Scribd
Upload
127 views5 pages

CHAPTER 6 - Motivating Workers

Workers are motivated by several factors including having a better standard of living, job security, gaining experience and status, and job satisfaction. When workers are well-motivated, they become more productive and effective, take less absences, and are less likely to leave their job, leading to increased profits for firms. Motivation can be increased through financial motivators like wages, bonuses, and profit-sharing, as well as non-financial motivators like fringe benefits, job satisfaction, and opportunities for training and promotion.

Uploaded by

Aishath Nabahath Ibrahim
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
127 views5 pages

CHAPTER 6 - Motivating Workers

Workers are motivated by several factors including having a better standard of living, job security, gaining experience and status, and job satisfaction. When workers are well-motivated, they become more productive and effective, take less absences, and are less likely to leave their job, leading to increased profits for firms. Motivation can be increased through financial motivators like wages, bonuses, and profit-sharing, as well as non-financial motivators like fringe benefits, job satisfaction, and opportunities for training and promotion.

Uploaded by

Aishath Nabahath Ibrahim
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 5

CHAPTER 6 – MOTIVATING WORKERS

People work for several reasons:

 Have a better standard of living: by earning incomes they can satisfy their needs and
wants
 Be secure: having a job means they can always maintain or grow that standard of living
 Gain experience and status: work allows people to get better at the job they do and earn a
reputable status in society
 Have job satisfaction: people also work for the satisfaction of having a job

Why motivate workers? Why do firms go to the pain of making sure their workers are
motivated?
When workers are well-motivated,

 they become highly productive and effective in their work,


 become absent less often, and
 less likely to leave the job, thus
 increasing the firm’s efficiency and output, leading to higher profits. For
example, in the service sector, if the employee is unhappy at his work, he may act
lazy and rude to customers, leading to low customer satisfaction, more complaints
and ultimately a bad reputation and low profits.

Maslow’s Hierarchy

Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs shows that employees are motivated by


each level of the hierarchy going from bottom to top. Mangers can identify which
level their workers are on and then take the necessary action to advance them onto
the next level.
Motivation is the reason why employees want to work hard and work effectively for
the business. Money is the main motivator, as explained above. Other factors that may
motivate a person to choose to do a particular job may include social needs (need to
communicate and work with others), esteem needs (to feel important, worthwhile), job
satisfaction (to enjoy good work), security (knowing that your job and pay are secure-
that you will not lose your job).
One limitation of this theory is that it doesn’t apply to every worker. For some employees,
for example, social needs aren’t important but they would be motivated by recognition and
appreciation for their work from seniors.

Motivation Theories

1. TAYLOR 2. HERZBERG

1. F. W. Taylor: Taylor based his ideas on the assumption that workers were


motivated by personal gains, mainly money and that increasing pay would
increase productivity (amount of output produced). Therefore he proposed
the piece-rate system, whereby workers get paid for the number of output they
produce. So in order, to gain more money, workers would produce more. He also
suggested a scientific management in production organisation, to break down
labour (essentially division of labour) to maximise output
However, this theory is not entirely true. There are various other motivators in the
modern workplace, some even more important than money. The piece rate system
is not very practical in situations where output cannot be measured (service
industries) and also will lead to (high) output that doesn’t guarantee high quality.

2. Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory: Frederick Herzberg’s two-factor theory, wherein


he states that people have two sets of needs:
Basic animal needs called ‘hygiene factors’:
i. status
ii. security
iii. work conditions
iv. company policies and administration
v. relationship with superiors
vi. relationship with subordinates
vii. salary
Needs that allow the human being to grow psychologically, called the
‘motivators’:
 achievement
 recognition
 personal growth/development
 promotion
 work itself
According to Herzberg, the hygiene factors need to be satisfied, if not they will act as de-
motivators to the workers. However hygiene factors don’t act as motivators as their effect
quickly wear off. Motivators will truly motivate workers to work more effectively.

Motivating Factors

Financial Motivators
 Wages: often paid weekly. They can be calculated in two ways:
 Time-Rate: pay based on the number of hours worked. Although output may
increase, it doesn’t mean that workers will work sincerely use the time to produce
more- they may simply waste time on very few output since their pay is based only on
how long they work. The productive and unproductive worker will get paid the same
amount, irrespective of their output.
 Piece-Rate: pay based on the no. of output produced. Same as time-rate, this
doesn’t ensure that quality output is produced. Thus, efficient workers may feel
demotivated as they’re getting the same pay as inefficient workers, despite their
efficiency.
 Salary: paid monthly or annually.
 Commission: paid to salesperson, based on a percentage of sales they’ve made. The
higher the sales, the more the pay. Although this will encourage salespersons to sell more
products and increase profits, it can be very stressful for them because no sales made
means no pay at all.
 Bonus: additional amount paid to workers for good work
 Performance-related pay: paid based on performance. An appraisal (assessing the
effectiveness of an employee by senior management through interviews, observations,
comments from colleagues etc.) is used to measure this performance and a pay is given
based on this.
 Profit-sharing: a scheme whereby a proportion of the company’s profits is distributed to
workers. Workers will be motivated to work better so that a higher profit is made.
 Share ownership: shares in the firm are given to employees so that they can become part
owners of the company. This will increase employees’ loyalty to the company, as they feel
a sense of belonging.

Non-Financial Motivators
 Fringe benefits are non-financial rewards given to employees
 Company vehicle/car
 Free healthcare
 Children’s education fees paid for
 Free accommodation
 Free holidays/trips
 Discounts on the firm’s products
 
 Job Satisfaction: the enjoyment derived from the feeling that you’ve done a good
job. Employees have different ideas about what motivates them- it could be pay,
promotional opportunities, team involvement, relationship with superiors, level of
responsibility, chances for training, the working hours, status of the job etc. Responsibility,
recognition and satisfaction are in particular very important.
So, how can companies ensure that they’re workers are satisfied with the job, other than
the motivators mentioned above?

 Job Rotation: involves workers swapping around jobs and doing each specific task for
only a limited time and then changing round again. This increases the variety in the work
itself and will also make it easier for managers to move around workers to do other jobs if
somebody is ill or absent. The tasks themselves are not made more interesting, but the
switching of tasks may avoid boredom among workers. This is very common in factories
with a huge production line where workers will move from retrieving products from the
machine to labelling the products to packing the products to putting the products into huge
cartons.

 Job Enlargement: where extra tasks of similar level of work are added to a worker’s
job description. These extra tasks will not add greater responsibility or work for the
employee, but make work more interesting. E.g.: a worker hired to stock shelves will now,
as a result of job enlargement, arrange stock on shelves, label stock, fetch stock etc.

 Job Enrichment: involves adding tasks that require more skill and responsibility to a
job. This gives employees a sense of trust from senior management and motivate them to
carry out the extra tasks effectively. Some additional training may also be given to the
employee to do so. E.g.: a receptionist employed to welcome customers will now, as a
result of job enrichment, deal with telephone enquiries, word-process letters etc.

 Team-working: a group of workers is given responsibility for a particular process,


product or development. They can decide as a team how to organize and carry out the
tasks. The workers take part in decision making and take responsibility for the process. It
gives them more control over their work and thus a sense of commitment, increasing job
satisfaction. Working as a group will also add to morale, fulfill social needs and lead to job
satisfaction.

 Opportunities for training: providing training will make workers feel that their work is
being valued. Training also provides them opportunities for personal growth and
development, thereby attaining job satisfaction

 Opportunities of promotion: providing opportunities for promotion will get workers to


work more efficiently and fill them with a sense of self-actualisation and job satisfaction

You might also like