Journal of Business Strategy

Emerald Article: A Strategic Approach to Employee Motivation Frank K. Sonnenberg

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To cite this document: Frank K. Sonnenberg, (1993),"A Strategic Approach to Employee Motivation", Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 12 Iss: 3 pp. 41 - 43 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/eb039416 Downloaded on: 16-05-2012 To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com This document has been downloaded 938 times.

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A Strategic Approach to Employee Motivation

Frank K. Sonnenberg

A strategic plan is only as good as the people who will be called on to implement it.

anagement has learned various theories, tech niques, and approaches that are believed to motivate employees. But these techniques are all based on the fundamental premise that it is man agement's role to do the motivating that is, it is up to management to push employees toward certain behaviors or to control them in a certain fashion. Management has never been taught that it is possiblein fact, desirableto work toward attaining commitment through an employee's attraction to the organization's beliefs and values. Successful leaders know that motiva tional techniques such as incentive pro grams only satisfy employees long enough to achieve short-term goals. If one inculcates employees with a belief in the organization's mission, a belief in the importance of what they are con tributing by being a part of the orga nization, one brings about commitment. This is exactly what the new breed of employee wantsto be committed to an organization that one can feel proud of, that contributes to society. For tomor row's employee, being a part of some thing special that will make a difference is much more important than the re wards sought by yesterday's "me generation." According to U.S. News and World Report, the 1980s' "fast-trackers who

floored it to the finish line, hyperachievers who slept, ate, and breathed work, now . . . are taking weekends off and muttering about personal fulfill ment and quality of life." This change in the work force is in part a reaction by the baby-bust genera tion to the way the baby boomers were treated. They saw that generation work ing endless hours, neglecting their per sonal life, and ending up bitter, burned out, or downsized out. It has made them reevaluate their goals and motives and decide to approach work differently. In fact, last year, an article in Fortune magazine said that today employees "want to be happy and fulfilled socially and culturallyand to progress in the work world to the point where [they're] happy with [themselves.]" This new breed of employee wants to work for an organization that one can feel proud of: an organization that has values and viewpoints compatible with those of its employees; an organization that is oriented toward the long haul, working toward the prevention of ills, not only curing the symptoms; an orga nization that cares about morals and ethics; and one that cares about the im pact that it has on the environment. Employees want this because they recog nize that such an organization will also care about them. Doing this, however, requires a dif ferent organizational structure than the

Frank K. Sonnenberg is National Director of Marketing, Management Consulting Group, Ernst & Young, and author of Marketing to Win (Harper & Row, 1990).

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EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION

traditional hierarchical organization that, according to Robert Haas, Chair man and CEO of Levi Strauss, in a 1990 interview in Industry Week, limits peo ple to "straitjackets of narrow job defi nitions, rigid functional distinctions, and the mark of not sharing the information that people need to be successful." Haas added that "the first challenge for all of us is to cut through the ways that we, as managers, inhibit the intel ligence, energy, commitment and excite ment that already exists in our organiza tions." He said that in order to succeed, organizations must abandon "the myriad policies and procedures that shackle people today, the archaic command-and-control mentality of many managers, the unwillingness to listen and engage in two-way dialog, to value the opinions of people in the work force [that] is cutting the orga nization's IQ in half." In an interview with Harvard Business Review later that year, Haas acknowl edged that it is "difficult to unlearn "A new way behaviors that made us successful in the past. Speaking rather than listening. of thinking must become Valuing people like yourself over people genders or the norm." of different parts of the from different cultures or organization. Doing things on your own rather than collaborating. "Making the decision yourself instead of asking different people for their per spectives. There's a whole range of behaviors that were highly functional in the old hierarchical organization that are dead wrong in the flatter, more respon sive, empowered organizations that we are seeking to become." And it is becoming clear that such new organizations will not only survive but thrive in today's competitive envi ronment because they provide employees with the responsibility and the informa tion and authority to get the job done. New structures and policies are only a start, however. To achieve real success, a new way of thinking must also become the norm. In

these organizations, the soft side of businessthe beliefs, the values, and the philosophies espoused by management must reach a peak of importance. This can be thought of as social motivation: the controls one imposes on oneself when he or she works with people with similar expectations and goals. In the summer of 1989, the California Management Review said that "with formal sys tems [of control] people often have a sense of external constraint which is binding and unsatisfying. With social controls, we often feel as though we have great autonomy, even though para doxically we are conforming much more." The kind of self-motivation that re sults from a belief structure is in sharp contrast with leadership by commandand-control. Think of the terms asso ciated with that kind of leadership. In The Renewal Factor, Robert Waterman says that it is interesting to "look up the word boss in a book of synonyms. At the start of the list you find manage and direct. Not bad. "Then the list continues with control, order, command, take charge, preside over, oversee, supervise, superintend, domineer, dominate, push around, ride herd on, ride roughshod over, trample underfoot, and shove around." Why then are managers puzzled by employees who are highly motivated outside of work, but show little in itiative on the job; people who put in time but no energy; people who spend more time working on their resumes than on the activities at hand? A man agement style that produces these results obviously won't be enough to compete in today's global economy, especially given changes taking place in the atti tudes of workers today. Obviously, man agers who would wear the word "boss" proudly, knowing it carries all of those connotations, do not have the right stuff to be leaders in today's organizations, to inspire people to be the best that they can be.

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vides its employees with "meaning, a sense of doing something that matters. People do not want to work for a cause with little meaning, even though it taps In Principle-Centered Leadership: Teach- their mental capacities to their fullest." In this phase, leaders manage by tapping ing People How to Fish, Stephen Covey, into "values, ideals, norms and teach consultant and best-selling author, ex ings that uplift, enable, fulfill, empower plains that commitment-building in an and inspire people." organization is a four-phase process: A 1989 article in Fortune exploring "People do the exercise of power discussed the view The first phase is called the scientific not want to of John Kotter, a professor at the Har management phase. In it, employees are work for a vard Business School, who said that seen primarily as stomachs (economic there are five kinds of power: cause with beings). In this phase, management motivates employees primarily through little use of the carrot and the stick. Man The first is the power to rewardto meaning, agers say that their responsibility "is to give someone a promotion, a raise, or even though motivate through the great jackass a pat on the back. Its twin is the it taps their method . . . the carrot in front to entice power to punish, to fire someone; mental and intrigue them, lead them to their . . . third is the power that experts benefits, and the stick behind." The capacities call authority. Authority can be message is that I, the manager, "am in specific, and specifically grantedthe to their control, I am the authority, I am the right to sign $100,000 contracts. . . . fullest." elite one, I know what is best, I will The fourth kind of power derives direct you where to go; of course, the from expertise. . . . Finally, psycholo rewards will be fair." gists speak of referent power, which attaches to a leader because people The second phase is called the human admire him, want to be like him, or relations phase. This is the stage at are wowed by his integrity, charisma which management accepts that people or charm. also have hearts. They see "that people have feelings . . . [and thus treat them] not only with fairness, but with kind In the same article, Jane Halpert of ness, with courtesy, with civility, with Chicago's DePaul University said that decency. . . . [In this] shift from the first three forms of power, "reward, authoritarian to benevolent authori punishment, and authority, come with tarianwe still know best. The power the office. The higher your rank, the still lies with us, but we are not only more you usually have. But expertise fair to people but are kind." and referent power inhere in the person. The better the leader . . . the more The third phase emphasizes human likely he is to rely on the personal resources principles, recognizing that sources of power. . . . Really effective people have, in addition to stomachs leaders almost never have to put the and hearts, minds. Such recognition screws on someone." means that as managers, "we make bet ter use of their creativity, imagination. Under this new form of leadership, . . . We begin to explore ways to create incentive motivation programs are only an optimal environment, a culture which a starta limited, short-term method of taps their talents and releases their motivating employees. Such programs energy." will produce momentary results but never succeed in inspiring workers to The fourth and final phase, Covey become committed to an organization says, is called the whole person para and its vision. Only "real" leadership digm. This is best of all worlds. When can do that. an organization enters this phase it pro

A New Management Paradigm

THE JOURNAL OF BUSINESS STRATEGY May/June 1991