inspire their people, because, they must be able to find most important needs of the employees and take them as opportunities that employees can be motivated towards organization’s common desire by giving them what really they want. How Managers motivate staff to build positive employment relationship Motivation almost always creates positive employment relationship and this is perhaps one of the main reasons why motivation breeds success in organizations. Organizations are found to be successful in achieving high performance and other goals if there is a positive relationship between management and employees. Motivation is an invariably important tool for managers to encourage, enhance and realize a rewarding link between managers and employees. Motivation creates a friendly and supportive relationship between management and employees because monetary or non-monetary ways of incentives are found to lead to friendly and cordial relationship between them. There are variable theoretical underpinnings about motivation and how managers motivate staff. Intrinsic and extrinsic rewards for motivation The two-factor theory developed by Frederick Herzberg in early 1960s highlights the concept that motivation is a process of fulfilling needs through either intrinsic or extrinsic rewards. Effective managers are those who not only identify important needs of employees, but also choose best one among variable intrinsic or extrinsic rewards to motivate them. Intrinsic rewards represent internal satisfactions that an individual gains while performing a task. It may come out of his mental happiness, status-feel and overall satisfaction while he works in a specific workplace. But, extrinsic rewards are those rewards that are given by others like managers or supervisors. Extrinsic rewards are promotion, pay, higher status and leadership (Daft and Lane, 2009, 226- 227). According to Herzberg’s theory, people are more motivated by intrinsic factors of rewards rather than extrinsic factors. Factors such as achievement, recognition, challenge etc make people more motivated. Traditionally, money was considered to be the main motivator. According to Herzberg’s theory, money is not the main motivator, but intrinsic factors play vital roles in motivating employees (Lussier, et al, p. 85). Motivating employees by satisfying their NEEDS Abraham Maslow in 1940s developed the need hierarchy theory of motivation and explained that people are motivated through five-levels of their needs. Peoples’ needs are psychological, safety, belongingness, esteem and self-actualization. With psychological needs, Maslow meant people’s basic needs such as food, shelter, water etc. When people are satisfied with these needs, they then will be looking for safety or security needs. After these needs are met, people need love, friendship, affection, and acceptance and so on. Next step in the need hierarchy represent ego, status and self-respect etc. People, once all these needs are met, will be looking for their fuller potential such as growth, achievement etc. Abraham Maslow’s need hierarchy theory of motivation has attracted widespread attention since it clearly explained how managers can motivate different people at different level by making them satisfy their different needs. David McClelland in 1950s developed a motivation theory named Acquired Need Theory and he explained that people are motivated by the very basic three needs; they are need for achievement, affiliation and power. According to this theory, all people have these three needs, but in varying degrees (Lussier, et al, p. 86). People desire to accomplish something difficult, achieve success and surpass others. This is the need for achievement. Need for affiliation is their desire to build closer relationship with others, avoid conflict and form friendship. Need for power is their desire to influence, inspire and control others. As people need different things at different situations of workplace, effective managers are those who recognize the fundamental and most important needs of their employees and then motivate them by helping them meet their needs. According to both the above concepts of motivation, people may need work-security in times of recession and higher-pay in times of higher inflation. Basic needs such as food and shelter are most apparent among workers of under developed countries whereas people in most developed countries can be well motivated by satisfying their needs for self-actualization and need for power. Motivating through rewards in equal proportion to people’s efforts Equity Theory of motivation developed by J Stacy Adam explained that people are motivated only when their inputs are equal to their outputs. People in all different organizations compare their overall outputs with their efforts and abilities. Inputs comprise of employees’ skills, knowledge, qualification, talent, leadership, experience, wisdom, physical well-being, work-attitude, emotions and so on. Their outcomes comprise of pay they earn, facilities such as insurance, better working conditions, amenities, promotions, status, work load and so on. People always compare work load and additional payments. In a more challenging workplace, people want to be well rewarded (Lussier, et al, p. 87). Managers need to consider equity in distribution of pay and other facilities as they are crucial to the organization. Managers must be able to recognize their employees’ efforts and compare their efforts as well as their general skill and ability level with their total outputs. If employees’ outputs are not equal to their inputs, they will feel inequality and this in turn de-motivate them to perform well. They need to be motivated by providing them with extra rewards or payments so that they would feel equality between inputs and outputs and they will be motivated to perform well. Evaluative Conclusion This paper described motivation as an important strategic tool for managers to accomplish their task of getting things done through others successfully. Motivation is a process in which people move from need to motive to behavior and then to consequence and satisfaction. Managers are expected to recognize important needs of their employees, especially in varying situations of workplace and organizations, and then to identify and most strategic and significant ways that they can help employees meet their needs. Managers may use intrinsic or extrinsic rewards to motivate people at times. They may also find need hierarchy of their employees and motivate them by meeting their needs and requirements. Apart all, employees are tempted to compare their total efforts with their total outcomes and therefore managers must ensure equality between employees’ inputs and outputs. References Buelens, R., Kreitner, A. & Kinicki, M., 2002, Organizational Behavior, Second European Edition, McGraw Hill Companies Daft, R. L., & Lane, P. G. (2008), The Leadership Experience, Fourth edition, Cengage Learning Lussier, R.N., Achua, C.F., & Lussier, R.N. (2009), Leadership: Theory, Application, & Skill Development, Fourth edition, Cengage Learning Msoroka, M, 2012, Motivating Workers in Educational Institutions: Adams Equity and Maslows Need Hierarchy Theoretical Implications, GRIN Verlag Newstrom, J.W, & Davis, K, 2004, Organizational behavior, Human Behavior at Work, Eleventh edition, McGraw Hill Companies Robbins, S.P, & Judge, M.A, 2011, Organizational Behavior, Fourteenth Edition, Prentice Hall, Pearson Education Inc Read More