Specific Actions to Motivate Others:

Managerial action, in common, can take four forms:

• Give more of the valued rewards to the person.
• Change a value of the person towards the rewards that are available.
• Improve a person's perception of the behaviour-reward linkage.
• Improve a reality of the behaviour-reward linkage.

The first two of these deal along with actions that affect the targets which people value as outcome for their work; the latter two deal with their expectation of whether the paths available to them will lead to those rewards. Let us see how every of the three forms of influence might be used to achieve one or more of these four forms of action.

With respect to individual motivation, or in the context of the path-goal     theory, managerial action that constitutes indirect influence is aimed at arranging the suitable strategies, structures and policies to encourage and support motivated people to achieve organisational goals. This includes, for example, establishing incentive and reward system which will be valued by employees. Indirect influence also involves selecting and employing people who have necessary skills and who value the kinds of rewards available in the organisation. Finally, indirect influence includes developing in oneself and others particularly, the managerial skills, and the management style of pattern of behaviour in dealing with subordinates that will have the effect of creating higher motivation.

You might recall that semi-direct influence is exercised while a manager acts to affect an individual by his or her social relationships at work. The emergent group has a strong effect on what its member's value and what their expectations are along with respect to the outcomes from behaviour. The group reward might serve as a highly visible symbol of require for intra-company cooperation as well.

Direct influence on the individual includes communication and the personal, face-to- face relationship. A manager who attempts to raise the level of motivation through direct influence is classically trying to do the second and third actions described above with respect to that person's value and expectations. Therefore, the manager might work overtime to convince an employee to value more highly the rewards already existing and available in the organisation. This might be particularly difficult in times of main social change.

The other form of action for direct influence is to improve the employee's perception of the linkage among behaviour and reward. This might includes, for example, personal conversations about what could result from certain stages of performance, bonus, such as promotion, or greater responsibility.

As significant as what to do to motivate others is the question of how to do it. We turn now to a closer look at a manager's behaviour required to motivate others. To do this, we elaborate management style and leadership.