Motivation in the workplace

Motivation means getting the workers to focus and putting their all into the work they do. It sets the workers in the same direction as management and gets everyone working for the business goals. Motivating employees by building and maintaining positive morale is critical to a productive workforce. One of managements responsibilities is to inspire their staff and encourage them to strive for excellence and remain motivated even during difficult times. While this is a challenging task, there are measures management can take to generate enthusiasm in any working environment. Employees deserve a clear understanding of what behaviors and outcomes are expected of them. Management should be responsible for clearly defining all expectations. Starting on the first day of employment, there should be a straight orientation. The orientation should teach the new employee about the history of the company and where the company is headed in the future. Revealing the future plans will show the employee that the company is striving to reach common goals. Management should demonstrate how each person plays a part in this process. When an employee feels that they are an integral part in reaching these goals they will feel a better sense of value to the company. Money is a motivational factor. If you give someone more money to do a job, they will put more effort into it. Piecework avoids this by awarding money for each unit produced. The scheme may even set boundaries for workers to try and achieve more. This however does create pressure for the worker and this can be demotivating if the boundaries are set too high for the worker to achieve them. In conclusion, motivation is getting more important every day. Management has to find an effective way of motivate not only themselves, but more to motivate their employees, therefore management has to take into account theories and has to consider the differences in personality of its workforce, to have a successful motivation program.