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For any company to be successful in business, its leaders are obliged to offer a good motivating environment for its workers. This is because motivated employees are more productive, jovial, and are not likely to quit the company soon. One of the essential duties that leaders of companies undertake is having their employees motivated all the time. As much as the amount of profit that a company makes is vital for its success, however, it is not the most vital.
Currently, the changing market has developed the attitude that a company staff is the stanchion that decides its future life. Motivation has become an essential aspect of an organization operation management since it increases the efficiency of the employees and makes the company to be attractive to other experienced workers. This paper discusses the ways and the importance of having a motivated workforce.
In any organization, motivation is an essential ingredient for advancement of performance. At the Semco Group of Sao Paulo, Brazil, the company rests on a potential problem if it still uses the traditional ways of motivating its 3000 employees.
As much as the company’s CEO, Ricardo Semler, embraces participative management approach in leadership, the employees of the company are likely not to be motivated in the long run. The employees at the company know its objectives and they decide for themselves on the ways of accomplishing these objectives.
However, this strategy is less likely to motivate the employees. It is always said that you can take a cow to the river to drink, but it is impossible to compel it to drink; it will drink the water only when it is feeling thirsty. The same thing can be applied to people. Research has indicated that most people will not effectively accomplish a task unless they are driven to do it, either by themselves or through some external stimulus (Kleinbeck & Forschungsgemeinschaft, 1990, p.3).
The concepts of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation methods have been suggested as some of the ways of fostering a motivated work environment within a company. The difference between the two motivation concepts is derived from the source of the motivation. Some researchers have argued that intrinsic rewards are able to keep the employees motivated in the place of work (Bonduras, 1977).
Intrinsic motivation implies that workers are encouraged to accomplish a certain duty when they are driven from within. The workers accomplish the duties due to the pleasure or the contentment they derive from completing the duty itself. This is to say that intrinsic motivation does not rely on extrinsic rewards, for example, money and increase in benefits, but relies on internal factors, for example, recognition, responsibility, growth and advancement.
A company staff that tends to be intrinsically motivated implies that they need a work environment that really interests them, a challenging career, and the responsibility to accomplish the duty with the purpose of motivating them. For instance, a staff that is motivated by intrinsic rewards will accomplish a task enthusiastically. This is because the staff might find the task to be challenging, interesting, or fulfilling to accomplish.
An intrinsically motivated individual usually do not intend to get other associated rewards after completing the duty since external rewards rarely motivate him or her. Therefore, intrinsic motivation can be seen as a very efficient method of having a motivated workforce in the long run (Staw, 1976). This is because the workers strive to accomplish the duties enthusiastically due to the satisfaction they get, instead of trying to evade from them once the work is accomplished.
On the other hand, some researchers have argued that extrinsic motivation is the only way of having a motivated workforce (Lepper, Greene, and Nisbett, 1973). Extrinsic motivation takes place when the workers are motivated through giving them external rewards, which can comprise of monetary incentives, promotions, and other enticing things.
This concept claims that a company staff accomplishes duties due to the external benefits they get. These external benefits are what give an employee the satisfaction and the pleasure of accomplishing a duty, rather than the interest that he or she has on the job. In other words, an extrinsically motivated employee accomplishes a task because of the tangible rewards or pleasure that he or she derives from the job.
It is important to note that extrinsic rewards can be either positive or negative; therefore, it is possible to employ positive motivators like the ones mentioned above or negative motivators such as threats or corruption. Extrinsic motivators generally center on the rewards that workers get instead of the actions, for example, workers can decide to accomplish a task because of the rewards associated with it, instead of focusing on the satisfaction of accomplishing the task.
Conversely, in actual fact, extrinsic motivators only encourage a company’s staff for a short time. The reason behind this is that the extrinsic motivators only function to enable the staff accomplish the duty and if they are absent, then no one would endeavor to accomplish the duty.
Therefore, having looked at both the aspects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, which is the best method that Semco Company can employ in motivating its employees?
It is evident from the discussion above that intrinsic motivation is more effective than extrinsic motivation, especially when the 3000 workers are to be motivated in the long run. This is because in contrast to extrinsically motivated staff that mainly relies on negative or positive rewards, a staff that is intrinsically motivated will continue to accomplish tasks as long as they get fulfillment at the end of the day.
However, this does not imply that Ricaedo Semler, the CEO of the company, should totally not employ extrinsic motivation, but this is not the ideal technique of achieving long term motivation of his staff. When a worker is extrinsically motivated, he or she will no longer be intrinsically motivated since if the rewards are not present he or she will be de-motivated due to overdependence on rewards.
Sometimes the lack of motivation within the workforce is due to the presence of some unmet requirements (Skinner, 1953). Therefore, it is important for a leader to know the requirements that are more essential for every individual worker.
In this regard, Abraham Maslow came up with a hierarchy of needs, which stipulate that within every person, there is a hierarchy of five needs, and that every category of need must be fulfilled before a person is able to pursue the next higher category of need (Maslow, 1943). The five levels of needs according to Maslow include: “psychological, safety, belongingness, esteem, and self-actualization” (Lauby, 2005, p.1). According to this theory, the most essential needs must be satisfied first.
Maslow proposed that as people progress through the levels of needs, the previous requirements fail to realize their motivational value and that since the bahaviour of people is determined by their needs, only unmet needs affect their behavior, while fulfilled needs do not. To say, the lowest level of unfulfilled requirements is what determines the behavior of a person.
If this theory is true, then it has some essential implications for leaders of organizations. This is because it offers the opportunity to encourage the workforce by adopting some appropriate management styles.
These may include, but not limited to, job design, holding interesting company events, and attractive compensation packages. Some examples of these motivating factors are as follows.
The psychological needs of the workforce can be met through offering adequate time for lunch breaks, rest breaks, and salary that is enough to buy the important things in life. Safety needs can be met by offering a secure working environment, incentives upon retiring, and job security, and social needs can be met by developing a sense of community through team-based projects and social gatherings.
Moreover, esteem needs can be met by recognizing the accomplishments of the workers and giving them job titles that illustrate the significance of the position they hold in the company, and self actualization needs can be met by providing a challenging work environment that enable the workers to attain their full career potential.
To enable the continued survival of the Semco Company by having a motivated workforce, it should recognize the different needs that drive its employees. This is because not all individuals are driven by the similar needs. That is why it is vital for the company’s management to know the different needs of its workers.
How can Semler understand the needs of his employees if he does not even have an office at the company’s headquarters? In addition, at one of the company’s plants outside Sao Paulo, there are no supervisors to study the behaviour of the employees in order to understand their needs and convey to the company’s top management what they require. For a worker to feel motivated, the company has to understand the needs level whereby he or she is operating. Therefore, proximity to the workers is essential.
In conclusion, motivation, as the driving force within employees that make them to accomplish various duties, is an important asset for the success of any organization. Semco Company can avoid the potential problem of having a less motivated workforce by creating a good working environment that ensures that the employees are encouraged to perform their duties. This can be achieved by developing ways of intrinsically motivating the workers as well as explaining to them the long-term benefits of intrinsic motivation.
Moreover, the company should also motivate its workers by giving them challenging assignments, responsibilities, and recognizing the best performers within the workforce. Eventually, this will enable it to realize the long-term success that is desired in any organization. In addition, the company should be ready to meet the needs of the workforce so as to motivate them. Since these needs can be used as levers of motivation, the management at Semco should be as close to their employees as possible.
References
Banduras, A., 1997. Self-efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change. Psychological Review, 84 (2), pp. 191-215.
Kleinbeck, U. & Forschungsgemeinschaft, D., 1990. Work motivation. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Lauby, S. J., 2005. Motivating employees. Alexandria, Va: ASTD Press.
Lepper, M. R., Greene, D. & Nisbett, R. E., 1973. Undermining children’s intrinsic interest with extrinsic rewards: A test of the over justification hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 28(1), pp. 129-137.
Maslow, A. F., 1943. A Theory of Human Motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), pp. 370-396.
Skinner, B.F., 1953. Science and Human Behavior. New York: Macmillan.
Staw, B. M., 1976. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Morristown, N.J.: General Learning Center.
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