Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing
How to Motivate Employees
The lease is about to run out on a rental property of mine and I’d like to know if the tenants are planning to stay. So I phoned the agent I use to let the property last Thursday and asked them to chase it up. A week later and I’ve not heard back, so I phoned them again today to follow up.Last week they told me they had written to the tenants a month ago and were waiting for a reply. It turns out they’ve not called the tenants yet. They then asked me if I still wanted to let it out, for how long and for what rent? Three questions I answered in writing when they wrote to me and asked several weeks ago.
While you could argue this illustrates poor customer service (and I’d agree) this attitude seems to be endemic in today’s high street businesses. So perhaps the problem goes deeper that a lack of customer service; maybe there’s a problem with motivation? I think so, but what can you as the owner/manager do about it? How can you motivate your staff?
If we turn to management theory for the answers we find several different approaches.
Scientific Management
Scientific management is based on the premise that workers are primarily motivated by money. Fredrick Winslow Taylor (the father of scientific management) would therefore suggest we pay the workers more.
Human Relations
The human relations approach suggests that social relations can be a powerful motivating force. As such emphasis should be placed on the relationships between the workers and between the workers and their management.
Theory X & Y
Some have said traditional management practices neither explained nor described human nature, being based on the assumptions that (Theory X):
- People dislike work and will avoid it if possible
- People must be coerced, controlled, directed and threatened
- People prefer to be directed and avoid responsibility
Or alternately, that (Theory Y):
- People have no inherent dislike of work
- People will pursue goals to which they are committed
- Their level of commitment will depend on the level of rewards
- In the right circumstances an individual will accept and seek responsibility
- A high proportion of the population is capable of solving problems
- Industrialization has under-employed such capabilities
Some believe that management should arrange the organization such that it allows people to best achieve their goals, this would motivate employees. Under this system of beliefs, there are two distinct categories into which motivational factors can fall:
- Satisfiers (motivators) – these are factors related to the job itself such as achievement, job satisfaction and the work itself
- Dissatisfies – these are factors relating to the employee’s relationship with the organization such as policy, salary, conditions and supervision
Another Theory
Maslow’s theory of human motivation was based on clinical observations and states that individuals are motivated by a desire to satisfy specific needs, which can be classified into five major groups:
- Physiological – the basic needs of an individual such as food, water, shelter.
- Safety and security -an ordered existence in a relatively stable, threat-free environment.
- Love and belonging – the need for affection and belonging.
- Esteem – the need for self-respect and self-esteem.
- Self-actualization -the need for self-fulfillment.
Maslow maintained that these needs must be satisfied in order from top to bottom and that lower level needs must be partly met before higher level needs become important.
Alderfer’s Theory
Alderfer proposed the Existence, Relatedness, Growth (ERG) theory that updates Maslow’s hierarchy of needs proposing three levels:
- Existence needs – the things you need in order to survive.
- Relatedness needs – the need for love, belonging and esteem.
- Growth needs – self-esteem and self-actualisation.
The ERG theory differs from Maslow’s theory in that Alderfer suggest that further rewards at a lower level can make up for a lack of higher level rewards. In other words more pay can make up for a dull job.
McClelland’s Theory
McClelland argued that people have acquired needs. He suggests that people acquire or learn needs based on life experiences.
Cognitive/Process Theories
These theories are more sophisticated and give the individual a more active roles rather than just responding to their environment. Cognitive theories suggest that people are able to make their own decisions based on cues from their environment.
Vroom and expectancy theory
Vroom suggested that a person’s motivation is the product of two factors:
- Valance – the strength of a person’s preference for a certain outcome. This would be a costive value if they would prefer to achieve the outcome, a negative if they would prefer not to achieve the outcome and zero if they are indifferent.
- Subjective probability – the person’s expectation that the outcome will result from certain behavior. This depends on the person’s perception of the relationship between behavior and outcome.
The theory can then be expressed as a mathematical formula: F = V x E where V is the Valance and E the expectation (subjective probability).
Equity theory
Equity theory suggests that a person’s degree of motivation can be affected by comparisons we make between the forces the person puts into the job and the rewards they get from it. The theory suggests that people prefer situations that balance, i.e. equity, which occurs when the perceived ratio of effort to result is equal. Where they are not equal dissatisfaction results.
Goal theory
Goal theory suggests that people work harder when they have a specific target or goal to aim for. This forms the basis of Management By Objectives.
Final Thoughts
Personally I believe that each workplace is different and you will need to find the right theory for your business. You might even need to use more than one, tailoring your style of management to the types of people you are managing.
John Crickett is the “Business Ideas Guy”, an entrepreneur and business consultant based in the
Source: www.businessopportunitiesandideas.co.uk
Posted on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 at 4:39 pm and is filed under Employee Relations, Leadership, Marketing, Small Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
