Motivation is a key factor for business as it is often recognised that well-motivated employees are more productive and produce better quality work. The way managers motivate people has significantly changed over the last few years

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

MANAGING AND LEADING PEOPLE

MANGING FOR RESULTS

Subject: Employees contributions can no longer be extracted by shame, guilt and fear, it has to be offered. Issues about motivation and commitment are critical. Yet many of the levers which managers have relied on to motivate employees are increasingly unreliable.

Critically evaluate this view in the light of examples from your experience of a work organisation.

CONCLUSION

Introduction

Motivation can be defined as “a decision making process, through which the individual chooses the desired outcomes and sets in motion and behaviour appropriate to them” (Buchanan 2004.). Motivation is a key factor for business as it is often recognised that well-motivated employees are more productive and produce better quality work. The way managers motivate people has significantly changed over the last few years. Employees’ contribution used to be extracted by shame, guilt and fear and these factors used to be an effective mean to motivate people.

However, few questions subsist: do organisations still rely on fear, shame and guilt nowadays? Are these factors reliable? What are the risks inherent to such practice for organisations? Can these levers reflect good practice?

In the first part, we will look at the evolution of the working relationship and determine whether or not organisations still use fear, guilt and shame in practice today.

In the second part, we will see that, if used appropriately, these levers can effectively motivate. Finally, the concept of the psychological contract will be assessed.

Factors governing the working relationship

The evolution of the working relationship

The relationship between employer and employee is a key factor and has a direct impact on motivation. For a long time this relationship has been governed by feelings such as guilt or shame. Fifty years ago, the labour market was different and people were scared to lose their jobs because unemployment was high. People we also influenced by the “job for life” culture and were reluctant to change. Managers could motivate people and ensure that they were productive by making them feel guilty or by threatening them.

McGregor’s theory X (1960) refers to the use of feelings like shame or fear in practice. According to McGregor, people are inherently bad and his theory reflects the “carrot and stick” philosophy combining punishment and reward. Before the human rights and employment law were less protective and employees were scared to be dismissed if they refused to work long hours or to work without breaks. Managers were relying on the fact that employees were living in the fear of being dismissed to motivate them and ensure that they were productive.

If we look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory (1943) we realise that in the past people only needed to fulfil their biological and safety needs to feel motivated. People were looking for job security and enough money to live and support their families. The fear of not being able to fulfil basic needs were not allowing employees to look for more such as love needs, esteem needs and self actualisation. Nowadays, employees consider that satisfaction of basic needs has to be offered by employers and will only be motivated and committed to their roles if they can satisfy their esteem and self actualisation needs. This reinforces the theory developed by Frederick Herzberg (1987) based on the idea that only self-actualisation and esteem needs act as a motivator and that improvement in the hygiene factors (i.e. pay, company policies…) will remove dissatisfaction rather than motivate people.

In my company, we recently came across an employee who was happy with her pay, knew that her position was not at risk, had good relationship with her team but was looking for a more challenging role in order to grow and develop her skills. We had to offer her job enlargement by giving her extra responsibilities in training new hires in order to satisfy her esteem and self actualisation needs and ensure that she is motivated and she produces quality work.

Nowadays, some organisations deliberately try to create an environment where people feel ashamed or frightened not to ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Nowadays, some organisations deliberately try to create an environment where people feel ashamed or frightened not to achieve the company objectives. I used to work as a recruitment consultant and I had sales targets to achieve. If you reach your targets you get a reward (often commissions) but if you do not achieve them you start feeling pressured. The sales figures are reported on a board which quickly can create feelings such as fear, guilt and shame. When I was not able to achieve the set targets I used to feel ashamed because other people could see my results on the board and tease me. I was also feeling guilty of not working hard enough or being good enough to achieve what I was paid for and was scared to be dismissed. Fear, shame and guilt are often used by large organisations especially by investment banks and financial institutions where targets and expectations are high.

Risks inherent to the use of shame, fear and guilt as motivators

Many organisations still subscribe to the belief that fear, shame and guilt can motivate people. The way these levers are used (i.e. to make the employees feel frightened, ashamed and guilty) are seen as reflecting bad practice and may bring organisations at risk by developing bad morale and increasing stress and turnover. Using fear, guilt and shame will create a negative attitude towards the workers, lead to burnout, encourage conflicts between managers and employees and reduce creativity and overall performance. People will feel pressured, scared to innovate and will eventually leave. The change in the labour market and the development of Human Rights and Employment Law also represent a significant barrier and make factors such as fear, shame and guilt increasingly unreliable as people have now more opportunities, and are not afraid to leave their jobs if they are not satisfied.

Good Practice and psychological contract

How to effectively use fear, shame and guilt in practice

Managers can increase productivity and create a competitive advantage by implementing a certain amount of fear within the workplace. As mentioned above, fear, shame and guilt often reflect bad practice. However fear can be a great motivator because it motivates every aspect of our lives and is part of the human nature. There was fear of parents and teachers, fear of not graduating. Fear is present in all important moments of our lives. To make fear, guilt and shame act as motivators managers need to make sure that the consequences are meaningful. Managers have to explain clearly what they expect from their team members. When goals are clearly laid out and agreed then managers can use fear only when employees do not meet these expectations.

My company is using SMART targets. Each employee receives objectives and goals which are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely. For example one of my SMART targets is to ensure that, this year, 80% of the roles are filled within 3 months. This goal is specific, easily measurable, achievable and realistic as I am working on a fair amount of roles and my target is 80%. Our sales team has SMART targets which have been discussed and agreed directly with their line managers. Except exceptional circumstances, employees should be able to achieve the set targets by the time agreed. Only when one objective is not achieved the managers can use fear, guilt and shame to motivate employees and force them to be more productive. In my company, we have a performance related incentive scheme. If an employee does not achieve his SMART target, his bonus will be impacted. There is consequently a feeling of fear not to get bonus and of shame to be rated “unacceptable” or “needs improvement”.

I believe using fear, shame and guilt in the way described above to motivate people reflect good practice. It can help an organisation to increase productivity and improve motivation and morale because people know what is expecting from them and are motivated to succeed as they know that the goals are realistic and achievable.

However, it may only work for certain people and at a certain time. It will work only for people who have a competitive spirit and are committed to their organisation and job.

The psychological contract

The change in labour market has forced the organisations to look at different criteria to determine how to best motivate people. We talked earlier about the way managers used to rely on factors such as fear, guilt and shame to motivate employees and how these factors can either reflect bad or good practice. However, in my opinion, it is essential to look at each individual and to set up an environment for each employee in order to effectively motivate them.

One of the possible ways for managers to motivate people, and in my opinion the most reliable way, is to use what is known as the “psychological contract”, which can be defined as “an implicit set of obligations and expectations, concerning what the individual and the organisation expect to give to and receive from each other.” (Buchanan 2004)

Research into the psychological contract (Neil Conway, 2004) identified unspoken promises, expectations which may govern the employment relationship. For instance, the employee promises to work hard and the organisation promises to pay a salary which is commensurate with performance or the employee promises to develop new skills and update old ones and the organisation promises to provide training and development resources. If we apply this concept to the working relationship between an employer and an employee fifty years ago we can see that it was mainly based on fear and shame. The employee promises to work extra hours and the employer promises not to dismiss him. However, as mentioned above the working relationship between employee and employer has changed and employees are expecting more from their employers. The new opportunities in the labour market and the constant search of more flexibility and better life balance have forced the organisations to adapt and to tailor motivation to each employee.

The concept of psychological contract enables managers to match employees’ expectations with constant change in work environment and employees personal situation. For example, an introvert person will have different expectations as oppose to an extravert employee. Introvert will look for stability, tasks similarity whereas extravert will look for team building activities, diversity. Managers should rely on what people are expecting from their work to motivate them. If a manager is able to fulfil his staff expectations then there is a high chance that people will be motivated and committed to be productive and to produce better quality work.

In my company, we tried to harmonise our bonus scheme across our group and to offer a performance related bonus to all staff in order to motivate them. The idea has been largely encouraged and seen as a good motivator by English and German staff but has been totally disapproved by the French offices. The differences in culture did not help and it was hard for our managers to understand that this bonus scheme was acting more as a “demotivator” for our French staff rather than a motivator. For them it was a way to check their work, to judge them and it did not have the effect that we were expecting. This proves how important it is for managers to understand people. They cannot rely only on theories and apply the same motivators for everyone.

Breach of psychological contract leads to a breach of trust and may have damaging consequences for both the employee and the organisation such as low job satisfaction, poor performance. However, it still appears to be the best and most reliable way for managers to motivate their people as it takes into account the complexity of the human nature.

Conclusion

To summarise, there is no simple answer to the question on how to motivate people. Managers used to rely on shame or guilt of people and some organisations are still using these factors as motivators. The way these levers are used often reflect bad practice, gives a very negative image of the company and is also increasingly unreliable due to the change in the labour market and culture. Employees are not scared anymore to lose their jobs and will always look for more flexibility and for a better life balance. The development of Human Rights, the tendency of the Employment legislation to be more and more protective for employees and the possibility for people to benefit from Government support with concepts such as Employee Benefits or Job Seekers Allowance do not allow anymore managers to extract employees contributions by fear, shame and guilt. Exceptions exist and these factors can help to produce better quality work and increase productivity but only if used appropriately. It is very hard in practice to draw the line between bad and good practice and there is always a risk if organisation uses these factors to create bad morale, increase stress, turnover and reduce overall performance. In my opinion the most effective way to motivate people is to tailor motivation to each employee. It is essential for organisation to understand and take into account the complexity of the human nature before implementing a motivation strategy.

(2130 words excluding table and bibliography)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

TEXTBOOKS:

Buchanan D & Huczynski A (2004), Organisational Behaviour, Penctice Hall

Mullins L J (2005), Management & Organisational Behaviour, Pitman

ARTICLES & JOURNALS:

A.H. Maslov, A Theory of Human Motivation, Psychological Review 50 (1943):370- 96

CIPD, (2004), “Managing the psychological contract”,

Conway, Neil & Briner, Rob B. Understanding Psychological Contracts at Work: A Critical Evaluation of Theory and Research. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, (2005)

Conway Neil “promises, promises”, People Management, Vol 10 n23, 25 November 2004, pp42-3

Guest, David E. Is the psychological contract worth taking seriously? Journal of Organizational Behavior, 19: 649-664 (1998)

Herzberg, F.I. 1987, 'One more time: How do you motivate employees?', Harvard

Business Review, Sep/Oct87, Vol. 65 Issue 5, p109-120

WEBSITES:

CIPD Website ()

Assignment Reflective Statement

Name: Emmanuelle Alcaraz

Group: Post Graduate Diploma in HRM

Date: 02 December 2007

Assignment title: Motivation (Managing and leading people, managing for results)

This assignment was a good way to learn more about the different theories of motivation and the evolution of this concept in practice. I was able to use my work experience and see how we motivate people in my organisation.

My approach was to do a maximum of readings in order to be able to understand the concept of motivation. I then tried to summarise my ideas in order to answer the subject. I planned my essay around my work and availability and I tried to follow my schedule in order to be able to hand in my essay on time. It requires time and energy to find the right balance between work and study but I believe that my studies do not impact the quality of my work. I have asked few of my colleagues in HR and other departments to give me their understanding of motivation and I asked few people what motivate them and what their organisations do to motivate them. This helped me to analyse the question and to focus on the subject. Motivation is an important and complex concept and the challenge was to make sure that I answer the subject rather than talking generally about motivation.

I do not think that I would do anything differently except maybe starting to identify the subject first before starting my readings. This will allow me to focus on key words and concepts and to relate them better to the subject.

I can use my learning from this assignment at work where motivation and retention are currently one of our main challenges.

In terms of needs and development I guess that I need to do more readings in order to get some more knowledge and develop my written skills. English is not my first language and readings are essential for me in order to learn technical words and be able to use them in practice.