Employee Motivation: Theory and practice
The job of a manager in the workplace is to get things done through employees. To do this the manager should be able to motivate employees. Motivation practice and theory are difficult subjects, touching on several disciplines. In spite of a lot of basic and applied research, the subject of motivation is not clearly understood and often poorly practiced. To understand motivation one must understand human nature itself. Human nature can be very simple, yet very complex too. An understanding and appreciation of this is a prerequisite to effective employee motivation. There is an old saying that, "You can take a horse to the water but you cannot force it to drink". People will only do either what they want to do or otherwise are motivated to do. Whether it is to excel on the workshop floor or in the 'ivory tower' of academic life, they must be motivated or driven to it, either by themselves or through external stimuli. Are people born with the self-motivation or drive? Yes and no. If no, they can be motivated, for motivation is a skill which can and must be learnt. This is essential for any business to survive and succeed. Job performance is considered to be a function of ability and motivation. Ability in turn depends on education, experience and training and its improvement is a slow and long process. On the other hand motivation can be improved quickly. As a guideline, there are broadly seven strategies for motivation. 1. Positive reinforcement / high expectations 2. Effective discipline and punishment 3. Treating people fairly 4. Satisfying employees' needs 5. Setting work related goals 6. Restructuring jobs 7. Base rewards on job performance "Money is important!" Perhaps, the above saying seems obvious. But it still needs to be said, for the theory that non-material rewards have a higher priority than monetary rewards has