Importance Of Motivation
While motivation is something that is continuously being researched, one thing that is certain is that the theories developed in the mid twentieth century such as, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1943) and ERG Theory (1969) both carried its way to motivation in workplace 50 plus years later. Between both theories you can learn a lot about things that can be looked at either within self or in our immediate surroundings to better both the workplace and self. Maslow argued that every individual should have these five categories of needs, and that these needs would occur in a hierarchy, basic of course being at the very bottom.
On the other hand, Clayton P. Alderfer developed the Existence, Relatedness, and Growth or ERG Theory, which was a simple modification to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Mr. Alderfer argued that the five categories could be better condensed into three: existence, relatedness, and growth. “Motivation is the act of providing someone with a reason for doing something. Motivation can also be a force or prompt that spurs a person to action. When a person is motivated, he or she is eager to take action or perform work. ” To me motivation in the workplace will begin with responsibility. Responsibility says a lot without saying much and depending on where you work, the title and duties may vary. It is the primary reason of achieving responsibility is achievement and success. Being able to simply achieve the tasks given mean that what was delegated was either both attainable or able to achieve with little or no struggle. With having motivation in the workplace and amongst employee’s, making sure that manageable workloads are a given.
Nobody wants to be slammed with a ton of work that I know cannot be attained. I also know that depending on the section of the company, some may seem to have less work or finish earlier, but cross training is something that will happen throughout. This sometimes will make others work sloppy and faster which isn’t always good, Unrealistic workloads puts a lot of weight on the employee’s shoulders and makes them feel defeated and like they want to give up. I know that in sections like the HR office where personal data and information is kept; I won’t allow cross training but everywhere else yes. This will allow everyone to shift and find their true passion and get a feel for how everywhere else is operated. It allows others to become leads, and me to back away and not have to micromanage. Micromanaging I know can be very overwhelming and annoying especially if their daily objectives aren’t being met. With that being said, job placement and security is something that I know will make the workplace more cohesive. Somethings such as conflict is inevitable especially with culture diversity in the workplace. Organizational behavior can be defined as “the study of individuals and groups in organizations” (Schermerhorn, Hunt and Osborn 2005, 3). Knowing the behaviors within the company and evenly distributing the employees can be very beneficial and economically smart on my end. I would want to place a very strong person in very section who would be both a motivator to those under then and a very hard worker to help pick up the slack in need be. “Culture and diversity play a huge factor when it comes to motivation in the workplace. “Culture as it pertains to groups in society can be defined as the set of beliefs, customs, values, and way of life shared by individuals in a particular group. ”
Finding a balance between the two where the moto is “TEAMWORK makes the DREAMWORK”, is usually how a workplace should be. Ensuring that we all will get the job done and be able to put our personal differences aside, or even if conflict does arise handling it in the way that still makes the workplace an enjoyable place to come back to. At the end of the work day we all will go home to our families and return the next day with that happy mindset of working hard to get the mission done. “Cultural diversity refers to the differences in culture among individuals and comprises more than obvious differences such as race or speaking different languages. ”, so this brings me back to respecting everyone as humans and carrying our self with lots of dignity. We often forget that respect goes hand in hand with culture. Other countries will have different views and will interpret things differently. It is very important to respect everyone’s culture in the workplace to avoid conflict.
I say all of this to say that to ensure that there is cohesion and motivation here, things will be assessed and worked as they arise. As things being to get boring or I see lack of motivation happening, I will personally speak to every employee and if there is something that I can personally do to give the company a boost of motivation I will. This will not only help the company become more successful financially for me but will also be economically smarter to fix within versus stepping out and needing to start over.
