Motivational Strategies Analysis - Essay Example

Motivational Strategies Running Head: Motivational Strategies Motivational Strategies 12/01/2009 Motivational Strategies 2 IntroductionOur behavior is generally motivated by a desire to attain some goal. Very often, the specific goal may not be consciously known to us. All of us wonder occasionally, ‘Why did you do that’? The reason for our action is not always apparent to the conscious mind. Sigmund Freud was one of the first to recognize the importance of subconscious motivation. He believed that people are not always aware of everything that they want and hence, much of their behavior is affected by subconscious motives or needs. In fact, Freud’s research convinced him that an analogy could be drawn between the motivation of people and the structure of an iceberg. A significant segment of human motivation appears below the surface where it is not always evident to the individual. Therefore, very often, only a small portion of our motivation is clearly visible or conscious to oneself. This is also due to a lack of effort by individuals to gain self – insight. Managing Work motivation The various theories of work motivation can be used effectively. The basic assumption is that work motivation can be developed in the organizational context. The interaction between the individual and the organisation contributes to the development of work motivation. This interaction takes place through the role. The roles people occupy in the organization may form convenient units of working on problems of motivation. An analysis of role and its contribution to the development of motivation in the organization may be useful to plan intervention strategies. Motivational Strategies 3 The most important factors are the motivational climate of the organization and the role interactional patterns. The management must ask itself questions about the type of motivational climate prevalent there. For this, it is necessary to identify the reinforcing mechanisms and the process of goal setting. For example, does the organization use the system of rewarding good performance? or does it use the system of punishing bad performance? The positive or negative the reinforcing mechanisms will determine the motivational climate in the organization. Also, the relevant question is what is being rewarded or punished? If achievement is rewarded in one organization, the climate will be conductive to efficiency, whereas in an organization where dependency and conformity are rewarded, the climate will be more power-oriented and will encourage the formation of cliques. Similarly, attention should be paid to the strategies of goal-setting. How and at what level are goal set? Are goals set by people at the top and communicated downward for achievement or do people who have to achieve these goals participate in the process of goal-setting? Such questions may be useful to think about. Another important factor is the interactional pattern of various roles. The psychological distance between various roles will determine to a great extent, how the roles interact and collaborate with each other. Both these influence and are influenced by the organizational climate. “Motivation is in many ways the key to the success of Human Resource Management. Managers should aim to increase performance through self-motivation, rather than having to use external motivation (i.e. the imposition of rules and continual improvements to conditions of service) to bring about higher standards of performance. Motivational Strategies 4 Motivation should be built into the performance management system where supervisors will have the opportunity to communicate and motivate staff on their performances”. (At the Organisational Level Staff Recognitation Schemes) The greater the loyalty of a group toward the group, the greater is the motivation among the members to achieve the goals of the group, and the greater the probability that the group will achieve its goals. All motivational theories are based on the assumption that we all have needs and will do whatever is legitimate to satisfy those needs. Management is about harnessing the energy generated by individuals in meeting those needs for the benefit of the organisation Motivational strategies The motivational strategies in an Information Technology work place are slightly different from that of the other industries. IT sector is mostly dominated by youths and hence the motivational strategies must focus the youths. Self motivation and team motivation are the two commonly used motivational strategies used in IT oriented industries because of the highly challenging nature of the jobs there. “Self-motivated people are goal motivated. Once they conquer one goal, they establish another. Every goal is a learning process that requires all the elements in level one. Self-motivated projects is the ability to start and finish what one has started. Most people, working alone, do not finish what they start. The ability to finish challenging projects is the secret to being a winner. First requirement is interest, then asking questions which inspires the learning process. With information, a challenge is presented and a goal set. When action is taken, the barriers of persistence, risk, fear and failure become a challenge by Motivational Strategies 5 itself” (Robert L. Webb, 2003). Succeeding in a self motivated environment is slightly difficult. Nobody will take care of your success even if you finish a difficult task in time. But if you fail in your attempt, lot of questions will arise from different corners of the organization. But people who withstand such enormous pressure situations will come out as winners. ‘Team motivated projects are easy to manage. Because of the involvement of more than one person in the project, the difficulties of the projects can be overcome by the combined effort of the team. In such cases the job oriented stress will be less compared to the self motivated environment. The responsibilities are shared in a team environment and hence the success of the project is enjoyed by the team as a whole just like how a world cup football win celebrated by a football team. In this environment, others do care the team members for achieving the goal. For this reason, team motivation is extremely powerful. The exchange of ideas, information and testing the results, adds to the motivating force. As a result, each member seeks to be a leader of quality input’ (Robert L. Webb, 2003) Organizational efforts to improve performance Performance is the deciding factor for everything in an IT or IT enabled business sector. Lot of reports is coming from all over the world regarding the forceful termination of workers because of the current financial crisis. It industry is one of the worst affected industries because of the global nature of the business in IT sector. Motivational Strategies 6 In order to improve the employee performance, organizations mostly uses reward and punishment schemes. Good jobs will be complemented with rewards while poor performances will be punished. Incentives and promotions are some methods of rewarding a good job while suspension, termination and de-promotion are some tactics of punishing a poor performance. Most of the employees in IT sector are not unionized because of some specific rules. Most of the IT works are concentrated on Special Economic Zones (SEZ) where unionism and all other forms of protests are prohibited. Most of the employees in IT sector are not protected well enough to guarantee their jobs for a substantial period of time. In order to increase the productivity most of the IT organizations will ask their employees to stay back for one more additional shift, if enough works are there. But in normal cases, most of the employees are accepting such offers out of the fear of losing their jobs. In order to motivate their employees, IT organizations usually award their employees some business trips to foreign countries. This is considered as a positive approach since such business trips will provide the employees ample opportunities to relieve from the tight schedules and have some recreational activities to get rid of the immense job stress they are experiencing at their work place. Motivational Strategies 7 Motivational theories Lot of motivational theories are used in work places to improve the performance or productivity of their employees. Only ‘The acquired needs theory’ and ‘Attribution theory’ are discussed in this article. Acquired Needs Theory “Acquired Needs Theory is also known as the Three-Need Theory or Learned Need Theory. We have different preferences. We will tend to have one of these needs that affect us more powerfully than others and thus affect our behaviors. As per this theory the employees can be classified in to three categories; achievement seekers, Affiliation seekers and Power seekers”. (Acquired Needs Theory) Recognition is a basic psychological need every human possesses. Some people rate recognition as a better complement than a million dollar. Some people like challenges in order to excel in their profession and such people often taking such risks in order to get recognitions. They are self motivated to take challenges. Such people must be motivated with proper reward in order to boost their performances. On the other hand some other people require assistance for every action. Such people may not bother much about recognitions. They will be satisfied with whatever they have and will never like to take risks independently. They often like team work and for every action they may need advice from other team members. Such people often cause headaches to the superiors because of their inability to perform jobs independently. Motivational Strategies 8 Another category of people likes power, rather than recognition or approval. They derive pleasure form the power they enjoys. Such people like getting higher positions as complement rather than incentives or some other means of recognition. Attribution theory Attribution theory is another prominent motivational theory in work place. “We all have a need to explain the world, both to ourselves and to other people, attributing cause to the events around us. This gives us a greater sense of control. When explaining behavior, it can affect the standing of people within a group” (Attribution Theory) Every human being have a natural tendency to blame others when they erred in some of their activities. But when we commit the same mistake we will put the blame on some other factors. We will never like to be blamed by others; but often like to blame others. Same way whatever the success we enjoy will be attributed to our hard work and efforts while the success of another person we may attribute to some external factors like luck. For example, when a cricket team wins, fans will say ‘we won’. But when the team loses the supporters will say ‘they lost’ rather than we lost. These attributions are controlled by our emotions and motivational drives. Conclusion Motivation has an important role in bringing out the complete productivity of a worker. Work motivation is partly in proportion to the challenge a job provides to the individual. The employees can be motivated by providing recognitions, rewards, promotions, good working conditions, etc. Work motivation is directly proportional to the opportunities of development and growth in the job. Motivational Strategies 9 References 1. At the Organisational Level Staff Recognitation Schemes Accessed on 12/1/09 2. Robert L. Webb, 2003 -Motivation and Leadership Styles Accessed on 12/1/09 3. Acquired Needs Theory < http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/acquired_needs.htm> Accessed on 12/1/09 4. Attribution Theory < http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/attribution_theory.htm> Accessed on 12/1/09 Read More