Introduction
This paper intends to focus on the ways of motivating the employees which also becomes a powerful tool for the growth of the organization. The article “One more time: How do you motivate employees? (2003) provides with the possibilities that can help the organizations in motivating their low morale employees so as to increase the productivity. It also deliberates about the obstacles that cause the low productivity and commitment to work. The secondary point of view will be delivered from the information mentioned in the Chapter 3 (Process, Planning and Design) of the textbook. Additionally, two supplementary articles are also chosen from the business journals in order to support the argument.
Overview of Assigned Article
Motivating the employees is not an easy task to tackle with. Organizations have to work hard and pay in terms of efficiency & appropriate calculations in order to decide the right ways and times to motivate the employees. Several factors count in regard of doing this. Although most people are doing jobs to get their paychecks but increasing salaries or paying heavy paychecks are not the ultimate solution. Increasing the salaries can motivate the employees but only to some extent. The employees started to lose their interest after passing through the certain phase so different techniques should be adopted to keep their morale high. Continuous growth, promotion and fame are ranked as the top three attractiveness’s for any employee but in many cases they lost their interest either because of some monotonous routine or even without any visible reason. At that time, extra perks, lashing offices or cabins and expected promotions can only raise their anxiety. At that time, rotating their duties and providing some challenging and interesting wok so that it can enhance their inner capabilities and confidence over them. Increasing the responsibility develops the sense of activeness and vigilance of the employee. When the employee has visible new and different targets, he is motivated by his own. Unknowingly, he started to work with greater commitment and enthusiasm. Intrinsic as well as extrinsic rewards have their own specialties and effects. No one can judge the intensity the employee will take the effects of the motivational tools. It is not possible for the employers to recharge their employees after every few days or months so they have to implement the strategies and tools that can start the generators of motivation inside the employees’ personality.
There are different tools by which the employee gets motivated. The most motivated employees seek the time to do the extra work or struggle hard to hit his target. Giving undue holidays has the potential to wake the stimulus of hard work when he sees the far distance from his target. The affect of change in amount of salary can keep the employee moving. If in some cases, the increase in salary does not affect then the possibility of decrease in salary must keep the employee’s motivation high to work hard and achieve the required results. Fringe benefits have their own importance in relation to the motivation level of employee. Everyone loves to get paid in a handsome way for his struggles and determination. This desire helps in maintaining the motivational level at a higher level. Human Relations program of KITA also helps in administrating the psychological levels of employees and teaches the ways through which the employers can handle and develops the motivation level among the employees. In order to deal with the employees it is very necessary to understand their sensitivity parameters. Sensitivity analysis by experts supports in understanding the mental level and sensitive point of the employees. By changing or making any alteration in any sensitive factor of the employee can enhance or reduces his motivational level to a significant point. A well-developed communication system as well as two way communication by making morale surveys, suggestion plan and group participating programs are the vital tools in accessing the employees and formulating strategies to boost their motivational level. The positive and negative KITA must also be taken into consideration while motivating the employees (Herzberg, 2003).
Related Topics from Books – Employees
The chapter 3 named “Process, planning and Design” of the text book discusses about the transformational steps that can be taken within organization and their effects on the overall working performance of the employees. Transformation process has a direct effect on the motivational level of the employees. At the start the query is that either the transformation is user friendly or not or is company providing any training workshops to the employees so as to cope with the change. In order to motivate the employees, it is very necessary to participate them in decision making process. They should be assigned different tasks regarding potential changes and give them the challenge of completing the tasks. In this way they somehow become familiar with the intended changes and new assigned challenges will help in raising their motivational level.
Some employees do not welcome the new technology as they believe that it is their replacement so there should be proper sessions conducted with them to boost their confidence and remove ambiguous concerns. By giving proper training on the introduction of new technology will ease the employees and enhance their commitment with the organization the thus the motivation level will be at its peak. On moving towards transformation, the sensitivity screening of employees should be conducted so their reaction for the change can be anticipated in advance. Employees should be assigned task on the basis of their scope of working and area of interest. For keeping the motivational level high, proper communication among all the employees should be made so no one feels superiority over the other and all employees concentrate on their work with determination and true heart. Motivation of the employees will also be enhanced if they carried with the higher management in each and every phase of implementation of transformation. Introducing new technology is a sign of growth and employees feel proud if they are part of this growth process. It is a supreme chance for the organizations that they challenge the intrinsic qualities of the employees by giving them interesting and new tasks and keep their motivational level up to the mark. So in this way, the chapter of text book and Harvard article is very much linked to each other as both are suggesting the ways to boost the motivation of the employees.
Business Articles Supporting Arguments
The article named as “Motivating Employees” by Nichol (1992), states the motivational techniques adopted by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. As the said organization has around 48,000 employees so they have to struggle more in order to keep the motivational level at its peak. It gives emphasis on the proper development of sources of communication, commitment to the work; training, reward and recognition to build the high motivations among employees thus boost their productivity level. Employee satisfaction is very important to keep the business going. The analysis of this article is very much similar to the assigned article as they consider the communication, reward, recognition and commitment to work as the main sources of enhancing motivational levels of the employees (Nichol, 1992).
The second article “Service of motivation” by R. Hershey suggests the common ways that are used on wide scale in an attempt of building and maintaining the motivation among employees. It gives stress on the positive reinforcement such as repeating behavior that the employers want. However in this several other factors will also count. The first of them is the previous experience with the employee and cultural differences. Others include the core values and differences in backgrounds of all employees, proper safety measure and other such activities and last of them is providing employees the job stability. Although the demand and style of encouraging employees remain changing with the passage of time but the struggle of motivating employees is an ongoing process which is dealt with adopting different techniques. This article resembles the assigned article in a sense that it describes the tools that can be used for motivating the employees and how to tackle with them in odd situations (Hershey, 1992).
Example and its Application
During my professional career, many times I come across the situations when I get totally fed up of my monotonous routine and just want to give up all. At that times, my performance graph slumps down. Once it happens and got prolong thus increasing the difficulty for me to continuous my work. Then my manager calls me and asks for the reason. I had no specific answer for that. He just gave me a break of three days. After the break he moves me to the other department and assigned me some new tasks that I never done before. Taking it as a challenge for me, I started working on that. He guided me on every step. He started to admire my work and appreciates me in front of the other employees. In this way, my motivational level starts to rise and ultimately I started to feel fit in my job. The second impact of my appreciation was that the other employees also started to work with more determination in order to gain appreciation and recognition.
Conclusion
So it is obvious from the above discussion and comparisons that whatever the tool is used, the ultimate purpose is to boost the motivational level of employees. The best techniques include but not limited to proper communication, reward, recognition, training, appreciation, challenging and new tasks so that the employee does not feel monotonous routine and gets fed up. The whole organization is dependent on the commitment of the employees so it must be given due importance and time.
References
Nichol,G. (1992). Motivating employees. Managing Service Quality. 2 (5). 259 – 261
Hershey, R. (1992). Service of Motivation. Business Horizons. 35 (6). 3-7.
Herzberg, F. (2003). One more time: How do you motivate employees? Harvard Business
Review, 81(1), 86-96.
