Business studies: Analyse the different approaches to motivation; comment on the relevance of theories to today's workplace.
Business studies: Analyse the different approaches to motivation; comment on the relevance of theories to today's workplace.
In the constant production, heavily reliant on the human workforce, of today, the need for reliant, efficient and top quality producing workers is essential. Many theorists over the years since the industrial revolution have tried to analyse what makes workers work better. These theorists have included managers, doctors and psychologists who all have different theories, which have proved useful for managers everywhere in trying to improve the efficiency of their workforce. Before the realisation that workers would do better jobs if they were motivated, production workers would do the same monotonous jobs in the same monotonous environments for meagre pay. The worker's quality, speed and efficiency of production was poor by today's standards, this is where the American FW Taylor comes in.
Taylor is the starting point when looking at the theories behind motivation of workers. Although most argue that Taylor's methods and theories were not strictly motivation, they definitely need to be commented on when looking at motivation.
His methods are still evident in big business countries such as the US, Japan and former communist countries because they were so efficient, if not motivating. Taylor came up with the phrase 'Economic man' to describe workers nature, this theory was that workers only worked for the purpose of getting money. He believed managers needed to devise efficient systems to maximise profits so the workers could be paid more and managers needed to devise threats and incentives.
This is the most basic type of motivation that any of the four theorists being covered came up with, and possibly the one least likely to produce good results in today's workplace. Taylor's method that linked with this theory was known as differential piece rate, whereby the workers would be paid a barely living wage below a threshold and then a generous wage per unit above this threshold. Even though Taylor was enthusiastic about this method the workers resented it so much, that it normally had to be abandoned because they felt it was unfair. His methods were more influential than his theories, which included something, which is now known as time and motion study, whereby the managers observe the workers at work, recording what they do, when they do it and how long they take. Other methods included:
Observing the more efficient workers and seeing why they were efficient.
Breaking thetask down into smaller bits so it can be done quickly and repeatedly.
Devise equiptment to specifically speed up tasks.
Devise a pay scheme so workers who work around difficulties or get good output rates get paid more and penalise those who fail to achieve the productivity Taylor thought was possible.
However, the more familiar and more used methods of his are known as 'Taylorite' and are evident in places such as McDonalds and Burger King, where preparation of the food is precise to the temperature and length and measured by machines. The method ...
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Breaking thetask down into smaller bits so it can be done quickly and repeatedly.
Devise equiptment to specifically speed up tasks.
Devise a pay scheme so workers who work around difficulties or get good output rates get paid more and penalise those who fail to achieve the productivity Taylor thought was possible.
However, the more familiar and more used methods of his are known as 'Taylorite' and are evident in places such as McDonalds and Burger King, where preparation of the food is precise to the temperature and length and measured by machines. The method this stems from is Taylor's theory that management should set out exactly how every task should be complete, and give the workers the tools to achieve this task as efficiently as possible. The first big manufacturer that adopted this method was Henry Ford, of Ford motors; the Model T was the world's first mass-produced car.
When Ford introduced the conveyor belt in 1913 it enforced, totally, the taylorite idea; workers pace of work dictated by a machine conveyor belt, the speed of which was decided by management.
Most of Taylor's methods became more and more outdated as the idea of worker friendly enviroments and conditions became adopted by managers, and for obvious reasons, preferred by workers. As more and more managers used people friendly approaches, the minority group of workers in the worse conditions would refuse to work like that so the old style of management that Taylor was so keen on died out as soon as new methods of motivation were introduced. However, the taylorite method of production still lives on in the largest, most successful businesses of our time.
One of the first theorists to explore the human relations side of motivation, was someone whose methods were heavily influenced by Taylor, his name was Elton Mayo. His most famous work and most influential work is now known as the Hawthorne experiments, the findings of which are used in todays workplace, constantly. Mayo was called into Hawthorne western electric company to try and explain the findings of previous lighting experiments. One group of workers' lights were varied whilst the other groups' remained the same. This test showed that whenever anything was done to the lighting production rose in both groups, which showed that there was more to motivation than money and efficiency. After this Mayo conducted a series of experiments whereby he changed the working conditions of 6 volunteers and recorded the results. Every 12 weeks he would change the working conditions, the changes included:
-Different break periods
-Different refreshments
-Different work layout
Productivity increased with every change, further proving that there was more to motivation than money. When the volunteers reverted back to their first method of production output went up to the highest yet, this was because they were working without breaks so they were producing goods for longer, but they had been motivated and bonded as a team so they were also efficient and hard working.
This type of motivational action would work a lot better than Taylors in today's workplace as friendship at work becomes more and more important to people than it did in Taylors time. People want to enjoy the company they keep at work and if people don't want to let others down they may think twice about calling in sick or leaving the work for somebody else to do, which are all too easy in todays workplace. The fact that productivity increased with every change shows that a constant interest in the workers and a decent treatment of the workers will give its own rewards and that there is certainly more to motivation than pay. The only criticism about Mayo's work is due to the question questioning the relevence to 'todays workplace'. Many of the production and work methods of today do not rely on teamwork and so therefore bonding, as a team is not as desirable for a manager as before.
Mayo concluded from this that:
- Workers gain more satisfaction from their freedom and control over their working enviroment.
- The workers became a team and were motivated to cooperate.
- Expectations of one another and may be influenced more by informal rather that official group leaders.
- Communication between managers and workers and worker-to-worker influences morale and thus ouput.
- Workers are affected by the degree of interest shown in them by management. The influence of this upon motivation is known as the Hawthorne effect.
A man called Eric Berne, who, not directly inspired or referring to the Hawthorne effect, did show that people's morale is influenced to a great degree by the conversations they have. He called this Transactional Analysis, whereby he primarily concentrated on people's actions rather than their psychological proccesses. This has been adapted in many businesses to try and get the best out of the workers by trying to bring out the emotional states best suited to the job the worker needs to do. Berne said that verbal communication; particularly face-to-face is the centre of human social relationships. The figures used to suggest how conversations are made up of more than words are:
-Only 7% of meaning is in the words spoken.
-38% of meaning is paralinguistic (the way the words are said)
-55% of meaning is in facial expression.
What this means from a business point of view is that managers need to be aware, not only of how they talk to the workers but how their body behaves when talking to workers. This is because conciously or unconciously the worker will pick up on this and may become motivated or demotivated by these actions.
Mayo's findings were revolutionary and brought about enormous consequences, not just to businesses but he opened up the field of industrial psychology and scocialogy. The effect it did have on businesses was huge; personnel departments became widespread across the UK and US as managers tried to achive the Hawthorne effect to boost productivity.
The man who took the theory that 'there was more to motivation than money' further was Abraham Maslow. Maslow not only identified that there was more to motivation than money but he also put these motivational needs in a heirarchy.
The heirarchy is demonstrated in the pyramid above. To fully understand the heriarchial structure an explanation of each is needed.
Physiological needs: food, shelter, clothing etc. For most people their efforts will be consumed by filling this need.
Safety/Security: The need for self-preservation, often translates in business terms as job security or the assurance that one will continue to be able to meet one's physiological needs.
Social (Belonging): The need for family and relationships, feeling part of a group.
Esteem: Self-esteem that comes from confidence in mastering a skill, esteem and recognition from others.
Self-actualisation: 'to become everything that one is capable of becoming'
Maslow's work influenced many people such as the theorists that followed him (Herzberg and McGregor) and also influenced people in subjects beyond business such as psychology and sociology. The significant thing about Maslow's work was that he organised and identified which ones were higher needs than the others.
The person to take the theories of more than one motivational factor to the best analytic usefullness is Herzbeg. He concentrates on one of the most underestimatedly important factors of motivation- Job satisfaction, which Maslow, Taylor and Mayo don't even touch upon. Job satifsaction is important because if someone is not satisfied at his or her job, no matter what differs you from everyone else, you will not work to your full potential. Herzberg asked employees what made them feel good about their job and what they didn't like about the job. Herzberg identified 5 factors he named 'the motivators' which stood out as being strong detrminers of job satisfaction. These were revolutionary because they were concerned with the job rather than issues such as pay or status. Herzberg also identified 5 factors, which gave rise to exceptionally bad feelings about their jobs. This again was concentrated on the job itself and the 5 factors were named 'hygiene factors' and concluded that these factors 'surround the job' rather than the job itself. Fulfilment of these factors would cause a loss of dissatisfaction rather than causing positive motivation. A cross between these two factors is known as the 2-factor theory, whereby something such as pay would be a grevience if there was not enough of it, but then it would be taken for granted if there was a sufficient boost.
A list of the motivators identified:
- Achievement
- Recognition for achievement
- Meaningful interesting work
- Responsibility
- Advancement (psychological, not just promotion)
A list of the Hygiene factors:
- Company policy and administratin
- Supervision (especially being Over-supervised)
- Pay
- Interpersonal relations
- Working conditions
Herzberg's other theories and insights are things such as distinguishing between movement and motivation. He says the difference is movement is where the workers do something and motivation is where they do something because they want to do it. Herzberg agrees that money can be used to boost productivity but would not stimulate people to work their best. This theory is the epitomy of Herzberg's take on motivating workers; he knew that it was unrealistic to think that more money makes a boring job satisfying. He knew that workers expect things when they are always given it; this is not to say he thought workers were lazy or greedy, but he knew human nature and how it worked. Herzberg was a very analytic and realistic man you can see this from his quotes and from his work, he didn't expect workers to give their all just because they are getting more money. He didn't mean this in a disrespectful or belittling way to the worker, but if one thinks about it, one realises it is true.
