Motivation in Organizations

Knowing how and why to motivate employees is an important managerial skill. The job of a manager in the workplace is to get things done through employees. To do this the manager should be able to motivate employees. But that's easier said than done!

Motivation is the set of forces that cause people to choose certain behaviors from among the many alternatives open to them. It is an organization's life-blood. Yet "motivation," as a business subject, is largely ignored. Even when not ignored, it certainly is not a focal point for strategic thinking.Most organizations don't give it much thought until something starts to go wrong.

Four reasons explain this fact of life:

1. Motivation is intangible.

2. Motivation drives all human action. It is the energy source. Those seeking to shape the behavior ultimately wrestle with motivation.

3. With a bit of work, we can intuit our own motivation and monitorits shifting nature and intensity. But we can only observe and measure the motivation of others indirectly.

4. Motivation is lost in a twilight zone.

There is an old saying you can take a horse to the water but you cannot force it to drink; it will drink only if it's thirsty - so with people. They will do what they want to do or otherwise motivated to do. Whether it is to excel on the workshop floor or in the 'ivory tower' they must be motivated or driven to it, either by themselves or through external stimulus.

Are they born with the self-motivation or drive? Yes and no. If no, they can be motivated, for motivation is a skill which can and must be learnt. This is essential for any business to survive and succeed.

Performance is considered to be a function of ability and motivation, thus:

• Job performance =f(ability)(motivation)

Ability in turn depends on education, experience and training and its improvement is a slow and long process. On the other hand motivation can be improved quickly. There are many options and an uninitiated manager may...