Employee motivation

2010

Abhishek Arora
Organizational Behaviour
5/8/2010
Lovely Professional
University

Term paper: Employee motivation

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Mr Vaneet Kashyap Abhishek Arora
Roll no. B61
Section S1907
10908018
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

On behalf of LPU I pay my gratitude towards my teacher Mr.

Vaneet Kashyap who had given me the work to make project.
Without his constant persuasion it could not have been
possible for me to make the project. Well it has been very kind
of him to help me and to guide me throughout the project. I
would at the same time like to give all the credit to him for
helping me a lot in accomplishing my project. This project has
upgraded my knowledge extensively.
I have extended my appreciation to the several sources which
provided various kinds of knowledge base support for me
during this period.
 Index
 Employee Motivation.
 Motivation methods.
 Motivation theories.
 Positive reinforcement.
 Methods for increasing job satisfaction.
 Articles on Employee motivation.
 Conclusion.
 References.
 EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION
Employee motivation is the level of energy, commitment, and creativity that a
company's workers apply to their jobs. In the increasingly competitive business
environment of recent years, finding ways to motivate employees has become a
pressing concern for many managers. In fact, a number of different theories and
methods of employee motivation have emerged, ranging from monetary incentives
to increased involvement and empowerment. Employee motivation can sometimes
be particularly problematic for small businesses, where the owner often has spent
so many years building a company that he/she finds it difficult to delegate
meaningful responsibilities to others. But entrepreneurs should be mindful of such
pitfalls, for the effects of low employee motivation on small businesses can be
devastating. Some of the problems associated with unmotivated workers include
complacency, declining morale, and widespread discouragement. If allowed to
continue, these problems can reduce productivity, earnings, and competitiveness in
a small business.

On the other hand, small businesses can also provide an ideal atmosphere for
fostering employee motivation, because employees are able to see the results of
their contributions in a more immediate way than in large firms. Besides
increasing productivity and competitiveness, a highly motivated work force can
allow a small business owner to relinquish day-today, operational control and
instead concentrate on long-term strategies to grow the business. "Workers really
do want to be inspired about their work, and when they are, they work better,
smarter, and harder," business coach Don Maruska told Entrepreneur.

Moreover, a business that institutes effective ways—whether tangible (such as a

financial bonus) or intangible (say, a plum assignment for an upcoming project)—
of rewarding employees for good work can be an invaluable tool in employee
retention. "People enjoy working, and tend to thrive in organizations that create
positive work environments," one business researcher told HR Focus. "[They thrive
in] environments where they can make a difference, and where most people in the
organization are competent and pulling together to move the company forward.
Appropriately structured reward and recognition programs are important, but not
exclusive, components in this mix."

WHAT MOTIVATES?
One approach to employee motivation has been to view "add-ins" to an individual's
job as the primary factors in improving performance. Endless mixes of employee
benefits—such as health care, life insurance, profit sharing, employee stock
ownership plans, exercise facilities, subsidized meal plans, child care availability,
company cars, and more—have been used by companies in their efforts to maintain
happy employees in the belief that happy employees are motivated employees.
Many modern theorists, however, propose that the motivation an employee feels
toward his or her job has less to do with material rewards than with the design of
the job itself. Studies as far back as 1950 have shown that highly segmented and
simplified jobs resulted in lower employee morale and output. Other consequences
of low employee motivation include absenteeism and high turnover, both of which
are very costly for any company. As a result, "job enlargement" initiatives began to
crop up in major companies in the 1950s.

On the academic front, Turner and Lawrence suggested that there are three basic
characteristics of a "motivating" job:

1. It must allow a worker to feel personally responsible for a meaningful

portion of the work accomplished. An employee must feel ownership of and
connection with the work he or she performs. Even in team situations, a
successful effort will foster an awareness in an individual that his or her
contributions were important in accomplishing the group's tasks.
2. It must provide outcomes which have intrinsic meaning to the individual.
Effective work that does not lead a worker to feel that his or her efforts
matter will not be maintained. The outcome of an employee's work must
have value to himself or herself and to others in the organization.
3. It must provide the employee with feedback about his or her
accomplishments. A constructive, believable critique of the work performed
is crucial to a worker's motivation to improve.

While terminology changes, the tenets of employee motivation remain relatively

unchanged from findings over half a century ago. Today's buzzwords include
"empowerment," "quality circles," and "teamwork." All of these terms demonstrate
the three characteristics of motivating jobs set forth in the theory of Turner and
Lawrence. Empowerment gives autonomy and allows an employee to have
ownership of ideas and accomplishments, whether acting alone or in teams.
Quality circles and the increasing occurrence of teams in today's work
environments give employees opportunities to reinforce the importance of the work
accomplished by members as well as receive feedback on the efficacy of that work.

In small businesses, which may lack the resources to enact formal employee
motivation programs, managers can nonetheless accomplish the same basic
principles. In order to help employees feel like their jobs are meaningful and that
their contributions are valuable to the company, the small business owner needs to
communicate the company's purpose to employees. This communication should
take the form of words as well as actions. In addition, the small business owner
should set high standards for employees, but also remain supportive of their efforts
when goals cannot be reached. It may also be helpful to allow employees as much
autonomy and flexibility as possible in how their jobs are performed. Creativity
will be encouraged if honest mistakes are corrected but not punished. Finally, the
small business owner should take steps to incorporate the vision of employees for
the company with his or her own vision. This will motivate employees to contribute
to the small business's goals, as well as help prevent stagnation in its direction and
purpose.

MOTIVATION METHODS
There are as many different methods of motivating employees today as there are
companies operating in the global business environment. Still, some strategies are
prevalent across all organizations striving to improve employee motivation. The
best employee motivation efforts will focus on what the employees deem to be
important. It may be that employees within the same department of the same
organization will have different motivators. Many organizations today find that
flexibility in job design and reward systems has resulted in employees' increased
longevity with the company, improved productivity, and better morale.

EMPOWERMENT: Giving employees more responsibility and decision-

making authority increases their realm of control over the tasks for which they are
held responsible and better equips them to carry out those tasks. As a result,
feelings of frustration arising from being held accountable for something one does
not have the resources to carry out are diminished. Energy is diverted from self-
preservation to improved task accomplishment.

CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION: At many companies, employees with

creative ideas do not express them to management for fear that their input will be
ignored or ridiculed. Company approval and toeing the company line have become
so ingrained in some working environments that both the employee and the
organization suffer. When the power to create in the organization is pushed down
from the top to line personnel, employees who know a job, product, or service best
are given the opportunity to use their ideas to improve it. The power to create
motivates employees and benefits the organization in having a more flexible work
force, using more wisely the experience of its employees, and increasing the
exchange of ideas and information among employees and departments. These
improvements also create an openness to change that can give a company the
ability to respond quickly to market changes and sustain a first mover advantage
in the marketplace.

LEARNING : If employees are given the tools and the opportunities to

accomplish more, most will take on the challenge. Companies can motivate
employees to achieve more by committing to perpetual enhancement of employee
skills. Accreditation and licensing programs for employees are an increasingly
popular and effective way to bring about growth in employee knowledge and
motivation. Often, these programs improve employees' attitudes toward the client
and the company, while bolstering self-confidence. Supporting this assertion, an
analysis of factors which influence motivation-to-learn found that it is directly
related to the extent to which training participants believe that such participation
will affect their job or career utility. In other words, if the body of knowledge
gained can be applied to the work to be accomplished, then the acquisition of that
knowledge will be a worthwhile event for the employee and employer.

QUALITY OF LIFE : The number of hours worked each week by American

workers is on the rise, and many families have two adults working those increased
hours. Under these circumstances, many workers are left wondering how to meet
the demands of their lives beyond the workplace. Often, this concern occurs while at
work and may reduce an employee's productivity and morale. Companies that
have instituted flexible employee arrangements have gained motivated employees
whose productivity has increased. Programs incorporating flextime, condensed
workweeks, or job sharing, for example, have been successful in focusing
overwhelmed employees toward the work to be done and away from the demands
of their private lives.

MONETARY INCENTIVE: For all the championing of alternative

motivators, money still occupies a major place in the mix of motivators. The
sharing of a company's profits gives incentive to employees to produce a quality
product, perform a quality service, or improve the quality of a process within the
company. What benefits the company directly benefits the employee. Monetary and
other rewards are being given to employees for generating cost-savings or process-
improving ideas, to boost productivity and reduce absenteeism. Money is effective
when it is directly tied to an employee's ideas or accomplishments. Nevertheless, if
not coupled with other, nonmonetary motivators, its motivating effects are short-
lived. Further, monetary incentives can prove counterproductive if not made
available to all members of the organization.

OTHER INCENTIVES : Study after study has found that the most effective
motivators of workers are nonmonetary. Monetary systems are insufficient
motivators, in part because expectations often exceed results and because disparity
between salaried individuals may divide rather than unite employees. Proven
nonmonetary positive motivators foster team spirit and include recognition,
responsibility, and advancement. Managers who recognize the "small wins" of
employees, promote participatory environments, and treat employees with fairness
and respect will find their employees to be more highly motivated. One company's
managers brainstormed to come up with 30 powerful rewards that cost little or
nothing to implement. The most effective rewards, such as letters of commendation
and time off from work, enhanced personal ful-fillment and self-respect. Over the
longer term, sincere praise and personal gestures are far more effective and more
economical than awards of money alone. In the end, a program that combines
monetary reward systems and satisfies intrinsic, self-actualizing needs may be the
most potent employee motivator.

Motivation Theories
Understanding what motivated employees and how they were motivated was the
focus of many researchers following the publication of the Hawthorne Study results
(Terpstra, 1979). Five major approaches that have led to our understanding of
motivation are Maslow's need-hierarchy theory, Herzberg's two- factor theory,
Vroom's expectancy theory, Adams' equity theory, and Skinner's reinforcement
theory.

According to Maslow, employees have five levels of needs (Maslow, 1943):

physiological, safety, social, ego, and self- actualizing. Maslow argued that lower
level needs had to be satisfied before the next higher level need would motivate
employees. Herzberg's work categorized motivation into two factors: motivators
and hygienes (Herzberg, Mausner, & Snyderman, 1959). Motivator or intrinsic
factors, such as achievement and recognition, produce job satisfaction. Hygiene or
extrinsic factors, such as pay and job security, produce job dissatisfaction.

Vroom's theory is based on the belief that employee effort will lead to performance
and performance will lead to rewards (Vroom, 1964). Rewards may be either
positive or negative. The more positive the reward the more likely the employee will
be highly motivated. Conversely, the more negative the reward the less likely the
employee will be motivated.

Adams' theory states that employees strive for equity between themselves and other
workers. Equity is achieved when the ratio of employee outcomes over inputs is
equal to other employee outcomes over inputs (Adams, 1965).

Skinner's theory simply states those employees' behaviors that lead to positive
outcomes will be repeated and behaviors that lead to negative outcomes will not be
repeated (Skinner, 1953). Managers should positively reinforce employee behaviors
that lead to positive outcomes. Managers should negatively reinforce employee
behavior that leads to negative outcomes.

Employee Motivation: Theory and practice

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 practice and theory are difficult subjects, touching on
several disciplines.

In spite of enormous research, basic as well as applied, the subject of motivation is

not clearly understood and more often than not poorly practiced. To understand
motivation one must understand human nature itself. And there lies the problem!

Human nature can be very simple, yet very complex too. An understanding and
appreciation of this is a prerequisite to effective employee motivation in the
workplace and therefore effective management and leadership.

These articles on motivation theory and practice concentrate on various theories

regarding human nature in general and motivation in particular. Included are
articles on the practical aspects of motivation in the workplace and the research
that has been undertaken in this field, notably by Douglas McGregor (theory y),
Frederick Herzberg (two factor motivation hygiene theory,) Abraham Maslow
(theory z, hierarchy of needs), Elton Mayo (Hawthorne Experiments) Chris Argyris
Rensis Likert and David McClelland (achievement motivation.)

Why study and apply employee motivation principles?

Quite apart from the benefit and moral value of an altruistic approach to treating
colleagues as human beings and respecting human dignity in all its forms, research
and observations show that well motivated employees are more productive and
creative. The inverse also holds true. The schematic below indicates the potential
contribution the practical application of the principles this paper has on reducing
work content in the organization.

Motivation is the key to performance improvement

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:

1. 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 not even know where to
start. As a guideline, there are broadly seven strategies for motivation.

 Positive reinforcement / high expectations

 Effective discipline and punishment
 Treating people fairly
 Satisfying employees needs
 Setting work related goals
 Restructuring jobs
 Base rewards on job performance

These are the basic strategies, though the mix in the final 'recipe' will vary from
workplace situation to situation. Essentially, there is a gap between an individual’s
actual state and some desired state and the manager tries to reduce this gap.

Motivation is, in effect, a means to reduce and manipulate this gap. It is inducing
others in a specific way towards goals specifically stated by the motivator.
Naturally, these goals as also the motivation system must conform to the corporate
policy of the organization. The motivational system must be tailored to the
situation and to the organization.

Positive Reinforcement
Showing your employees that you are willing to recognize their accomplishments
and hard work is undoubtedly the simplest and least costly methods of employee
motivation.  There are many ways to convey this to your employees.  Token gifts,
Employee of the month awards, or a pat on the back, all show how much you
appreciate them.  As you increase your employee's sense of pride and
accomplishment he or she feels better about their job and in the end are more
productive. 

When your employee's function as a team, think like a coach.  Reward the whole
group for a job well done.  This will boost morale both personally and collectively. 
Employee incentive programs such as small bonuses (time off, monetary), employee
award certificates, etc., all serve to better the company as a whole.  If you put
yourself in the same position you will like to feel appreciated and special for the work
that you do. 

Happy Employees

It is not illogical to determine that the more satisfied the employee, the better he or
she will perform. So the environment that you create for your employee must be one
that is constructive to positive energy.  If your employee feels happy when they are
working then they will be naturally encouraged to work. 
Some of the methods for increasing job satisfaction include:

 Allowing flexible schedules. It is becoming common for the small business to

allow their flexible schedule i.e. employees are free to work at any time in a
day or a week. But the main thing is that they have to complete their work
hours or the objective within the given period of time.

 Employees to work alternative schedules that don't follow the traditional 9 to

5 work hours.  Job sharing or part time schedules - once a mainstay for the
elementary teacher - are also becoming very popular in the small business
environment. 

 Telecommuting: Some jobs can be performed by employees who

telecommute from their home computers a few days a week.

 Performance reviews - scheduled regularly - allow you to give your

employee positive feedback and let them know what is expected in the near
future.

 It is also a good practice to encourage employees to do various

tasks so that their jobs to not become monotonous.

Be clear when talking to your employee and let them know that there opinion or
views are important in building a successful company. Strong communication skills
are necessary when assigning tasks to your people, so that the project is clearly
defined and understood.  Don't overload your workers with information or demand
that they try to complete tasks that aren't reasonably attainable. 

You will probably see better results from your employee if you sit down with them
periodically and ask them for feedback. 

Highly paid motivational speakers may be brought in for pep talks, but in the end
you will be left to motivate them in an on-going basis.  Find out what they like about
their jobs, what they dislike, and what they would like to see changed or improved.
Perhaps you can start with anonymous employee satisfaction surveys, which will
allow employees greater latitude in communicating how they honestly feel about
company policies, management and their jobs.  Would the employee do better if they
had more training in their position?  Are they concerned about the equipment they
are using?  Is the balance of supervision equal to their expectations?   Would flexible
hours help employees who have long commutes or family responsibilities?

Basic Principles to Remember

 Motivating employees starts with motivating yourself.
 It's amazing how, if you hate your job, it seems like everyone else does, too. If
you are very stressed out, it seems like everyone else is, too. Enthusiasm is
contagious. If you're enthusiastic about your job, it's much easier for others
to be, too. Also, if you're doing a good job of taking care of yourself and your
own job, you'll have much clearer perspective on how others are doing in
theirs.

A great place to start learning about motivation is to start understanding your own
motivations. The key to helping to motivate your employees is to understand what
motivates them. So what motivates you? Consider, for example, time with family,
recognition, a job well done, service, learning, etc. How is your job configured to
support your own motivations? What can you do to better motivate yourself?

 Always work to align goals of the organization with

goals of employees.

As mentioned above, employees can be all fired up about their work and be
working very hard. However, if the results of their work don't contribute to
the goals of the organization, then the organization is not any better off than
if the employees were sitting on their hands -- maybe worse off! Therefore,
it's critical that managers and supervisors know what they want from their
employees. These preferences should be worded in terms of goals for the
organization. Identifying the goals for the organization is usually done
during strategic planning. Whatever steps you take to support the
motivation of your employees, ensure that employees have strong input to
identifying their goals and that these goals are aligned with goals of the
organization. (Goals should be worded to be "SMARTER”.)

 Key to supporting the motivation of your employees

understands what motivates each of them.

Each person is motivated by different things. Whatever steps you take to

support the motivation of your employees, they should first include finding
out what it is that really motivates each of your employees. You can find this
out by asking them, listening to them and observing them.

 Recognize that supporting employee motivation is a

process, not a task.

Organizations change all the time, as do people. Indeed, it is an on-going

process to sustain an environment where each employee can strongly
motivate themselves. If you look at sustaining employee motivation as an
on-going process, then you'll be much more fulfilled and motivated yourself.
  Support employee motivation by using organizational
systems (for example, policies and procedures) -- don't
just count on good intentions.

Don't just count on cultivating strong interpersonal relationships with

employees to help motivate them. The nature of these relationships can
change greatly, for example, during times of stress. Instead, use reliable and
comprehensive systems in the workplace to help motivate employees. For
example, establish compensation systems, employee performance systems,
organizational policies and procedures, etc., to support employee
motivation. Also, establishing various systems and structures helps ensure
8clear understanding and equitable treatment of employees

Employee motivation theory - team building activities,

workshops, inspirational quotes, and the power of positive
experience.

Alignment of aims, purpose and values between staff, teams and organization is
the most fundamental aspect of motivation. The better the alignment and personal
association with organizational aims, the better the platform for motivation.
Motivation is a complex area. It's different for each person.

Erik Erikson's life stage theory is useful for understanding people's different
motivational needs according to life stage. And the experiential learning section
explains the difference between 'demotivational training', and 'motivational
learning', and a guide to facilitating experiential learning activities.

How games and other inspirational references and activities

help motivation and motivational training?

Work and business-based training commonly concentrates on process, rules,

theory, structure and logic, all of which tend to develop and use the left-side of the
brain. However, modern successful organizations rely just as heavily on their
people having well-developed 'soft' skills and attributes, such as self-motivation,
confidence, initiative, empathy and creativity, which all tend to use the right-side of
the brain.

Also, using activities and references that take people out of their normal work
environment creates new opportunities for them to experience winning,
achievement, team-working, learning and personal development, in ways that are
often not possible in their usual work context. Experiencing these positive feelings is
vital for the conscious and sub-conscious visualisation of success and achievement,
essential for broadening people's horizons, raising their sights, setting new
personal standards and goals, and increasing motivation. The use of role playing
games and role play exercises is an especially effective motivational and
visualisation technique, despite people's normal aversion to the practice.

Articles on employee motivation in magazines and

newspaper.

The power of people. (employee motivation)

The Economist (US) February 13, 1988

WHEN Boeing launched two new air-craft at the end of January, the 10,000
assembled potential customers, Boeing workers and press were treated to a giant
slide show. Before the aeroplanes were unveiled the audience heard interviews with
dozens of company employees on how they had helped to build the new models. The
show gave Boeing's workers a big thrill and, for a while, has probably helped them
to produce better aircraft.

The show is one small example of the new ways in which companies are trying to
motivate their employees and to make them more productive. The streamlined
corporation of the late 1980s has to think of how to make more out of less. With
assets like cash and plant, the rules of the game are well understood. With human
assets, they aren't.

Few companies give their personnel department the same status as, say, their
finance department. For a start, observe where the departmental offices are located
in relation to the chief executive's.

Management Quarterly
| June 22, 1995 | Creech, Regina |

Psychologists define motivation as "that which gives impetus to our behaviour by

arousing, sustaining, and directing it toward the attainment of goals" (Wortman
and Loftus, 353). Because I supervise five individuals on a full-time basis and
twenty people in the absence of my manager, I am particularly interested in ways
to motivate employees. The purpose of this article is to gain knowledge, so that I
might assist others in performing their job duties to the best of their ability while
maintaining their quality of work life.

The work of Abraham Maslow helps explain why the process of motivation is not a
simple process that can be administered externally. Rather, according to Maslow, it
is the result of needs within everyone that make people act the way they do. Under
his hierarchy theory, people are first motivated by the desire to secure first-level
needs of food and shelter for survival. After that, security and safety become major
motivators, followed by assimilation into social groups where ego needs can be
satisfied to the final step of self-actualization (Personnel, 3411-3412).

Examination of how this hierarchy fits into present-day society will explain why
the tools of motivation have been forced to change from early industrial times.
Employees today have basically satisfied their first- and second-level needs as
assured levels of income and purchasing power have basically risen above survival
requirements. For this reason, pay alone is no longer the universal motivator. Now
the workforce is more educated and able to handle creative, mental work. In fact,
the employees demand it in order to satisfy the upper-level needs they find
themselves at (Personnel 3412).

So what motivates employees? The "rewards" an employee may seek from the
employment relationship can have varying effects on attitude and performance. In
one instance, they can actually motivate the worker to work better in an effort to
achieve personal and company goals if they are assured to be realized through
better performance. On the other hand, the "reward" that an employee receives
may just tend to avoid dissatisfaction by maintaining an emotional status quo with
little or no motivational impact on the employee to perform better. Under the
classifications developed by Frederick Herzberg, the former set of influences is
called motivators while the latter sets of influences are labelled dissatisfiers
(Personnel 3406).

Dissatisfiers refer to matters that have been used by management in attempts to

keep employees happy and, to some extent, avoid unionism. They relate mainly to
an employee's maintenance and hygiene needs by providing a work situation that
allows employees to perform in as much comfort as possible. Dissatisfiers include
pay, physical plant conditions, supervisory behaviour, supplemental benefits,
company policy and administration, fairness of work rule enforcement, vacations
and other matters that are basically peripheral to the actual job of employees.
While these job aspects can have some motivational value, it will be of short
duration (Personnel 3406).

Motivators, on the other hand, are more closely related to the work an employee
does and usually function independently of hygiene factors. The aspects of
motivational factors are usually a result of the feedback generated between the
employee and the job. According to M. Scott Myers, motivational factors can be
grouped into categories of growth, achievement, responsibility, and recognition
(Personnel 3406).

Employee Recognition and Motivation.

By Kirby D. Payne, CHA

Kirby D. Payne, CHA is President of Minneapolis based  American  Hospitality 

Management Company,  a growing hotel investment, management and consulting
firm.   Payne is also Chair of the  AH&MA's  International Council of Hotel-Hotel
Management Companies. 
At a recent company meeting for General Managers,  Assistant Managers and
Sales  staff our  CFO,  Vicki Richman,  led a discussion on Employee Recognition
and Motivation.   The following comments and list are from notes she developed
from several sources. 

The  foundation  of recognition and motivation is that people need and want 
Acceptance, Approval and Appreciation.  Almost all positive motivation is based on
these needs. People want to know  that what they do makes a difference.   Just
recognizing the staff is the most important step  one  can  take.   You may want to
count the number of "we's that are said instead of  "I's  in order  to  assess  the 
extent  to which your staff feels part of the team  and  part  of  the  business'
future.   One saying is, "Powerlessness corrupts, absolute powerlessness corrupts
absolutely." 

These nine actions will help immensely to give your staff what they need: 
Communicate,

Communicate,  Communicate,  Recognize,  Recognize,  Recognize,  Thank,  Thank, 

and  Thank! From various sources, Vicki developed a list of ideas for on-going
weekly or monthly programs to keep  employees  connected  to  the hotel or
restaurant emotionally,  to create  excitement  and  to make  your business unique
relative to your nearby competitors for  employees.   Remember,  the competition
for staff may be from other industries such as retail,  manufacturing, etc.   Pick a
few and try them for a while; but, you must give them a chance, one time will not
do it. The staff will see right through you.

Conclusion
Creating a workplace with excellent morale and motivated employees is a long-
term project, and needs to be embedded within the fabric of an organisation’s daily
operations. Highly motivated and engaged personnel are a tremendous asset to
any organisation. While money is an important foundational consideration, the
main factors that attract and maintain “talent” within an organisation include:

 recognition
 having interesting work to do
  being heard by management
 having skilled managers
 having good communication flows
 being provided with opportunities for advancement.

Developing well-motivated employees leads to more satisfied customers and higher

sales; this in turn leads to greater employee motivation and creates a virtuous
circle. Highly motivated employees are likely to be engaged employees, willing to
go the extra mile with customers, and to reward their employers with loyalty, high
levels of productivity, and greater innovation.

References
 Ramcik, T., (2006), The 5 Myths of Employee Morale, Aftermarket
Business, Vol. 116, Iss. 11, p88, Cleveland.

 Cooper, C., (2009), United we stand, Director, Vol. 62, Iss. 10, p22,
Institute of Directors, London.
 Stanley, T. L., (2008), A motivated workplace is a marvellous sight,
SuperVision, Vol. 69, Iss. 3, pp. 5-8, National Research Bureau, Burlington.

 Lencioni, P., (2007), Satisfaction, Leadership Excellence, Vol. 24, Iss. 10,
pp 5-6, Executive Excellence Publishing, Provo.