Motivation

Leaders have always been aware that motivational aspects are increasingly important in modern management. Motivation is a key means of ensuring the best usage of mobilization of available human resources. The most important aim of the factor of motivation is to obtain the maximum advantage from the usage of accessible human resources, which allows improving the overall performance and profitability of the enterprise. A special feature of personnel management during the transition to the market is the growing role of the personality of the employee. Accordingly, the ratio of motives and needs changes, which a system of motivation can rely on. These days, managers of the company use both financial and non-financial methods of remuneration for motivation of employees. Meanwhile, neither the theory of management nor the personnel management practice gives a definite picture of the relationship between certain aspects of the motivational sphere of employees and the most effective management techniques. Nowadays, the problem of motivation of the personnel is widely viewed in the scientific and journalistic literature. However, any attempts to adapt the classical theories of motivation to modernity are not systematized. This fact hinders the practical use of technologies and methods of motivation. The complexity of the practical organization of the system of personnel motivation is also defined by the insufficient study of the features of motivation of workers in certain sectors and types of production. The relevance of the problem is caused by the fact that the transition to a socially oriented market requires the establishment of an adequate mechanism of labor motivation. Without it, the objective conditions for increasing the efficiency of production – the basis of the growth of real incomes and living standards – cannot be seen in practice. In this case, the organization is the final point of the implementation of all reforms where there is a direct connection of the workforce with the means of production and the work process is implemented. The recognition of the decisive role of the motivational mechanism in the conditions of the reforms makes the appeal to the subject of motivation especially important. The purpose of the paper is to study theoretical bases of motivation.

The Notion of Motivation

All human activities are caused by actually existing needs. People want either to achieve something or to avoid something. In the narrow sense of the word, motivated activities are free actions caused by internal motives of a person aimed at achieving the objectives and implementation of interest. In the motivated activity, an employee determines the extent of actions depending on internal motivation and external conditions.

There are many motivational tendencies that constitute the concept of motivation and that, to some extent, are peculiar to every person. Unfortunately, a clear and universally accepted definition of motivation does not exist. Different authors give the definition of motivation based on their point of view. For example, the authors define motivation as the inducement to active work of individuals, teams, and groups associated with the desire to meet the specific needs. However, all the definitions of motivation are similar in one aspect – motivation is an active driving force that determines the behavior of people. Motivation is a process of human exposure to urge him/her to concrete actions by encouraging a person to certain motifs.

The motivation of labor is a desire of the employee to meet the needs and get certain benefits through employment. The structure of the labor motive includes a need that the employee wants to meet, good that is able to meet this need, labor action required to obtain the benefits, and price – cost of the material and moral nature related to the implementation of labor action.

The manifestation of perseverance in the continuation and development of work started is an extremely important feature. The lack of persistence can lead to a reduction in efforts and performance of tasks at a lower level compared with the possibilities. An employee sometimes is able to put forward good ideas and do nothing for their implementation. It means missed opportunities for the organization.

Honesty in the performance means the responsibility of the implementation of the work with all the necessary requirements. For many tasks, it is the main condition for their successful implementation. An employee may have a high qualification and extensive knowledge. He/she may be a creator and work hard. Nevertheless, at the same time, an employee can treat the duties irresponsibly. This fact nullifies all positive aspects in the employee’s activities.

The focus on results as a feature of the activity of the concrete person demonstrates what he/she seeks to implement by specific actions. A man is able to do the job because it brings him/her satisfaction (moral or material). However, a person can also do it because he/she seeks to help a company achieve its goals. For managing, it is important to assess the correct course of action of the employees. However, it is equally important to be able to direct these actions to the realization of certain objectives with the help of motivation. The concept of motivation as a set of forces that motivate a person to implement activities with the expenditure of certain efforts, at a particular level of diligence and honesty, with the necessary degree of perseverance to achieve certain objectives becomes obvious.

It should be noted that human behavior is always motivated. To motivate employees means to affect their vital interests and needs. Violations of motivation can have several causes, which are rooted in interpersonal conflicts among employees. Exemplary companies achieving significant results in encouraging the tens and even hundreds of people to devotion to work and having a tendency to constant innovation show that there are no reasons why it is impossible to create a system to allow the majority of the staff to feel like winners.

The motive is always associated with a particular situation. Studies show that the ratio of activity of a person and the results of work are characterized by a curve. Initially, with the growth of activities, results increase. Later, results are on the same level at a certain level of the activity. This stage is referred as an optimal range of activity when the best results are achieved. Once the activity starts to exceed the boundary of the optimal range, the results of work begin to deteriorate. It follows that the manager is designed to achieve not the maximum activity of subordinates but the growth of their activity to the optimum level.

It should be noted that the activity does not provide the necessary motivation. A person can work diligently and be active. However, there could not be positive results if he/she forwards the activities in the wrong direction. Such a situation arises when the employee does not represent the final purposes of the work. The reason may be the lack of knowledge, the lack of control, or poor management of the activities. Due to the incorrect orientation of work, there can also be a conflict between human needs and collective goals.

The motif appears as a cause, a reason, and an objective need to do something, the inducement to any action. Creation and maintenance of motivation is a hard process as active motifs are transformed depending on the characteristics of workers, tasks assigned, and time. Nevertheless, there are general principles of formation and preservation of the motivation, and the manager is called to look for the motivation of staff at work attractiveness and creativity of its character.

Human behavior is usually defined not by one motive but their sum, in which they are in a specific relation to each other at the level of human interaction. Hence, the motivational structure of the individual is the basis for the implementation of certain actions into practice. The motivational structure is characterized by certain stability. Nevertheless, at the same time, it is able to change including intentionally depending on the person’s upbringing, education, and other factors.

Methods of Staff Motivation

The motivation of staff is one of the key problems of management. Sooner or later, business leaders wonder how to motivate employees to effectively fulfill their responsibilities. Motivation is not a set of common rules. There are different methods for each individual. Therefore, the main task of the leader is to find what is important to a particular employee.

Methods of staff motivation can be extremely diverse and depend on the elaboration of motivation system in the enterprise, the overall control system, and characteristics of the activities of the company. There are several methods of effective motivation of labor behavior. Their effectiveness depends on different types of people. There are the following methods of motivation:

The most common form (method) of material motivation is an individual award. It is advisable to pay it once a year. Otherwise, it will turn into wages and lose its motivating role. It is recommended to determine in advance the percentage of the premium following the results of the year and edit it according to the employee’s achievements. As a rule, the size of the premium should be at least 30% of the basic salary. In addition, the premium should be 10-30% at the lower level of management, at the middle level – 10-40%, and at the highest – 15-50%. Systems of material incentives should be simple and clear to every employee. They should be flexible making it possible to immediately encourage every positive result. Dimensions of incentives must be economically and psychologically justified. Systems of incentives should generate a sense of justice of material rewards in workers and help increase the interest of employees in improving not only individual work but also work on the “business relations” with other employees. Employees need to see a clear correlation between the results.

The efficiency of bonuses is largely determined by the accuracy of the choice of indicators, their differentiation depending on the role and nature of the departments, the level positions, a focus on the real contribution and outcomes, and flexibility of criteria for assessing employee’s achievements. Satisfaction with the financial reward and its fair level motivates the initiative of staff members, provides them with the organization’s commitment, and attracts new employees.

As it was already noted, in addition to economic (material) means of motivation, there are non-economic such as organizational and morally-psychological. Organizational methods of motivation include participation in the affairs of the organization, the prospect to acquire new knowledge and skills, and enrichment of the content of labor including the provision of more interesting work with the prospects of official and professional growth.

Morally-psychological methods of motivation include the creation of conditions conducive to the formation of professional pride and personal responsibility for the work, the presence of the call providing opportunities to express an employee at work, and the atmosphere of mutual respect and trust. Another morally-psychological method is recognition of employees such as valuable prizes, diplomas, breast signs, honorary titles, and others. One important method of motivation is a voice. In fact, scholars have argued that given the challenging and change-oriented nature of voice, employees’ motivation to exercise individual control over their work environment might be particularly relevant to explaining it. A peculiar complex method of motivation is the promotion of the position. However, this method is intrinsically limited. It is associated with several reasons. Firstly, in the organization, the number of high-rank positions is limited. Secondly, the promotion requires increased costs on training.

In the management practice, different methods and their combinations are usually simultaneously applied. For effective management of motivation, all three groups of methods should be used in enterprise management. It is associated with the fact that the usage of only material motivations does not allow mobilizing the creative activity of staff to achieve organizational goals. To achieve maximum efficiency, it is necessary to use spiritual motivation.

The main task of the leader is to find the right balance of material and moral motivation of staff. For example, if there is an abuse of material motivation, a person in some time “settles” in the niche and it becomes highly difficult to motivate to work better. After reaching a certain “saturation threshold”, which is individual for every person, a further increase in monetary remuneration does not lead to the increase in the effectiveness of work. Therefore, non-financial motivation techniques, the ones that can be valuable and interesting to a person, are extremely important.

In modern society, motivation is based on knowledge and tools of psychology. Economic models of incentives in employment relationships are based on specific theories of motivation. Various theories of motivation are divided into two categories: substantial and procedural. Substantial theories of motivation are based on the identification of those internal motives that cause people to act in a certain way. More modern procedural theories of motivation are based primarily on how people behave in accordance with their perception and cognition. Basic procedural theories are Vroom’s theory, the theory of justice, and the model of motivation of Porter-Lawler. Modern substantial theories of motivation are focusing on the definition of the list and the structure of people’s needs. Procedural theories of motivation are considered the most modern. They also recognize the role of motivating needs. However, the very motivation is considered from the point of what causes a person to guide efforts to achieve various goals.

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Created on Jul 16th 2020 02:12. Viewed 397 times.

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