Reference no: EM132712433
Individual Needs and Motivation
Most of us get up in the morning, go to school or work, and behave in ways that are predictably our own. All these behaviors are motivated by something, but most of us don't think of why we do the things we do. Motivation refers to the forces either within or external to a person that arouse enthusiasm and persistence to pursue a certain course of action. Employee motivation affects productivity, and part of a manager's job is to channel motivation toward the accomplishment of organizational goals. Studies have found that high employee motivation goes hand in hand with high organizational performance and profits. It is the responsibility of managers to find the right combination of motivational techniques and rewards to satisfy employees' needs and simultaneously encourage great work performance.
Innovative Ideas for Motivating
Empowering People to Meet Higher Needs
One significant way that managers can meet higher motivational needs is to shift power down from the top of the organization and share it with employees to enable them to achieve goals. Empowerment is power sharing, the delegation of power and authority to subordinates in an organization. Increasing employee power heightens motivation for task accomplishment because people improve their own effectiveness, choosing how to do a task and using their creativity. At Ritz-Carlton hotels, employees have up to $1,000 to use at their discretion to create a great customer experience. When homes in the area near the Ritz in Laguna Niguel, California, were evacuated due to risk of fires, the hotel made an exception to its "no pets" rule. One employee anticipated the need for pet food and drove to the nearest grocery for dog and cat food, making life a little easier for harried guests who were temporarily homeless. Empowering employees involves giving them four elements that enable them to act more freely to accomplish their jobs: information, knowledge, power, and rewards.
Giving Meaning to Work Through Engagement
Employee engagement means that people enjoy their jobs and are satisfied with their work conditions, contribute enthusiastically to meeting team and organizational goals, and feel a sense of belonging and commitment to the organization. Surveys by Gallup show that employee engagement in the United States has been steadily increasing since 2013, yet 49.5 percent of employees surveyed in early 2016 were identified as not engaged and 12.5 percent were actively disengaged. Fully engaged employees care deeply about the organization and actively seek ways to serve the mission. Active disengagement means that people are actively undermining their organization's success.
Managers can improve engagement by providing employees with three key elements: a sense of meaningfulness, a sense of connection, and a sense of growth. When managers organize the workplace in such a way as to create these feelings, employee engagement grows, leading to high motivation and high organizational performance.
- People feel that they are working toward something important. When employees have a chance to accomplish something that provides real value, they feel a sense of meaningfulness. Good managers help people understand the purpose of their work, which contributes to feelings of pride and dignity.
- People feel connected to the company, to one another, and to their managers.
- People have the chance to learn, grow, and advance. To be fully engaged, people need to feel not only that they are competent to handle what is asked of them but also that they have the chance to learn and expand their potential.
The Making Progress Principle
Sometimes what makes the biggest difference is a relatively "small" thing. Recent research points to the importance of making progress toward goals as a key to high motivation. The making progress principle is the idea that the single most important factor that can boost motivation, positive emotions, and perceptions during a workday is making progress toward meaningful goals. People are most motivated when they have the opportunity to experience achievement. Providing feedback on how well people are progressing and giving them a way to track their progress toward goals provides a renewable energy that fuels motivation. Knowing that they are making everyday progress, even in small steps, can make all the difference in how motivated people feel to continue pursuing a course of action.
- Describe a situation/scenario in which you were not motivated at work (or ask a friend/family member for a situation if you can't come up with one). Explain with enough detail so I can understand the scenario.
- Next, pretend you are your manager in the situation (you are the manager dealing with an unmotivated employee) and identify a way in which motivation could have been increased by giving meaning to work through engagement via one of the three ways identified in section "Giving Meaning to Work Through Engagement". Be specific with what this would look like in the scenario.