Motivation Strategies

They idea of creation of working environment to develop policies and practices which will provide for higher levels of performance from employees They will be concerned with following:

• Measuring Motivation – This is crucial to provide suggestions of areas where motivational practices need to be improved. Motivation cannot be implicitly measured. But indications of the level of motivation can be attained from attitude surveys, measures of productivity, employee turnover and absenteeism, analysis of performance reviews.
• Valuing Employees – Motivation and commitment are likely to be improved if employees feel that they are valuable. This means working for their success, trusting and empowering them, giving them the chance to be involved in matters which they are concerned, treating them in a just manner and as human beings rather than ‘resources’ to be taken advantage of in the interest of management, and giving them with rewards which reveal to the extent to which they are valued.
• Behavioral Commitment – It means that individuals will focus their efforts to accomplishing organizational and job objectives. It can be engendered by giving people more responsibility to manage their own jobs as individuals or as teams (empowerment) and giving them rewards to be directly related to success in accomplishing agreed goals.
• Organizational Climate – The organizational climate and core values should highlight the importance of high performance. Managers and team leaders should be motivated to act as models of the sort of Behaviors anticipated from employees.
• Leadership Skills – Managers and team leaders should be assisted to learn about the process of motivation and how they can use their knowledge to enhance the motivation of their team members.
• Job Design – This should involve the use of motivation theory, particularly those elements of the theory which relate to the needs and intrinsic motivation.
• Performance Management – The process of this involves setting of goals, short or long terms, and analyzing the accomplishment at the end of the concerned period. A reward system for achievement will strengthen achievement oriented Behavior.
• Reward Management – Rewarding achievement and competence is one way of keeping high levels of motivation in the organization. While designing schemes for rewards, the lessons from expectancy theory and equity theory should be employed.
• Employee Development – The best form of development is self-development. The organization should provide opportunities for self-development of the people.
• Behavioral Motivation – It involves influencing Behavior by its consequences. It involves systematic analysis of the Behavioral items and moulding people’s Behavior by appropriate interventions. The five steps for this procedure have been prescribed by Luthans and Kreitnes (1975).
  • Identify the critical Behavior — what people do or do not do which needs to be changed.
  • Measure the frequency of occurrences — obtain hard evidence that a real problem exists.
  • Carry out functional analysis — identify the stimuli that precede the Behaviors and the consequences in the shape of rewards or punishment which influence the Behavior
  • Develop and implement an intervention strategy — this may involve the use of positive or negative reinforcement to influence the Behaviors (i.e. providing or withholding financial or non financial rewards).
  • Evaluate the effects of the interventions- check whether the interventions were successful. If yes, whether it resulted in the desired result. What further steps are required to be undertaken.