MOTIVATION

                                      MOTIVATION

What is Motivation?

Motivation is the word derived from the word ’motive’ which means needs, desires, wants or drives within the individuals. It is the process of stimulating people to actions to accomplish the goals. In the work goal context the psychological factors stimulating the people’s behaviour can be -  desire for money success recognition.

One of the most important functions of management is to create willingness amongst the employees to perform to the best of their abilities. Therefore the role of a leader is to arouse interest in the performance of employees in their jobs. The process of motivation consists of three stages:-

1. A felt need or drive

2. A stimulus in which needs have to be aroused

3. When needs are satisfied, the satisfaction or accomplishment of goals. 

Therefore, we can say that motivation is a psychological phenomenon which means the needs and wants of the individuals have to be tackled by framing an incentive plan. Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Model Human behaviour is goal-directed. Motivation causes goal-directed behaviour. It is through motivation that needs can be handled and tackled purposely. This can be understood by understanding the hierarchy of needs by the manager. The needs of individuals serve as a driving force in human behaviour. Therefore, a manager must understand the “hierarchy of needs”. Maslow has proposed “The Need Hierarchy Model”. 

Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Model

Self-actualization Needs

Esteem Needs

Social Needs

Security Needs

Physiological Needs

The needs have been classified into the following in order:

1. Physiological needs- These are the basic needs of an individual which includes food, clothing, shelter, air, water, etc. These needs relate to the survival and maintenance of human life. 

2. Safety needs- These needs are also important for human beings. Everybody wants job security, protection against danger, safety of property, etc.

3. Social needs- These needs emerge from society. Man is a social animal. These needs become important. For example- love, affection, belongingness, friendship, conversation, etc. 

4. Esteem needs- These needs relate to desire for self-respect, recognition and respect from others. 

5. Self-actualization needs- These are the needs of the highest order and these needs are found in those people whose previous four needs are satisfied. This will include the need for social service, meditation. Motivation Incentives - Incentives to motivate employees.

Incentive is an act or promise for greater action. It is also called a stimulus to greater action. Incentives are something which are given in addition to wages. It means additional remuneration or benefit to an employee in recognition of achievement or better work. Incentives provide a spur or zeal in the employees for better performance. It is a natural thing that nobody acts without a purpose behind. Therefore, a hope for a reward is a powerful incentive to motivate employees. Besides monetary incentive, there are some other stimuli which can drive a person to better. This will include job satisfaction, job security, job promotion, and pride for accomplishment. Therefore, incentives really can sometimes work to accomplish the goals of a concern. The need of incentives can be many:-

1. To increase productivity, 

2. To drive or arouse a stimulus work,

3. To enhance commitment in work performance, 

4. To psychologically satisfy a person which leads to job satisfaction, 

5. To shape the behaviour or outlook of subordinates towards work, 

6. To inculcate zeal and enthusiasm towards work, 

7. To get the maximum of their capabilities so that they are exploited and utilised maximally. 

Therefore, management has to offer the following two categories of incentives to motivate employees:

1. Monetary incentives- Those incentives which satisfy the subordinates by providing them rewards in terms of rupees. Money has been recognized as a chief source of satisfying the needs of people. Money is also helpful to satisfy social needs by possessing various material items. Therefore, money not only satisfies psychological needs but also the security and social needs. Therefore, in many factories, various wage plans and bonus schemes are introduced to motivate and stimulate the people to work. 

2. Non-monetary incentives- Besides the monetary incentives, there are certain non-financial incentives which can satisfy the ego and self- actualization needs of employees. The incentives which cannot be measured in terms of money are under the category of “Non- monetary incentives”. Whenever a manager has to satisfy the psychological needs of the subordinates, he makes use of non-financial incentives. Non- financial incentives can be of the following types:- a. Security of service- Job security is an incentive which provides great motivation to employees. If his job is secured, he will put maximum efforts to achieve the objectives of the enterprise. This also helps since he is very far from mental tension and he can give his best to the enterprise. 

b. Praise or recognition- The praise or recognition is another non- financial incentive which satisfies the ego needs of the employees. Sometimes praise becomes more effective than any other incentive. The employees will respond more to praise and try to give the best of their abilities to a concern.

c. Suggestion scheme- The organisation should look forward to taking suggestions and inviting suggestion schemes from the subordinates. This inculcates a spirit of participation in the employees. This can be done by publishing various articles written by employees to improve the work environment which can be published in various magazines of the company. This also is helpful to motivate the employees to feel important and they can also be in search for innovative methods which can be applied for better work methods. This ultimately helps in growing a concern and adapting new methods of operations.

d. Job enrichment- Job enrichment is another non- monetary incentive in which the job of a worker can be enriched. This can be done by increasing his responsibilities, giving him an important designation, increasing the content and nature of the work. This way efficient workers can get challenging jobs in which they can prove their worth. This also helps in the greatest motivation of the efficient employees. 

e. Promotion opportunities- Promotion is an effective tool to increase the spirit to work in a concern. If the employees are provided opportunities for advancement and growth, they feel satisfied and content and they become more committed to the organisation. The above non-financial tools can be framed effectively by giving due concentration to the role of employees. 

A combination of financial and non- financial incentives help together in bringing motivation and zeal to work in a concern. 

Positive Incentives 

Positive incentives are those incentives which provide a positive assurance for fulfilling the needs and wants. Positive incentives generally have an optimistic attitude behind and they are generally given to satisfy the psychological requirements of employees. For example-promotion, praise, recognition, perks and allowances, etc. It is positive by nature. 

Negative Incentives 

Negative incentives are those whose purpose is to correct the mistakes or defaults of employees. The purpose is to rectify mistakes in order to get effective results. Negative incentive is generally resorted to when positive incentive does not work and a psychological set back has to be given to employees. It is negative by nature. For example- demotion, transfer, fines, penalties. Importance of Motivation

Motivation is a very important for an organisation because of the following benefits it provides:

1. Puts human resources into action

Every concern requires physical, financial and human resources to accomplish the goals. It is through motivation that the human resources can be utilised by making full use of it. This can be done by building willingness in employees to work. This will help the enterprise in securing best possible utilisation of resources. 

2. Improves level of efficiency of employees The level of a subordinate or an employee does not only depend upon his qualifications and abilities. To get the best of his work performance, the gap between ability and willingness has to be filled which helps in improving the level of performance of subordinates. This will result into-

a. Increase in productivity, 

b. Reducing cost of operations, and

c. Improving overall efficiency.

3. Leads to achievement of organisational goals

The goals of an enterprise can be achieved only when the following factors take place :-

a. There is best possible utilisation of resources, 

b. There is a co-operative work environment, 

c. The employees are goal-directed and they act in a purposive manner, 

d. Goals can be achieved if coordination and co-operation takes place simultaneously which can be effectively done through motivation. 

4. Builds friendly relationship

Motivation is an important factor which brings employees satisfaction. This can be done by

keeping into mind and framing an incentive plan for the benefit of the employees. This could initiate

the following things:

a. Monetary and non-monetary incentives, 

b. Promotion opportunities for employees,

c. Disincentives for inefficient employees.

In order to build a cordial, friendly atmosphere in a concern, the above steps should be taken by a manager. This would help in:

Effective co-operation which brings stability,  Industrial dispute and unrest in employees will reduce,  The employees will be adaptable to the changes and there will be no resistance to the change,  This will help in providing a smooth and sound concern in which individual interests will coincide with the organisational interests,  This will result in profit maximisation through increased productivity. 

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