WORK MOTIVATION

Personal Learning Paper

In any organization the employees are primarily recruited to get task done, to generate revenue . One of
the underlying assumptions is that the managers are able to motivate employees in process such that
the harmony is maintained in the working environment. In short managers should be able to motivate
employees without any hesitation. But this is easier said than done and the subject of motivation is not
well understood and hardly put to practice in true sense and more often it is poorly practiced.
Hence work motivation theories serve as a prologue on how to sustain and build up employee
motivation.
These approaches can be classified under two theories
Content theories - related to incentives that drive people to attain fulfillment
Process theories based on variables that go into motivating an individual and more
importantly how they are related.

Abraham Maslovs Theory of need
To elucidate this theory in layman terms Maslov proposed some salient features like air, water, food,
shelter, sleep, sex etc. are met, he moves towards fulfilling higher needs. The basic needs being the
bottom four of the pyramid and are generally called the deficiency needs because it has a
impingement on the persons behavior until he/she fulfills their needs. Off course the higher needs are
subordinated to fulfill the primary needs first.
Maslovs hierarchy being
1) Physiological needs 2) Safety needs 3) Belonging needs 4) Self-esteem 5) Self-Actualization
Herzbergs Two Factor Theory of Motivation
In continuation to Maslovs theory, Herzberg extended the work and conducted studies on accountants
and engineers employed by a firm in Pittsburgh using critical incidental method for work life which they
were particularly happy or unhappy about . The conclusion of the above experiment was that there
were two sets of factors that affect work life
1) Hygiene factors (Dissatisfiers) 2) Motivational Factors (Satisfiers)
Combining the above can result in four scenarios


According to Herzbergs model work should be arranged in following ways
Job Enlargement
Challenging employees by increasing the amount of production expected.
Adding other task to the job
Removing the more difficult parts of the assignment in order to free the worker
Rotating assignments
Job enrichment
Empowerment motivation by responsibility and achievement
Accountability for own work motivation by recognition and responsibility
Ownership of a unit of work motivation by recognition and responsibility
Availability of critical data, internal recognition
Adding new and more difficult tasks growth, learning and challenges
Specialized tasks, enabling them to become experts growth and advancement
Job rotation
Opportunity to learn new things
Expertise in a wide spread range of activities
Avoid monotonous work place
Learning from Hersbergs Model:
In work place, there may be numerous policies, some of which we may have control, others not so
much. It is best to work with what we can change and highlight those we cant via employee feedback
mechanism to managers.
In an organization the high performers are the ones who are well motivated. Usually these people are
self-motivated and there moral is boosted with when they get rewards or compensation for their
contribution. But there is a downside when people are not compensated for their performance or
compensation is not enough to motivate.
Motivation tips:
Capturing employees' attention. Preaching people around a common theme or a message or
organizing inspiring events using creative communication strategies.
Driving consistent messaging within the organization to make sure that everyone is on the
same page.
Make sure that consistent message is delivered within the organization to make sure that
everyone is on the same page. For example, hold monthly all-employee meetings and
encourage ongoing communication from company leaders.


Implement multiple points of contact and interaction with people, by making use of forums
such as team meetings , employee focus groups, posting news on your intranet.
By showing how much you value and regard your team members and their contribution as
individuals. Taking some time to ask about the family and outside interests. This helps in
establishing personal connect and building up rapport. Things like remembering birthdays and
asking about personal life or showing interest in their familys wellbeing, will be appreciated
and ultimately add on to loyalty and productivity.
Providing learning opportunities for the employees will give a boost to the employees morale.
Employees will be more productive and engaged when they feel that they are always learning
something new and that their company is committed to helping them develop in their career.
Employees primary focus should be to provide right kind of training .
Career Opportunities
Insightfulness and investment are the prime qualities that required to bring about inspiring
performance at the highest level. Opportunities in the form of career advancement are of prime
importance. Also flexibility has a direct result on engagement levels which ultimately leads to a more
motivated workforce.
Personal Experience of Motivated performance
The quality which has helped me in my professional success is the ability to learn quickly and
stay self-motivated to adapt to new situations. I firmly believe in making most of the new
opportunity that presents itself, this is I think is due in large part to the fact that I am pretty
fearless when it comes to facing new situations. Recently I changed my career in coding to
automate in a big cellular firm. The work requirements were fairly novel to me. Also the degree
of automation required high level of precision, as the purpose of the whole project was to
reduce human effort required to perform the test cases. Initially I struggled to cope up
with the requirements, but once I got a hold of the concepts and the tools used for
automation, I quickly came up with the whole automation suite required for the Verizon
certification suite which was used in xyz.
Another quality that I have strived for and helped me throughout my professional career is to be
a good team player. Working in teams comes naturally to me. I like knowing people, their likes,
dislikes. My second accomplishment has been mentoring a team of three people to
integrate a xyz plug-in into video conferencing unit. Since all the members of the team had
been individual contributors in the past and had no previous exposure in working together as a
team, this lead to constant escalations. Since this was a crucial requirement and a distinguishing
feature of the product, I proposed a daily scrum meeting where all the individuals of the team
got a chance to speak about their ideas, how their method could lead to better implementation
and suggestions on how other members of the team could improve on their task. In a few days,
new ideas started coming forth. Team members were more receptive of the suggestions and
ideas that were proposed in the meeting. This was a real ice-breaker. I organized lunch, game


of badminton in the evening which led to escalations reduction. Eventually we were able to
complete the task on time and it was one of the most distinguishing features of the product.


CONCLUSION
I am person of moderate intellect. Hence whatever i lack in my intellect make it up by giving my
best shot and stay self-motivated at work place. As a result I am always willing to spend extra
time in office to make sure that the task assigned to me are time bound and are meeting the
goals and expectations of the company and my manager. This ability has helped me get into the
good books of my manager and has played a major role in my professional success. I personally
feel these characteristics have helped me and taught me valuable lessons in my professional life.