Motivation

Motivation is not a simple subject; no two people respond to precisely the same set of motivators. Mangers have faced several pressing issues that complicate the challenges of motivating their employees. It also has been changed from the past. There are three challenges a manager face in motivating employees these days as opposed to 50 years ago.

The first one is "workforce diversity." The composition of the workforce is becoming less homogeneous. This diversity complicates the task of motivating employees because mangers must consider so many more motivational variables.

The second challenge is "organizational restructuring." The wave of mergers and acquisitions is followed by massive layoffs that represent another challenge. Employees who have been let go for reason unrelated to their performance may question whether initiative and creativity are now less important than political survival skills. Moreover, employees who have seen colleagues' loss their jobs may concentrate on keeping their own jobs and may stop taking risks –risk that might lead to new products, new markets, or other advances.

The last challenge is "fewer entry-level employees." The labor force is growing at half the rate of the previous decade; the number of qualified candidates for most entry-level positions is decreasing. In such a tight labor market, mangers face new challenges in attracting; retaining and motivating qualified entry-level employees. Managers must also determine how to motivate under qualified candidates to upgrade their skills and education so that they can handle the entry-level tasks.

In conclusion, as managers in organizations come to grips with these increasingly urgent challenges, they must understate the forces that derive employees' actions, how employees channel their actions towards goals, and how high performance behavior can be sustained.