MOTIVATION AND TEAM DYANAMICS

Introduction
Motivation can be defined as a process that starts with a physiological deficiency that activates a push that is aimed at a goal incentive The aim of this essay is to show that how motivation can be an important factor for better performance of employees in a sector (Steininger, 1994).
In the first article, the author analyzes the nature of motivational research and the approach adopted by motivational researchers in order to figure out what motivates the employees of a given organization to perform their best. He calls marketers as instrumentalists who in fact only research about motivating others so as to attain their own means. The second article reemphasizes and analyzes some necessary components of employee motivation, so that managers, like those who are inexperienced can increase their knowledge and understanding of employee motivation. (Hersey, 1996)
First Article
Analysis and Evaluation
In this article the author analyzes the nature of motivational research and the approach adopted by motivational researchers in order to figure out what motivates the employees of a given organization to perform their best or even what motivates customers to buy the products that marketers intend to sell. (Blanchard, 1996) The author, through this article analyzes motivational research and says that the approach towards motivational research can be considered unscientific if the traditional definition of science is taken into consideration, which is to describe and record details of things as it is without any intention of changing them.
Theoretically, motivation can be defined as a process that starts with a physiological deficiency that activates a push that is aimed at a goal incentive. But the author mentions that in practice, motivational structures are formal written policies and procedures in place at organizations, and dictate the way in which the organization is properly organized. Some of the structures observed in such industries are third career orientations, dual ladders, prestigious societies, etc. The author also touches upon Karl Marx’s opinion of philosophy, drawing parallels to state that motivational research is based on instrumentalism, since it does not contemplate employee or customer behavior, rather it attempts to change it for fulfillment of own profitable needs. Thus, when a marketer attempts to find out the likes and dislikes of his target segment, he is actually not concerned at all with their likes and dislikes; in fact all he is ever bothered about is to increase the sales of his product. (Steininger, 1994).
The author then goes on to explain how motivational research is different as compared to say, segmentation analysis and other approaches towards market research. He says that a distinctive feature of motivational research is causality, and the cause for a certain customer behavior will be analyzed only as much as required for the purpose of the concerned product, as far as they are able to help the marketer in selling the product. The second distinctive feature of motivational research, as mentioned by the author, is creativity.
The discussions by the author about motivation imply that the interpretation of theories by marketers is to improve their sales figures. Theories are liberal and organizations interpret it differently and do not understand that various people have their own needs and they behave in different ways to fulfill their needs. Thus, it can be said that, based on the observations in the article, motivating factors differ for different customer segments in different scenarios depending on the product and also on the specific frame of reference in many cases, as explained by the author with the help of the student socializing area segmentation example, where frame of reference for segmentation can be taken as socializing, or academic interest, etc. depending on the requirement.
The author concludes, based on the conclusions arrived at by analyzing motivational research, that such research is a special type of research whose purpose is to find out the preferences of a certain segment of customers for the purpose of improvements and developments in sales projects.
For the effective implementation of strategies, the marketers are required to show full commitment to objective approach and creative research as a compelling instrument. A point to be noted in this context is that the mechanisms can be of particular importance for the motivation of a certain segment only, and the techniques, frame of reference and preferences might vary for each specific purpose. (Steininger, 1994)
The author summarizes that the marketer should not totally disregard motivational research, though it indeed is a misleading approach towards marketing since it strives to ascertain not the preferences of customers as it claims to do so, but to ascertain how to influence the preferences of customers so as to gain benefits. The creative aspect of such motivational research is to be banked upon by a marketer if he intends to utilize creative ideas for selling of a product, by focusing on what might motivate a customer to buy a product in the larger scheme of things, rather than based on how the customers already views the position of the firm in the market.
Second Article
Analysis and evaluation
The second article focuses on finding out the various factors which affect performance of workers, and motivate or de-motivate them. The difference between the previous article and this one is that instead of analyzing and being critical of the motivational research approach itself, the author is trying to bring to the fore factors that might play a role in helping one to understand what motivates employees. By studying this article one can observe the factors that are believed to play a role in motivating employees.
The article concluded that most of the factors which had a major impact on motivation and hence affected the performance were basically based on three questions, which were the means to specify an individual’s attitude towards his job, the causes of such attitude and the impact of such attitude. The factors-attitudes-effects complex became the framework for study of the three questions (Herzberg, 1959).
For the purpose of analysis, semi structured interview questions were asked for the purpose of qualitative analysis, all of which were open ended. The questions which chiefly concern us are the factors which the workers feel motivate them and de-motivate them.
By means of such qualitative analysis, the author hit upon a list of motivating factors or job related factors, such as:
• advancement;
• responsibility;
• work itself
• recognition;
• achievement;
• possibility of growth
There were also extra-job factors (Herzberg, 1968):
 interpersonal relations – supervisor;
 supervision – technical;
 company policy and administration;
 working conditions;
 factors in personal life;
 salary;
Thus, in order to obtain optimum performance from each employee, management needs an in depth understanding of the various motivating and de-motivating factors in case of workers, and this, too may vary depending on the type of workers and hence the motivation strategy needs to be customized by the management keeping in mind the type of workers they are dealing with. The key to such understanding is to ascertain the level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction that an employee experiences with each of the above mentioned and other similar factors, since it is the level of satisfaction and/or dissatisfaction that determines whether the employee is motivated or de-motivated in the present job. The author also touches upon some useful techniques by means of which to boost an employee’s performance, such as positive KITA.
In contrast to the previous article, this article looks at motivational research and techniques to be a big factor in improving employee performance, and almost shows a systematic approach towards research about motivation, whereas the first article considers motivational research to be unscientific in nature, however useful it might be. Challenging and exciting work opportunities also matter for the employees as a factor of motivation. Personal development, followed by team and peer support, etc are some other significant factors. (Herzberg, 1959)
The article says about factors which might negatively affect or de-motivate employees that an unfavorable work environment figured as such a factor, and this could be due to anything from systems and work pressure to tools. The article states that extreme satisfaction or dissatisfaction of employees is associated with almost similar type of factors. The first article argued that the factors which play a role in motivation can be viewed at objectively from different frames of reference, and thus cannot be absolutely affected by factors itself. This article concludes that management should ensure that workers are not de-motivated and this has to be done by focusing duly on psychological aspects and not just formal aspects, and not exclude monetary benefit as a factor which motivates.
Conclusion
The first article analyzes the nature of motivational research and the approach adopted by motivational researchers in order to figure out what motivates the employees of a given organization to perform their best or even what motivates customers to buy the products that marketers intend to sell, finally suggesting that the marketers neither favor nor disregard inferences obtained from motivational research, which is but an unscientific approach towards achieving profits, but act upon the findings in a suitable manner. The author summarizes that the marketer should not totally disregard motivational research, though it indeed is a misleading approach towards marketing since it strives to ascertain not the preferences of customers as it claims to do so, but to ascertain how to influence the preferences of customers so as to gain benefits.
The second article concludes that employee motivation is a sophisticated subject and there are numerous misconceptions regarding employee motivation. One such example is that good incentives and wages alone are enough to motivate employees. (House, 1967) The article concludes that management should ensure that workers are not de-motivated and this has to be done by focusing duly on psychological aspects and not just formal aspects, and not exclude monetary benefit as a factor which motivates, since monetary benefits are also highly valued by workers, apart from work challenges.
Reference List

First Article

Conrad Jameson, (1993) "Theory and nonsense of motivation research", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 5 Iss: 4, pp.189 - 197

Second Article
Mark A. Tietjen, Robert M. Myers, (1998) "Motivation and job satisfaction", Management Decision, Vol. 36 Iss: 4, pp.226 - 231

Other References:

• Herzberg, F., Maunser, B. and Snyderman, B. (1959), The Motivation to Work, John Wiley and Sons Inc., New York, NY.

• House, R.J. and Wigdor, L.A. (1967), “Herzberg’s dual-factor theory of job satisfaction and motivation: a review of the evidence and a criticism”, Personal Psychology, pp. 369-89.

• Herzberg, F. (1968), “One more time: how do you motivate employees?”, Harvard Business Review, pp. 53-62.

• Steininger, D.J. (1994), “Why quality initiatives are failing: the need to address the foundation of human motivation”, Human Resource Management, Vol. 33 No. 4, pp. 601-16.v • Blanchard, K.H. and Hersey, P. (1996), “Great ideas”, Training and Development, January, pp. 42-7.

• Luthans, F. (1998). Organisational Behaviour. 8th ed. Boston: Irwin McGraw-Hill.