Manager's Understanding of His Employees to Improve Productivity

In this topic, we are discussing about the motivational factors and their influence on productivity.

A manager who knows the physiological requirements of the team members will be able to improve the performance of the team and increase the work output. Physiological requirements or human needs play a crucial role in the productivity of the employees. Employees whose needs are satisfied will have high motivation to work with high performance. Motivation factors or requirements differ from one employee to another in an organization. A good manager recognizes the motivational factors of the staff and identifies ways to meet those factors.

Abraham Maslow, a clinical psychologist, published a book called Motivation and Personality in 1954. In his book, he introduced the need hierarchy theory which explains the nature of human satisfaction and the importance of personal relationships, fulfilling a conceptualization of self-actualization. He described that human needs are categorized into physiological, safety, social (love/belongingness), esteem, and self-actualization. Often these human needs are represented in the shape of a pyramid with physiological needs at the bottom and the needs for self-actualization at the top. Maslow's theory implies that the most basic need must be satisfied before the employee develops a strong desire on the secondary or higher level needs. That means fundamental needs such as the salary of a person should be met before that person develops a strong desire for the next higher need such as belongingness in the organization. Once a need is met, it will no longer motivate that person.

Managers should understand the employees needs to motivate them and improve productivity. Unsatisfied needs will result in low employee morale and degraded performance. Levels of motivation in setting targets and striving to achieve them defer from one employee to another. Recognizing, understanding and working through those individual differences...