Introduction
No matter the line of business, the most significant aspect beyond producing revenue should be the motivation of its employees. Managers are continually faced with the challenge of motivating a workforce to do two things. One challenge is motivating employees to work towards ensuring that the organization accomplishes its goals. The other challenge is motivating employees to work towards accomplishing their own individual goals. Having employees who are successful and satisfied increases the productivity of a company, creates an environment for the proliferation of new ideas and ensures better job skill performance. This is because employees who are happy and satisfied with their jobs keep investing their energies in their employer. On the other hand, employees who are disinterested and unfulfilled in a job position will only turn out to be a liability to the organization as a whole. Therefore, creating an environment that allows employees to succeed should be one of the goals for businesses and organizations today. While employers would like to have a workforce that is motivated and ready to work, most of them do not understand what truly motivates a person. This paper examines the factors that motivate a person and ways of creating an environment that motivates employees to achieve both personal and organizational goals.
What is Motivation?
Motivation is derived from the word ‘motive’. Motive is a desire or need that causes an individual to act. In turn, motivate can be defined as to give a motive, or to give an individual a reason to act. Therefore, motivation can be described as the process or act of giving a motive, that males an individual take a particular action. This means that motivation originates from some need or desire that leads to behavior that result in a certain kind of reward when the need of desire is fulfilled. Over the years, psychologists and influential thinkers such as Adam Smith, Abraham Maslow, Sigmund Freud and Aristotle have tried to understand the nuances of human behavior, hence providing significant information on why human beings do things or behave the way they do (Shanks, 2007). As such, a number of theories about what motivates people have been derived, and these theories deem motivation to be a factor of three factors. These are employee needs of various kinds, extrinsic factors and intrinsic factors. Examples of need-based theories of motivation include: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs; Alderfer’s ERG Theory; Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory and; McClelland’s Acquired Needs Theory. All these theories try to explain the various factors that explain human motivation. Based on the study of these theories of human motivation, four drives that underlie motivation can be deduced.
Four Drives Underlying Motivation
The four drives that underlie motivation include the drive to acquire, the drive to bond, the drive to comprehend and the drive to defend. The drive to acquire is concerned with the desire to acquire scarce goods so that one bolsters his or her sense of well-being. When this drive is thwarted, an individual feels discontentment, while when it is filled, he or she experiences delight. This does not only apply to physical goods such as clothing, food, money and housing, but also experiences such as entertainment, travel and events that enhance social status. According to Sunita & Yudhvir (2012), the drive to acquire is relative and insatiable. This means that people will compare what they have with what others possess, and they will always want more. The drive to bond is about relationships. While animals bond with their parents, groups or tribes, humans extend this connection to larger collectives such as associations, organizations and nations. When this drive is met, it is linked to strong positive emotions such as love and caring, while when it is not met, it results in negative emotions such as anomie and loneliness. In the workplace, the drive to bond is responsible for the enormous boost in motivation since employees tend to feel a sense of belonging to the organization (Wiley, 1997). It means people get attached to the organization and identify themselves with it. Such an environment is essentially motivating for any employee.
The drive to comprehend is about making sense of the world around us. People often want to make meaning of the world around them by producing accounts and theories that make events comprehensible and suggest reasonable responses and actions. When things seem senseless, people tend to be frustrated, and are revitalized by the challenge to work out the answers. The drive to comprehend is responsible for the desire by employees to make a meaningful contribution. Employees often get motivated by tasks that challenge them and enable them to learn and grow. The drive to defend is concerned with defending one’s self. People naturally defend themselves, their accomplishments, their properties, their ideas, beliefs, family and friends against external threats (Shanks, 2007). Fulfilling this drive results in the feelings of security and confidence, while not fulfilling it leads to resentment and fear. For example, when there is a planned takeover of one company by another, employees tend to feel insecure because the management might change or they might lose their jobs. Therefore, an environment that addresses and fulfills these four drives is capable of ensuring a motivated workforce.
Factors the Motivate in an Organization
One factor that motivates is the reward system. According to Nohria et al (2008), an organization’s reward system best satisfies the drive to acquire. This is because it is effective in discriminating between poor and good performers, ties rewards to performance, and offers the best persons opportunities for advancement. Rewards can be of two types and they can either be intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic rewards are internal and they are derived from inside the individual. Extrinsic rewards are external and they are those rewards that are offered by another person or institution. An example is the issuance of bonuses to employees who demonstrate exceptional performance. Nohria et al (2008) gives the example of the Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest. When RBS acquired NatWest, it took over a company in which the reward system was dominated by status, new employee tenure and politics. RBS introduced a new system that held managers responsible for specific goals and rewarded good performance over average performance. Former NatWest employees did embrace their new company because though the reward system was tough, it recognized individual achievement.
Another factor is culture. According to Kim (2006), the most effective way of fulfilling the drive to bind is by creating a culture that promotes collaboration, openness, teamwork and friendship. Such a culture engenders a strong sense of camaraderie. Using the similar example of RBS and NatWest, the former broke through the latter’s silo mentality by ensuring that it brought together employees from the two forms to work on well-defined cost savings and revenue-growth projects. People tend to be more comfortable in environments that establish a sting sense of association and bonding. This is because they develop a sense of belonging. They feel loved and cared for, and thus develop an attachment with the organization. For example, in RBS, employees often report that management cares for them, and that they care for one another. This is an indication of a sense of belonging and teamwork (Nohria et al., 2008). Therefore, an organizational culture that creates a motivating environment is one that fosters mutual reliance and friendship among employees, values teamwork and collaboration, and encourages the sharing of best practices.
Another factor behind the motivation of employees is the job design. Jobs that are interesting, meaningful and challenging fulfill the drive to comprehend. Employees are motivated when they have the feeling that they are making a difference and contributing positively to the company. According to Herzberg (2003), making an employee’s job more interesting is a great motivating factor. When an employee undertakes a challenging task and manages to perform on it, he or she is motivated and develops a sense of pride. Such an environment nurtures innovation, creativity and talent. It enables employees to think broadly and make decisions on their own. An organization that does not design interesting and challenging jobs essentially underutilizes the potential of their employees. Such employees will seek jobs in other organizations where they feel more challenged. For example, when people move to take a position in another company, they can be heard making remarks such as “I am looking for a bigger challenge”. This is an indication that people love challenges. This is because challenges help them to learn and grow, and hence developing in their careers. Therefore, organizations need to design jobs with distinct and significant roles in the organization, as well as jobs that are meaningful and foster a sense of contribution to the company or organization.
The other factor that motivates employees is performance management and resource-allocation processes. Fair, transparent and trustworthy processes for resource allocation and performance management are important in meeting the drive to defend. For example, an organization’s decision processes have to be clear for employees. When evaluating the performance of employees and when allocating resources to the various departments, the organization should be able to increase transparency of all processes, it should put emphasis on fairness and it should strive to build trust by being transparent and just in granting assignments, rewards, and other forms of recognition (Nohria et al., 2008). While organizations are capable of creating environments that motivate their employees, these environments are affected by certain other factors. Of great importance is the role of the direct manager.
The way employees perceive their immediate managers matters a lot in creating a motivating environment. The manager or supervisor is the instrument through which the management implements the company’s policies and processes. While supervisors and managers might not have a substantial effect on the overall culture, reward systems, job design or management systems, they can link performance and rewards in areas such as recognition, praise and choice assignments. Managers are also capable of allocating a bonus pool in a manner that distinguishes between high and low performers. Therefore, a highly motivating work environment is determined by the roles that managers and supervisors play in the organization. Overall, motivation factors can either be financial or nonfinancial. They include good wages, job security, appreciation for work done, interesting and challenging work, and promotion and growth in the organization. According to Wiley (1997), the above factors are ranked as the top five factors that motivate employees in their jobs. Communication is the medium that enables a motivating environment. In an organization, communication needs to be two-way, that is between employees and the management. Managers should be in constant communication with employees to obtain feedback and suggestions on what can be done better. This way, employees feel valued and part of the organization. When employees achieve a sense of belonging, they are comfortable, they become secure and confident. This enables them to achieve their individual goals, which in turn ensures that they work towards achieving the organizational goals.
Conclusion
Motivation is a complex concept that can assist or harm an organization depending on how it is utilized within an organization. Employers need to understand the concept and how to use it to ensure that employees achieve organizational goals. For example, the employer should set and define clear goals, meet with workers personally and on a regular basis, use recognition systems that celebrate workers who meet their goals, encourage creativity among employees, pair up workers with the same career goals, and provide the tools for them to achieve the goals. Therefore, by using the various motivational tools, which include financial and non-financial, managers are able to create environments that motivate their employees. Such environments should be able to satisfy the four drives of motivation. Managers need to create environments and an organizational culture that makes employees feel valued and motivated.
References
Herzberg, F. (2003) One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees? Harvard Business Review, September-October 2003; 86: 86-96.
Kim, D. (2006) Employee Motivation: “Just Ask Your Employees”. Seoul Journal of Business, 2006; 12(1): 20-35.
Nohria, N., Groysberg, B. & Lee, L. (2008) Employee Motivation: A Powerful New Model. Harvard Business Review, July-August 2008, pp. 1-9.
Shanks, N.H. (2007) Management and Motivation. Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Sunita, M. & Yudhvir. (2012) Employee’s Motivation: Theories and Perspectives. Asian Journal of Multidimensional Research, 2012; 1(2): 56-64.
Wiley, C. (1997) What Motivates Employees According to Over 40 Years of Motivation Surveys. International Journal of Manpower, 1997; 18(3): 263-280.
