PSY 320 Motivational Strategies

Motivational Strategies

Name:

Institution:

Professor:

Course Title:

Date of Submission:

Motivational Strategies

It is true and evident that most employees need motivation in order to feel good about their jobs and to perform excellently, perfectly and optimally. According to (Dornyei, 2001), there are different strategies that can be employed in order to motivate employees, some being in form of money and the others being recognition and rewards. Motivation levels within the workplace have a direct impact on employees’ productivity and this makes the employees to get excited and perform their responsibilities to their best and hence increasing the productivity of the workplace.

Sometimes, depending on the kind of the motivation, the productivity of a particular workplace can increase or at times decrease. A motivation that is done in form of monetary incentives and rewards calls for recognition of an employee. If such rewards are done directly, due to different levels of success can actually lead to lack of cohesiveness and teamwork especially if others feel that they are missing out. This can lead to disagreements between the employees since some may feel honored and better than the others hence can lead to a deteriorating production in an institution. Again, if an employee is so much praised due to good performance, he or she may feel so much important than the others and therefore this may result to reluctance of the employee to share ideas with the other employees, lead to increased absenteeism, cause a persistent low morale towards work by the other employees and finally this leads to a very great drop in productivity.

The managers of a workplace may desire to be the best institution and therefore try all the possible means in order to ensure that their employees also give the best for the best production to be experienced. Therefore they may find the best motivational speakers who can give advice to their employees and also equip them with the best qualities. This means that the institution may spend a lot of money to pay the motivational speaker and may result into a big loss of money. The employees may use the skills imparted on them for their own benefit and may not benefit the institution at all. This then may result to the institution undergoing a great loss of money that could have been used to purchase some important firm inputs and hence leading to an increment in productivity.

There are some various reasons that have made employees to resist change in the workplace. This may arise if the employees are unaware of the initiative of the organization and if they do not know what is the intended purpose and the goals of the organization. The employees may also not be able to know and understand how the change in the organization will be able to affect them and therefore make them to continue resisting change. The employees may also be worried how the transformation may change their responsibilities and roles and therefore resisting change. The employees may also be concerned if they will be able to master the needed knowledge and skills to perform in the changed environment and hence becoming so much resistance to any change.

Some resist change as a political strategy for them to prove that the decision is wrong or to show that the person leading the change is not up to the task. They commit themselves to seeing that the change effort fail. Some may also resist change due to poor timing or lack of tact. If the changes are introduced in an insensitive manner or at an awkward time the employees may greatly resist. For any effective and significant organizational change, the leaders must present themselves in the right time.

The employers should therefore put some organizational efforts in order to improve the performance of those employees who resist change. One solution to solve this is by making sure that those employees that resist change participate in making the change. This ensures that those employees are in the front line of effecting the change to an organization and therefore minimizing or completely solving the issues of resisting change. The other effort that can be made is for the employers to understand the nature of resistance. What employees resist mostly is usually social change but not technical change. Social change deals with human relationships that then result to technical change. If the nature of change is understood then the employers are in a position to solve it before it results to resistance of technical change.

According to (Aaron Anderson, 2011) Resistance is usually created due to certain blind spots and attitudes which staff specialists have as a result of preoccupation with the technical aspects of new ideas. This therefore is the duty of the management to take concrete steps in dealing with constructively with these staff attitudes. They can do this by emphasizing new standards of performance for staff specialists and encouraging them to think in different dimensions and ways as well as making the use of the fact that signs of resistance can serve as a practical warning signal in timing and directing technological changes.

The top executives of an organization can also solve resistance of change by making their own efforts more effective at meetings of staff and operating groups where change is being discussed. They can do this by shifting their attention from the facts of schedules, work assignments, technical details and so forth, to what the discussion of these items indicates in regard to developing receptiveness and resistance to change. Therefore whenever resistance occurs, it should not be thought of as something to overcome. When it occurs, it is indeed the right time to listen carefully in order to know what the trouble is. It may happen that the resistance is as a result of technical imperfection that can be readily corrected. Therefore whether the trouble is easy or difficult to correct, the management will at least know what it is dealing with. According to (Kirkeby, 2000) Management philosophy is based on the principles that one value and believes and is what embodies a good leader. By following these principles, it shows what the employers expect from the employees and the employees understand better what it is expected of them and in so doing they can be helped to become good leaders. Therefore the employers lead by example. When motivating employees, the employers need to have a clear understanding of motivational theories and human behavior. With this, the employer will be in a position to reach the true self of his or her employees. When the employers understand human behavior and how to apply this information in workplace is very important and essential to good management, which enables the employers to successfully motivate employees as well as ensure employee satisfaction. Employee satisfaction and motivation are positively related to performance and productivity. Therefore, motivational strategies can purposefully be used as a catalyst that brings benefits to both the employer and the employee.

The management can apply theories in their institution and see which impacts they will generate in their workplace. There are different types of motivational theories. According to (Kretiner 1998) the theories include, need theories, equity theory, expectancy theory, and job design model. Need theories of motivation try to pinpoint at the internal factors that energize and focus on behavior. Needs can either be physiological or psychological deficiencies that arouses behavior. These needs are usually influenced by environmental factors and can either be weak or strong.

There is another motivational theory known as Maslow’s Need Hierarchy theory. According to (Abraham, 2013), Maslow believed that human beings aspire to become self-actualizing and viewed human potential as underestimated and unexplained territory. Maslow believed that there are five set goals that are referred to as basic needs which are safety, love, esteem, physiological and self-actualization. (Maslow 1943) stated that employees at organizations are motivated by the desire to achieve or maintain these basic satisfactions and more intellectual desires. This theory provided useful insights for managers and all the other organizational leaders. This helps the organizations to implement support programs and focus groups in order to help the employees manage and deal with stress especially during the times of challenges and taking time to understand clearly the needs of their employees (Kreitner 1998). When this concept is applied by organizations, the managers understand that it is their responsibility to create a proper climate for the employees so that they can develop their potential to the fullest. If the managers fail to provide a good climate for their employees, they will then cause a lot of frustration to them and can result to poor performance by the employees, lead to lower job satisfaction and increase the employees’ complete withdrawal from the organization.

The other motivational theory is called McClelland’s need theory which focuses on three needs which are, achievement, power and affiliation. The need to achieve explained as the drive to excel, strive to succeed and attain the set standards and goals. The need for power is to enable and make others behave in a way they would not have behaved while the need for affiliation is the desire for friendly and interpersonal relationships. Since effective and excellent managers must influence their employees positively, the top managers should have high need for power coupled with a low need of affiliation. If the managers apply those theories in their management, they will definitely experience a lot of success in their workplace since the employees will be highly motivated and therefore work hard in hard with their managers in order to achieve the intended goals and purposes of their work.

References

Dr.Zoltan Dornyei (2001): Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom. Cambridge

University Press Publishers.

Aaron Anderson (2011): Engaging Resistance: How Ordinary People Successfully Champion

Change. Stanford Business Books Publishers.

Ole F. Kirkeby (2000): Management Philosophy: A Radical Normative Perspective. Springer

Publishers.

Abraham H. Maslow (2013): A Theory of Human Motivation. Merchant Books Publishers.