Motivation in the Workplace

Introduction

Every manager knows that to make an employee work good, he or she should be motivated. But not every manager knows how to motivate a person wisely, to make him or her do job with pleasure. This paper is aimed to find out the main tools of motivation in the workplace, which in future should help managers motivate workers better and more successfully. It does not matter how large or small in size the enterprise is, the employees should be motivated. Whether it is a multinational global company, or a small bakery in a village, the workers should be motivated, because if a person is motivated, he or she does the job some times better and faster, which in turn will increase the income of the business. Besides, this paper will contain not only a theoretical research about motivation, but also true stories of businessmen and successful managers about their own ways of motivation. In the end some tips, which can be useful for managers as well as for the beginners or even businessmen, will be proposed. Motivation has become an important part not only of the every manager’s every day work, but also a part of every worker’s day, because if a person is motivated from the very beginning, he or she will have a desire to work. Besides, wise motivation may decrease the amount of fired employees and thus, increase the quality of work. This paper will show that motivation can be approached in different ways; it may depend not only on a manager, but also on business. Thus, for every type of business there may be different types of motivation. This paper will show the most important of these types and how they may be implemented in real life.

Literature review

To understand what motivation is and how it may become important for the development of every business, it is important to understand what motivation is. According to the Oxford dictionary motivation is “a reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a particular way; desire or willingness to do something; enthusiasm” (2013). It is very important to understand that motivation may be shown not only in the form of money, for example increasing salaries or giving the employees some bonuses, but motivation can be of several types. That is why it is necessary first of all, to outline main scholar works that were written on this topic.

This research paper is based on some main works. First of all it is worth to mention a book by Kenneth W. Thomas Intrinsic Motivation at Work, Second Edition
What Really Drives Employee Engagement. This book is based on the author’s researches, which is very important because the author experiences all the techniques of motivation in the workplace on himself, and thus he explains everything rather clearly. This book is an explanation of why self-management is important nowadays in the workplace and it describes in details four main rewards that make employee’s job more energetic and thus successful. Kenneth W. Thomas has his own point of view on the theory of motivation in the working place. He claims that nowadays managers and businessmen are more focused on the so called “Extrinsic” motivators as salary, bonuses, some benefits, expense budgets, some profitable retirement plans and so on. Although such motivators are powerful, they are meant to control person’s work, how well it is done. The main purpose of motivation is to encourage the employees to work; they should want to work for this enterprise and that is why intrinsic rewards are more useful. The main four intrinsic rewards, according to Kenneth W. Thomas, are:

- A worker should feel that he is needed in this company, that he is not a simple cog in the business machine, but a very essential part of it.

- A worker should choose on his own how to make the task given by the managers. It is very important to make a person think that he or she is important.

- A worker should understand how important his work is not only for himself but also for the whole company. This will give the worker a sense of importance; a manager should show the worker that without this task being done properly, the company will lose something;

- A worker should have a feeling of some progress. It is important to show the worker that his work is not the waste of time, show that a company needs it, and no matter how slow this work is done, there is some progress, at least a small one.

Another essential book for this research is a book by Frederick Herzberg The Motivation to Work. Although this book was written in 1959, it contains ideas that are still popular nowadays among the managers. Herzberg was one of the first researchers who understood and showed that employee’s satisfaction and dissatisfaction at work may influence the quality of his or her work. Herzberg has concluded that a person has two kinds of needs, according to which a manager should choose a kind of motivation; they are hygiene factors and motivators. To hygiene factors he refers:

-   Policy;

-   Relationship with supervisor;

-   Work conditions;

-   Salary;

-   Status;

-   Security;

-   Relationship with subordinates;

-   Personal life.

To motivators belong:

-  Achievement;

-          Recognition;

-          Work itself;

-          Responsibility;

-          Advancement.

Get 15% off your 1st order

Use quality15 discount code

Order NOW