An evaluation of the role played by salary and by non-financial incentives in promoting motivation in middle managers

Résumé du document

As motivation influences productivity, managers need to understand what motivates employees to reach peak performance. They need to provide the right organizational climate to ensure that their employees can see that by working towards the organizational goals they are also achieving some of their own goals. These goals could be material as financial rewards or personal rewards or non-materialistic aspects such as the respect of their colleagues or job satisfaction or a combination of any number of things that the employee considers to be important. It is no good giving someone a pay rise if they are dissatisfied with the job and they do not see money as a very important factor in their working life. It is not an easy task to increase employee motivation because employees respond in different ways to their jobs and their organization's practices. Motivation is "driving force within individuals" (Mullins, 2002), and the manager (motivator) should influence factors that motivate employees to gain higher levels of productivity.

Extraits

[...] All the companies do not motivate their employees the same way. Some companies do not hesitate to motivate their employees by proposing new services to facilitate the life of their employees as the day-nurseries, or fitness center. Others not knowing how to proceed try risky methods by playing mainly on "the magic carrot or others who don't have this philosophy and neglect completely the motivational aspect. Consequently there is no applicable method in all the companies and for all the employees. [...]

[...] An evaluation of the role played by salary and by non-financial incentives in promoting motivation in middle managers Table of contents Introduction I. The fundamentals theories The classic theory of F. Taylor Theories of needs A. Maslow Alderfer Herzberg II. Motivational strategies Extrinsic motivation Intrinsic motivation Conclusion Appendix Bibliography Introduction Since motivation influences productivity, managers need to understand what motivates employees to reach peak performance and they need to provide the right organizational climate to ensure that their employees can see that by working towards the organizational goals they are also achieving some of their own goals. [...]

[...] As a result workers are encouraged to work hard and maximize their productivity. Taylor's methods were widely adopted as businesses saw the benefits of increased productivity levels and lower unit costs. The most notably advocate was Henry Ford who used them to design the first ever production line, making Ford cars. This was the start of the era of mass production. Taylor's approach has close links with the concept of an autocratic management style (managers take all the decisions and simply give orders to those below them) and Macgregor's Theory X approach to workers (workers are viewed as lazy and wish to avoid responsibility). [...]

[...] Consequently they come up to you with respect because you are the boss. Executives have to try to respect also their employees and give them self esteem and self respect in their work, let them work on their own and let them bring up their own ideas. In some companies there is the award for the employee of the month and through this people get more respect and self esteem. If you once won the price of the employee of the month you are perhaps motivated to win it again and again. [...]

[...] Though the monetary incentives have a better effect than the monetary incentives in the short run, they fail miserably in the long run and in extreme situations downfall of the company (when employees start anticipating monetary incentives even for routine jobs and in absence of which they start working inefficiently or go on a strike as in the case of some government employees). Also most of the non-monetary incentives are intrinsic in nature. Intrinsic motivation is more effective as the impetus to work is from within. Employees are working because they feel satisfied or fulfilled by the activity they undertake. [...]