A Comparative Analysis of Positive and Negative Motivational Methods

Motivation is generally defined as the desire and ability to work hard. It is one of the key driving forces within organizations. In order for organizations to be competitive, employees need to be motivated to produce high performance and productivity. But what are the methods managers use to motivate employees? What affect do these methods have on subordinates and the overall performance of the organization? To answer these questions, I present a comparative analysis of two managing newspaper editors for whom I worked as a photojournalist. Comparing these editors reveals the sharply contrasting motivational methods they used and how these methods had a negative or positive impact upon subordinates as well as the company overall.
At the time I was hired in March 1991, The London Sentinel-Echo, located in London, Kentucky. The newspaper, owned by Community Newspaper, Inc., was published three times a week covering news in Laurel County. It competed with two other local newspapers, one a daily publication and the other a weekly publication. My position within the company was photojournalist covering police and emergency services. My supervisor was Managing Editor John Butwell, who began to reveal his motivational methods the moment we were introduced. I was expecting at least a basic tour of the building and introduction to my fellow employees from Mr. Butwell which would enable me to begin orienting myself to the new work environment. Instead, I was escorted directly to his office and given a three hour lecture on what my duties would be and how I was expected to carry them out. I say lecture because I was never given the opportunity to ask questions or respond in any manner throughout the ordeal. Instead, Mr. Butwell shoved a police scanner into my hands and explained I would be responsible for covering ANY breaking emergency news in Laurel County. This meant I would be held responsible for having this scanner on at all times in my home and I would be listening to it at all times for anything that could be deemed newsworthy. As he explained, this meant if a house fire broke out at 2 a.m. I would be expected to be able to hear the information, in my sleep, that was being broadcasted over the scanner from the dispatch center to the fire department and respond so that I would arrive at the location at the same time the fire crew itself arrived at the scene. Mr. Butwell also informed me that as part of the reporting staff I would be responsible for contributing to the B-Feature stories which came out every Wednesday. The Wednesday edition of the newspaper included a separate section (the B section) which provided more in-depth stories on local people, events, or local interests. This included a two-page feature story on one of these topics with more photos than a “normal” story in the paper. I was then given a list of B-page feature topics that were to be covered this year by the newspaper with no dates as to when each story was expected to be published. When I left Mr. Butwell’s office, I was feeling very confused, overwhelmed and dejected. I was left doubting my ability to meet these expectations which I felt were rudely dumped into my lap.
As the weeks passed, Mr. Butwell’s ineffective motivational methods and their effects became more apparent. As reporters, we maintained a very subdued, non-interactive atmosphere in the office because we never knew when Mr. Butwell would appear and reprimand us for “talking instead of working”. This attitude even affected other employees in the advertising and printing departments. We were unable to coordinate with other departments regarding how the layout of a story would affect the space available on the page for advertising or if special printing requirements (such as color) were needed for photos accompanying an article. As a result, this made meeting the publication deadline nearly impossible because all necessary communication would end up taking place while the paper was being prepared for printing. It was not uncommon for the final product to have blatant errors which readers would easily spot. This led to the Sentinel-Echo becoming a joke among readers. This also caused businesses to stop purchasing advertising space in the newspaper. Subscription and advertising revenue dwindled leading to a severe loss of profit. This, in turn, led to additional pressure placed on all employees by the newspaper’s owner to increase performance and productivity. Mr. Butwell’s response was to introduce two new programs he believed would solve the problem. During a meeting with all reporters, he informed us that effectively immediately any errors made in the stories, lay-outs, photos, etc. during the preparation of the newspaper for printing would result in the responsible employee being written up for sub-standard performance. If any employee were written up more than three times, it would result in immediate termination. Mr. Butwell informed us that the second program would be that each time the paper was printed free of errors, each employee would receive a $5.00 gift card to Wal-Mart. At this point in time, I took the initiative to offer a possible solution to this problem of errors in the final printed editions. This would be allowing the reporting, advertising, and printing departments an opportunity to coordinate with each other before deadline approaches. I explained that a couple of hours in the afternoon the day before deadline would allow everyone to understand what type of lay-outs would be needed, any special instructions, and a general understanding of how the paper would “go out” barring any late-breaking news. Mr. Butwell stated my solution wouldn’t work because the real problem was “lazy employees who didn’t know how to do their job right.” I was then told to stay after the meeting because he had something he wished to discuss with me. After the other employees left, Mr. Butwell literally began screaming at me for my attitude. I was a poor employee for questioning his position by making it appear that his solutions to the problem wouldn’t work. I was accused of undermining his authority and that I had the “wrong attitude” for a subordinate. I was then written up for insubordination due to my failure to follow my supervisor’s instructions.
At this point, it should be explained that the Human Resources Department for the newspaper was located at the headquarters of its owner, Community Newspaper, Inc. in Charlotte, N.C. I decided to contact HR following my write-up to discuss this incident. I briefly explained to them what had occurred and was told they would contact me following an investigation into the matter. After two weeks, I contacted HR again to follow-up on the matter. Again I was told I would be contacted pending the investigation. Another four weeks passed with no contact from HR. The work environment with Mr. Butwell continued to deteriorate to the point that I was calling in sick whenever I could and finding any legitimate reason to be out of the office. Many highly capable employees were leaving the company due to the increasingly difficult environment while others were being terminated because of Mr. Butwell’s new program. Several of those who had been terminated under the new program contacted the EEOC to file charges of wrongful termination. Because I still had not received any contact from HR regarding their investigation into the matter I had reported with Mr. Butwell, I also contacted the EEOC to file charges of discrimination based on a hostile work environment. During the EEOC’s investigation, the alleged accusations were found to be valid. Faced with charges, pending litigation and fines, the Sentinel-Echo terminated Mr. Butwell and all cases were settled out of court.
At the time of Mr. Butwell’s termination, employee morale was extremely low. Productivity and performance were nearly non-existent. The newspaper was dangerously close to shutting its doors due to profit loss. This was the situation Travis Flora faced when hired as the new managing editor. It would be his responsibility to change it. It quickly became obvious that Mr. Flora’s motivational methods were distinctly different from those used by Mr. Butwell. When I arrived at the office on Mr. Flora’s first day with the newspaper, there was a vase with a single flower and a card sitting on my desk. The card read, “Greetings! I wanted my employees to have something that would start their day off with a smile. By the way there will be a meeting tomorrow at noon. Please let me know if you are unable to attend.” Mr. Flora had sent this flower and notice not only to the reporters, but to all the employees. Everyone was in shocked amazement that a supervisor would do something so out of the ordinary for us. We were also surprised that he gave us more than 3 hours notice of an upcoming meeting and took into consideration that we may not be able to attend due to scheduling of interviews, meeting with clients, etc.
On the day of the meeting Mr. Flora’s starkly different methods of motivation were again displayed. He started off the meeting with a catered lunch. The effect on the employees was immediately apparent. The atmosphere was relaxed, even jovial, compared to the the previous sense of doom that seemed to prevail the conference room. Mr. Flora then began the meeting by carefully explaining the situation the newspaper was currently facing with low profits due to weak subscription numbers and loss of advertising purchases. He explained that since the current programs in place were obviously not working, they would be removed. No longer would an employee be written up for errors in the newspaper. He also stated that the $5.00 gift card would no longer be implemented. Mr. Flora went on to discuss that our objective would be to have a newspaper completely free of errors when it hit the newsstands. He wanted suggestions from all employees on how to achieve this goal. He would use these suggestions to start implementing changes to achieve a better work environment. No one spoke up due to previous experiences with the former manager. Mr. Flora then stated he was going to leave the room and while he was gone he wanted each employee to write down at least one suggestion. He didn’t want our names on the paper. Once we had written our suggestion, we could leave. During the two weeks following that initial meeting, Mr. Flora would approach individual employees and departments with these suggestions asking for their opinions on the effectiveness of these changes, should they be implemented, as well as how to go about implementing these changes. The result of this interaction was Mr. Flora was getting to know everyone in the organization on a more personal level; setting the foundation for trust and communication. For example, Mr. Flora implemented my suggestion of having the departments meet before deadline to coordinate on layouts or special instructions for an upcoming feature story. But he also took it a step further by encouraging employees from various departments to communicate on a daily basis. Eventually, employees from the various departments developed flexibility in dealing with the lay-out of the paper. By knowing what each department was working on and planning to have in an upcoming edition, employees were able to adjust accordingly or have contingency plans for any last minute changes. Throughout out this process of change Mr. Flora would personally thank each employee for any improvements made and discuss areas that still needed improvement. He would hold meetings to keep everyone informed on the progress being made and how we, as a team, could continue to improve. In just over 2 months, The Sentinel-Echo was consistently producing a newspaper on deadline that was error-free. Readers and advertisers immediately noticed the improvement. Subscriptions and advertisement revenue began to rise as the newspaper started to gain a reputation for professionalism.
Although, this was a definite improvement in performance, more was needed to gain a competitive edge over other newspapers in the area. Mr. Flora decided to focus his motivational methods on the reporters since it is their stories which attract subscribers. Despite recent improvements, the reporters’ were still lacking in performance and productivity. Mr. Flora realized these issues would have to be addressed before the reporters would be on a level to effectively compete. First, he began holding conferences with each reporter to asses concerns and to establish improvement goals. When Mr. Flora approached me, I explained that one of my biggest concerns was the police scanner. I explained what I was told when I was hired in regards to my responsibilities involving the scanner. This was a definite source of stress for me because I felt as though I couldn’t leave my home, or even sleep properly, for fear of missing a story as it “broke” over the scanner. Mr. Flora decided it would be better if the scanner were rotated among the reporters so that a person would be responsible for monitoring the scanner at home for only a week at a time. This was met with resistance from the other reporters since it meant having to stay home or get up in the middle of the night to cover a story. But, Mr. Flora carefully explained that by rotating the scanner among all the reporters, no single person is constantly saddled with its responsibility. He also pointed out that each reporter should be able to cover another reporter’s “beat” so that the newspaper could continue to effectively operate while a reporter was on vacation. Mr. Flora stated he would be participating with his subordinates and would actually be first in the rotation. Another issue that became apparent during these conferences was the B-Feature stories. In particular, the list of stories and the topics of these stories. The list showed only limited topics without due dates or an assigned reporter. It was not uncommon for more than one reporter to produce two stories on the same B-Feature story since no one was specifically assigned to it. Also, since there were no due dates listed, it was not uncommon for the newspaper to publish a B-Feature story at the beginning of the month and then publish another story on the same topic at the end of the month because no other topic on the list had been covered. Reporters were not motivated to produce the highest quality B-Feature due to this chaos caused by the list and the sheer boredom of covering such a limited range of topics. Mr. Flora changed this by getting rid of the current list and asking each reporter to create a list of topics he or she would be interested in pursuing as a feature story. At the beginning of each month, he would then pick four of the topics suggested, assign the reporter who made the suggestion to cover the story, and specified the dates of when each story would need to be completed. He also rotated when each reporter would be covering the story. For example if a reporter were responsible for the feature story in the first week of the month, then that reporter would be responsible for the story in the fourth week during the following month. Reporters were now motivated to create top-quality B-Feature stories because they had a personal interest. The new feature story method covered a broader range of topics people would be interested in reading about, including controversial topics such as domestic violence and abortion. Reporters were creating better rapports with their sources due to the exposure the features provided. In my case, this resulted in the establishment of an “early tip-off” system to breaking news from the police and emergency services departments before it was released to other newspapers. Subscriptions and circulation dramatically rose because people were more interested in the published stories. The tri-weekly Sentinel-Echo now had more subscribers than any other local newspaper. It was finally operating with a profit gain. Motivational methods not only affect employees but also the organization itself. As Chana Anderson, CCP, SPHR-CA, director of HR and a member of the SHRM Employee Relations Special Expertise Panel, states: "Motivation and engagement is truly a 50-50 relationship between the employee and employer. Employees are expected to come to the workplace with the intrinsic motivation and desire to be successful, be value-added and contribute to the obtainment of an employer's vision. Conversely, it is incumbent upon the employer to provide resources, opportunities, recognition and a cohesive work environment for employees to be successful” (Motivation in Today's Workplace: The Link to Performance. (2010). HRMagazine, 55(7), 1-9. The practice of negative motivational methods and engagement, obviously, would result in a manger not being able to provide resources, opportunities or a cohesive work environment. Mr. Butwell demonstrated how such poor motivational methods had detrimental results among the individual employees and the organization. For example, Mr. Butwell failed to provide resources by preventing employees to freely communicate. Mr. Butwell also failed to provide employees with opportunities and a cohesive work environment. He demonstrated a clear unwillingness to listen to suggestions from employees for solving the problem of errors in the final printed newspaper. Instead, employees were given overt threats and poor rewards as their motivation for solving the problem. “Most programs intended to motivate employees actually end up creating an overall deficit in employee motivation. While a handful of employees may be reinforced, many are left feeling punished. Programs that do elicit short-term benefits typically end up creating significant morale problems down the road” (Marciano, Paul. (© 2010). Carrots and Sticks Don't Work: Build a culture of employee engagement with the principles of respect. [Books24x7 version]). With the threat of write-ups or termination for errors and only a $5.00 gift card reward for no errors, Mr. Butwell’s programs ultimately served to further demotivate employees in an already stressful environment by causing them to feel they had little to gain and a lot to lose should they be deemed poor performers.
Mr. Butwell again demonstrated poor motivational methods in his interpersonal behavior with employees. As shown through the description of my first day at work, Mr. Butwell engaged in micro-management by giving lots of specific instructions on how I was to perform my job. He also displayed a strong tendency to avoid regular interaction with employees about their work unless something was wrong and corrected employees with negative feedback. All of these interpersonal behaviors are considered to be types of demotivational management. Such heavy-handed techniques constantly left me and other employees feeling angry and mistreated. Such negative interaction between a manager and employees causes employees to “walk around” with a negative feeling which then harmfully impacts future interaction with other employees (Hiam, Alexander. ( © 2003). Motivational Management: Inspiring your people for maximum performance. [Books24x7 version]). As the managing editor, Mr. Butwell would have the greatest influence on the work environment at the newspaper. His methods of management created a negative, hostile environment that festered within the organization. Simply put, negativity breeds negativity. Mr. Butwell’s poor motivation style caused a severe drop in performance and productivity which in turn impacted the business and profits to such a degree that The London Sentinel-Echo was nearly defunct.
The motivational methods used by Mr. Flora were markedly different from those used by Mr. Butwell. As presented earlier, Mr. Flora’s style of motivation, positive methods did provide resources, opportunities and a cohesive work environment for employees, and the organization, to be successful. An obvious example of how Mr. Flora provided resources was by providing supportive encouragement for communication between departments in regard to the layout of the newspaper before printing. This provided employees with more control over how the newspaper was put together for printing. Employees were able to develop a flexible method that used less of their time and energy to effectively create an error-free product. An excellent example of Mr. Flora’s creation of opportunities is the changes in how B-Feature stories would be handled. “As the boss, your job is to harness the skills of those who work for you and help them reach their potential. Nurture their talents for the good of the organization” (Moses, M. (2010). Road Rules for Leaders. Workforce Management, 89(6), 58.). Mr. Flora did harness the skills of the reporters by having them create new topics to be the focus of feature stories. By being allowed to pursue topics they were personally interested in, reporters gained a degree of motivation. Since this method was supported by their supervisor, it also created a venue through which employees could explore and hone their creativity. This in turn led to the production of higher quality stores which attracted and kept the interest of more readers. Finally Mr. Flora’s motivational methods created a cohesive work environment for employees through communication and interaction. Form the the beginning as managing editor, Mr. Flora made effort to establish an policy of two-way communication with his subordinates as well as all departments within the organization. By clearly defining and explaining goals to be met, along with a desire to listen to solutions that would enable those goals to be met, Mr. Flora began establishing a team-oriented mindset among employees. With the establishment of team orientation, the organization was empowered to pull together as a whole to reach the goals of creating an error-free printed newspaper, increasing subscription numbers, and attracting more businesses willing to purchase advertising space. “A positively connected work environment in which people feel understood and safe to be authentic is critical for employees to do their best. Managers who take seriously the task of creating a positive emotional environment can inspire their workers and help them to do far more than they thought they could” (HALLOWELL, E. M. (2011). Five Steps to Ignite Peak Performance. Chief Learning Officer, 10(2), 40-43).
Mr. Flora’s interpersonal behavior also exemplified his positive motivational methods. As previously stated he practiced an open door policy of interaction between himself and subordinates. But, Mr. Flora’s interpersonal behavior also extended to working with employees on an individual level to reach solutions for issues. As exemplified in the situation with the police scanner, Mr. Flora would listen to the concerns voiced by the employee in one-on-one sessions. He would then work with the employee to achieve an overall beneficial solution. This incident also displayed Mr. Flora’s positive motivational method of leading by example. He volunteered to be first, when the reporters were reluctant to take on the rotating responsibility of monitoring the scanner at home for a week. This sent a clear message that even the supervisor was not exempt from unpleasant duties associated with the work, resulting in a greater feeling of camaraderie. Mr. Flora’s also fostered positive motivation by personally recognizing the achievements and improvements of individual employees. According to L.Y. Miriam, author of “Rewards Can Cost Nothing? Yes, They Can…Really, “Increases to employee motivation and performance can be achieved if managers consciously become more engaged and verbally recognize employees” (Martin, K. J. (2010). Cash Motivation Limited, Try Alternate Forms. Pennsylvania CPA Journal, 81(1), 1-3). Just as negativity breeds negativity, positivity breeds positivity. Mr. Flora’s motivational methods allowed The Sentinel-Echo’s employees to change in a positive manner resulting in higher performance and productivity. These improvements lead to a higher quality newspaper which in turn attracted more subscribers and advertisers. In the end, the newspaper went from losing money to being one of the most profitable owned by Community Newspaper, Inc.
In conclusion, it is apparent there are a variety of methods a supervisor can use to motivate employees. The effect these methods have on subordinates and overall performance of the organization depends largely on the specific style a supervisor uses when engaging his employees. As demonstrated through the comparison of the two London-Sentinel Echo managing editors, a negative style of motivation first led to a decrease in performance and productivity which resulted in a poor quality product. The effects of poor motivation then spread until it was affecting the entire organization in the form of severe profit loss. Conversely, a positive style of motivation first led to an increase in performance and productivity resulting in a product of superior quality. The effects then impacted the entire organization by not only changing loss to profit but dramatically increasing profit margins.

References
Hallowell, E. M. (2011). Five Steps to Ignite Peak Performance. Chief Learning Officer, 10(2), 40-43. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Hiam, Alexander. (© 2003). Motivational Management: Inspiring your people for maximum performance. [Books24x7 version] Available from http://common.books24x7.com.proxy.devry.edu/toc.aspx?bookid=5188.

Marciano, Paul. ( © 2010). Carrots and Sticks Don't Work: Build a culture of employee engagement with the principles of respect. [Books24x7 version] Available from http://common.books24x7.com.proxy.devry.edu/toc.aspx?bookid=35902.

Martin, K. J. (2010). Cash Motivation Limited, Try Alternate Forms. Pennsylvania CPA Journal, 81(1), 1-3. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Moses, M. (2010). Road Rules for Leaders. Workforce Management, 89(6), 58. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Motivation in Today's Workplace: The Link to Performance. (2010). HRMagazine, 55(7), 1-9. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.