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Unit 6: Motivating Workers

 Why people work?


People work to earn money and fulfil their basic necessities and wants. But there are several
other reasons for work as well.
Motivation is the reason why employees want to work hard and work effectively for the
business.
Money is the main motivator, as explained above. Other factors that may motivate a person
to choose to do a particular job may include:
 Social needs (need to communicate and work with others)
 Esteem needs (to feel important, worthwhile)
 Job satisfaction (to enjoy good work)
 Security (knowing that your job and pay are secure- that you will not lose your job).

Why motivate workers? Why do firms go to the pain of making sure their workers are
motivated?
When workers are well-motivated they become highly productive and effective in their work
and thus increases the firm’s efficiency and output, leading to higher profits. For example, in
the service sector, if the employee is unhappy at his work, he may act lazy and rude to
customers, leading to low customer satisfaction, more complaints and ultimately a bad
reputation and low profits.

 Motivation Theories
People work very hard when they are working for themselves. When they work for other
people, less so. Managers have been looking into what makes employees contribute their
fullest to the company and these studies have resulted three main theories of motivation
which are as follows:
1. F. W. Taylor
Frederick Taylor was working as a labourer in a factory in America during the 1880s. He
wanted to be a chief engineer and during those days, he carried out experiments at the steel
company to increase labour productivity.
Taylor based his ideas on the assumption that workers were motivated by personal gains,
mainly money and that increasing pay would increase productivity (amount of output
produced). Therefore he proposed the piece-rate system, whereby workers get paid for the
number of output they produce. So in order, to gain more money, workers would produce
more.
However, this theory is not entirely true. There are various other motivators in the modern
workplace, some even more important than money. The piece rate system is not very practical

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in situations where output cannot be measured (service industries) and also will lead to (high)
output that doesn’t guarantee high quality.

Note: According to Taylor, workers are motivated only by money. The only motivating
factor is money, the more a worker works, and the more he is paid.

2. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs


Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs shows that employees are motivated by each level of
the hierarchy going from bottom to top. Mangers can identify which level their workers are
on and then take the necessary action to advance them onto the next level.

Businesses realize that the more levels of motivation are available to workers, the harder they
will work. Maslow also suggest that each level of motivation must be achieved before going
to the next level. Once one level of motivation is met, more of that will no longer motivate
the employee.
One limitation of this theory is that it doesn’t apply to every worker. For some employees,
for example, social needs aren’t important but they would be motivated by recognition and
appreciation for their work from seniors.

3. Herzberg – Two factors theory


Herzberg: Frederick Herzberg’s two-factor theory, wherein he states that people have two
sets of needs- one basic animal needs called ‘hygiene factors’, the other needs that allow the
human being to grow psychologically, called the ‘motivators’.

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Herzberg -
Two Set
Theory

Hygiene
Factors(Job Motivators(Job
Dissatisafactio Satisfaction)
n)

Status Achievement
Security Recognition
Working Conditions Personal
Salary Growth
Relationship with Promotion
Supervisors
Work itself

According to Herzberg, the hygiene factors need to be satisfied, if not they will act as de-
motivators to the workers. However hygiene factors don’t act as motivators as their effect
quickly wear off. Motivators will truly motivate workers to work more effectively.

 Motivating Factors
There are three motivating factors used by managers are:
i. Financial Motivators
Pay is the main reason for people to work. The main form of financial reward is pay(money)
which can be in the following form:
Wages: often paid weekly. They can be calculated in two ways:
o Time-Rate: pay based on the number of hours worked. Although output may increase,
it doesn’t mean that workers will work sincerely use the time to produce more- they
may simply waste time on very few output since their pay is based only on how long
they work. The productive and unproductive worker will get paid the same amount,
irrespective of their output.
o Piece-Rate: pay based on the number of output produced. Same as time-rate, this
doesn’t ensure that quality output is produced. Thus, efficient workers may feel
demotivated as they’re getting the same pay as inefficient workers, despite their
efficiency.
Salary: paid monthly or annually. Salaries are usually a standard rate but workers may get
more money if the following rewards are added to the basic salary which are as follows:
o Commission: paid to salesperson, based on a percentage of sales they’ve made. The
higher the sales, the more the pay. Although this will encourage salespersons to sell
more products and increase profits, it can be very stressful for them because no sales
made means no pay at all.
o Bonus: additional amount paid to workers for good work
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o Performance-related pay: paid based on performance. An appraisal (assessing the
effectiveness of an employee by senior management through interviews,
observations, comments from colleagues etc) is used to measure this performance and
a pay is given based on this.
o Profit-sharing: a scheme whereby a proportion of the company’s profits is distributed
to workers. Workers will be motivated to work better so that a higher profit is made.
o Share ownership: shares in the firm are given to employees so that they can become
part owners of the company. This will increase employees’ loyalty to the company,
as they feel a sense of belongingness.

ii. Non-Financial Motivators


Fringe benefits are non-financial rewards given to employees
 Company vehicle/car
 Free healthcare
 Children’s education fees paid for
 Free accommodation
 Free holidays/trips
 Discounts on the firm’s products

iii. By providing job satisfaction


Job Satisfaction is the enjoyment derived from the feeling that you’ve done a good job.
Employees have different ideas about what motivates them- it could be
 pay,
 promotional opportunities,
 team involvement
 relationship with superiors
 level of responsibility
 chances for training
 the working hours
 status of the job etc.
So, how can companies ensure that they’re workers are satisfied with the job, other than the
motivators mentioned above? These are as follows:
 Job Rotation
It involves workers swapping around jobs and doing each specific task for only a limited
time and then changing round again. This increases the variety in the work itself and will
also make it easier for managers to move around workers to do other jobs if somebody is ill
or absent. The tasks themselves are not made more interesting, but the switching of tasks
may avoid boredom among workers. This is very common in factories with a huge production
line where workers will move from retrieving products from the machine to labelling the
products to packing the products to putting the products into huge cartons.

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 Job Enlargement
It is where extra tasks of similar level of work are added to a worker’s job description. These
extra tasks will not add greater responsibility or work for the employee, but make work more
interesting. E.g.: a worker hired to stock shelves will now, as a result of job enlargement,
arrange stock on shelves, label stock, fetch stock etc.
 Job Enrichment
It involves adding tasks that require more skill and responsibility to a job. This gives
employees a sense of trust from senior management and motivate them to carry out the extra
tasks effectively. Some additional training may also be given to the employee to do so. Eg:
a receptionist employed to welcome customers will now, as a result of job enrichment, deal
with telephone enquiries, word-process letters etc.
 Team-working
It is where a group of workers is given responsibility for a particular process, product or
development. They can decide as a team how to organize and carry out the tasks. The workers
take part in decision making and take responsibility for the process. It gives them more
control over their work and thus a sense of commitment, increasing job satisfaction. Working
as a group will also add to morale, fulfill social needs and lead to job satisfaction.

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