Motivation in work management

Résumé du document

In 1966, Leavitt said: "Motivation is so much in the spotlight these days that some of us have come to believe motivation is management." This quotation proves that motivation has been a very important notion and has been taken into account by firms for a long time. What does motivation really means? The term motivation derives from the Latin word: movere which means to move. Thus motivation for us refers first to: "what energizes human behaviour, what directs or channels such behaviour"1 and "how this behaviour is maintained or sustained"1. Thus there is implicitly the notion of a goal that drives our strengths; indeed their behaviour is oriented towards something. Thus, motivation has been a concern for management in enterprises for a long time. In the first two decades of the twentieth century, motivation concerns were studied by engineers, as the famous Taylor for example. Their theory was that motivation was money driven.

Extraits

[...] So motivation is now considered as a main question in most firms. So now we can wonder if wonder is as important as motivation. Work remains very important to individuals for different reasons[2]. First it refers to a notion of reciprocity or exchange, then work generally fulfils several social functions (it enables us to meet new people), besides a job provides a status in the social life and eventually work has a significant personal meaning for individual: it provides self-esteem for instance. [...]

[...] But motivation is also considered as a means to increase the efficiency of the company. B. Sievers points out that, theories do not take into account that workers can motivate themselves. He accuses these theories to be an economic and administrative means to increase performance within the firm. His main argument is that behind these attempts to theorize motivation, the subject is fragmented, compartmentalised and classified. The subject is not considered as an entity, as it should be studied. B. [...]

[...] Mayo, who is part of the human relations school, encourages the development of good human relations as a means to increase the motivation of workers. To E. Mayo, people are motivated by personal sentiments and emotions. Although motivation seems to be taken into consideration by HRM practices, there is also a kind of hypocrisy. There is some hypocrisy in the so called importance of motivation, indeed, Sievers emphasizes that motivation is especially a surrogate of meaning, and besides with the current homogenisation of jobs motivation decreases. Sievers accuses managers of being hypocrite with their so-called concerns of motivation. [...]

[...] Self-actualisation is a part of soft-capitalism's mentality. Thus, motivation is a significant aspect of our modern society that is why it is taken into consideration by HRM practices. Nowadays, corporate identity is very important as well and many companies have tried to increase this corporate identity. For example the firm google has rebuilt its premises entirely in order to make the employees feel at ease. Furthermore, employees will be proud to work for so modern a company, and a proud worker is an employee with a higher motivation. [...]

[...] Besides, with the homogenisation of works, it is getting difficult to motivate employees. Eventually, it must not be forgotten that motivation concerns become different. Thus, some firms consider that customers' motivation is now more important than employees' motivation, and their main goal is to attract a high number of customers instead of producing good products. One can also wonder if now spirituality and common leadership are not becoming the main motivation factors of tomorrow's workforce. Bibliography - A.Maslow: Motivation and personality. Chapter 11. - R. Cooper: In the realm of organisation. [...]