Understanding Employee Motivation
Introduction
A horse can be taken to the water but it cannot be forced to drink; it will drink only when it feels thirsty. Same is the case with humans. They will do what they themselves desire to do or are otherwise motivated to do. When it comes to excelling on the workshop level, they must be motivated or driven to it, either by themselves or through external stimulus.
Today keeping staff motivated has become a priority for most organizations. According to Berry, (2006) “these days employers focus more on pragmatic benefits that keep staff motivated”. According to Strickler (2006) “managers continue to believe that by pushing the right motivational buttons they can motivate (manipulate) workers into doing more of what management wants”. The purpose of this essay is therefore to explore the extent to which this is true. Furthermore, the purpose of this paper is to understand what motivates employees to perform at work. We will use examples from Fujitsu Services’ employees to see what stimulates them to perform and how these can be related to the theories of motivations that have existed for the last 50 years. This paper will show that there is no simple defined levers that managers can rely on to motivate their employees to perform.
Theories of motivation and how they apply
Once, employees were considered just another input into the production of goods and services. What perhaps changed this way of thinking about employees was research, referred to as the Hawthorne Studies, conducted by Elton Mayo from 1924 to 1932 (Dickson, 1973). This study found employees are not motivated solely by money and employee behavior is linked to their attitudes (Dickson, 1973). The Hawthorne Studies began the human relations approach to management, whereby the needs and motivation of employees become the primary focus of managers (Bedeian, 1993).
This paper looks at what motivates employees at Fujitsu Services, a leading IT services company operating in Europe, Middle
A horse can be taken to the water but it cannot be forced to drink; it will drink only when it feels thirsty. Same is the case with humans. They will do what they themselves desire to do or are otherwise motivated to do. When it comes to excelling on the workshop level, they must be motivated or driven to it, either by themselves or through external stimulus.
Today keeping staff motivated has become a priority for most organizations. According to Berry, (2006) “these days employers focus more on pragmatic benefits that keep staff motivated”. According to Strickler (2006) “managers continue to believe that by pushing the right motivational buttons they can motivate (manipulate) workers into doing more of what management wants”. The purpose of this essay is therefore to explore the extent to which this is true. Furthermore, the purpose of this paper is to understand what motivates employees to perform at work. We will use examples from Fujitsu Services’ employees to see what stimulates them to perform and how these can be related to the theories of motivations that have existed for the last 50 years. This paper will show that there is no simple defined levers that managers can rely on to motivate their employees to perform.
Theories of motivation and how they apply
Once, employees were considered just another input into the production of goods and services. What perhaps changed this way of thinking about employees was research, referred to as the Hawthorne Studies, conducted by Elton Mayo from 1924 to 1932 (Dickson, 1973). This study found employees are not motivated solely by money and employee behavior is linked to their attitudes (Dickson, 1973). The Hawthorne Studies began the human relations approach to management, whereby the needs and motivation of employees become the primary focus of managers (Bedeian, 1993).
This paper looks at what motivates employees at Fujitsu Services, a leading IT services company operating in Europe, Middle
References: Armstrong, M. (2005) A handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. 3rd Edition, Kogan Page Publications. Bedeian, A. G. (1993) Management. 3rd Edition. New York: Dryden Press. Berry, M. (2006) Talent Management Reward: Money talks. Personnel Today [online], 10 October 2006. Available from: http://www.personneltoday.com/Articles/2006/10/10/37624/talent-management-reward-money-talks.html [Accessed 30 March 2008] Buford, J Buford, J. A., Jr. (1993) Be your own boss. Journal of Extension, 31 (1). Chesney, C. E. (1992) Work force 2000: is Extension agriculture ready? Journal of Extension, 30 (2). Dickson, W. J. (1973) Hawthorne experiments. In C. Heyel (1973.) The encyclopedia of management. 2nd Edition, (pp. 298-302). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Handy, C.B. (1985) Understanding Organisations. Penguin Books Ltd. Herzberg, F., Mausner, B., & Snyderman, B. B. (1959) The motivation to work. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Hutton, W. (2004) Got those old blue-collar blues, The Observer [online]. 22 August 2004. Available from: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1288302,00.html [Accessed 30 March 2008] Kovach, K Latham, G. & Locke, R. (1979) in Armstrong, M. (2005) A handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. 3rd Edition, Kogan Page Publications. Maslow, A. (1943) in Rosenfeld, R.H. and Wilson, D.C. (1999) Managing Organisations: Text, Readings & Cases. 2nd Edition. Cambridge. McGraw-Hill Publishing. Strickler, J. (2006) What Really Motivates People, Journal for Quality and Participation, Vol 29 (1) pp29. Spring 2006. Vroom, V. H. (1964) Work and motivation. New York: Wiley. Smith, G. P. (1994) Motivation. In Tracey, W. (1993) Human resources management and development handbook, 2nd Edition. Amacom.