employee motivation colorado

76 EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION John L. McKeever, Ph.D. Professor of Management Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado Managers are decision makers. They make decisions which establish objectives for their organization. These objectives will provide guidance and direction for other decisions and human behavior in the organization. Managers also make decisions which result in the achievement of their objectives by making the best possible use of their resources in any function and at any level in the organization. The most important resource in all organizations is people because all non-human resources lie fallow until the human element is applied. If the most important resource--people--is to be used in the best possible way to achieve organizational objectives, managers must understand the way people behave in an organization and what must be done to create a work environment which motivates people. To do less will result in a failure to achieve your objectives. The first thing that managers should understand is that people who come to work in an organization bring with them a set of personal goals that must be achieved along with the company's. Some managers have made some very bad mistakes in determining and identifying the goals of people in the organization. They still place too much emphasis on wages or salaries and fringe benefits. Salaries, wages and fringe benefits are people-motivators, but only to a certain extent. In'addition to the economic goals, management must provide non-economic satisfaction if employees are to be motivated to greater efforts and loyalty. This is not to downgrade the importance of salaries or wages and fringe benefits as employee motivators. They are important in the total effort but their importance is dependent on and interrelated with other factors that employees feel are important. Let.us look more closely at the nature of man and the factors that motivate him. To an individual, personal goals are important. Any failure of management to consider his goals "to be important will generate a negative reaction on his part. Therefore, a major responsibility of every manager in the organization is to (1) recognize the goals of subordinates and (2) to coordinate and integrate their goals with the objectives of the organization. What are the goals of employees in the organization? They will differ for each employee depending upon their needs and personali7 ties, but all employees have some common goals. These are a few of the goals that are common to all people. 77 McKeever/2 1. To do a good job. I have never found a person in an organization who did not want to do a good job, but most people do not do as good a job as they are capable of, because they are not motivated to do better. In fact, many employees suffer feelings of guilt and inner conflict because they are not doing the job they are capable of doing. This is not only a terrible waste of resources, it violates the dignity of man. 2. To aspire for something better than they have. All employees in an organization aspire for something that they don't have or that they want more of. Because of a variety of reasons, including personality, health, age, social relationships, sex, motivation and other factors internal and external to the organization, employees aspire for both similar and dissimilar things. Many aspire for promotions and sincerely feel that they can do a better supervisory job than their bosses. Many aspire for a larger salary, wage or fringe benefits. Some aspire for better job assignments while otehrs aspire for better working conditions. The aspirations of people involve short- and long-run time periods, impossible dreams, and achievable goals. People aspire — even in organizations. 3. To achieve recognition. Every now and then employees like a little assurance (1) that the thing they are doing has some relevance in the overall achievement of organization objectives, (2) that they are doing the job that is expected of them and doing it well and (3) that their efforts are appreciated by peers, superiors, and subordinates. One doesn't have to be told very frequently that he is doing well, but an occasional compliment or word of assurance certainly does things for one's ego. Again, the type or form of recognition is dependent upon the individual's personality, ambition, needs, or goals. All too often, employees tell me that the only time they hear how they are doing is when they do something wrong. 4. Social balance and order. Many employees can't fully explain it, but they have goals that pertain to the maintenance of social order and balance in their work environment. Nothing is more upsetting to employees than management decisions that cause social frustrations and anxieties. Decisions to reorganize without thoroughly explaining to employees the effect it will have can be a very frustrating experience. Crisis management "austerity programs" that create anxieties about one's job survival can be very demotivational. Changing the physical environment of offices, departments or placement of desks can create anxiety problems for employees beyond the understanding of most managers. This does not mean that employees are not receptive to change. Quite the contrary, employees look forward to change if they understand the reasons for it or were asked to participate. It is axiomatic that people tend to fear the things they don't understand. 78 McKeever/3 These are a few of the common goals of employees that should be considered by managers when trying to motivate people to make the effort they are capable of. It is a responsibility of managers to assist subordinates in the achievement of their goals and to remove or eliminate obstacles that may prevent the achievement of those goals. Too frequently, managers obstruct goal achievement of subordinates. In addition to helping subordinates achieve personal objectives, the manager should actively and sincerely create a climate that encourages employee motivation. My research has revealed that employees anticipate and expect certain things from their bosses that are necessary to their well-being in the organizational environment. One of the most important expectations of employees is fairness. As important as salaries or fringe benefits, fairness is an expectation that all employees anticipate upon accepting a position with an organization. Without fairness, what sort of an organizational environment would it be? Distrust and suspicion would run rampant. Fairness covers a variety of areas for the employee. He expects fairness in job assignments. In every organizational unit job assignments include work activities that are sought after and those that are less preferable. In addition to less preferable assignments the work loads of some employees may exceed that of others. Employees become aware of any unfair allocation of work assignments and where such practices prevail they create problems. Employees anticipate that they will be considered fairly when promotions become available. This means that managers should update the performance files of subordinates constantly if a fair choice for promotion is to be made from eligible employees. In addition, employees anticipate that salary increments, other rewards and benefits will be given on fair basis. A second factor is honesty. Almost as important as fairness, honesty ranks high in the expectations of employees. Not only do employees expect the truth in answers to questions or problems encountered in the performance of their work, but they expect to be completely informed—to provide only half-truths or partial facts will not be enough. My research placed honesty high in the expectations of employees, and I previously found it difficult to comprehend situations where managers might revert to using lies, half-truths or withhold information. However, a deeper evaluation revealed a myriad of instances and situations where this occurs. In some cases, managers do not maliciously withhold information or relate halftruths but it is done because of other reasons many of which are poorly conceived. No matter what the reason is, once suspicion or a lack of confidence has been instilled in the mind of the employee it is difficult to overcome. Third, employees expect the manager to provide opportunity. Opportunity 79 McKeever/4 takes many forms but generally it reflects the expectations of It employees to improve their lot in life in the organization. provides something for each person to shoot for. It avoids the maintance of status quo while each individual progresses in achieving personal objectives. Opportunity allows each employee to be considered for advancement-technically or manag~rially. Opportunity may involve an increase in salary, a fringe benefit, training for a better job in the organization, or greater security on the job. When opportunity does not exist in an organization, the employee has little to aspire for and little to motivate him to achieve higher goals. Opportunity helps provide the means for the individual to achieve goals or to set higher ones. Fourth, employees expect that their efforts and performance will be recognized by management. Sometimes the recognition that an employee may prefer is a simple pat on the back and a reassuring word that his contribution is appreciated. Some managers stress the point that they recognize and reward employees on the basis of individual merit and contribution. to the achievement of organizational objectives .. Generally, most qualified employees prefer to have their performance evaluated separately and measured against that of others in competition for available rewards. Although these four employee goals and managerial expectations do not exhaust the motivational methods available to managers they do provide some guidance and direction. Demotivated employees are not productive and loyal, and demotivated employees create problems in manpower planning no matter how scientific or rational the planning process is. The greatest waste of resources in our society is the undeveloped potential of demotivated people in an organization. Personal goals in the organizational environment are valuable because they give continuity, consistency and direction to employees. Yet goals are not the end in human behavior--they are the means to the end. Goals have additional meaning and purpose because achieving them will result in the satisfaction of a need. To understand the behavior of humans we must understand the goal/need structure. When we achieve a goal, it will result in the satisfaction of a need. The Need Structure of Employees Individually and collectively we have the same needs, but we may establish and strive for different goals to achieve them. Wherever man exists he has the same set of needs, but he may put different stress upon them. All humans have a physiological need that must be satisfied if they are to survive in their environment. The physiological need is man's physical or basic need. This need is reflected by~n's biological urges or drives that must be satisfied in some 80 McKeever/5 form or another. When we are hungry, we feel the urge to eat. Examples of man's physiological need are hunger, thirst, clothing, shelter, rest, air, and sex. At least the first four are satisfied primarily by money. Unless we grow our own food, weave our own clothing and build our own homes, we are dependent upon others to acquire satisfaction of this need. Few of us are completely selfsufficient in the satisfaction of our physiological needs. In fact, most of us would not survive if we suddenly had to become self-sufficient. We have been trained to be specialists in our professions or jobs and, consequently, dependent upon other specialists to provide our physiological need satisfaction for food, liquids, shelter and clothing. In this society, to acquire the money necessary to satisfy our physiological needs we have many alternatives available to us. Generally we work for salaries or wages, and invest our capital, time and effort to make a profit. Some invest their wealth in stocks, bonds, and real estate for dividends, interest or rents. Some steal or print it while others may marry it. No matter what alternatives you choose, it requires both personal and social effort to satisfy the physiological need. Some are satisfying the physiological need, or certain aspects of it, better than others. When the physiological need is not being satisfied, the individual may not survive. Our physical and social environments put a high premium on individual survival. Throughout the world, physiological need satisfaction is a major problem as pestilence, famine and disease is a fact of life every day to a substantial segment of humans. Man has another need which is really an extension of his physiological need, called the safety need. This is man's need to prevent any threat of deprivation of his physiological need. Since most of us are dependent on salaries, wages or profits during our productive lives to. satisfy the economic aspects of the physiological need, we are constantly aware of the fact that an unfortunate event could deprive us of the money we need. Most of us know that a serious illness or accident may not only eliminate or reduce our wage or salary, but if special medical attention is needed it could use up our savings and leave us in debt. Also, we know that we may be forced into unemployment by layoff or dismissal from our jobs. Furthermore, when we retire, our physiological needs go on, hence the continuing need for money or financial support in some form or another. We satisfy the safety need by buying a multitude of insurance policies on our lives, homes, automobiles arid household furnishings to protect ourselves and others. We try to put aside savings for retirement or to carry us through an emergency period in which our salaries or wages are reduced or eliminated. The government encourages but does not underwrite our safety need entirely through social security, unemployment compensation or workman's compensation. In trying to prevent any deprivation of our physiological need resulting from adversity, we deprive ourselves of many current benefits and 81 McKeever/6 enjoyments happen. in ancitipation of a contingency- which mayor may not In management, the physiological and safety needs combined are ref~rred to as the economic needs of man as money is the basis for their satisfaction. In our society it takes money to buy food, land, homes, clothing, clean water and the insurance policies, annuities and investments so necessary to physiological survival. Because this money need is so easy to identify and its importance is recognized and tested, great emphasis is placed on it as the major motivator of employees. Both managers and union leaders over-emphasize the importance of salaries or wages and fringe benefits as the major factor in controlling and utilizing people in an organization. Unfortunately, understanding human nature in an organization is not as simple as managers would make it by over-stressing the importance of money. Each individual in the organization has needs that must be satisfied that money alone will not achieve. Into the work environment, each employee--manager or non-manager-takes his social need; the need to socialize with others, to be wanted, to be a part of the social environment. Many times in shops, offices, factories and plants, managers discourage socializing between or among employees either by socially isolating them physically or by rules which, if violated, may result in disciplinary action. In most organizations, the coffee break is the way management provides for social need satisfaction where the employee can socialize without suffering guilt feelings. Not only is it impossible for employees to restrict their socializing to 10 or 15 minutes in the morning and afternoon during a coffee break, it is unnatural for them to behave that way. Consequently, employees satisfy their social needs by playing an astonishing number of games that overtly or covertly violate management rules about socializing in the job. In fact, some of the most creative things employees do are those that satisfy their social needs. Employees care little that it violates rules and makes them vulnerable to disciplinary action. In addition to his physiological, safety and social needs, employees have a psychological need that must be satisfied in their work environment, the ego need. The ego need is composed of two parts. One is introspective as man looks inward to acquire a feeling of self-esteem, pride or inner satisfaction. Unless the employee can feel an inner sense of pride about his employer or the job he does, he may be demotivated. The other-part is extrospective and is concerned with the way a person wants others to view him, his reputation. To satisfy this need we do many things to get a good reputation, including the acquiring status symbols to help establish that reputation. Sometimes the reputation we hope to achieve is not the way they may view us. It is not unusual for people to formulate opinions of others -- individually or collectively -- that may be mistaken. Yet whether good, bad or indifferent we all formulate opinions and ideas about the reputations and personalities of others around us. 82 McKeever/7 Success -- financial or otherwise -- in the organization often is dependent upon the reputation that we establish. How others view us is important to our future. To enhance our reputations, we strive to acquire the symbols of status that are provided at various levels of management. In most organizations you can identify the status of each management level by symbols such as reserved parking spaces, titles, size of offices, placement of offices (the number of windows often is an important factor along with floor location), rugs on the floor, a secretary or number of secretaries and composition of office furniture (metal, mahogany, etc.), to name a few. These status symbols are goals for an aspiring manager and achieving them satisfies both aspects of the ego need. Probably no other need is more abused in an organization than the ego need. By not giving compliments for a job well done, treating mature employees as children, or not being fair, equitable and honest with employees, ego needs are dissatisfied and bruised. There are many things that owners and managers can do to satisfy the ego needs of employees that they are not doing at present. Finally, man has a creative need, sometimes referred to as selfactualization. Basically, this reflects man's desire to be creative ranging from doing his best in whatever he is doing in the organization to performing in a highly creative or innovative manner. This need is affected by many factors, including the formal training that a person receives in the organization that may contribute to his creative ability. It may also relate to the type of monotonous routine that management requires people to perform. Every employee in an organization has a creative need which must be satisfied. The extent to which he satisfies this need is very dependent upon how well management can create a challenging environment and whether it provides training to add breadth and depth to the employees' objectives. Management can create an environment that motivates employees to be creative. The alternatives to a highly innovative environment is one that is devoid of challenge, competition and recognition. These are the needs of man and are the same wherever or whenever you find him. He may stress the five needs differently, but they are all present and demand satisfaction. In the needs of man we find an explanation for human behavior. When employees -- managers or non-managers, male or female, skilled or unskilled -- accept jobs or positions in organizations it is not enough that management ask for a "fair day's work for a fair day's pay." To put man into such a simplified situation, exacting a unit of energy for a dollar is to relegate him to a role he cannot play. Man is infinitely more complicated than a piece of machinery and cannot be turned on or off by a paycheck and a few fringe benefits. Employees have needs of a non-monetary nature that must be satisfied, at least partially, in the organization. Man will seek to satisfy his non-monetary, social, ego and creative needs in the work environment 83 McKeever/8 in his own way if management does not provide for them. If managers do not understand the things that motivate the employee to behave as he does, conflict will probably result. Management should attempt to provide objectives, direction and guidance to employees as they strive to satisfy non-monetary needs. If management emphasizes the economic man concept, the physical efforts, imagination and creativeness of the employee will certainly be directed toward non-productive work effort. The effort of an individual in seeking need satisfactions of social, ego and cre?tive natures in a job that does not provide for it, or even recognize it, generally is counter-productive. When an number of employees join efforts to achieve non-monetary need satisfaction that is not provided for, production may be reduced to a fraction of the group's fullest work potential. Management should evaluate its philosophies and attitudes toward employees in terms of how they affect the work climate. Management should establish a work environment that is conducive to opportunity, fairness, honesty, respect and dignity.